Wednesday 23 November 2011

Meal Times

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             I am duly informed from reliable sources that in most parts of the world people are used to eating at least three times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner (supper). That is a conventional way of doing things and I can’t question it, struggle as I may to do that because that is the way it is and that it the way it forever will be. Nonetheless, that can’t and indeed shouldn’t prevent me from giving a view of how campus students’ meal times differ from the conventional meal times. University students are plain eccentric, for want of a better expression. If you put the things they do into perspective, you will realize it is very hard to believe that they did such things while still upright thinking members of the society.

            When I joined college last year very many things surprised me but perhaps nothing astonished me more as the thing to do with meals. University students eat at any and every time they feel like it. There are very many reasons that can be put forward as to why it happens so, chief of which is that campus students like being different from the masses. It is not unheard of to see students have their typical breakfast as their dinner and vice versa. Some even have breakfast at the time they are supposed to be having their lunch.

            The only group of students that comes close to fitting into the conventional times has to be the group that comprises students who are involved in essay writing service companies as essay writers and what have you. These employed students tend to respect their meal times as they are aware of the strain that may arise when meals come at irregular intervals. The rest of us don’t give a damn when we have our meals, but that we have them all the same.

Monday 14 November 2011

Figures of Speech

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            In essay writing, you need to show off your language skills. And I don’t mean your Spanish vocabulary or your ability to punctuate properly, I mean your use of the English language in a creative way. When writing college admittance essays, literary essays, or any essay at all, the way you speak is often just as important as how you speak. (Or in this case, write).

            In the real world, people do not speak plainly. We use innuendos, puns, metaphors, and exaggeration to get our point across. Very seldom is what we’re saying actually what we mean. As a teacher, I’ve often called my students a bunch of monkeys. Does that literally mean that they live in trees, seek bananas, and pick nits out of each others’ hair? No, it does not. (At least I hope not). It means that they sometimes drive me crazy. It’s called a metaphor. Get it?

            I’ll break it down. First we’ll tackle metaphors and similes. These are both types of figurative language where two things are compared. Saying, ‘love is like a bird’ is a simile. It is saying that love makes you feel open, peaceful, free, wild, and so on. Saying that the ‘world is a circus’ implies that life/society is adventurous, wild, creative, and full of animals. Using these two figures of speech in your essays will help you convey multiple meanings with just a few words.

            Another example of figurative language is hyperbole. Hyperbole is a fancy word for exaggeration. Extreme exaggeration. When someone says they are hungry enough to eat a horse, I don’t think they actually are hungry enough to find a horse in a nearby field, chop it in two, and ingest it. But the point they’re making is that they’re pretty darn hungry and they need food right away. Using hyperbole in your essay, especially in a satirical or persuasive essay could have a large impact on the reader.

            Understanding what figurative language is and using it are two different things. It will take practice. One way to start is to write down the things that people say in your day-to-day life. You can write down a list of expressions that you use as well. At the end of the day, look at your list. How many of the sentences actually make sense if you read them plainly? How many are actually hinting at other meanings?

            You might be surprised.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Essay Writing (Planning)

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                 So, you’ve picked a topic and you have a plethora of wonderful ideas running through your head. You’ve know the requirements for the assignment, and what your professor is seeking. You’ve even completed research! And the deadline for the essay isn’t for fourteen hours yet.

                But how do you get the essay actually written? You’ve already stalled by baking muffins and cleaning the bathroom because you’re not sure how to organize all your fantastic thoughts.

                There are several ways you can organize your ideas, making the actual essay writing thereby easier. One strategy is to write down every thought and research tidbit you have on a piece of large paper. Then you can circle or number the ideas that appear to go together or are evidence of the same point. These grouped ideas will all go in the same paragraph, and it gives you an idea of what that paragraph is about. Any extra ideas can be expanded on with further thought or research, and repetitive phrases can be eliminated.

                Another organizational strategy, maybe for someone doing a literary analysis, would be a web. You can place character traits or themes in a bubble and attach corresponding points to the appropriate bubble. Then you’ll be able to easily see if you have enough information for a full paragraph, or which one needs more work before you actually start to write.

                For an essay that deals with the comparison of subjects, a Venn Diagram is a useful planning too. It consists of two interlocking circles that have the two subjects listed in each. Information matching each subject is placed in the corresponding circle, and any information that is common between the two is placed in the middle (interlocking) circle. With this strategy, the essay is planned out visually, with each paragraph’s information already sorted.

                Planning and organizing your information before you start writing your essay may seem tedious, but it is a necessary step in the essay writing process. It will make paragraphs clearer and your entire essay more concise. The writing time will be cut down, as you won’t have to be looking for the quote or statistic that you need; it will already be organized in front of you.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

University Lecturers

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            University lecturers are the second most important people in learning institutions apart from the students themselves. They are important because they complete the learning process by imparting knowledge to their students. They need to be respected and taken seriously by their students if the latter are to have a genuine chance or shot at success; after all, the university lecturers have been around the block for long and they have a trick or two up their sleeves that could prove beneficial to the students who are still trying to cut out a niche for themselves in the society.

Some students are in the habit of scorning their university lecturers, most probably because they spite the teaching profession as a whole or because the lecturers don’t match their level of ambition in life. Worse still, the lecturers may be despised because perhaps they appear as though they don’t match the wealth status of such students’ families. In fact, some essay writing students make more money from the essay service companies they work for than their lecturers. Whatever the reason, it is depressing to note that some students look down upon their lecturers. To a lecturer, there is nothing worse than that in the academic world.

            I have personally witnessed my fellow students ignoring what the lecturers say to them during the days when there are riots in campus. Students should take what the lecturers tell them as far as academic studies are concerned as gospel truths because lecturers simply know what is best for their students. If a student has a query of any kind on any subject, the best authority to unravel or solve the question has to be the lecturers. Some students are in the habit of purporting to know more than their lecturers, and they even go ahead and mock their lecturers in the full glare of their fellow class mates. There is a reason why the students are students and the lecturers are lecturers. One should learn from the other, and that can never change.