Banner 468 X 60

Importance of Journals and Books for Writers

Journals and books are very important writing materials for writers used for different writing purposes. It may be just for jotting down urgent information, for documenting comprehensive information or writing notes for educational purposes. Writers need journals and books for both long-term purposes and short-term use.

For decades and centuries ago, journals and books have been used by a lot of different writers for different writing purposes. Journals and books have been of immerse use before the emergence of computers and till date, they are still being used by a lot of writers both at the junior level and advanced levels.

There are many important benefits of journals and books for writers. We are going to enumerate some of this importance;

1. Writing and Documenting of Information - Journals and books are very important materials which writers use in writing and documenting important information. The information may be for educational purposes, fun purposes, or personal purposes. A writer can use a book to write an article, essay, academic contents, e.t.c. A writer can use a journal to keep personal information, educational contents for college use, and for other useful purposes.

2. Used to Achieve Goals - Journals and books are blueprints to achieving your goals as a writer. The mind cannot keep all information needed for a writer to achieve his or her goals so he needs a blueprint which is either a journal or book to map out his or her strategies in achieving those goals. As a writer, your goal might be to write an award-winning novel, a journal or a book is a place to map-out your blueprint before the final work is actualized.

3. Increases Thinking Abilities - As a writer, journals and books increase the thinking abilities. It enables the conscious use of the mind to create important and meaningful events that will then be pinned down in a journal or notebook. Writers are meant to be good thinkers with great imaginative skills to create unique stories that will be of interest and beneficial to readers. When thinking abilities increases, the mind is renewed and new information are birthed.

4. Boost Memory and Comprehension - Writing increases comprehension skills and boosts the ability to remember things. Letters are formed by thoughts from the memory and the combination of letters produces meaningful words. Without writing, there will be no comprehension and without journals or books, there will be no writing. This is to say that journals and books give rise to comprehension and memory boost.

5. Improves Communication Skills - Writing is a form of non-verbal communication. Most writers are very good communicators. Their knowledge and experience come from years of writing. The ability for a writer to communicate effectively to him or herself is very vital and the ability to also communicate to the general public through writing is even more important. The better a writer is with writing, the better he or she will be in verbal communication.

6. It Boosts Self-confidence - Writers are known to be very confident and this is because of their contributions towards the knowledge of other people. When a writer writes an article, school journal, novels, or any other document, hundred's, thousands, or millions of people are going to read those written materials which will add value and increase the knowledge of the people that have read them. Knowing that what you wrote have been utilized by a lot of people increases self-confidence. Also, the conscious knowledge that you know what you know also the boost self-confidence in a writer.

7. It increases Creativity - Writing is a powerful tool used to communicate with a lot of people and the ability to produce creative write-ups can be achieved through the use of journals and books. As a writer, when you are in the process of writing, there are different imaginative thoughts coming through the mind. Some thoughts are more powerful than the other. With a very good imaginative thought, you can create write-ups that are of immense value to the general public or a particular reader reading what you have written.

8. Increases Self-Discipline - Writers are known to be one of the most disciplined professionals because of the nature of their job. As a writer, you need to sit in one position for a long period of time, you need a very quiet environment so you can think well and produce good materials. When writing on journals and books, you write in one spot and you need a quiet place especially if you are writing articles, novels, and other important materials.

9. It Increases Level of Intelligence - As a writer, you are always in search of the newest most important information so you can be up-to-date with whatever information you are giving out to your readers. The more research that a writer does, the more intelligent that writer will become because you know what other writers may not know. Before you write anything in a journal or a book for other people to read, you need to first be sure and reassured that the information you are giving out through your writing is the best up-to-date information.

10. Creates Solutions to Problems - Most writers, particularly the academic writers who write journals for college students create solutions to problems. Most students consult with journals written by writers to find solutions to assignments and projects given to them by their lecturers. Through the use of journals and books, students can have access to different information that provides answers to their questions



Read more..

