Assignment 1 Part 1- TV Genre
Students were required to compare any two English language drama series/program series:
a) talks shows OR b) drama series OR c) reality TV
Students should first decide on the genre that they would like to attempt for this assignment and look through materials published on this genre to gain a better understanding of what it is all about. Then, they should start viewing the chosen television series (selected episodes, if necessary) again to work on the comparison and contrast essay.
Aims & Accomplishment
This assignment aims to evaluate students’ academic writing skills. It also evaluates the
student’s ability to research information to support the arguments proposed in the
essay, to cite the sources of information and also to provide a list of references.
The objectives of this project is to ensure that the students are able to understand the concept of a television genre and to do a 5 paragraph 600-1000 word comparison/contrast essay of the chosen movie genre based on any two television series of the chosen genre. Besides, it also aim to assure the ability of students to cite references, if any, according to the APA citation method accurately and effectively.
A few examples of learning outcomes of this assignment are to enable the students demonstrate the ability to ‘read’ a television series. i.e. to understand and interpret the chosen television series genre. Moreover, we as students must be able to demonstrate the ability to compare/contrast, analyse and synthesize information from two television series in an essay and explain them clearly and logical and to communicate the relevant ideas in a clear, logical and appropriate academic English after completing this assignment.
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| ‘Avenue Q |
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| 'Just for Laughs' |
Above were the two reality TV shows ('Avenue Q' & 'Just for Laughs')
that I chose as the topic of my compare & contrast essay.
After completing this assignment, I found that I had a deeper understanding on what a TV genre is actually about. Besides, I am now able to compare and contrast two different objects, event, place, etc. either by using the 'point by point'/ 'one side at a time' technique. According to my mentor's feedback on my essay, I realized that though I had successfully applied the correct essay format with a proper thesis and topic sentence; however, my vocabulary is rather common and my choice of words is quite limited in the sense that I kept on using the same words repeatedly. This signifies that I had to improve a lot more on my vocabulary and learn to use new words & phrases through reading various reading materials.
Assignment 1 Part 2- Paintings
In this assignment, students were required to go to one of the art exhibitions listed below, look at the paintings in the galleries/exhibitions assigned and study them.
a) No Talking Points
b) Bingkai Berangkai by Jalaini Abu Hassan
c) Figure Out
d) Emergence
e) Terbaharu/Recent Acqusitions exhibition, National Art Gallery
Students were then acquired to prepare a long essay comparing and contrasting any two paintings from the art gallery.
Aims & Accomplishment
This assignment aims to evaluate critical thinking skills. It also evaluates the student’s ability to research information and using it to further strengthen the points in the compare and contrast essay. In addition, being a group assignment, both the students student will experience cooperating and collaborating with other peers as a team with a common goal.
Through this project, students will be able to attain the objective by following a structured method of critiquing an art work to discover its substance and meaning. The structure for "reading a painting" involves four distinct steps:
- Describing an artwork in terms of its literal content and artistic elements.
- Analyzing the artwork in terms of how the artist used the principles of design to manipulate the content to provoke meaning.
- Interpreting the work on the basis of what they have already discovered about the work in the first two steps. They will consider not only the literal descriptions but also the emotional content and the use of symbols and allegories to arrive at the message or meaning in the work.
- Judging the work's worth based on the information they have gathered about the work. Judgments must be supported by what was learned through the "reading" process as they apply to established criteria.
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| One of the pictures taken in 'No Talking Point' |
Reflection
After completing this particular assignment, I understand that it is necessary for all students to have the ability to think critically especially students from 3rd level education like us. It would be really helpful in the future if an individual can think critically and thoroughly understand what his/ her superior mentioned and it might as well help him in various difficult decision making situations. Furthermore, from the assignment above, I had learned to analyze and interpret something in detail before giving out a solution so that important aspect/ elements would not be missed out due to carelessness and the nature of an individual for being thoughtless.
Assignment 2 (Final Project)- Comparative Research
Based on the instruction given by our mentor, we were acquired to complete a task to study a traditional trade or business in Klang. We would have to focus our study on at least two examples of the same type of trade/ business for our research and we had chosen watch shops as our main topic for the research proposal. Therefore, a site visit to Klang was organized a in order for us to conduct interviews with the shop’s owners. Besides, we had also gone for a visit to a watch shop in SS2, PJ in order to compare the difference between watch shops in 2 cities (Klang & PJ).
Aim & Accomplishment
The assignment aims to evaluate student's oral presentation skills. Apart from that, it also evaluates the student’s ability to obtain the information needed through conducting interviews and surveys. In addition, being a group assignment, each student will also experience cooperating and collaborating with other peers as a team with a common goal.
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| 1ST WATCH SHOP SYKT ADIK BERADIK WAH SANG |
and understand & apply suitable rhetorical strategies to a hypothetical target audience as specified to each.
This project will achieve learning outcome 1, 2 and 3 of this module i.e. conduct a well researched report with correct format and referencing techniques as well as to correctly identify their roles when speaking and deliver this information fluently and effectively to the target audience. More specifically, each research report will enable the students to identify the key issues in the question and explain them clearly and logically, demonstrate the ability to prepare questionnaires and interviews to obtain information about the topic, demonstrate the ability to analyse and synthesize information and compile them in the report to communicate the relevant ideas and analysis in clear, logical and appropriate academic English and to select and present information clearly and appropriately to one’s target audience.
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| 2ND WATCH SHOP KEDAI JAM YOKE CHAN |
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| 3RD WATCH SHOP KEDAI JAM HWA SING |
Reflection
After completing this assignment, I found out that I had possessed the skill to gather and obtain information through conducting interviews. I realized that this skill is relatively significant as it is also needed in the future when a person is being interviewed by a company/ corporation. Since a person is familiar with the types of questions usually asked in an interview session, he/ she would thus be able to answer the questions/ inquiry favourably. Furthermore, I do found that high quality communication skill is also a necessity for an individual to conduct an interview because the process might be conducted in a smoother way if both the parties can communicate and express their ideas well. I appreciate that my group member and I were given such a chance to carry out our own interview session with the owners of the watch shops in Klang Valley.
Overall Reflection
During the completion of the 3 assignments mentioned above, I had learned a lot of things from it. For instance, I realized the importance of the ability to convey one's idea & thinking clearly to others using proper language so that people would be able to understand his/ her thoughts easily. For example during the interview session, we must be capable of transmitting our interview questions well so that the owner would be able to answer our inquiries. If we cannot speak well, the interview session would take a long time due to the difficulty in communicating. Moreover, I learned that teamwork is rather significant not only in University’s life, but also when a person has started in his career. An individual would always need to follow what a leader says and try his/ her best to cooperate with other individuals in order to make an event/ idea/ project successful. No one in this world is able to stand alone without others help…We are not perfect…Hence, the spirit of cooperation should exist especially in a team of members with different backgrounds and opinions. Apart from that, the ability to think critically and view things in a positive way might be helpful as well in our future as these are the qualities that many of the big companies in the city are craving for; if a person possesses these qualities, life would be much easier for he/ she to attain success in life...
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