Correct mistakes and make progresses.

I see what you mean.Yet, a reader might not understand your intention of blending a musical theme into your writing. A well-writen writing should be reader-based , which means that the readers should be able to understand the wording in a specific context.
=> Actually, my writing in SEC is a little bit different from my essays in my class or in my examinations. They are not stardard writing 'cause I do not want to make them like that. SEC is a place for us to study and to relax , so I wanna bring something more popular , more convenient. You see words like this in my articles " wanna " , " 'cause " ,etc.
Anyway, I tried to find out some music notes or to explain something below the sentence " when I was just a little ....." , but I forgot it when I finished my article. I know that you're confused. It's my mistake.
I know for sure that we shouldn't translate Vietnamese words into English , it's so awkward. But I still want to try in some cases, just in some cases.
I do agree with you that the word " article" is not the best choice . Could you introduce some good translations?

Dimi

Actually, my writing in SEC is a little bit different from my essays in my class or in my examinations. They are not stardard writing 'cause I do not want to make them like that. SEC is a place for us to study and to relax , so I wanna bring something more popular , more convenient. You see words like this in my articles " wanna " , " 'cause " ,etc.
--->Speaking and writing are very much different because choice of written words and oral expression indicates how effectively we covey our ideas and opinions to others under various circumstances. Your writing can be funny, serious, informal or formal based on how you want it to be; however, the tone and style of it should be differentiated from daily conversation, especially when you've spent some decent time on long essay like this one .Without being attentive to the distinction between speaking and writing and when overusing colloquial language in your writing, you will get used to writing as if you were speaking. This keen attention will help you in your future profession and daily life.
---->Alternatives for "articles" can be essay, writing, journal, composition...
(posted by easyandtough)

Dimi

To easyandtough:
you did a great job in correction. SEC definitely need people like you. However, we do have a room for mistakes and correction in SEC ( I do not know where it goes now , SEC moderators will bring it back soon) so, it would be really nice if you join us in that room. We should focus in this topic:Tet's holiday. By the way, dirosemimi's writing was not an essay or an article. It's just an informal writing.
what do you do in Tet?
(posted by GoBlue)

Dimi

Hi goblue,
Thanks for your nice comment. I can only help whenever I can as I'm as busy as anyone.
Regarding your disagreement on the word "essay" as a replacement of "article", I would have to reiterate that the writing is indeed a short essay. An essay is defined as an analytic or interpretative literary composition dealing with its subject (What to do during Tet ?) from a limited or personal point of view. Therefore no matter how informal this writing is, it's still considered an essay. Journal can be used as another alternative word as the writing reflects the past experience of the author, which fits the definition of "journal"
Sorry for interfering with the sole purpose of this thread which is about the New Year. Other members can just skip our debate and put down their New Year experiences. Dirosemi really did a good job by taking time to write a lively account . Mine can come some other time as I have to bang my head trying to remember all the good old memories and pick out the nicest to put in my writing.
(posted by easyandtough)

Dimi

Được dirosemimi sửa chữa / chuyển vào 13:44 ngày 13/01/2003

Without being attentive to the distinction between speaking and writing and when overusing colloquial language in your writing, you will get used to writing as if you were speaking. This keen attention will help you in your future profession and daily life.
=> Firstly, I'm very grateful for your warning . I will remember to realize which essays are in SEC and which essays are in examinations and profession.
--------
An essay is defined as an analytic or interpretative literary composition dealing with its subject (What to do during Tet ?) from a limited or personal point of view. Therefore no matter how informal this writing is, it's still considered an essay.
=> In my limited knowledge , what you said is not correct .
An essay is a piece of writing several paragraphs long instead of just one or two paragraphs. It is written about one topic , just as a paragraph is . However, the topic of an essay is too long and two complex to discuss in one paragraph .Therefore, you must divide the topic into several paragraphs , one for each major point . Then you must tie all of the paragraphs together by adding an introduction and a conclusion.
Writing an essay is no more difficult than writing a paragraph except that an essay is longer . The principles of organization are the same for both , so if you can write a good paragraph, you can write a good essay .
An essay has three main parts:
1. An introductory paragraph.
2. A body (at least one, but usually two or more paragraphs).
3. A concluding paragraph.
-------
Journal : - a newspaper or magazine that deals with a particular subject or professional activity .
- a daily record of news. events, activities, ect.
Composition = essay.
*****mmarize, the best choice is writing or piece of writing, and in some cases , we call them essays or compositions.


