Taking credit for another’s effort

By MALLIKA VASUGI

There are teachers who pass off the hard work put in by their colleagues in completing a task as their own, without feelings of guilt or remorse.

PUT two or three teachers together and chances are that after some time the topic of conversation will inevitably veer towards school-related matters.

It doesn’t matter whether you are all attending a wedding dinner, house-warming party or a wake. It doesn’t even matter whether you all know each other. You already know that the lady in the green baju kurung three places in front of you in the buffet queue, and the one with the clingy child are both teachers.

So while waiting for your turn to get some nasi tomato, you exchange a few comments about the bride’s make-up, express your disapproval at the short red dress someone is wearing, and then of course you begin the real discussion. How bossy the new ketua bidang (department head) in your school is, or how you are about to get a new principal. It happens all the time.

Why! You could be in hospital waiting to get your appendix out and generally feeling sorry for yourself, when the nurse informs you that the patient they had just wheeled in – yes, the one with the bandaged right leg – is a cikgu just like you.

Suddenly you don’t feel so alone anymore. Between the doctor’s rounds and the nurses taking your temperature, you manage to share a few school stories about the principal’s pet or the recent hysteria episode in your school.

Therefore it was hardly surprising that during a week-long course I attended lately, despite loud proclamations of going out to unwind and ‘get away from all school-related stuff’, the conversation during tea made a round turn back to teaching.

Mrs Tan, who taught English in all-girls secondary school, was telling us about the unhappy situation she was facing in her English panel.

According to Mrs Tan, the newly-appointed head of the subject panel in her school had an inborn talent for passing off other teachers’ work as her own.

“You know,” said Mrs Tan, “we other teachers in the English panel work so hard to prepare teaching modules or revision papers or action plans. And at the end of it, we see all our months of hard work, beautifully bound and labelled with her name on top.

No appreciation

“She takes sole credit for everything done by others in the panel ... even if it is through our own initiative. And what is worse is, she does not even have the grace to utter one word of appreciation to us during the panel meetings.”

We could sense the bitterness in Mrs Tan’s voice.

“Perhaps the rest of you should inform the principal or the senior assistants,” suggested Aida, another teacher.

“It’s our word against hers,” said Mrs Tan flatly. “And she has a flair for wheedling up to the bosses that none of us have. I guess one really has to be born with that.”

“Would that be a form of plagiarism?” asked Aida. “After all, it is taking credit for someone else’s written work.”

“More like a lack of integrity,” said Mr Rajan, who had been rather quiet till now.

“As for plagiarism, I think that word needs redefining in our education system. What with all these cases of people getting other people to write their assignments and even theses for them.” He gave a derisive laugh.

“It can be quite lucrative, or so I’ve heard – this ‘service’ they render; the writing of assignments and papers. I hear they charge by the chapter.

“I won’t say the thought hasn’t crossed my mind. Especially when this friend of a friend told me how much they are earning. But…” he paused and there was a cynical look on his face. “something always stops me. Call it conscience, call it integrity, call it whatever you will. Maybe I’m stupid but I know I couldn’t sleep easy at night if I complied”.

We must have looked surprised because Mr Rajan laughed again and said: “Where have you people been living all this while? This thing has been going on for so long that it is almost an open secret.”

“It’s true,” said Mrs Tan. “Sad but true. Gone are the days when people actually used their own thinking skills. Now everything is ‘adopt and adapt’. It’s really OK to research material from other sources now with the Internet and all. As long as acknowledgement of the author is done.

“But I tell you, what is done now is like wholesale copying. Cut and paste all the way, that’s what it has become.

“Look for work done by someone else, change a word or two, present it in another form, put your name to it and, voila, all the hard work and time spent by someone else’s research has now become yours.”

“Saves so much thinking time doesn’t it?” said Mr Rajan. “Imagine all the shopping and holidays one can have with time saved. Makes you wonder why you even bother with all this creative and critical thinking in our students’ learning. Might as well introduce a new subject in the curriculum: ‘How to effectively pass off someone else’s work as your own and not be caught.’ They could give A’s for that kind of thing.”

I suppose it is not an easy task. On one hand, we have to encourage our students to do independent research and use the various resources that are available. And at the same time, we have to warn them about plagiarism and that it is not alright to take someone else’s work and pass it off as their own.

