Before I begin, I'd like to explain briefly why I named my blog account as No If, No But, No Excuses. This phrase came from my english teacher back in my junior college years. She often remind us that when we do something meaningful, we should put in our fullest effort and attention in order to achieve the best outcome. Excuses tend to refrain us from realising our fullest potential.
Proficiency in english has been an obstacle for me since primary school. I used to hate reading. Coming from a family background that uses Malay language as our daily conversation, I was introduced to Malay text, newspapers and readings and had little exposure to english language. School was the only platform for me to practice conversing and writing in english. It was only in junior college that I realised the importance of mastering english language. I started to read more books and from there I begin to cultivate an interest in reading. I wrote a lot of argumentative essays and had my tutor to check them. Having to just pass General Paper in A' Level, I am glad that I managed to meet the requirement to enter NUS.
In NUS, I have been conversing more in english, even among friends who come from the same ethnic group as me. My peers would correct my pronunciation during our conversations and edit my grammar in my assignments and submissions. Although my proficiency in English has improved, there is so much more for me to learn. I realised how proficient most of my peers in english as compared to me.
I hope that this course would enhance my proficiency in english language. I look forward to learn from my lecturer and peers. No if, no but, no excuses!
(294 Words)
I like this phrase “No if, no but, no excuses”. I have spotted a few mistakes in your blog post. For this sentence “She often remind us that when we do something meaningful”, it should be “she often reminded us that we should do something meaningful”. For this sentence “Coming from a family background that uses Malay language as our daily conversation, I was introduced to Malay text, newspapers and readings and had little exposure to english language”, I recommend that you should replace it to “Coming from a family background that uses Malay language as our daily conversation, I was introduced to Malay text, newspapers and readings. Hence, I had little exposure to the english language.” These are small errors and I am sure that you would be able to correct those mistakes if you had checked after you finished writing it.
ReplyDeleteOverall, your organization of this post is cohesive and coherent as I can easily understand it. The main idea of this post is clear and you had also provided some examples to support your idea. However, I believe you can still improve on your grammatical errors. I hope that my feedback will be beneficiary to your writing. Thank you for your comments too. Let’s work hard together in the class!
Hey Taq!
ReplyDeleteYour use of the catchphrase grasped my attention at the start and ended the post on an impactful note. The post being centered on the catchphrase, made the writing self-contained and your thoughts easy to follow.
In addition, the elaboration of your struggle and efforts to improve your proficiency of english not only reinforced your central theme (catchphrase) but also, in my opinion, lent a motivational tone to your writing.
Thanks for sharing! I too, share your burning desire to improve. :)
- Russell Tan
Thanks, Taq, for this brief, detailed and rather inspiring reflection. I appreciate the explanation for your blog title; it is clear how the phrase is reflective of an attitude has evolved during the course of your study. Kudos for that!
ReplyDeleteThere are a few areas of concern in this post:
1) ...to refrain us.... > (wrong word)
2) as our daily conversations > in our daily conversations
3) Malay text, newspapers and readings > There's some confusion here: A text can come from multiple sources, be those books (fiction and nonfiction), newspapers and magazines -- both online and off -- Internet websites, and then other sources such as advertising, government docs, and even tweets or facebook statuses, etc.
4) My peers would correct my pronunciation .... / would enhance > Is 'would' needed?
Please make the needed changes. I look forward to working with you in ES1102.