It’s all about “Paul’s Case”...

For my position paper, I have chosen to write about the short story “Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather with the thesis statement, “Dissatisfaction of life and the desire to live an idle life lead Paul to a disastrous end”. In this paper, I would like to focus on the point that it is Paul dissatisfaction in his life that leads him to end his life in a tragic end. Paul refused to live the life that he had at the present so he chose to end his life by committing suicide. It is also his desire to live a glamorous and classy life that made him to steal and to commit suicide as Paul did not want to go back to his real life back in the Cordelia Street. I would have supporting details from the two major points which are Paul’s dissatisfaction in life and Paul’s desire to live an idle life to support my thesis statement. All the points in the paper will center on the thesis statement. In order for me to write a good position paper, I would have to have strong and reliable supporting details in supporting my thesis statement. Like what said by Mr Omid, “There’s neither right or wrong nor good or bad thesis statement, it is just how you support your thesis statement that make your thesis statement and your position paper a good one”. I personally think that what Mr Omid said is so true that only thesis statement which is supported by good supporting details can make a good thesis statement and a good position paper. Hence, I am going to work very hard to find the valid, reliable and good supporting details to support my thesis statement so that I can produce a good and excellent position paper with a brilliant thesis statement.

First draft on my Position Paper.

Today we had our tutorial with Mr Omid at usual at FPP 219A. We were supposed to submit our first draft of our thesis statement today to our tutor. Mr Omid started the class by discussing various thesis statements presented by my course mates and myself and we learned on how to create a good and specific thesis statement through the examination of the various thesis statements presented in the class. What is important in writing a thesis statement is that the statement must be supported with not one, but many supporting details. A good thesis statement also needs to be specific and not general. Mr Omid told us that it is not a must that a good thesis statement will guarantee us a good grade in our position paper as a good position paper depends very much on how far and how well we can elaborate our supporting details in supporting our thesis statement and on how strong we can convince the readers on our thesis statement. I had presented my first draft today in the class and I know that there is still a lot of things that I need to improve on my position paper.

My new experience in reading tales

Tales, I have been reading tales, I mean fairy tales, since I was young. I still remembered that the first fairy tale that I have read is the Aesop Fables. The very first Aesop Fable that I read was about the dog, the butcher and the bones. If you ask me now, I can frankly tell you that I enjoy reading tales, those Aesop Fables, bedtime stories, Blyton’s tales and many more. I, personally think that reading tales are interesting and fun as reading tales are stress-free and light. I will deem reading tales as light reading. What different between tales and other genres of writing is that tales always promote moral values that inhibit in the stories. Hence, I can understand why my mum always exposed me with tales. But to me, reading tales in this course, EDU 3234, is really my new experience. I said so as in this course, the tales that I am reading is really different from the tales that I have read when I was young. Although both are tales, but somehow, the tales I read in this course are more unique and special as I think the tales are very intellectual and the moral values inhibits in the story are deep in meaning. It is not just simply teaching the readers on moral values like “Do not cheat” but it has a deeper meaning and more authentic-things that really happen in the real world. I love the story, “The Son of the Turtle-Spirit” the most as I think that the story is set in a very unusual way and the moral values or the main meaning is very deep in meaning. I have never come across a tale or story with this kind of way in conveying the message neither did I come across a moral values which is so true and authentic. Thus, tales are not just tales when you are talking about tales assigned in EDU 3234.

Tales & Painting- How are they related? Tink! There’s a connection!

