The difference in the education system

So what is the idea of writing a group report/project in a Pakistani education system? Well to start with, you take the topic home that your teacher has assigned to you and leave it until the very last or the second last day. Log-on the internet and surf the web. Then just copy and paste various paragraphs and merge them into one piece that is '' your collective effort'' well of 'compiling' them together. And Ah what about referencing?? Now what is that? isnt that my own work! or ok i can include a reference or two, or can make it on my own, can't i?!

During my undergraduate years the idea of referencing did not even come into my frame of mind. The idea of refernence was: well you copy and paste from numerous resource from the web and books and then at the end of the project/or assignment simply mention one or two major sources of the work. It seemed pretty simple. Not a big deal. Mostly the essays, reports or projects were generated from my/or from a collective effort of me and my group mates frames of minds. We just copied and pasted almost everything and by the end of the group project or report we had pretty much ''created'' our piece of work.

When i came to U.K for my education, we were handed over a list of topics that would be covered for the semester. And underneath each topic there were list of around 15 journal articles and 5 to 6 books that were required for further studies. I was then not entirely fimiliar to the culture of reading that much. It then did not seemed like the teacher/instructor was really serious about us actually reading that many things. But when i was given a book of the 'Harvard referencing system' along with my essay topic that i had to do, it pretty much became clear that were taking it pretty seriously.

So well I, was not fimilar with this idea of referencing the 'harvard referencing way'. After my teacher David collings who taught us Work and employement module was finished with one of his lectures. He handed over an essay for us to write and the further reading required for that topic. I went home that day slightly confused. Checked out the links of the journal articles and they pretty much seemed like a bunch of quotations and notes taken from other journal articles and researches and then the author building on his own piece of work. I was completely unfimiliar with this writing style. The next time we had a lecture with David i went to him and i asked him. 'Can your please explain me about the writing style of an essay'? And he said 'well you have to read all the journal articles and discuss what they are discussing their way of researches, their pros and corns. One of the ways to get around with it can be that you read the positive researches around this topic and negative researches around the topic and then well say that these researches by so and so authors present this view point and these present the vice versa'. Even confused than before, I asked David, 'well then wont this be just a mix of what the authors are saying and not what i have to say?' He said to me with his ever so sweet smile and twittering eyes 'are you experienced and well versed enough to publish your own work at this point of time?'

This answer so intrigued my mind... All those years of education just seemed to have washed away. How can i have my ideas when i havent done any piece of research myself at all? how can i write on an issue when i have no facts at all? and how can i take credit from someone and publish it like my own piece of work when it is their hard work and by all means the deserve to be accredited for that!!!

This is such a simple enough thing but it has such a deep meaning. Giving someone the credit for their piece of work. We as a nation have long forgotten this thing. It starts when we are little and we start to steal from other's pieces of work and copy it as our own. And then later slowly and gradually we just stop giving people the credit and appreciation for what they have done and achieved and want everything for ourself. It is a simple enough thing which is taught in the education system here 'Give people credit for their piece of work' and what a deep meaning it has!

My first blog

Hi,

Welcome to my Blog. I am Nousheen Zakaria. I have completed my BBA (textiles marketing and management) from the 'Textiles institute of Pakistan' and my Msc Management (HRM) from the University of Sheffield. I currently live in Sheffield.

I always wanted to write blogs. But i was not sure when and where to start from. I guess this is it. Today the 5th of Jan. I woke up with a sore throat and fever. As i looked outside the window i saw, the grass gone all white with snow flakes. It just bought a smile on my face. I have always loved snow but also i was disappointed that it was overnight and that i was not able to go out in the snow and feel it on me.

Omar (my husband) made some hot chocolate for me and while i was sipping it, he told me that he had read a blog of my friend's kazim and really liked it. This is where i thought today is the day i need to sit down and start blogging. I read his blogs. He had written about various topics. One that inspired me was about my fellow class mate and he had gone to study abroad. It touched me because it was similar to what i have gone through. I wrote a comment on it and thought why not start my own blog!

For your interest, i am pasting here the link of the blog:

http://redkazim.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/raju-ban-gaya-gentleman/

I would really appreciate if you would leave your worthy comments and suggestions for me.

I would like to thank you all for reading my blogs and posting your comments.

Many Thanks
Nousheen Zakaria.