Dear students,
First and foremost let me express my personal gratitude to English 105 class, as it did not but broaden my personal knowledge of English long time ago, and, being a teacher, I manage to learn new each and every day even now. It is common knowledge that one, irrespective of his/ her profession, social status, or nationality, is obliged to have really good command of English, as English has become a real platform and daily necessity in whatever we do. However, we live in those days when it is not enough to speak and understand English, it is essential to be a real professional, to have good writing, reading and researching skills. Only if you keep this very objective in mind, only if you work hard and you strive to success, you will obviously reach your goal. Nevertheless, today I would like to share with you my personal advice on how to reach this very success – I will open to you some hints which enabled me to reach me goals and become a professional.
First of all, bear in mind that profound research on a topic is the key to success. When completing some writing task on any topic you should gather information from a variety of primary and secondary sources, i.e. go to a library and look through a number of books and articles on this particular topic. It is very critical to understand what has been already told on the topic, summarize, interpret, synthesize information and drive to some conclusion. However, you should drive to your own conclusion, not to copy someone’s ideas; as such approach is considered as plagiarism. Remember, that intellectual work should be and is protected, and it is very important to value this work, as well as be consistent with American rules of academic honesty and plagiarism. In case you use some source, please do not forget to refer to it by using correct citation style.
Another basic rule which will help you develop your English writing skills, and which actually helped me to develop mine – is reading. Reading literature is an essential part of your class, and when I am saying ‘reading’, I mean reading a lot. To be able better understand written English you have to go through thousands of pages of various books, genres and styles. When reading, you have to be very attentive to each and every word, sentence and phrase. When reading try to argue the topic, as it is really easy to agree with someone’s point of view. When you argue and disagree you manage to understand the text better and to improve your comprehensive skills. Also, another advice is to describe what you’ve read to your friends and relatives, try to interpret what you have read as accurately as you can. With this simple exercise you will be able to track whether you understood the text, whether you read it attentively and whether you picked up some useful information.
And the last, but not the least is revision. Please remember, that it is really critical to revise everything you interpret on paper for several of reasons: sloppy mistakes, misprints, grammatical or syntax errors, and finally revision of your personal point of view. Hard and fast rule – never revise your paper right away. Let you work ‘lie low’, engage in some other activity, let you mind relax and forget about what you have just written. The best way is to have some physical activity and switch off your brain for at least one or two hours. When you get back to your work, believe me, you will have a completely different look at it.
I do hope that my advice will help you with English 105 class, as this approach helped me many years ago. And remember, you can never do anything at half-strength, you have no chance to stop, you have to work hard – otherwise you will fall.
