Plagiarism

It is most important for you to be very careful to avoid plagiarism in your writing. What exactly is plagiarism? Basically, it is passing off someone else's writing as your own. It means taking someone else's words and pretending that they are your own. In its most serious form, it is simply copying someone else's work, word for word, and not acknowledging the source that they came from.

Think how hard you work to try to phrase things in precisely the right way and you will understand how annoying it is when someone lifts your own original ideas and claims them for their own. However, it is not only annoying for the writer of the original text, it is also dangerous for the person who copies it. If plagiarism is spotted in your writing, your college has the right to fail your essay, or fail you in an exam, and in the most serious cases of cheating in this way, to send you down from the university. It is very easy for markers to spot plagiarism:

• because they know the subject well
• because they have read all the books you're likely to refer to
• because plagiarism will result in a change of style within the essay

The most important thing is always to quote and reference correctly and then you will avoid problems of plagiarism. But if you need to mention someone else's work and you can't find or don't want to provide a quotation, how can you do it? The best approach might be to follow these steps:

• read and understand the original text
• close the book and write out the main points in your own words
• rephrase the main points into your own passage
• compare your writing with the original and make sure that no sentences or long phrases are the same
• don't worry if the quality of the writing is not quite as high as the original….it's much more important that you use your own words.

Remember, if you acknowledge someone else's writing, it will not be plagiarism.

Remember as well, that without trying to put ideas into your own words, you will never develop your own style and never gain in confidence as far as your writing goes. Stitching a few ideas together from someone else's writing does nothing to improve your own writing skills and nothing for your understanding of the subject.

What do you think about these examples? Plagiarism or not?

Sam's essay:
Third, Carl Gardner describes the new 'high-tech' shopping centres how they varied in size and style, spectacularly produced glass atria or glazed barrel-vaults which helps to use the natural light to flood the shops and walkways.

Original:
Though varied in size and style, nearly all centres offer the same basic features. Most importantly, there are spectacularly engineered glass atria or glazed barrel-vaults to flood the shops and walkways with natural light.

(The answer is in the first comment under this article.)

Taken from HERE.

Thoughts About the Future: Cyber Crime

STOP THIEF! HIGH-TECH STYLE

At one time, thieves stole physical things, money, or financial instruments. But now with the development of online resources and property, there are virtual thieves, and the police are starting to take these virtual crimes seriously. For example, if you own property, are a merchant, or sell services in an online community like FarmVille, you could be a theft victim if someone steals what you own or cheats you out of money due to you—just like in real life.

And not only virtual police might crack down, but real-world ones, in some places where they are treating a virtual crime like a real one and going after the thieves. So now this is one more high-tech crime the police have to pursue, along with the explosion of identity theft, which might even be a problem in virtual communities because someone may think you are the culprit when virtual goods go missing.

I began thinking about these possibilities for new crimes, criminals, and methods of detection, when I read on Breitbart.com about how police in Finland were cracking down on the theft of virtual furniture. According to the article, the cyber thieves stole significant amounts of virtual property from around 400 users of a virtual hotel hang-out called the Habbo Hotel. This hotel site is a place where participants can create a character to chat with virtual friends, take care of virtual pets, and acquire virtual furniture for their rooms by paying a fee. Consider it like Ikea meets the Internet. In this case, the virtual thieves stole the furniture. They did so by setting up phony Web pages, where they could steal user names and passwords, much like thieves have created phony sites that look like they belong to your bank or Google account. Then, with this personal information, they were able to sign into each person’s profile on Habbo and personally transfer their property into their own accounts.

Although some Internet users might consider this activity just another fun pastime for hackers, or even admire the thieves for being crafty and cool, the Finnish police treated the theft quite seriously. They even searched homes in five cities in Finland, took computers from several suspects, and conducted interrogations with a number of people. In their view, the value of the items stolen, even though virtual, was significant. Now that people are paying increasingly significant sums of money to build up their property ownership and buy more and more services at these virtual sites, there is a substantial monetary value for any stolen property. Plus the virtual victims may suffer real emotional damage as well, since for many people, these virtual lives are as real to them as their everyday lives; for some people, these virtual lives may be even more important, because they don ’t have much going on in their everyday lives.