Journaling for Great Professional Results

When you were young, you might have had a journal in which you kept all of your brilliant ideas and inspired thoughts. You might have kept a journal on a personal level and you might have had to keep a journal in school as well. If you look back at those journals, you will probably see a pattern of inspiration and creativity that you may not have understood at the time. Now, you just need to apply that concept and that tool to your business.

Choose your tool
Before you can do anything else, you need to choose the journal that will be your constant companion from cover to cover. It will stick with you through all of your trials, tribulations, frustrations, and triumphs. You will be emotionally connected to your journal and when you see it, you will be inspired to write.

The thickness of the journal is not very important. It just means that you will have to start on the next one sooner than you would if you had chosen a thicker one. The most important thing is that you start writing and that you never go anywhere without your journal, just in case you feel inspired at any given moment. After all, you certainly don't want to miss the opportunity to put that inspiration to good use by not writing it down and forgetting what pearls have come out of that amazing mind of yours.

What does a journal represent to you?
A repository: A journal can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. By now, you have probably gotten very used to storing information on your computer or on another electronic device. Well, a journal is another tool in which you can store information. One advantage is that unless you lose the entire journal (or misplace it), you will not be capable of losing any of the items that you have written in the journal. You would have to deliberately erase them to make that happen. Along the same lines, your journal is not only a repository but it is also a sounding board (of sorts). Of course, it can't speak to you but it can give you a forum so that you can write down your inspired ideas and then contemplate whether those ideas have the potential to go any further. That alone makes your journal extremely valuable. The truth is that once you have started to write in your journal, you will grow to depend on it. You won't understand how you ever got through a day without writing.

A teacher of lessons: In your life (and this applies to your business as well), if you make mistakes (as everyone does), you generally deal with whatever consequences there are (if there are any) and you move on. If you are like most human beings, you will not give your mistake too much thought after that. However, if you write about your mistake in your journal, you can go back to it and learn from what you have done. It will force you to think about a few things, including what you could have done differently and how much you have grown as a person and as a business owner because of that mistake. You will carry the lessons with you for the rest of your life. Ironically, the bigger the mistake, the more you will learn from it. It will make you a better person and it will make you better at your job.

A place of quiet reflection: As a human being, you have good days and bad days. Well, most likely, the good days are easy to handle. However, the bad days may be a different matter. If you have had a particularly bad day, your journal can represent a place of solace. It is a place that you can go and share your innermost thoughts and feelings without anyone judging you in return. In your journal, you can write whatever you wish, no matter how dark or outrageous those thoughts and feelings may be. They are your private thoughts and you choose not to share them with anyone. Human beings need to let it out. It feels really good and it is so healthy to express yourself. You will definitely be healthier and more productive because of it.

A way to stay organized: If you aren't doing that already, you may want to consider creating a series of checklists in your journal. Every time you complete an item on your checklist, you check it off. That alone will give a sense of accomplishment. If you feel that you don't need to write down your items in a list, you have a good chance of forgetting at least some of the items. Why risk that when you can easily write them down and check them off. Your journal is a great place to do that because you can go back to your list whenever you wish. It may help you to hone your approach to future tasks.

A place to put your future goals: Everyone has goals. You have goals too. You should have a place to write down your goals so that you can work on achieving them. If you write them in your journal, you will always know exactly where to find them and you can refer to them as often as you like. In fact, your thoughts and feelings will drive your goals.

The methodical approach to success: Sometimes, the most simplistic approach produces the most desired results. If you set up a process with a series of steps and you diligently follow those steps, you will get to where you want to be. Your journal is a great tool to help you to make that happen. It is important to remember that you are in control of the way that you set up the process as well as how you complete that process.

Conclusion
Keeping a journal is a great way to manage everything successfully for all of the reasons that were discussed here. If you have your journal next to you, it will make you much more independent. You will have all of the information that you need at your fingertips. Journaling will also save you a great deal of time searching for information. If you have it all in one place, you will become far more efficient and productive. You really never know when you are going to be inspired. Inspiration comes in so many different forms. You don't want to miss the gems that come out of your incredible, creative mind for the benefit of your business.



Read more..

