Since I'm the first user, of course I'm obligated to share about myself.
The only time when I disliked writing was when it had no purpose; writing for the sake of writing. There's no way to go 'off-topic', but then again, how does one know if you're going off-topic if there's no topic set? Right now, I've just offtopic-ed, and that awareness is only possible because I'm supposed to introduce myself. And I have now: I dislike writing without purpose, and for that reason I've made a lot of different sub-forums, just to categorise them.
Another thing I'll share about myself, is that I only grew to love language in the last year of my life so far. In secondary school, I detested the literary subject Language Arts, because I couldn't bring myself to see how the answer the question demanded fulfilled its requirements. The only part I liked was the poems and not the questions; I'd 'understand' the poem and hate how the questions were asking me for this and that. As if I knew how to analyse it already!
A few years later, the new English teacher assigned us a weekly task, to fill up a page of reviews of a newspaper cutting. After I got the hang of it - I was hooked. Squeezing my words into margins, going over to the next page only to hastily conclude my review - it was the beginning of an ability to read, critically reflect, and apply contexts, reflection, and application. All those big words, eh - it was just as simple as saying "This does this, therefore this can be used to do that also." If only that was how they taught in Language Arts, or at least make it more interesting...
Moving on to Junior College, I was introduced to the General Paper - and finally, I thought, here is the time when I'm going to give full reign to my creative powers. Almost.
The General Paper is free, certainly, but you're free to write within the limits of relevant discussion. Still, it certainly was a big enough avenue for my energy to flow, and I wasn't surprised to have my GP consistently the strongest subject in both my JC years. Even if my Physics, Chem, Mathematics didn't do so well, my concern for the three put together wasn't even half that whenever I did badly for GP. Perhaps my over-enthusiam, put together with my desire for a more 'free' style of argumentative writing, placed me at odds with my JC1 GP tutor. I once got kicked out of class for this.
JC2 deserves its own paragraph for mention. It's the year when I met the private tutor, V, in a tuition agency I had been patronising for two years then. Singlehandely, just when I was about to give up on doing well for GP she was the person who didn't pull me up, but rather opened my eyes to all the ways that are possible, yet I hadn't attempted out of fear. After all, if an argument makes sense and is well-written, is it any less important that the argument that follows the correct format? The 'Introduction, Three Yes/No, Two No/Yes, and Conclusion' format is just that - a format. It doesn't mean the argument itself is worthy of merit, it just means that the essay itself was structured properly.
With that, I set my sparks anew and tried all sorts of ways to write an essay, turning the Introduction on its head and flat out disobeying the format - because hell, the content gets the marks! JC2 was one of my most fun times of my youth and if I was given the choice to repeat it, I would answer 'Yes' each and every time, in a heartbeat.
Academics aside, I neglected my social life at first while I devoted myself to other pursuits - pursuits, I see now, were simply being done for other's expectations, and not from my own motivation. I don't regret learning the violin - it taught me how to read music, and later I learnt some songs in JC - but if I could do it more meaningfully, I would. And for the friends I made, I find myself fortunate that I made great friends - I still keep in contact with some of them even after a few years have gone by.
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It's 1am...I have to cut my introduction here and sleep. Oh well. Even if I'm a 19-year-old, your mother is still King of the house.[/i][/i]
The only time when I disliked writing was when it had no purpose; writing for the sake of writing. There's no way to go 'off-topic', but then again, how does one know if you're going off-topic if there's no topic set? Right now, I've just offtopic-ed, and that awareness is only possible because I'm supposed to introduce myself. And I have now: I dislike writing without purpose, and for that reason I've made a lot of different sub-forums, just to categorise them.
Another thing I'll share about myself, is that I only grew to love language in the last year of my life so far. In secondary school, I detested the literary subject Language Arts, because I couldn't bring myself to see how the answer the question demanded fulfilled its requirements. The only part I liked was the poems and not the questions; I'd 'understand' the poem and hate how the questions were asking me for this and that. As if I knew how to analyse it already!
A few years later, the new English teacher assigned us a weekly task, to fill up a page of reviews of a newspaper cutting. After I got the hang of it - I was hooked. Squeezing my words into margins, going over to the next page only to hastily conclude my review - it was the beginning of an ability to read, critically reflect, and apply contexts, reflection, and application. All those big words, eh - it was just as simple as saying "This does this, therefore this can be used to do that also." If only that was how they taught in Language Arts, or at least make it more interesting...
Moving on to Junior College, I was introduced to the General Paper - and finally, I thought, here is the time when I'm going to give full reign to my creative powers. Almost.
The General Paper is free, certainly, but you're free to write within the limits of relevant discussion. Still, it certainly was a big enough avenue for my energy to flow, and I wasn't surprised to have my GP consistently the strongest subject in both my JC years. Even if my Physics, Chem, Mathematics didn't do so well, my concern for the three put together wasn't even half that whenever I did badly for GP. Perhaps my over-enthusiam, put together with my desire for a more 'free' style of argumentative writing, placed me at odds with my JC1 GP tutor. I once got kicked out of class for this.
JC2 deserves its own paragraph for mention. It's the year when I met the private tutor, V, in a tuition agency I had been patronising for two years then. Singlehandely, just when I was about to give up on doing well for GP she was the person who didn't pull me up, but rather opened my eyes to all the ways that are possible, yet I hadn't attempted out of fear. After all, if an argument makes sense and is well-written, is it any less important that the argument that follows the correct format? The 'Introduction, Three Yes/No, Two No/Yes, and Conclusion' format is just that - a format. It doesn't mean the argument itself is worthy of merit, it just means that the essay itself was structured properly.
With that, I set my sparks anew and tried all sorts of ways to write an essay, turning the Introduction on its head and flat out disobeying the format - because hell, the content gets the marks! JC2 was one of my most fun times of my youth and if I was given the choice to repeat it, I would answer 'Yes' each and every time, in a heartbeat.
Academics aside, I neglected my social life at first while I devoted myself to other pursuits - pursuits, I see now, were simply being done for other's expectations, and not from my own motivation. I don't regret learning the violin - it taught me how to read music, and later I learnt some songs in JC - but if I could do it more meaningfully, I would. And for the friends I made, I find myself fortunate that I made great friends - I still keep in contact with some of them even after a few years have gone by.
===
It's 1am...I have to cut my introduction here and sleep. Oh well. Even if I'm a 19-year-old, your mother is still King of the house.[/i][/i]
