Tips and Tricks for Essay...

Hy argUMenters, are you Interested to be writer??, or may be only you want to know about writing, how make an essay practice ?. Ok now,, ^_^ Writing an essay takes some time and effort, but don’t worry ;) there are tips and tricks to make the process easier, and sometimes, more fun. “Nothing difficulties if you want to try and get the experience” yupzz.. That’s true isn’t it ?. First, writers should never wait until the last minute to start their paper. It is ideal to complete all research and writing before the due date. Then, any editing necessary can take place without scrambling for more time.

1. Determine Topic

When a writer is interested, it tends to be obvious in an essay, May be the topic develop based by experience, and then we easier make a concept or draft. If the topic is assigned, try to pick an angle that is of interest. Narrow down the topic so that it is not too broad to develop a thesis. For example, if the topic is "Flower" narrows the essay focus down to one breed or one element about Flower. Tweak the topic so that it is more interesting and easier to write about.

2. Research

That way to get resources to carry your essay draft, an example from Journal, e-books, encyclopedia, academic journal, book or more literature, The writer should always do ample research so that they have a good deal of information to write about.

3. Make a Mind Mapping about Topic, determine The general idea, or outline about topic

Mind Mapping or outline that used to develop our essay draft, For instance,  topic about Video game become the general Idea on your essay , and then you must determine Ideas that connect with your general idea, like Community of Video game, The new Technology, Kinds of game, so from that you can develop and manage your draft on paragraph essay.

4. Determine the purpose of your essay for Reader, essay kinds like Argumentative, Persuasive, Descriptive, and the other like that.

The purposes of an essay determined because it’s used by a Writer explain their mean to their Reader, and sometime can influence their reader to believe about writer opinion.

5. Format writing and writing stage

When in doubt about how to start an essay, begin with the introduction. Create a thesis statement---a general idea or point that the essays elaborate on. Introduce the reader to the topic in the first paragraph. Then, use three following body paragraphs to show the reader more information or provide evidence to back up the thesis statement. Least but no last you begin the second, third and so on paragraph with your Ideas that connect on your general idea in your mind mapping, then supporting details, and you may also addition with concluding of sentences. The last paragraph should contain a summary of the entire essay. If the length requirement is longer, the content comes from the body. For more detail about format writing may be you can see in picture essay outline above.

6. Editing

Editing that used to correction your essay, can provide the writer with suggestions or point out errors in structure, logic or grammar so become paragraphs that connect.


Good Luck*.. argUMenters, reach your opportunity to be the best writer especially essay writer , try and try, believe on yourself.. ^_^, then Core of All you must Focus on your topic develop and your purpose in addition determine your deadline. Hope this Tips and Trick benefits for you. 

By: Eka Nurul Q.

CONDUCTING NATIONAL EXAMINATION?!

(A Summary of “AGTS at Senior High School 1 Kediri” Debate)

Welcome back on “Summary Of Debate” column! As you waiting for, I’ll show you summary of argUMenters’s most up-to-date debate for every “Voice of Argument” edition! Now, I present a debate between ‘Senior team’ versus ‘Junior team’ shown on “argUMent Goes To School” program at Senior High School 1 Kediri. All of participants there were attracted by this motion and I hope so do you. Check it out! (^_^)v

Every year, All of students from Elementary school, Junior High School and Senior High School all around Indonesia face an examination created for national scale to pass their study. Same grade students from Sabang to Marauke will solve the same question together in the different place. That’s National Examination. And this house whether conducting national examination.

