Meeting with my Supervisor

Today is the first day I meet my supervisor for research paper with a group of friends. I am quite nervous to meet him because he is a strict lecturer. I afraid that I may not achieve what he want us to do. Although the purpose of meeting him for the first time is to show us our topic and draft, I am not confident with everything. Meanwhile, I just try my best to prepare a draft for him.
After showing him the texts that I want to do, he says should be no problem. However, he suggests to me that doing female characters for "Pygmalion" and "Educating Rita" would be interesting rather than male characters. I try to tell him that I would like to examine male characters because not so many people discuss on them. Furthermore, I want to do something different and I inform him that I would like to change if I am not able to find points for my research paper.
Through my supervisor, I learned it is good to do what I like for research paper as I am the one who are doing the research. Therefore, it is alright for me to proceed with my plan. Certainly, I like both of the plays that I have chosen and it ensures me that I can do well for my research paper. Besides that, many hard works and research need to be done so that I can achieve a good grade for my research paper. I will try my best to do it!!

Thinking about topic again.....

It is time for me to start my research paper. I am worried right now as I do not know what type of literary texts that I want to choose from. At first, I thought of doing Malaysian texts for my research paper. However, I felt that my interest is not really in Malaysian text as many people will choose to do Malaysian literature. Besides that, I have examined one of the texts for the subject of Malaysian literature and I think that would provide me sufficient knowledge of Malaysian literature. Furthermore, I felt that the reference for Malaysian literature is quite limited and I afraid that I will wrongly interpret the texts. To be safe, I decided to examine the text that was discussed before and I want to do texts that I like the most. Well….after thinking for so long, I have made my decision on the literary texts that I wants to do for my research paper. "Pygmalion" and "Educating Rita" are the texts that I have decided to do for my research paper. I like both of this play a lot. I think this is most properly because of the movie of "MY Fair Lady" which influences me a lot in loving to read this two plays. Although I have watched the movie during my secondary school, however, it had impressed me a lot! I really admire all the characters in the play as I think they play the important roles in education. So, I believe that through the examination of these two plays in my research paper will help me to know more and understand the plays better. I also feel that with my love towards these two texts will encourage me to do better in my research paper. I believe that I can do it!!

I am still learning…………….

It is undeniable that doing the position paper is the toughest assignment that I have ever had. After completing the thesis statement, today I have come out all the supporting points for thesis statement. It is definitely not an easy job for me to come out with all the supporting points. Eventually, I have read the short story-“The Journey” for so many times as I never did this before. As Cik Siti said, I need to read between the lines to come out with supporting points. I have analyzed the story in so many ways after discussing with my friends. Luckily, I did not choose novel or play for this position paper. If not, the length of these two literary texts was so long and it will really require lots of time for me to read and analyze it. Even though it is the initial stage of doing the position paper, personally, I feel that I have learned a lot. This is the first time I truly read and examine the text thoroughly. I learned to look at different perspectives of a text. I learned to think critically about how the writer presents the characters in the story through their actions, their speech and so on. I started to realize that all this while I did not think critically when I read a literary text. Besides that, I also realized that the question “why does he say this?”, “why does he do it?” always come in my mind when I read the text. Honestly, I did not like to think about “why” before this when I read a literary text. What I would like to do last time was just finish reading the text as soon as possible. Now, doing the position paper has changed my attitude towards reading a literary text. Therefore, I have learned a lot………..

Thanks A LOT for helping me in this position paper……..

Although at first I used to be very stress about doing the position paper, but at last I managed to console myself to keep trying. I feel grateful to have a tutor, Cik Siti, who is willing to guide me to do the position paper from the beginning. Cik Siti really helped me a lot in many ways. I feel thankful because she spends her times in discussing the thesis statement with me. Through the discussion with her, I have learned a lot. I learned on how to form a thesis statement. Although I have learned to form thesis statement in expository writing before this, but, for me, doing a thesis statement for this position paper is a bit different. I think this may be due to the reason that when I do a position paper, I need to think a lot on an issue of a literary text that I can write for four pages. Furthermore, I learned that when doing a thesis statement, it is important to list out all the issues of the story so that it will help in forming thesis statement. Besides that, reading a text for many times is also crucial because it will enable me to have a better understanding of the text. Analyzing the text for many times will help me to think of more issues of the story. Lastly, her suggestions when doing the thesis statement helps me to get a clearer idea on what should I do. Most importantly, her encouragement and support motivates me to keep on trying to try my best in doing the thesis statement and supporting points. Thanks a lot, Cik Siti!

It only the beginning of all.........

I started to feel so tense doing position paper. I do not know why I have such feelings? Last few days, I wrote so many thesis statements. All had been rejected, rejected and rejected...Why? Why? Why? I felt so tense, not even can sleep peacefully for a few nights.
I never been so worried about things like this since long time ago. I just felt sad when my thesis statement was rejected. I kept on thinking, what's wrong with my thesis statement? What mistakes that I have done? Should I change another story? Should I redo again? What should I do? So many questions came in my mind at that moment. I really considered so many things at one time.
No, no, I must not give up! I must find out what is the problems with my thesis statement. I must do more thinking. I must improve my thinking! I must discuss with my friends and tutor with my thesis statement! I must try my best to come out with a good thesis statement!
I must keep trying doing thesis statement. It is only the beginning of all assignments that I have in this semester..........................

It’s all Daedalus’ fault………………..

In my opinion, Daedalus should be blamed of causing his son death. I felt that he is the one who had killed his son indirectly. The death of Icarus will not happen if Daedalus did not create wings for him. As we can see in the story, Icarus is still young and innocent. He might not know what had happened to his father and what his father wanted to do. As a result, he just followed his father’s advice and forgot about it immediately when he was disturbed. Icarus would not die if Daedalus did not plan to get out of Crete. Furthermore, Daedalus should wait until his son is mature and only they fly out together then. From what I have stated above, I felt that it was one the reasons Icarus is more famous compered to Daedalus. Icarus had to sacrifice indirectly because of his father’s selfishness. Therefore, Daedalus should be responsible of Icarus’ death.

let's introduce something different to our students...

In my opinion, I feel that it is a good idea for teacher to use Greek mythology in literature classroom. However, teacher needs to consider students’ ability to understand the language of the story. As we know, the language that is used in Greek mythology may be difficult for students to understand. Therefore, teacher plays an important role here in making the text easier for students to understand. Teacher needs to write the text in modern English so that he or she can design activities through the text that is written. However, teacher needs to make sure that the language written is appropriate and suits the level of proficiency of the students. By doing this, I feel that students will comprehend the story better. Besides that, they will learn about Greek mythology which is totally new to them. In addition, they will also learn about different culture and widen their knowledge. In conclusion, using modern language in teaching Greek mythology to students will bring lots of benefits to students.