Thus, these online virtual thefts have become a serious business, and increasingly, the police can be expected to pursue them as serious crimes. But how? In a small country like Finland, a national police force might be the appropriate agency to deal with such crimes. But what about in the United States, where there are police forces in cities and counties and special state and federal agencies, which deal with different types of crimes on different levels of society? So where do these virtual crimes fi t? In the case of identity theft, sometimes the local police will handle this, especially if the identity of the thieves can be traced to a particular city or county. But if the theft is national or international in scope, the FBI and international agencies like Interpol might get involved. Also, the Federal Trade Commission now operates an Identity Theft Clearinghouse.

So possibly law enforcement ’s identity theft approach might be a model for virtual thefts, depending on who takes your virtual property and where they live. In turn, the need to deal with these thefts is increasingly critical, as more and more people participate in these virtual worlds and invest more time and money in them, creating even stronger opportunities for theft. Perhaps there might even be more serious virtual crimes, like muggings, robberies, and murder, in these worlds.

For instance, maybe another virtual player—or even someone angry at you in real life—might seek revenge by attacking, injuring, or even killing off your character. Perhaps as in real life, the villain might use a gun or knife, bludgeon your character, or maybe administer a virtual poison, so your character comes down with a horrible disease and dies.

In short, just about any kind of crime, not just theft, might have its virtual world parallel. And as the crime becomes more serious, virtual or not, not just the virtual police, but the local police as well as national and international law enforcement agencies may play a role in finding the perpetrators. Then, once they do, real-life prosecutors and courts, as well as virtual ones, may seek to administer justice in the form of real world fines and jail sentences; perhaps there might be virtual parallels, including permanent exile, in which the perpetrator is thrown out of the virtual world with the hope he or she won ’t return in yet another guise with another identity.

Extracts taken from "The Very Next New Thing ~ Commentaries On The Latest Developments That Will Be Changing Your Life" by Gini Graham Scott (2011)

Citizens frustrated by Romanized signboards

A street in central Seoul is crowded with signboards in foreign languages. 

Insa-dong, ironically a touristy area specializing in traditional products, strives to preserve shop signs in Korean

For 82-year-old Kim, going out for a cup of coffee with her friends takes a lot of effort.

“All the shop signs are written in English and I can’t read them,” she said.

She grumbled that many of her friends try a different approach when they search for places to sit down and chat over beverages.

“We first look through the window to see if anyone is drinking something. If they do, we open the door and take a seat. But no way can we understand that they are coffee houses by just reading the signs ― they are all English letters without Hangeul,” she said, referring to the Korean alphabet.

As using English has moved beyond a trend, an increasing number of signboards are Romanized ― whether the names are English or Korean.

Many Koreans who are unfamiliar with English or Romanized Korean often find themselves lost in a sea of shop signs in foreign languages.

When a Korea Herald reporter took a cab recently and tried to get to a television station in southern Seoul, she couldn’t figure out why the driver kept asking for directions though they were just across the street from the destination.

“I kept telling him that it was the building with ‘Arirang’ in red letters.” she recalled.

After several seconds of struggle, the driver, who turned red in the face, grunted, “I didn’t see the sign. It’s in English! How am I supposed to know that’s Arirang?”

“I realized that while some people take English for granted, it isn’t really for all Koreans,” the reporter said.

For a simple survey, The Korea Herald walked up one block of Gangnam Boulevard, a busy shopping district in southern Seoul, and observed the signboards on the streets to find that out of the 518 signboards seen, 65 were written entirely in the Roman alphabet. Most of them were restaurants, coffee shops and snack eateries with sportswear stores and perfumeries also common.

From global giants such as McDonalds and Adidas to local bistros such as Nolita, the signboards did not carry Hangeul at all.