PROS (Government Team) : (This House Believe That National Examination Should Be Conducted)	CONS (Opposition Team) : (This House Believe That National Examination Should NOT Be Conducted)
After study for several years, The students need high quality measurement medium to determine their ability. National Examination is the perfect system for this purpose. It gives possibility for the students to know how good their knowledge in national standard point of view. In the large scale, it is very useful to measure education quality of a nation.	National Examination is not the only one way to measure education quality. We can use other valid indicators, such as Drop Out Numbers, Human Development Index and National Achievement. Using National examination to determine a student quality is unfair. Because every school give different treatment for their students with different quality of facility, tools, books and teaching-learning condition. There is high differentiation between uptown school and downtown school. So, It’s doesn’t logic if they get the same examination.
Indonesia already apply national curriculum. Books and Teaching-learning system are standardize and design according to this curriculum. And it is a responsibility to make all of Indonesian student to learn the same kind of skill based on that curriculum. Therefore, As long as every school follows the curriculum, there is no problem. National examination also will make sure that every graduate has certain standard knowledge and skill of a subject.	An examination can be created by each school with national standard under government supervision. Because it is need much money to held a national examination. There is much budget needed for questions creation, process of printing, distribution and the salary for every involved people. Beside money, it also wastes time and energy. All of those budget, time and energy can be more useful for other program that can give more significant increases for education quality in Indonesia.
Many of expert country, such as America, Canada and Finland, which are famous as high quality of education nation, apply national examination. It is a proof that national examination is good system. Because those country only choose the best for their young generation. National examination not only can motivate the students but also the teachers so they will work harder for develop their ability. It is not easy but many countries proof that it is not impossible.	In fact, large part of students doesn’t take any motivation from this system. Instead, they become frustrated and get mentality disturbing. Because all of their effort in 3 years will be entrusted on several hours. So as the alternative way, they are cheating or do irrational thing. Many students kill their self when they don’t pass this examination. National examination just like destruction machine for their mentality. Because all of their objectives in life depend on one point.

Well, that’s a preposition and opposition argumentation about conducting National Examination. As usual, I always waiting for your own argument. Keep spirit and see you on the next edition ;-D caaaaaaaawwwwwwwww (*_*)/ (B Nila Sari N)

argUMent Goes To School “A NICE STORY FROM KEDIRI”

That was a perfect morning when many motorcycles with peoples -using argUMent jacket and University of Mataram uniform above- convoyed on the road. They look so full of spirit even tough very inconvenienced with many heavy goods that they brought. They believed that every work with sincerity inside will be easier and fun.

On Sunday, April 28𝑡ℎ 2013, argUMent begins their road show at Senior High School 1 Kediri. It is one of three places that will be visited in “argUMent Goes To School” event. Those three places are West Lombok, Central Lombok and Mataram City. Senior High School 1 Kediri is chosen for being even location in West Lombok.

This even takes “Debat Itu Asyik” as the theme. According to that theme, The purpose of this event are not only to introduce argUMent and their programs to Senior High School students, but also to socialize about debate and promote NTB School Debate Competition which held soon by argUMent. They hope this even can raise student’s enthusiasm to learning about debate and become a debater.

Situation inside the room is lively, although only 15 participants present. Large parts of them are delegation of Senior High School 1 Kediri and the others are delegation of MAN 1 Gerung. Actually this amount is very disappointed. But quality is more important than quantity isn’t it?

The committee resolved that in the next two schools, there must be crowded of participants and more well prepared than before. They will work harder for prepare argUMent Goes To School at Senior High School 1 Selong.

How’s the result? Don’t miss it at the next edition of Voice of argUMent. See you! (B Nila Sari N)

