"Write Right"

When I was in primary 3, my English teacher (Mr. W) taught me how to write. Start with an ideal, a story or an experience. Use What-When-Where-Who-Why-How (WWWWWH) as a guide to write. These five Ws and one H is ALL that I can remember about writing. Happily I wrote through my PSLE and O levels examinations using this method.

During my junior college (JC) days, my General Paper teacher (Miss M) brought me to another level of writing. In addition to WWWWWH, I needed to take a personal stand in a given topic, voice my views and support them with examples. The topics include: Is leisure in your country given enough emphasis? Discuss the importance of confidence as the key to success. "Competition has resulted in a less compassionate and less caring society." How far do you agree with this view?

"Aaaahhhhh... " I can hear my JC classmates screaming as they are reading this... Hahaa... It was not easy. At this point, even applying the WWWWWH rule was not simple. The challenge was to support each of our points with FACTS. So Miss M led us through a series of debates, solo presentations in class and quizzes. Through debates, we voiced out our thoughts and sorted out the facts. Solo presentations built up our confidence and helped to organise our thoughts. While quizzes built our foundation of current affairs. Those were the days when I read newspapers and watched news religiously.

After JC, things turned "technical". I hardly wrote anything as my subjects mostly involved calculations. Three years passed and the time came for me to write a technical report for my industrial attachment. *Faint* Seriously, I felt lost and have no idea how to write. Technical report... sounds alien to me. *Panic*

I needed a teacher. Mr. W and Miss M were nowhere in sight. So I logged on to the wonderful world of Internet and found "Garbl's Writing Center". This web site is a godsend! One year later, I needed to write my technical report for my final year project (FYP) and I used Garbl as a guide. My FYP was a complete failure technically. I carried out numerous experiments but was unable to make any discovery or draw any concrete conclusions. However the "writing" saved me. My FYP supervisor was extremely impressed with the way my technical report was written and said to me "I have not read a technical report that is so clear and easy to understand!"

If you asked me which web page do I visit the most, I can give the answer immediately: "Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary". I am not good at spelling and this page is my trusty online dictionary!