We need to talk to them about intellectual property, about how important it is to begin thinking for themselves and not to ride on someone else’s opinions or thoughts. And we need to teach them about integrity.

Not just the way it is taught, as a lesson from a textbook but as something that should be ingrained in our beings.

And perhaps we should begin feeling relieved instead of frustrated when our students hand in work that is laden with errors, instead of a beautifully written piece copied from somewhere, because at least we know that the work is real.

It is authentic, and it is proof that learning is taking place – even if the process is laboriously and painfully slow.

The maddening crowd

I AM studying in Lower Six this year. My school is a premier school in Johor Baru.

The reason for my writing this letter is that a new system has been adopted in all schools with Form Six classes throughout the country. The system requires all Lower Six classes beginning 2009 have to stay back until 3.30pm compared to 1.10pm in previous years.

Every afternoon, Lower Six students will be divided into groups and each group will be given a specific topic relating to a current issue and discuss among themselves.

Later, each group will be given the chance to present their topic on stage in front of their fellow classmates.

I am not totally against this idea as I understand that this is part of the Education Ministry’s initiative in boosting the level of confidence and enhancing communicative ability among school students while doing presentation.

I also understand that it is very pertinent to start and nurture students from young before they embark themselves into the commercial sector when they graduate.

But please be rational and reasonable. The moment we reach home, most of us will be dead tired.

Not to forget the amount of assignments given by our teachers and we have to complete everything on time. By then we would be too tired to study.

Another woe is that we are only given an hour for our lunch break before we begin our presentation; it is impossible for students to head home to have a home-cooked meal and then rush back to school.

Most of us will not be able to eat at home as we are not living nearby.

Therefore, students are left with no other alternatives but to patronise nearby mamak stalls for their lunch.

Needless to say, food sold at mamak stalls can be unhealthy and unhygienic.

On the other hand, transportation is a major problem for most of us.

Left with no other immediate solutions in sight, we have to rely on public transport like buses.

And mind you, most of us are not living nearby and thus, walking back home will be out of the question and too dangerous for us students considering the disturbingly high number of snatch theft cases across the country.

There was once when I had no choice that I had to walk back home from school and believe it or not, I was robbed midway!

Till now, that incident still haunts me.

Please take note that life in Form Six has never been easy.

It is undeniable that life in the sixth form can be pretty daunting and challenging.

An ample amount of time is needed for us to carry out constant revision.

Therefore, I would sincerely like to implore to the Education Ministry to seriously reconsider its decision.

The ministry fails to see the light that whatever theyre doing is in fact making our lives even more miserable, stressful and very depressing.

Will this result in good achievement in the STPM exams?

Last but not least, I would also like to take this opportunity to call upon all Lower Six students and hopefully, concerned parents out there who are equally against of the idea of Lower Six students staying back till 3.30pm, to express their dissatisfaction.

STRESSED OUT STUDENT

Via e-mail

Know your text

SPM English
By JUGDEEP KAUR GILL

This week, we will look at the last question in Section D of the 1119 English paper. Question 34, which is based on the novels studied, carries 15 marks – 10 for content and 5 for language. It is quite easy to obtain marks for this question if you know your text well.

Knowing the text means knowing the plot, characters, themes, moral values and messages or lessons conveyed.

Knowing the plot means knowing the events, the sequence of events and details of the events. You should know what causes an event to occur. You should also know whether an event triggers other events and the effect an event or events on characters.

Knowing the characters means knowing the people in the story. You should focus on their characteristics – their physical, emotional and mental attributes. We learn about a character from what the author says about him or her, what other people say about him or her, or we may have to infer these characteristics from the character’s behaviour, actions or thoughts. Make sure you know your text well enough and are able to provide relevant and accurate information to support a point you make about a character.

Knowing the themes means knowing the main ideas that are conveyed in the novel. A theme is usually expressed as a statement about life. Some themes are explicit while most are implied, which means that they are not revealed directly.

Likewise, moral values or lessons may be conveyed explicitly or be implied.

An analysis of the aspects tested since 2004

GUIDELINES FOR ANSWERING QUESTION ON THE NOVEL

Read the question carefully. Ask yourself what is required of you. Underline key words or phrases in the question so that you cover every aspect required.