“It is frustrating to complain about Koreans’ use of English or the Romanization of Korean words,” said Kim Hanbitnari, an official of the Korean Language Society.

“The problem is that the public does not raise the issue,” he added.

The government does not seem to be aware of the problem, either. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in charge of Hangeul policies, told The Korea Herald that it has never conducted a survey or study on excessive Romanization of store signboards.

By law, outdoor signboards must be written in Hangeul. An administrative leader of a district can allow a dual-language system with a foreign language if it helps local tourism. Only those with a registered trademark can be exempt from the regulation ― among the 65 signboards with Romanization only that were spotted on the Gangnam Boulevard block, 53 seemed to fall under this case.

“We will conduct tighter monitoring on all-Romanized signboards,” an official of the Seoul Metropolitan Government told The Korea Herald.

Ironically the one district in Korea that has strictly stuck to the principle of using Hangeul ― Insa-dong ― is a foreigner-frequented tourism district in central Seoul specializing in Korean traditional art and products.

In order to maintain its image as an area of traditional culture, the city administration has ordered even global enterprises such as Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to forgo the Romanization policy and use Korean-language signs. This was the first case in the world for the global giants, but their headquarters have reportedly expressed satisfaction that it had a substantial promotional effect and a positive public response.

“Even if people are legitimately using all-English signboards, it doesn’t mean the elderly people or those unfamiliar with foreign languages feel any more comfortable. Writing Hangeul along with English is the least they can do for the general public,” said Kim Hanbitnari.

Taken from The Korean Herald HERE.

Like a ‘Bule’ in a China Shop

What Indonesian’s REALLY Think About the West!

According to THIS article on the net.

Time for a Fresh Look on Indonesia

I have been running Cross Cultural workshops and working as a cross-cultural / cross-linguistic buffer in Asia for over 12 years now. Growing up in a mixed up cultural background and spending time constantly working between different cultural groups, I feel that over the years, the contrast between different cultures working and living together in Asia has become not as crisp as it was when I first started. I get so used to jumping between languages and cultures in my professional and personal lives, that the ‘mind set shift’ becomes automatic to the point that I often don’t realise what the ‘shifts’ are.

In a few weeks I will be running a Cross Cultural / Cross Linguistic workshop for large western company that will be sending many expats into work with and manage several thousand Indonesians. I thought it would be a good opportunity to put a survey out to my networks in Indonesia and hear from the horse’s mouth what their CURRENT opinions are on themselves, their own country’s culture, languages and how they view westerners in their country.

If you are Indonesian and still haven’t shared your thoughts with me by filling out the survey, there’s good news!… I will be leaving the survey open indefinitely. You can access it HERE.

Questions

Here is a list of the questions asked in the survey:

No.	English	Bahasa Indonesia
1	What part of Indonesia are you from?	Di indonesia, anda berasal dari daerah mana?
2	Where do you live (city) now?	Anda tinggal di mana (kota) sekarang?
3	What religion are you?	Agama anda apa?
4	Aside from Bahasa Indonesia, can you also speak any other local Indonesian languages?	Selain bahasa Indonesia, apakah anda bisa bahasa daerah seperti sunda, jawa, dll?
5	Do you still use the local languages that you can speak? If so, where / when?	Apakah anda masih menggunakan bahasa daerah yang anda kuasai tersebut? Kalau iya, dimana anda biasanya menggunakan bahasa tersebut?
6	In your honest opinion, what does the term ‘bule’ mean to you? (both positive and negative meanings)	Menurut pendapat jujur anda, apa artinya istilah ‘bule’ bagi anda, baik positif maupun negatif?
7	Please list 3 principles of Indonesian culture that you would consider important – e.g. ‘gotong royong’	Tolong sebutkan 3 prinsip budaya Indonesia yg penting bagi anda, contohnya gotong royong.
8	In your opinion, what do foreigners need to understand about Indonesia and Indonesian when working in Indonesia?	Menurut anda, apa yang diperlukan oleh orang dari luar negeri untuk mengerti tentang negara indonesia dan warga negaranya ketika bekerja di indonesia?
9	How do you feel about foreign men dating Indonesian women? (without the intent of marrying them).	Bagaimana perasaan anda tentang laki-laki bule yang berpacaran (dan tidak mempunyai tujuan untuk menikah) dengan perempuan indonesia?
10	How do you feel about cross-cultural / cross-religious relationships? Would you allow your child marry a foreigner or someone of a different religion?	Bagaimana perasaan anda tentang hubungan lintas budaya/agama? Apakah anda akan memperbolehkan anak anda menikah dgn orang asing atau orang yang berbeda agama?
11	From the foreigners in Indonesia that you either know or have observed, how would you rate foreigners living in Indonesia’s overall understanding of Indonesian culture (Don’t understand at all, Insufficient Understanding, Sufficient Understanding, Extreme Understnding)	Diantara orang-orang asing yang anda ketahui dan/atau telah anda perhatikan di indonesia, berapa anda akan beri nilai untuk pengertian dan kepekaan mereka terhadap kebudayaan indonesia ? (Sama Sekali Tidak Mengerti, Kurang Mengerti, Cukup Mengerti, Sangat Mengerti)

