Serious work-in-progress

I am working on another article out of my Masters thesis. This is going to be a tough one. I have a word limit of 6000 words and I have put together a shitty first draft of 12000 words. This means I need to cut down my content by half! :O

I feel a sense of achievement as I chip away at the massive stone. With every draft, I try to make it clearer, more compact, more analyzed and more to the point. So welcome to my world of heavy re-writing and editing! This is why I feel that anybody who is hardworking can publish! :D You don't have to be a genius to succeed, if you're hardworking. 

The Importance of First Understanding Before Critiquing

"Every author has had the experience of suffering book reviews by critics who did not feel obliged to do the work of the first two stages (meaning analysis of the book). The critic too often thinks he does not have to be a reader as well as a judge. Every lecturer has also had the experience of having critical questions asked that were not based on any understanding of what he had said. You yourself may remember an occasion where someone said to a speaker, in one breath or at most two, "I don't know what you mean, but I think you're wrong."

There is actually no point in answering critics of this sort. The only polite thing to do is to ask them to state your position for you, the position they claim to be challenging. If they cannot do it satisfactorily, if they cannot repeat what you have said in their own words, you know that they do not understand, and you are entirely justified in ignoring their criticisms. They are irrelevant, as all criticisms must be that is not based on understanding. When you find the rare person who shows that he understands what you are saying as well as you do, then you can delight in his agreement or be seriously disturbed by his dissent." (p. 144)

Adler, M. & Van Doren, C. (2014) How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. New York: Simon & Schuster

I love this book. I am so humbled by it. I learned that I have been leaving life wrong in some sense. I learned that I can be so quick to comment and tell others what I think, that I have neglected listening carefully to what they say. I have not truly understand. This fault of mine is even more apparent in the academic setting. So I am going to learn how to read and how to understand and how to critique.

I thought of sharing with you a list of my favourite books that have helped me very much in my development as a thinker-writer (and now, I shall add -reader). I love to read such books.

The next time I attend a talk/presentation. I must first make it a point to understand from the speaker/presenter's point of view first, before I make any comments.

Where I am now...

I felt very flattered to be asked to do a book review. My boss told me they usually get grad students to do it because we are familiar with the surrounding literature and perhaps we are poor, so we need that free book. While it's true, I could be better spending my time writing more, I was very excited about this opportunity. Because I've learnt from my writing partner the importance of reading.

We cannot critique fairly, unless we first understand what the writer is meaning to say. And in my hurry to write, I may not read very carefully. Sometimes, I even read for what I want and after grabbing that information, I may not return to that article/book. So what I hope to do is to read carefully, and first understand, before making a judgment.

This was why I was so excited about the Book Review. Though technically, the rewards it might give me is merely intrinsic and not extrinsic. :) I don't mind, if I pick up the skill of understanding and critique.

I also want to write another paper from my Masters thesis, taking another angle. I hope third time writing, it might be a smoother and more logical and coherent process. 

This will be a busy period. Cause we are also organizing a conference from 2-4 June. Let's see how things go. 

Revising the Thesis

Yay! I got back my reviewers' comments on my thesis. Boy, they are good and spotted many areas of improvement. Now, I need to strike a balance between justifying why I don't want to make those changes and making them, because of the time pressure there is to quickly submit this revised thesis and get my degree.

So... I'll give myself a deadline. By this Sunday, I will put a stop to the editing I am doing. I am told not to spend so much time on this... But in my heart, each piece of work is so important to me, that I really want to make it the best that it can be... But... I have more important things to do, than improving this work.

So I must learn to balance this.

Okay, Shuyi, deadline's on Sunday!

Idea

Patriotism is surely a social concept. If not, why is it always associated with other concepts like racism, ethnocentrism and xenophobia?

I must write an article about civic patriotism one day, especially the social aspect of patriotism.

Conceptual Framework

I like this definition of a conceptual framework by Miles and Huberman (1994):

A conceptual framework explains, either graphically or in narrative form, the main things to be studied - the key factors, constructs or variables - and the presumed relationships among them. Frameworks can be rudimentary or elaborate theory-drive or commonsensical, descriptive or casual. (p. 18)

Reference
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis (2 ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

I feel so embarrassed

I feel embarrassed for my nation.

I feel embarrassed that we so neatly categorized the future of our nation, our students into three neat groups or streams.

And we give each group different opportunities.

I feel so embarrassed.

That regardless how that student in the lower stream dreams of being a politician, that chance will almost never be given to him or her, unless he or she goes to an opposition party. And even so, risk being mocked for not being one of those "rags to riches" cases or not having stellar qualifications.

I don't know how to explain to my friends from around the world, why it's like this in my country.

Yes, Goh Keng Swee felt this was the way to ensure no wastage of talents, to make sure each group of people maximize out what they can do best.

I feel so embarrassed.

I feel so embarrassed that qualification, or being book-smart, is so important in my nation, when there's so many other ways to measure a Man.

Embarrassed that there's almost no way of elevating yourself, in terms of being a politician, if you are poor in English, poor in Math or poor in Mother Tongue. You will be classified as one of those who don't have the ability, and didn't work hard enough.

How do I explain this to people?

This is just the way it is?

I'm sorry, I cannot change it.

I was born into this. And I only can perpetuate it.