The Platform Development of WeCWI Instructional Tool: A Comparative Systematic Review

The use of the internet for teaching and learning has received overwhelming responses from academics over the recent years. This infusion of digital and multimedia technologies into Malaysian ESL classrooms has considerably altered the ELT methodologies. Mastering English in the digital world is not only limited to knowing the syntactic, pragmatic, and lexical items of the language, but also knowing how to read, write, and communicate in electronic environments. In response to the impact of technology in English language teaching (ELT), limitations of the learning management system (LMS) in fostering second language (L2) writing skill, as well as needs of supplementary web-based instruction (WBI) in UiTM Penang Branch as reported in the past studies, a WBI namely Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) is thus proposed in this research. WeCWI is a theoretical and pedagogical framework applied into the design and development of a web-based instructional tool. This study applied a comparative systematic review focussing between the two salient alternatives of web versions, web 2.0 applications, web hosts, and on-screen web properties. A web 2.0 application, blog, hosted by Blogger was proposed to be used as the developing platform after comparing with their alternatives: Wordpress, wikis, and web 1.0. Besides, web widgets and hypertext were also analysed to be made available on the blogs as part of the user interface design. With the injection of Web widgets and hypertext into the blogs, WeCWI attempts to offer a technological enhanced ELT solution to overcome the poor writing skill among L2 learners.

Citation (APA 6th ed.):
Mah, B. Y. & Suzana Ab Rahim. (2017). The platform development of WeCWI instructional tool: A comparative systematic review. UPALS Language Colloquium 2017 Proceedings (pp. 48-57). Penang, Malaysia: Universiti Teknologi MARA Penang Branch.

Click HERE to access the full text.

Read more..

Pronunciation Errors in Mandarin among the Engineering Undergraduates: An Analytical Analysis

Mandarin language has generated a global interest among the non-Chinese students in the 21st century. Mandarin language has also become the favorite third language subject among Malaysian university students. However, many non-native speakers of Mandarin often encountered problems in pronunciation in terms of consonants, vowels, and tones. Mandarin is a tonal language, which the meaning of the word will be changed if the tone is pronounced incorrectly. Since identifying the Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation mistakes is essential and should be prioritised by Mandarin instructors, this study aims to investigate the evidence of pronunciation errors spoken by the students as non-native speakers in the area of consonants, vowels, and tones based on Hanyu Pinyin system. A survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to undergraduates from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Engineering Campus. The findings from the data analysis show that most students made a lot of errors in pronouncing retroflex consonants due to mother tongue interference. In addition, the missing of certain vowels in students' first and second languages as compared to Mandarin as well as the difficulty to pronounce the tones correctly have created further hindrance to the students in the process of mastery Mandarin language.

Citation (APA 6th ed.):
Khor, G. S., Mah, B. Y., & Thomas Chow, V. F. (2017). Pronunciation errors in Mandarin among the engineering undergraduates: An analytical analysis. International Academic Research Journal of Social Science, 3(1), 71-76. Retrieved from http://www.iarjournal.com/wpcontent/uploads/IARJSS2017_1_71-76.pdf

Click HERE to access the full text.

Read more..

English Exit Test (EET) and Competence-Based English Test (CBET) as Verbal Competence Measures for Employability: A Comparative Systematic Review

The issue of unemployment among the graduates is an issue which has come to the attention of the nation so much that it warrants a quick and effective measure taken by the institutions of higher education. The mismatches of expectations from the employers and the graduates’ communicative ability have been a contributing factor to why these graduates face difficulty in being employed. Hence, their verbal competence is one of the many indispensable criteria that are sought after by the employers apart from their hard skills. The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges and opportunities in relation to the English Exit Test (EET) and Competence Based English Test (CBET) Speaking Assessment which are initiated by University Technology MARA and University Kebangsaan Malaysia in gauging the graduates’ English language readiness for their workplace. Based on the systematic review analysis conducted, it can be concluded that both competence tests do have their fair share of hiccups and hurdles prior to getting the tests administered and rated without a glitch.