I chose these questions to specifically address areas that we’d been asked to cover in the workshop. The initial questions on the speaking of regional Indonesian languages was also for my personal interest, as I wanted to know whether there had been any shift over the past 15 years or so.

Speaking Regional Languages

I’ve found from the responses to the survey, the situation in regard to regional languages is slightly different to the situation in Thailand. In Thailand, especially in Bangkok, there is a certain stigma that’s attached to people speaking non-central Thai. The main dialect regions in Thailand are Northern, Isaan (Northeast), Central and Southern. There are many shades in each of these and some are thought to sound more refined than others. I have even seen people on the skytrain, subway, restaurants and other places with ‘people’ in downtown Bangkok receive a call on their mobile phone only to quickly hang-up on the caller saying something to the extent of ‘I’ll call you back soon’ in their local dialect trying not to be heard. I find this happen mostly with people who speak Isaan.

From the results from the Indonesian survey, I get the feeling that people are a lot more proud to use their local languages in public, as long as they are with people who speak the same language /dialect. One of the reasons that people would choose to switch to standard Bahasa Indonesia would be to release them from the hierarchical bonds that languages like Balinese, Javanese and Sunda put on them. Javanese for example has several levels of speech – Krama (High), Krama Inggil (High Krama), Krama Andhap (Low Krama), Madya (Middle), Ngoko (Low). In any interaction in Javanese, someone would have to have a full grasp on the nuances of all these registers of speech / vocabulary to be able to competently communicate in a respectable / appropriate manner. Speaking in Bahasa Indonesia to a great extent strips away many of those levels and gives a ‘vanilla flavoured’ language where people’s statuses are to a good extent flattened (though not to the extent of English).

Many of the responders mentioned that their level of their local language isn’t where they would like it to be. Many who speak Javanese speak mainly in the low level and are embarrassed of their lack of ability. Using standard Bahasa Indonesia is a safe alternative for them.

‘Bahasa Indonesia’ or ‘Indonesian’- Not just ‘Bahasa’

While we’re on the point of ‘Bahasa Indonesia’, I’d like to address a pet gripe of mine. Many of my clients will send me an email or call me up and ask if I’m free to do a job in ‘Bahasa’. ‘Bahasa’ is a Sanskrit based word – भाषा ‘Bhasha’ that just means ‘language’. So ‘Bahasa Indonesia’ mean ‘Indonesian Language’. The same word is used in many other languages like Thai ภาษาไทย ‘Phasa Thai’. If you’re going to use the term Bahasa when speaking English, say ‘Bahasa Indonesia’ or ‘Bahasa Melayu’ etc … otherwise it’s just like saying “Are you free to do a job in ‘language’?”

