My memo for my English class LOL

English – Not only for Academic Writing =)

The first day in 76100 class was interesting – there was the usual introduction among instructor and students, briefing of the course syllabus, and the … ABSENCE OF A STUDENT?

Coincidentally, I happened to be the said student who was impertinent enough to skip class on the first day. Either you should believe that or there was another legitimate reason for my absence. Of course, the latter is true; being an international student, visa issues delayed my arrival to Carnegie Mellon University and it was not until the second week when I finally showed up in class – totally suffering from jetlag.
In retrospect, I was initially furious to be required to take the English Placement Exams. I had my SAT and TOEFL results and was my school’s valedictorian. What more did CMU want? Overestimating my abilities, I took the placement test lightly and I only have myself to blame for being placed into 76100 (or rather, failing to be placed into 76101). Harbouring thoughts of bitter resentment, I entered the 76100 class thinking it was inferior. Boy was I wrong.

As one could probably infer from my present structure of writing, I am no fan of serious scholarly writing. Puh-lease, those are for the high-and-mighty, pompous professionals who pontificate profound phrases profusely and ignore pragmatic prose to present … okay you get the point. However, there was no escaping from the clutches of 76100 – and it was probably a good thing I stuck through the whole semester because I learned a lot of things I thought I already knew.
See that thing on the upper right-hand corner? Yep, that was one of the few things I learned in this 76100 class. NO I did not learn how to COUNT! @@ *faints* That is part of the MLA formatting style which is used often in academic writing. (It IS reading and writing in an academic context!) Prior to this class, I had no experience whatsoever in using the MLA style of writing. That is because I am an international student and English is taught as a second language back in my country Malaysia. Of course, SAT and TOEFL did not prepare me for this, so I, being the ever-so-concerned-about-only-anything-on-exams Asian I am, never bothered reading anything about MLA formatting. Fortunately for me, 76100 rectified this problem before it became nasty.

On the discourse of nasty things, that term could only be applied to the readings we were forced to endure throughout the semester. If only it were something about mathematics, quantum mechanics or string theory, I would have gladly embraced the piles of processed pulp. But no! We had to go through a series of (seemingly irrelevant) debates spun by authors regarding the digital generation, ie the generation who uses facebook daily, studies while MSN-ing, derives random new words such as in the previous clause, and attaches an emoticon to every available and possible sentence =P However, upon further reflection I realized that 76100 has forced me to include academic reading into my genre of fantasy and science fiction. At least now I can successfully read through a 50-page research paper (without yawning too many times!).

Having a second look at my previous paragraph, I am sure Mark Bauerlein would say that I am full of “puerile sentiments” and disagree with my conduct vehemently. Oops, I better put a (Bauerlein 132, par 2) behind those quotation marks! And this incidentally brings me to the third thing I learned from this class – citing sources. Back in Malaysia, we never had to write a formal paper, and thus citing sources was never an issue. Of course, I am now a university student and hopefully would have the chance to write a thesis paper one day. It is impossible for me to have no link from external sources. “Rome was not built in a day”, inasmuch as I would have to build upon the findings of others, there would be others who will use, God willing, my findings to expand a particular field. Regarding this matter, I surely would be upset and angry if those who used my findings did not acknowledge my contribution to the field. Hence, I have realized the importance of citing sources appropriately to avoid plagiarism.

As the semester comes to a close, I am satisfied that I have endured the torture of writing four academic essays yet I am reluctant to leave the warmth of the classroom. As I write these last few sentences of my 76100 course, I realized how wrong I was to think that it was only second-class. In my opinion, the readings were harder than those from 76101 and we even had the chance to perform a social science research! So to those who are taking 76100, if you ever get the chance to read this, I say, 76100 ROCKZ!

Best,
Mark Wong

P/S That does not mean I am looking forward to 76101 =P

Cheer Up, Mark

C heer up, Mark, why looking so forlorn?
A fter all, let bygones be bygones,
L ife is more than getting an A,
C herish the time you are here to stay,
U niversity is only a part of the journey,
L ooking ahead, what's a B to your story?
U nless you're dead, there's always tomorrow,
S o cheer up, Mark, do away with your sorrow!

Cheer Up ~~

K now that you aren't the last,
R est assured that we chose you for your past:
I nitially entering out of curiousity,
S oon we all could see your loyalty
T herefore do not think yourself undeserving,
I believe that there's none more willing!
N ow garner your courage and face the future,
E ventually you'll succeed, be steadfast and sure!

H e is better? Why do you care?
O nly burdening yourself with more things you can't share
O thers will not compare

X yphoid thoughts shouldn't be there,
I know it's hard for you to bear,
N evertheless, remember that you're never on your own,
G od blessed you with friends so you'll not be alone.

Mod Chem

Dear Blog,

I'm so upset about today. (well, technically, it's yesterday). I totally flunked my modern chemistry test. It was such a BUMMER. Although people say getting <90 for the test isn't the end of the world, getting good grades is part of MY world. It is a source of gratification for me. Actually I really only have myself to blame as I did not even bother to review the past year questions. Most of the questions were derivatives of the past... I, with my snobbish self-confidence, thought that my STPM A would suffice to account for everything in modern chemistry. Of course, if I had not left everything to dust for 8 months that would probably still be true, but unfortunately that's not the case. I still managed to finish major parts of the paper, though my logical sense was gone and I got wrong for a question I could have got right. The main worry is that A is >90... and that's very very bad because we only have 4 exams. I really hope I can get 100 for the other exams - that's the least I could do to prove that STPM standard is as good as any other A-levels.

无题

相见时难别亦难， 东风无力百花残。 光阴似箭， 一瞬间离别的时候快到了。 虽然才来到了国大不久(仅仅一月)，但是我却有千万个不舍得。。。也许只是我吧 - 国大的生活不回应我的离去而有多大的改变。 黄祥凯只是书中的一页， 戏中的一幕；只是放慢了速度(，)， 但不是句子的结束(。), 也不引人注目(！)，更不是个神奇人物（？）。一周，一月，一年，眼不见，心不烦，一年后的我们，是会一见如故，还是漠不关心？

一叶浮萍归大海，人生何处不相逢？也许把下半句改成”人生何处会相逢“也挺有意思的。。。幸亏有了网际网络，要么以后回来只能感叹年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同。

虽然如此，我还是很感谢国大朋友我们之间的这份友情。桃花潭水深千尺，不及你们送我情。若有过犯，本人在此道歉。

悄悄地我走了，正如我悄悄的来，我挥一挥衣袖，不带走一片云彩。

*对不起这是我第一次用汉语写日志。。。很不习惯*

NUS

N ew life, new friends, new challenges
U tterly new environment and faces
S o it began, a new chapter

N o bed sheet, no pillow, no blanket
U nless I buy from the market
S o it began, a lonely night

N ice block, nice lounge, nice hall
U gotta see to believe it all
S o it began, a lovely sight

Who am I?

Who am I?
Can I condemn myself for eternity,
Pretend I'm not in agony,
This incident which ends my days,
And brings me to another place

Who am I?
Can I conceal myself forevermore,
Pretend I'm not the boy I was before?
And must my name until I die,
Be no more than a guy gone by.

Must I lie?
How can I ever face my fellow men,
How can I ever face myself again,
My soul belongs to God I know,
I made that bargain long ago.

He gave me hope when hope was lost,
He gave me strength to carry on!

Who am I?
I'm Mark Wong!

So you see it's true that I'm much ready to go through.

Who am I?
Who am I?
6181!

To the tune of "Les Miserables" Who am I - Jean Valjean