Spend about five minutes planning your answer. A well-planned answer is one which is thought out and organised. Points are clearly advanced and the line of thought or argument is easy to follow. In other words, the answer should be smooth flowing. There is no irrelevant information or deviation from the question. Your answer should have an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Do pay attention to paragraphing. You may leave a line between paragraphs.

Display a sound knowledge of, and engagement with the novel. Provide relevant details to support your answer. Do not make the mistake of merely retelling the story. Remember, the examiners have read the texts. What they want to see is your engagement with the text.

As this is a language paper, focus on using correct language. Use simple sentences if you cannot handle complex structures. What is important is that you convey your ideas clearly. Do pay attention to spelling and punctuation, and write neatly and legibly. When we respond to literary texts, we usually use the present tense but if this is not possible, you may respond in the past tense. The important thing is to be consistent.

Be careful when answering questions on moral values. Many students confuse characteristics with values. If a character is brave, the value is bravery. Likewise, if a character is wise, the value is wisdom. Remember to use adjectives for character traits and nouns for values. Do not mistake negative values for moral messages. Students have been known to say that one of the moral values or messages in The Pearl is greed. The value/ message conveyed is one should not be greedy.

Let’s consider the strengths of the answer. The answer is well structured.

It has an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

The introductory paragraph conveys the idea that there are several lessons to be learnt from the novel but only one lesson is chosen as required by the question and that lesson is that we should not be greedy. The next sentence conveys what greed can do to a person.

Before the effects of greed are discussed, it is important to mention briefly what Kino’s life was like before the discovery of the pearl.

This is to show how Kino and his life changed as a result of desiring something to the extent that he misplaces his priorities. The paragraphs which follow convey the problems and losses that poor Kino has had to suffer.

The conclusion conveys the idea that Kino too realises how wrong he was and that Steinbeck had deliberately given the story a sad ending so that we, the readers, can learn something from this tragic tale.

Remember, this is only a sample answer.

This is not the only way to write an answer.

Common pitfalls

Some candidates do not read the question carefully. In this question, for instance, you are asked for one lesson but some candidates have been known to write about more than one lesson. This clearly shows failure to understand the requirements of the question.

Some candidates tend to retell the story. As mentioned earlier, the examiners have read the text. There is no need for you to narrate the story.

Some candidates also show that they have no clear understanding of the text. They only know about some events, and not in detail at that. This is due to not reading the text. It is important for you to read the text several times so that you know the story well. Also, you may gain new insights every time you read the text. Good luck!

This is the last segment of the SPM English series.

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT A SAMPLE QUESTION.

Write about a lesson you have learned from the novel you have studied. Support your answer with details from the text.

The novel The Pearl by John Steinbeck conveys several lessons to the readers. One lesson which I have learnt is that we should not be greedy. This is because greed is a destructive force.

Initially, Kino is a happy and contented man although he is poor. He is not bothered by the lack of material comfort in his life. His only material possessions are a canoe and his brush house.

However, when he finds the pearl he becomes ambitious. He desires things which he has never considered before. He wants new clothes for himself, Juana and Coyotito. He also wants to marry Juana in a church. He wants a harpoon and a rifle. Most importantly he wants an education for his son, Coyotito.

However, his desire for these things soon becomes an obsession. When he is attacked the first time, Juana advises him to get rid of the pearl because she believes that the attack was triggered by the pearl. He refuses to listen to Juana and is adamant on keeping the pearl. When he is attacked a second time, Juana again tells him to throw the pearl away but he refuses to listen. He is intent on getting a better life for himself and his family.

Unfortunately, after these attacks, he becomes suspicious of everyone. When Juana quietly creeps out of the house to throw the pearl away, he follows her and is able to stop her before she flings the pearl out into the sea. Angry, he lashes out at her and beats her viciously, punching her in the face and kicking her in the stomach. His determination to keep the pearl makes him lose his senses. He beats up the one person who has been very supportive of him.

Things become worse for him when he accidentally kills a man in the third attack.

The people who are after the pearl are also driven by greed. They too become destructive. They destroy his canoe and burn his brush house. Kino, knowing that his life and that of his family’s are at stake, has no choice but to flee. He heads towards the mountains and he is pursued by three trackers who will stop at nothing to get hold of the pearl. The pursuit ends with Kino killing all three trackers.

Unfortunately, his son Coyotito is also killed by a stray bullet.