Bule… Bule Bule Bule

As you travel throughout Asia, you’ll find that most countries have their own ‘endearing’ term for ‘westerners’. In Hong Kong it’s 鬼佬 ‘Gwai’Lo’, in Mandarin it’s 老外 ‘lao wai’, in Japanese it’s 外人 ‘gai jin’, Tagalog it’s ‘puti’, Thai is ฝรั่ง ‘Farang’, Malay it’s ‘Mat Salleh’ and in Indonesian it’s BULE (pronounced ‘boo-leh’).

I often read forums from all these countries in both English and in the local languages and the feelings vary. Some will say that these are derogatory terms for foreigners, some will say that they’re neutral and others will say that they’re terms of endearment. I’ll let you decide. Most of the responses were in Bahasa Indonesia, so I have translated all the responses and deleted any repetition. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not you’d like to be considered a ‘bule’.

Positive	Negative
neutral culture	selfish
more developed	look down on other cultures
westerner	arrogant
open minded	proud
long pointy nose	albino – pigment deficiency
blue eyes	don’t like to learn language or culture of host country
good looking	doesn’t like washing
speaks English	dirty
likes to be practical	smells
rich	has free sex
smart	afraid of commitment to marriage
live for the future	atheist
	egotistical
	only eats bland food
	cannot eat chilli / hot and spicy food
	alcoholic
	refuse to try and understand Indonesian culture
	Has bad taste in women – can’t tell a ‘good looking’ or ‘good’ woman from a ‘less than good’ one
	don’t try to see things through the eyes of Indonesians
	dress inappropriately
	too much emphasis on personal privacy
	don’t respect the past

Many locals will be reluctant to mention what the ‘real’ feelings are about the term ‘bule’ as they think that it would be disrespectful. I have run workshops with expats in Indonesia and Thailand that have said ‘Some people might think those things, but they don’t think that about me – it’s not a negative term in my mind’. My response to that is that perhaps you are in denial.

Core Indonesian Values

Even though I asked for 3 of the core values that they thought were most important, many of the respondents gave more than 3. The answers all hovered around similar points. It would seem that knowing the appropriate protocols is paramount. The other major concept to embrace is that of family and society / the workplace as an extended family. We will see in a later question that part of showing respect and getting into the ‘culture’ and showing that you ‘care’ is learning how to address people properly. Not just by their name, but by the kinship title that an Indonesian version of you would address them in in Indonesia.

Respect / Politeness - Using appropriate greeting protocols 71%, Friendly 67%, Gotong Royong' - Mutual Assistance and Repect 63%, Family 54%, Respect Elders 46%, Caring for each other 42%, Tolerance 42%, Cooperation 42%, Importance of Religion 29%, Social Solidarity 25%, Humility 21%, Maintaining Good Relations / Networks of Influence 17%, Dilligence 13%, Forgiveness 13%

What do Westerners Need to Understand about Indonesia when Living and Working in Indonesia?

Answers were very long and descriptive here. In the following chart, I’ve translated the answers and categorized them under just a few major headings. From right across the board, nearly everyone unanimously said that learning the Indonesian language and learning about Indonesian culture is THE most important thing for foreigners to do when working in Indonesia. Not just learn about the culture, but to implement what was learned too.

Many foreigners may think that the linguistic side isn’t important and that they are there just to do business. The fact is though, in order to do business well, the foreigners need to work with and motivate local teams. To truly do that effectively, language and being able to speak to and understand the heart of the people is a vital ingredient.

Learn Indonesian 96%, Learn about Indonesian culture and do what you've learned 96%, Listen 79%, Don't come across as thinking you are superior 79%, Don't cause people to lose face 75%, Don't appear arrogant 63%, Don't Speak too much 21%, Don't just treat everything as business 21%, Don't think of Indonesia as a terrorist country 13%

One response stood out in regard to language and culture:

Tidak Tahu Unggah Ungguh

Foreigners should learn to address people – especially those older than them by the correct term. E.g. ‘Pak’ or ‘Paman’ for an older male. Even though a certain degree of familiarity might exist, for example a foreigner’s child should not just call the driver by his name directly. (He should use the correct term of address). This is often called ‘Tidak tahu Unggah Ungguh’ – to not be of a good upbringing / not know how to operate in a normal society.