BAHASA INGGRIS YANG TAK SULIT---BAHASA INGGRIS MEMBUMI

Judul: EKONOMI BAHASA INGGRIS- Jawa Pos 

Tidak semua bangsa-bangsa yang maju bisa berbahasa Inggris, tetapi anehnya bangsa-bangsa yang maju itu punya ke-pede- an yang bagus. Jadi meski bahasa asing yang diterima secara internasional (misalnya bahasa Inggris) kurang bagus, mereka pede saja.
Di Harvard, saya banyak bertemu anak-anak muda yang TOEFL-nya di atas 600, tetapi kalau bicara, hmm,… susah juga saya mengerti apa yang mereka mau sampaikan. Tapi toh mereka pede aja. Yang saya sering bingung adalah orang-orang yang diajak bicara, tak jarang sama-sama susah dimengerti apa yang mau disampaikan. Inggris logat India bertemu logat Korea dan Meksiko, susahnya minta ampun untuk dimengerti.
Tetapi mereka bisa tertawa-tawa bersama. Saya pikir itu hanya saya saja yang tidak mengerti. Tetapi Prof. Michael Porter, Guru Besar senior di Harvard mengatakan hal yang sama kepada saya. Meski demikian, kita sebagai guru pantang mengintimidasi kemampuan bahasa seseorang. “Bahkan gesture kita saja tak boleh mengintimidasi,” ujarnya. Makuto Naruto Di Boulder – Colorado, 20 tahun yang lalu saat belajar bahasa Inggris, saya pernah diajak makan siang oleh seorang teman dari Jepang. Dia bertanya, mau tidak makan siang di Makuto Naruto. Penasaran dengan nama resto itu, saya pun
mengikutinya. Ternyata itu Mc Donald’s. Begitu sampai di restoran saya pun terbahak-bahak dan kawan saya kebingungan tidak mengerti mengapa saya menertawakannya. Setelah dijelaskan ia pun tertawa sambil menggosok-gosok kepalanya. Orang Jepang kesulitan mengeja kata yang huruf
penutupnya bukan huruf hidup, jadilah Mc Donald, Makuto Naruto. Tetapi mengapa dengan bahasa Inggris pas-pasan seperti itu mereka bisa mengasai dunia dan ada di mana-mana? Mereka ada di seluruh sudut Eropa hingga ke Rusia dan eks Uni Soviet, di seluruh jagat Afrika, dan tentu saja di Asia. Bahkan jauh sebelum menduduki Indonesia, orang-orang tua kita bercerita, mereka sudah menjelajahi kampung demi kampung dengan membawa pikulan. Kini kita juga menyaksikan orang-orang China dengan gelombang yang lebih besar lagi menjelajahi seluruh jagat raya. Sebelumnya orang-orang Korea dan India juga melakukan hal serupa. Tak semua imigran itu kaum sekolahan. Sebagian besar generasi pertama asal China dan India yang datang ke Amerika memang banyak didominasi oleh para penganggur yang berprofesi sebagai penjaga toko dan supir taksi.
Berkat Guangxi atau jejaring sosial, mereka survive dan memupuk modal. Orang-orang China perantauan ini membuka usaha restoran dengan menu dan desain yang sama direplikasi, dari uang arisan menyebar ke berbagai kota. Orang-orang Korea juga sama. Kalau tak bisa berbahasa Inggris juga tidak masalah. Mereka membuka usaha kecil yang membuka peluang untuk berbicara dengan konsumen sedikit mungkin. Mereka membuka usaha laundry yang dioperasikan secara otomatik.
Demikian juga orang-orang Eropa Timur. Mereka masuk ke Amerika dengan membuka losmen-losmen kecil di daerah pinggiran. Tidak bisa berbahasa Inggris tetapi pede aja. Hasilnya generasi kedua mereka menjadi global citizen.
 
Do You Have Brain
Kisah orang-orang Indonesia diperantauan ternyata juga ada. Di tepi danau Rocca Di Papa, dekat Roma-Italia, saya bertemu Dewi Francesca yang dulu menjadi pelayan restoran di Bali. Dewi kini menjadi pemilik kafe yang indah dan diminati para honeymooners. Apakah sejak dulu Dewi bisa berbahasa
Itali? Ternyata tidak.
Di Amerika, orang-orang yang mempunyai usaha kecil juga bukan orang-orang yang berangkat dengan TOEFL score yang tinggi. Seorang ibu yang sukses memimpin sebuah usaha pernah saya temui di sebuah swalayan milik orang Korea dengan kata-kata yang aneh. Rupanya ia ingin membuat gulai otak untuk suaminya. Saat menanyakan pada petugas toko, ia bilang begini: “Sir, do you have brain?” Tentu saja petugas toko mendelik. Saya jadi teringat dengan Tukul Arwana yang kosa kata bahasa inggrisnya semakin hari semakin banyak dan terlihat pandai.
Apa rahasianya?
Belajar dari para perantau yang berhasil dan dari komedian yang cerdas, mungkin kita perlu berkaca dengan sistem pendidikan bahasa di sekolah-sekolah kita. Dulu saya belajar bahasa Inggris sejak SMP. Anak-anak sekarang sudah mulai belajar bahasa Inggris sejak kelas 1 SD. Bahkan ada yang dari
TK. Jadi, masalahnya bukanlah kapan seseorang mulai belajar bahasa, melainkan apa yang diajarkan.
Setahu saya sekolah-sekolah kita, selalu fokus pada rumus, angka, dan rule. Bahkan yang diajarkan di bahasa adalah grammar dan pronounciation. Grammar itu penting, tetapi tanpa keberanian berbicara dan menulis, anak-anak kita tidak akan pergi ke mana-mana. Mereka bahkan bisa menjadi sangat
takut berbicara, kala grammar-nya lupa, atau pronounciationnya salah. Padahal, di dunia internasional keberanian untuk berbicara akan membuka masa depan seseorang. Orang-orang yang beranilah yang akan menguasai dunia. Yaitu berani salah selagi muda, tapi terus belajar mengoreksi diri. Yuk pupuk
keberanianmu!

Rhenald Kasali
Guru Besar Universitas Indonesia