I started to read tales this semester when Dr Edwin assigned us to read about four tales that were printed in the new handbook that we received early of this semester. We were assigned to read on the tales “The Son of The Turtle-Spirit”, “The Mahabharata”, “Ovid- Daedalus and Icarus” and “Ovid’s Metamorphosis- Pyramus and Thisbe”. Through the reading of these tales, I found out that reading tales can be quite an enjoyable and stress-free activity for the readers. Reading tales provides less anxiety to the students and at the same time, reading tales will be more engaging to the students as the students can connect to the story of tales more than other genres of the literary works. The tale of “The Son of The Turtle-Spirit” is seems to be more engaging to the Chinese students as most of them have watched similar Chinese dramas and movies of tales that resembles the tale “The Son of The Turtle-Spirit”. Language and sentence structures used in these tales are also much simple compared to other writings. I can understand and comprehend the tales very well. Reading of the tale “Ovid-Daedalus and Icarus” is like an eye-wash to me as this tale is very nicely and beautifully narrated. Moreover, it has a painting to come with the story. The painting was a beautiful one and very impressive. In this painting which entitled “The Fall of Icarus”, although only Icarus’s legs and feet were sticking out from the water, it has clearly portrayed to us the significance of Icarus’s fall to the audience. It portrayed to us that Icarus’s fall is only significant to his father alone and insignificant to others as no one bothers or cares for Icarus when he fell into the water. Life still goes on for others no matter what happens. It is my first experience of reading of a literary work that comes with a painting. Painting which is a visual aid helps a lot in giving the readers a clearer idea of the whole story. Reading tales is indeed a very fun and exciting experience as it is very engaging to the readers while provides the readers to look closely at the paintings which are connected to the tales that they are reading. Reading tales not only provides the opportunity to the readers to appreciate the writings of the authors but also exposes to the readers the work of arts-paintings and later having them to appreciate the masterpieces of painting.

First EDU 3234 Tutorial Class..

Last Friday, 11th of July, 2008, we had our first tutorial session with our tutor, Mr Omid. The tutorial began with Mr Omid giving us some handouts on the example of good and bad thesis statements. He also explained to us the reasons on why certain thesis statements are deemed as bad thesis statements and certain thesis statements are deemed as good thesis statements. He explained to us what a thesis statement is all about and the purpose for writing a thesis statement. He stressed on the importance of writing a good thesis statement which provides a clear and specific statement on the subject that we are studying about. In order to make us all to work on the thesis statements, Mr Omid divided us into groups of 5-6 people and come out with a thesis statement on the tale “Pyramus and Thisbe”. We did as instructed and we found out that all the groups came out with different thesis statements and we were asked to comment on each thesis statement before Mr Omid gave us his opinion on each thesis statement. We learned that many statements can be deemed and used as thesis statement but the main problem is to produce a good thesis statement which is clear and specific. A too generalized thesis statement is said to be a bad thesis statement. A good thesis statement also means that the statement can be supported by many supporting details and points from the work itself. From this tutorial, I gained a clearer image and explanations on what exactly a thesis statement is about. The next step is to work on the supporting details that we will work on, on the next tutorial session.

Musee des Beaux Arts By W.H. Auden.

Musee des Beaux Arts
By W.H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

This is the poem by W.H. Auden on "The Fall of Icarus".

The painting of "The Fall of Icarus".

The painting of "The Fall of Icarus"...the painting that Dr Edwin asked us to search. Nice painting...but can you see how is it related to the story "The Fall of Icarus"?Try to look closely or perhaps zoom into the painting and you can see two legs jutting out from the water at your bottom right of the whole painting. Can you see it? These are the legs of Icarus who had just fallen into the water. Can you now see it? The implication of this painting is people carry on with their lives no matter what happens around them. Get it? As those people still doing their daily routines and not helping Icarus although he fell into the water. What a cold yet a realistic society portrays in this painting. A nice painting but a cruel one- to me.

A Brand New Semester with EDU 3234.

My first class of EDU 3234 began on the 10th of July, 2008 at DKAP B3-10. Dr Edwin started off the class by distributing the course outlines to us and explained to us the assignments and course works that we need to attempt for this course. For this course, there will be no mid-sem exam and final exam as we will have to attempt a position paper as the mid-sem exam and a research paper as our final exam. The very introduction of the position paper and research paper to us made us all feeling very nervous and blur as this is the first time that we are exposed to writing a position paper and a research paper. Hence, we listened carefully to every details explained by Dr Edwin on both the papers. Dr Edwin does talked about the thesis statements and supporting details which we will deal on more, later with our tutor. A few tales were assigned to us to read so that we can do an early reading before study the tales in more detail with our lecturer and tutor. What worries me the most is the position paper and research paper that I have never deal with before before this course. I am going to work very very hard and work extra hard so that I can produce a good position paper and research paper!!!