Comments on: Straight to the point

By: :B » Blog Archive » netizens like to kaopeikaobu

:B » Blog Archive » netizens like to kaopeikaobu — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 10:55:55 +0000

[...] a post by xpyre prompted me to write this. xpyre, prompted to write after reading this and this, said that writers are entitled to their opinions and “a person shouldn’t be castigated for his opinion, however wrong or wrong-headed”. i do agree with the stuff he says (especially pertaining to baga-fym (yah lor, he writes in fancy english and his character kena analysed until jialat jialat). [...]

By: minishorts

minishorts — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 03:22:55 +0000

agreed. and this was a highly opinionated personal post. for some reason some people think i was attacking yu ming. now that is not the case. we’re game for discussions of writing styles, which is, of course, coinciding with my participation in the nanowrimo competition.

and why not?

i’m more concerned for my students more than anything else, and i get extremely agitated when i get into debates about how to grade students. truth be known, not many people understand this.

it was a good example for discussion and the discussion is over.

By: lionel

lionel — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 03:16:52 +0000

Big words don’t turn me on; it’s how creatively you use plain words that do. Like T-boy said, ‘technique.’ Humour, especially, is something that works with the latter and hardly ever the former.

The line between OTT and ‘excellent’ is a fine one. Great already if you’re a walking thesaurus, but staying on the preferred side takes experience. When I re-read my old planks of writing (like the ones from when I was Yu Ming’s current age, which I hear is 19) I cringe at some of what was bloated and overdone. And I’m only a couple of years older now. Yu Ming will learn this too; and sure, he will go far once he does.

By: minishorts

minishorts — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 00:42:31 +0000

FF: aiyah 1119 is a hoax… from a 1200 word comprehension stimulus, to a sudden combination of the common spm WITH the 1119, then to the 800-word stimulus to the current 650-word stimulus… which part of 1119 tells you that it really grades good english?

the part in the 1119 that’s defining is the 350 word free-writing exercise, and i must say that it is important that students aim for readability rather than putting up a show. we all know that examiners get bored reading 300 scripts a day, and it’s very important to catch his/her eye by being straight-forward.

By: kit

kit — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:11:30 +0000

i do not write well but to have yu ming’s writings criticized by someone with your lacklustre grasp on the language is nothing short of a travesty.

your supposed english is but a translation from chinese- a mistake that most people, myself included, make out of habit.

yu ming’s writing will not appear to be pretentious if you care to read more non fiction books that put emphasis on intellectual discourses thru critical analysis. you will find that is how ‘serious’ writers write on ‘serious’ issues that matters, atypical of your daily dosage of non sensical bad english psychobabbles that you get out of malaysian blogs.

with all due respect, you DESERVED your C6.

By: FF

FF — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 20:05:44 +0000

Blah. No wonder I got a C6 for my 1119. Was damn pissed off because I thought I aced it. Maybe I used too many big words.

By: entwined

entwined — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 17:56:01 +0000

There’s a difference between having a good command of the English language and having a good writing STYLE.

To me, someone who has a good command of the language is one who has an extensive vocabulary and whereas one who can write well is someone who manages to twist the language to his/her desires, to make the language work for the author and to find the perfect words which slides into place, so the completed piece of writing is a flawless jigsaw puzzle.

Someone who has a good writing style does not have to try to insert as many bombastic words into their writing to show off their vocab.it is inherent from their skilful play of words that they already have that, and more.

basically, having a good command of the english language is easy. another who knows how to read and memorise a dictionary can do that, but to be able to write so well that you leave your readers feeling goosebumps without once using a bombastic word? that’s a gift.

not too mention, writing a post which consists of bombastic words comes across as being too technical and boring.

By: big tom

big tom — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 17:07:40 +0000

1119 is nothing compared to overseas english la… i am an average student and did my last essay in 15 minutes and got an A2… thats when i know how crappy it is…

By: rijac

rijac — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 16:12:59 +0000

oops… what i wanted to add was that the passing rate was under 80% for undergraduates completing 3 or 4 years of university degree studies. i would rather a society that ‘tries too hard’ as opposed to one that cannot write simple english.

By: rijac

rijac — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 16:11:17 +0000

minishorts, what about at the other extreme? when i was in university, we were required to take a compulsory english paper in each year of our courses. the level III (highest level required) used a textbook that was part of the british school curicullum for 10 year olds.