First Draft of Position Paper

As we had been told before, this time around for our tutorial this week we have to hand –in our first draft for position paper. During my way to the session, I kept wondering what Mr. Omid will ask us to do today. The questions that come to my mind are “are we going to learn another story” or “are we going to read another story and keep practice doing a thesis statement and supporting points? . Whatever it is, I hope it will not so bored as last tutorial.

Well, as for this week the activity that we had done was not so bad. Mr. Omid had asked each person in my class to write down the thesis statement that we had think and wrote down on the whiteboard. Besides, we had to explain to the class the points that can support our stands. He then will give the comments regarding on our thesis statements and supporting points. If he thought that our theses quite vague, he somehow or rather will gave his ideas on that or asked us to think another possible ideas.

Unfortunately, the class was finished before my turn arrived. However, thank God Mr. Omid did not quickly went out from the class after the class so I had chance to met him for a short minute to ask regarding my thesis statement and idea.

Personally, for this week activity was really useful to me because it helps and guides me on improving my skill to write my position paper. On the other hand, this activity teaches me how to learn from others’ mistakes and not repeat the same mistakes that my friends did while I’m preparing my position paper later.

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The second session of tutorial was so bored …Beginning the class we got a sample position paper. I think the reason he gave us the sample was as guidance and perhaps we got ideas how the position should be.

He gave a few minutes for us to read and look for all the supporting points in the sample and later on we discussed as whole class. Actually I’m quite disappointed with the activity. I’m pretty sure not only me felt that the activity was so bored and for some reason it was not so meaningful but also most of the class felt the same feeling with me. I think the activity can be more meaningful if he take some time for us to read the sample and discussed about it like he had did and spend some time to read a new story from the book and assign us to keep practicing on doing thesis statement and supporting points thus we can learn better not just spend the two and half hours on the sample paper only!

A Friday Evening with Mr. Omid…

Last Friday (11^th July 2008) was our first tutorial for the subject EDU 3234. As Dr. Edwin mentioned earlier, during tutorial Mr. Omid will be our tutor. As for today, we continue the tutorial by discussing on how to make a good thesis statement.

Mr. Omid had given us a handout that consists of three sheets. The handout provides a lot of examples on how to make the good thesis statements. The handout is really good because it provides the examples of bad thesis which in my opinion that is good because we can take as a lesson and at the same time the handout shows which are the good theses suppose to be from the bad thesis.

Actually, when he explained the first two pages of the handout, I’m still quite blurring about that. This is because, I noticed some of the examples of good theses are short and some are long. I keep wondering is it a good thesis statement must be long and what criteria actually to judge a good thesis?

My questions on that had been answered on the next pages. Now, I know whether the sentence of our thesis is long or short it does not necessary. The most important is a good thesis statement must answer of those questions “how” and “why”.

I think my understanding on how to do a thesis statement is became clearer when we do discussion group. In the group we are required to come out with a thesis statement of the story, Ovid Metamorphosis, “Pyramus and Thisbe”

At first, my group members had difficult to generate ideas to make a thesis based on the story. Most of our ideas, we think it is a theme but not considered as a thesis statement. So, we decided to combine all the themes to come out with a thesis which answered the question “how it happens” and “why it happens”.

Mr. Omid called some groups to write down their theses on the white board. I felt so happy because our thesis statement is the most accurate so far. However, we had to improve on some of the words that we used in the sentence.

We will continue discuss about that and learn on how to find the points to support our stand in the following session.

Position Paper?? Research Paper?? What’s that??

Thursday, 10th July 2008 – today is our first class with Dr. Edwin for this semester. As usual, first class we will be introduced and explained by the lecturer about the course that we are going to learn throughout this semester.

Oh My God! After he explained about all the assignments that we are going to submit during this course, I felt like want to faint! All the assignments are really tough!!. We have to do two projects papers! One is Position Paper and another is a Research Paper. The worst thing is we have to do individually!! Huhu..

As for today, Dr. Edwin explained briefly first about the Position Paper. For the position Paper, we have to develop a thesis statement and find various points to support our stand. Thesis Statement?? Huh.. It sounds so scary and definitely difficult! I keep wondering how to make a good thesis statement so that I can find many strong points as I could to make a good Position Paper. I’m so worried about that.

Next, he explained about the Research paper. Another disaster for me..huhu. This paper is more though than the first one. For this project, my class had been divided into 8 groups. Each group will has a supervisor. As for me, my supervisor is Pn. Juridah Rashid. Ermmm..nothing I can say about her. I hope I can meet her always to discuss my project paper.

However, I felt quite ease when Dr. Edwin kindly wants to give an A’s Position Paper from our senior. At least, I hope from my senior’s paper I can get general idea about that. One more thing, I hope with the help of the tutor that I’m going to meet during the tutorial class will improve my understanding on the assignments.