Citation (APA 6th ed.):
Suzana Ab Rahim, Mah, B. Y., & Zarina Suriya Ramlan. (2017). English Exit Test (EET) and Competence-Based English Test (CBET) as verbal competence measures for employability: A comparative systematic review. International Academic Research Journal of Social Science, 3(1), 135-141. Retrieved from http://www.iarjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/IARJSS2017_1_135-141.pdf

Click HERE to access the full text.

Read more..

UiTM Students' Writing Needs, Writing Problems, and Language Courses: A Qualitative Systematic Review of Literature Prior to WeCWI's Course Integration

To tackle the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) students’ writing problems besides fulfilling the writing needs of UiTM learners and instructors, web-based instruction (WBI) was proposed as a supplementary instructional tool. A hybrid e-framework namely Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) was proposed to be adopted for developing WBI for writing performance and critical thinking enhancements. Before embracing WBI as a supplementary instructional tool of an English course, a qualitative systematic review of literature was conducted on the related studies of UiTM students’ writing needs and challenges as well as UiTM English courses. BEL422 Report Writing was identified as the most appropriate course among all the UiTM English courses offered up to 2013 owing to its syllabus, course structure, and assessment components focussing on report writing. Besides, this course was also crucial for the students to acquire their writing competence to communicate effectively in their future workplaces. Thus, BEL422 Report Writing was selected to be integrated with WeCWI for developing and designing a WBI to facilitate the teaching process as well as to enhance the learning outcomes.

Citation (APA 6th ed.):
Mah, B. Y., Rushita Ismail, Liaw, S. C., Rasaya Marimuthu, Rosmaliza Mohamed, & Lim, T. H. (2017). UiTM students' writing needs, writing problems, and language courses: A qualitative systematic review of literature prior to WeCWI's course integration. International Academic Research Journal of Social Science, 3(1), 98-103. Retrieved from http://www.iarjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/IARJSS2017_1_98-103.pdf

Click HERE to access the full text.

Read more..

WeCWI: Integrating Language Acquisition and Composition Studies towards Literacy Development

WeCWI is an e-framework grounded on the theoretical-and-pedagogical principles of language acquisition, composition studies, cognitive theories, and e-learning to promote literacy, language, cognitive, and psychological developments. This study aimed to tackle the writing complexity and deficiency of literacy skills among the second language (L2) learners by reviewing the literature on the integration of language acquisition and composition studies to become a hybrid framework. Three fundamental language acquisition theories such as acquisition-learning hypothesis, input hypothesis, and reading hypothesis were adopted in WeCWI. To develop a tool of web-based instruction (WBI) using WeCWI, instructors are encouraged to publish greater functions and more up-to-date reading materials by utilising the web widgets and hypertext, which offer the direct access to specific online reading materials to the learners. This will also promote reading on voluntary basis in informal setting or free reading, which is the major source of literacy competence in various aspects including vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and writing (Krashen, 1992). Besides, formal reading can also be made available on WBI through posting the targeted reading materials related to the course’s learning outcomes.

Furthermore, WeCWI adopted Yan (2005)’s six typical writing steps based on Badger and White (2000)’s process genre approach. This approach helps instructors to create the writing tasks driven by specific purposes and forms that enable the learners to be engaged in the recursive writing process through six writing steps: preparation, modelling and reinforcing, planning, joint constructing, independent constructing, and revising. Since guided writing is the most imperative factor on how to develop and formulate abstract ideas (Lan, Hung, & Hsu, 2011), interactive media in the form of web widget or hypertext can be embedded to assist these writing steps. In conclusion, the integration of language acquisition theories and process genre approach into WeCWI empowers WBI towards literacy development.

Citation (APA 6th ed.):
Mah, B. Y. (2016). From SIL to WeCWI: Overcoming L2 learners' barriers to writing through web-based instruction [Abstract]. The 6th International Conference on Language, Education & Innovation Programme (p. xi). Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Interdisciplinary Circle of Science, Arts and Innovation.

Click HERE to access the abstract.

Read more..