Depending on what ethnic group and what part of Indonesia you are in, the terms used to address people can vary. There are a standard set of terms you can learn though that should get you by in most places. Stay tuned for an article covering these terms.

How do you feel about foreign men dating Indonesian women? (without the intent of marrying them).

The answer to this one was divided, though still weighted about 70% towards the ‘do not approve’ answer. The main difference was that from the ‘do not approve’ group, about a third of those people did not approve, but thought that it was up to the individual’s involved. Everyone is different, so if the girl makes a decision to do that, it’s her decision.

The majority however did not like the idea of western men dating Indonesian women without the intent of marrying them and said that it just reinforced the negative connotations of ‘bule’. That is that they are dirty, immoral, non God fearing people that are just after free sex and to take advantage of people.

How do you feel about cross-cultural / cross-religious relationships? Would you allow your child marry a foreigner or someone of a different religion?

The answers here were varied, though the majority of respondents when it came down to it did not approve of people marrying across cultures and especially not across religions.

I have translated 3 responses below to show the gradient of opinions.

Sample 1

All humans were created differently. There aren’t any two people the same. That is the greatness of God, and that is what makes this world so beautiful. Because of this, I am extremely ok with cross-cultural and cross-religious relationships. I would certainly allow my child to marry a foreigner but not with someone of a different faith (this is my own personal principle), as it’s difficult to sail a ship with two completely different captains.

Sample 2

I don’t agree cross religious relationships because it is not permitted by Islam. If a Moslem marry’s someone who is not Moslem, it means that they will be committing adultery for eternity. Just as long as the two people follow the rules of marriage for Islam, I have no problems with people of different cultures or nationalities marrying.

Sample 3

Cross-cultural no problem at all. Cross-religious or agnostic no way jose
[Note that this last response was submitted in English]

How Well do Foreigners Understand Indonesia?

The final question was to get a general picture of how Indonesians perceive foreigners living in Indonesia:

From the foreigners in Indonesia that you either know or have observed, how would you rate foreigners living in Indonesia’s overall understanding of Indonesian culture

(Don’t understand at all, Insufficient Understanding, Sufficient Understanding, Extreme Understanding)The results are as follows:

Don't Understand at all 0%, Understanding Not Sufficient 58%, Understanding Sufficient 42%, Understand Very Well 0%

There is obviously a long way to go in developing a better cross-cultural understanding between foreigners living in Indonesia and Indonesians. I will continue to hone my cross cultural programmes to address all of these issues and more. One take-home from this survey is that in the programme that I will be running for one of my oil and gas clients in a couple of weeks is that ‘language’ is a ‘need to know’, not just a ‘nice to know’. I will incorporate fundamental language learning within the cultural programme in a fun way to at least equip the expats with enough to make a good impression and start building bridges with their Indonesian team-mates.

Take the Survey! (If you’re Indonesian)

At the time of writing this article, there have been a total of 51 respondents. I will be leaving the survey form open indefinitely and encourage all Indonesians out there to share your own views. Do you agree with these findings? Do you disagree? Let me know what you think.

You could access the survey on a separate page HERE but it seems to have been taken down.

Writing Strategy and Style

Purpose, the end you are aiming at, determines strategy and style. Strategy involves choice—selecting particular aspects of a topic to develop, deciding how to organize them, choosing this word rather than that, constructing various types of sentences, building paragraphs. Style is the result of strategy, the language that makes the strategy work.

Think of purpose, strategy, and style in terms of increasing abstractness. Style is immediate and obvious. It exists in the writing itself; it is the sum of the actual words, sentences, paragraphs. Strategy is more abstract, felt beneath the words as the immediate ends they serve. Purpose is even deeper, supporting strategy and involving not only what you write about but how you affect readers.