Dimi

An essay is defined as an analytic or interpretative literary composition dealing with its subject (What to do during Tet ?) from a limited or personal point of view. Therefore no matter how informal this writing is, it's still considered an essay.
=> In my limited knowledge , what you said is not correct .
An essay is a piece of several long paragraphs instead of just one or two paragraphs. It is written about one topic , just as a paragraph is . However, the topic of an essay is too long and two complex to discuss in one paragraph .Therefore, you must divide the topic into several paragraphs , one for each major point . Then you must tie all of the paragraphs together by adding an introduction and a conclusion.
Writing an essay is no more difficult than writing a paragraph except that an essay is longer . The principles of organization are the same for both , so if you can write a good paragraph, you can write a good essay .
An essay has three main parts:
1. An introductory paragraph.
2. A body (at least one, but usually two or more paragraphs).
3. A concluding paragraph.
-------
---> Hi,
A topic for an essay is not necessarily too long as you pointed out. (How long is considered too long according to you?) As a matter of fact, you'll come across with short essay topics from English accessment institutions like Toelf or Gmat from time to time. As far as I can tell, the reason that an essay is needed to be longer than a single paragraph is that it'll allow the writer to put down more of his/her logical thoughts about a certain subject at a deeper level. Each writer will write their essays based on their own ways of analyzing and interpreting the relative information from their own experiences or other sources. I can not find any reason why my definition is not correct, can you?
Regarding to the structure of an essay, every essay is certainly composed of three main parts as you aforementioned; still, the length of a essay will vary depending on the writing ability of the writer. Your writing on the topic of "What to do during Tet holiday?" is an imcomplete form of essay as it has several unnecessary breakdown parts. Thus, many of member's writing here are not refered to as essays as they are not in compliance with the rule of writing an essay
Sorry, but i can't figure out why you said that my definition of essay was not correct.
Even though "writing" can be used in most cases; yet, other alternatives such as journal, essay, article, report, account... can be specified in specic contexts to make the writing sound more specific and interesting.


Dimi

[/quote]

to easyandtough and whom concerns:

Definition of terms in literature are usually sensitive. People debate about these things all time. Therefore, no surprise if we do not have same ideas about "essay". By your definition, " An essay is defined as an analytic or interpretative literary composition dealing with its subject " a keyword "composition" has been pointed out in your writing and thus implied the regard of the structure of an essay.
Dirosemimi's writing, so, is not considered an essay because of its incompleted structure. it lacked both intro and conclusion. By convention, an essay has parts as you two mentioned earlier.
Since you referred TOEFL and GMAT in your writing, I want to point out a few things. First, both TOEFL and GMAT are exams, not institution as you said. Since they are exams, their English essesments are general and broad. TOEFL, for example, calls something "essay" like
" An essay will be rated 0 if it
-- contains no response,
-- merely copies the topic,
-- is off-topic, is written in a foreign language, or consists only of
keystroke characters "
or
" An essay at this level (score 1)
-- may be incoherent
-- may be undeveloped
-- may contain severe and persistent writing errors

Clearly, anything that a test taker write will be assessed like an essay in TOEFL. However, only essays rate above 4.5 ( 6 scale) are considered real essays (have higher score, of course). If you applied these broad definition of "essay" in writing, anything you write (not just a piece of writing like "Tet holiday" ) would be essays. Last, essays in TOEFL and GMAT are not vey short and they are very well-organized in terms of structure. Thirty-minute is plenty of time for a 300 words essay, which is not a very short one.
Best fit for Doresimimi's writing should be "Journal", not "essay". I agree with your explanation about "journal" and this fits dirosemimi's writing pretty well.
nice to talk to you

Note: cited work can be found at www.toefl.org

Được goblue sửa chữa / chuyển vào 16:05 ngày 16/01/2003

Hi Blue,
Thanks for correcting me on the definition of Toefl and Gmat. However, I beg to differ with your saying that Toefl and Gmat are broad and general. If you ever take Gmat test, you will regconize a great difference between Gmat and Toefl. Those who wish to pursue a further education in the U.S will normally have to pass a Gmat test with a minimum score determined by the chosen university. Not only the quality of essay writing in Gmat is required to be higher, the topics are more oriented,detailed and complicated that those of Toefl. Such tests like Gmat are not for a mass of general students but to screen out whose comand of English and knowledge of math, sociology... are not sufficient enough to study efficiently in her/his desired university.

Have a great weekend,

to esayandtough:
I took TOEFL and tried GRE (Graduate Record Exam), but not GMAT. Since the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is intentionally for those who want to pursue higher education in management (business), it would be more specific and detail as you said. However, because of its specificality, GMAT is only accepted in business schools, not all graduate schools. GRE, on the other hand, is the most general test for graduate schools.
Are you in business school now? I heard that they will close GRE in Vietnam this year.
have a nice weekend, too

Hi all and sorry for my interruption. I'm taking the IELTS soon, so I need more practice in writing. I would appreciate any corrections and suggestions.
In many countries children are engaged in some kind of paid work. Some people regard this as completely wrong, while others consider it as valuable work experience, important for learning and taking responsibility.
What are your opinions?
The issue whether or not children can do paid work is a controversial one. Although working help children to have more experiences, in my opinion, they are too young to do any kind of paid work.
We must admit that it is unavoidable to have working children and children who work have more experience than non-working children. Children, through working, can gain work experience and social skills that are not taught at schools. Moreover, children will know the value of money they earn and they use it more wisely and carefully than the others. Paid work is, perhaps, the only way for orphans and homeless children to earn their own livings. So, there are advantages to have children doing some work.
On the other hand, there are many reasons showing that children should not work. The most convincible reason is that most of children who work are exploited by adults. Another adds that working too much will absolutely take children away their childhood. Children should study and play only, and they should not be concerned about earning their livings. Moreover, children who spend too much time working do not have enough time to study and play, resulting in their unbalanced development. Paid work may even make children obsessed with money. In other words, if they do not receive any money, they will not work.
Children are the future of the world and they should have their wonderful childhood studying and playing. Moreover, the adverse effects of children working far outweigh the benefits. Therefore, children working should be discouraged and, if possible, banned.
Được minhduc sửa chữa / chuyển vào 18:50 ngày 21/01/2003