Planning a research

It is not easy to do a research. We must plan it carefully, so the result is the best answer for the question.

Step in planning a research :
1. Analyse the question
Don't do it aimlessley, we need to analyse deeply, what is our purpose, what is the question. After we understand what is the question and what we want to write, then we will have the main idea or headings of the questions. Write down your headings, as a first step before we start research. I can keep your research on track, follow the headings.

2. Using books and libraries
Good researcher, they will take an aggresive action to mining the information they want. When writing a research essay, we rarely have enough time to read all the book. So, just look at the table of content, and book's index, find out the key words that fit with our topic, then read only that passages in text where the words occur. Collect all the sources and arrange them good in a filling cabinet. It make you easier when you need to read them for future information.

* Computer and database systems
There has been a lot of computer database available through internet. We can find the newest book, or journal, which is up to date, current issues.

* Primary and secondary resource
Secondary resource is written by people who have only a second-hand knowledge of the subject. They compile all the work done by who have direct experience, it also called literature review.

3. Reading and absorbing
After collect all the sources, we start our reading and absorbing. Don't read too quick, because we are not skimming, or looking for key words, we need to understand and absorb what is the idea of the author.

4. Start writing
Start to write the thesis, and we will discuss it later.

Hope that this information can help you to plan your research.

English as Second Language

Studying in Wollongong using English as main language in daily conversation really good for my English. I am using English when speaking, writing, reading and listening. But I think that it is not easy, especially in writing and speaking. Reading is easier than listening, because what I need to do is read, then translate it in my first language, Indonesia, then I know and understand what the text is. But in listening, I need to pay more attention to listen to the speaker. Sometimes the accent and different pronunciation, or they speak too fast, make me do not understand what are they said. While in writing and speaking, it is more difficult. Let’s discuss about speaking first. In speaking, I found that my pronunciation is not so good. And I am also using the wrong tenses. Example, have you ate? I am always using that sentences, but I think that there is something wrong with the grammar. That should be ‘have you eaten?’ but I feel strange to asking someone have u eaten? But may be I can change it to ‘have you had your lunch’. This is better than have you ate. Now, let’s talk about writing. I found that not easy to write something. Even that I have an idea, what I want to write, but after I wrote that, it feels like something wrong. May be because of my ideas are in Indonesia language, and I try to translate it. So the grammar, or the meaning of what I want to share is not clear. I am feel that this is not exactly what I want to write. So, I tried to borrow some Grammar book from library. I hope that with read more about grammar can give me more idea what the correct one is. And I also hope that my teacher can correct me, if there is another good way or sentence to express my idea.

Differences in one group

I have studying ETS-10 in Wollongong College about one week. One of our study activities is group discussion; usually we are divided into a group of 4. Because all of us are International Students, so definitely in one group we have more than one nationality. For the example, my group in CL class consists of China, Iran and Indonesia nationality. We cannot use our first language to talk with others, and we need to make other members understand what we want to say. Actually it is interesting, not only good for us to practice our English but also develop our self-confidence. But at the first time, I got shocked and nervous. I prefer to keep silent and listening than speaking to them. Because we come from different country, our accent is different. I need to spend more time and attention listening what are they talking about, and understanding what is the meaning. I am also afraid, may be they won’t understand what I am talking about, or am I pronounced it right. So we try to speak slowly and clearly word by word, than it makes us easier to understand each other. Usually, we are not only discussing about the topic that teacher gave to us, but also our culture, target and major in University, experience in Australia, and our living environment. In the discussion, I know more about other county cultures, and learn the way they think and solve a case. May be some of our cultures are same, but some are different. I realize that our background and nationality influence to our lifestyle, habit and thinking way, we are look at a same problem with different point of view. It is really a good experience, I do not only learning English but also have a new knowledge about other countries.