A brief example will clarify these overlapping concepts. It was written by a college student in a fifteen-minute classroom exercise. The several topics from which the students could choose were stated broadly—"marriage," "parents," "teachers," and so on—so that each writer had to think about restricting and organizing his or her composition. This student chose "marriage":

Why get married? Or if you are modern, why live together? Answer: Insecurity. "Man needs woman; woman needs man." However, this cliche fails to explain need. How do you need someone of the opposite sex? Sexually is an insufficient explanation. Other animals do not stay with a mate for more than one season; some not even that long. Companionship, although a better answer, is also an incomplete explanation. We all have several friends. Why make one friend so significant that he at least partially excludes the others? Because we want to "join our lives." But this desire for joining is far from "romantic"—it is selfish. We want someone to share our lives in order that we do not have to endure hardships alone. [125 words]

The writer's purpose is not so much to tell us of what she thinks about marriage as to convince us that what she thinks is true. Her purpose, then, is persuasive, and it leads to particular strategies both of organization and of sentence style. Her organization is a refinement of a conventional question/ answer strategy: a basic question ("Why get married?"); an initial, inadequate answer ("Insecurity"); a more precise question ("How do we need someone?"); a partial answer ("sex"); then a second partial answer ("companionship"); a final, more precise question ("Why make one friend so significant?"); and a concluding answer ("so that we do not have to endure hardships alone").

The persuasive purpose is also reflected in the writer's strategy of short emphatic sentences. They are convincing, and they establish an appropriate informal relationship with readers.

Finally, the student's purpose determines her strategy in approaching the subject and in presenting herself. About the topic, the writer is serious without becoming pompous. As for herself, she adopts an impersonal point of view, avoiding such expressions as "I think" or "it seems to me." On another occasion they might suggest a pleasing modesty; here they would weaken the force of her argument.

These strategies are effectively realized in the style: in the clear rhetorical questions, each immediately followed by a straightforward answer; and in the short uncomplicated sentences, echoing speech. (There are even two sentences that are grammatically incomplete—"Answer: Insecurity" and "Because we want to 'join our lives.' ") At the same time the sentences are sufficiently varied to achieve a strategy fundamental to all good prose—to get and hold the reader's attention.

Remember several things about strategy. First, it is many-sided. Any piece of prose displays not one but numerous strategies—of organization, of sentence structure, of word choice, of point of view, of tone. In effective writing these reinforce one another.

Second, no absolute one-to-one correspondence exists between strategy and purpose. A specific strategy may be adapted to various purposes. The question/answer mode of organizing, for example, is not confined to persuasion: it is often used in informative writing. Furthermore, a particular purpose may be served by different strategies. In our example the student's organization was not the only one possible. Another writer might have organized using a "list" strategy:

People get married for a variety of reasons. First. . . Second . . . Third . . . Finally . . .

Still another might have used a personal point of view, or taken a less serious approach, or assumed a more formal relationship with the reader.

Style

In its broadest sense "style" is the total of all the choices a writer makes concerning words and their arrangements. In this sense style may be good or bad—good if the choices are appropriate to the writer's purpose, bad if they are not. More narrowly, "style" has a positive, approving sense, as when we say that someone has "style" or praise a writer for his or her "style." More narrowly yet, the word may also designate a particular way of writing, unique to a person or characteristic of a group or profession: "Hemingway's style," "an academic style."

Here we use style to mean something between those extremes. It will be a positive term, and while we speak of errors in style, we don't speak of "bad styles." On the other hand, we understand "style" to include many ways of writing, each appropriate for some purposes, less so for others. There is no one style, some ideal manner of writing at which all of us should aim. Style is flexible, capable of almost endless variation. But one thing style is not: it is not a superficial fanciness brushed over the basic ideas. Rather than the gilding, style is the deep essence of writing.

Holidaymakers' Complaints

From Thomas Cook Holidays - listing some guests' complaints during the season.

1. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."

2. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be banned

3. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."

4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."

5. A tourist at a top African game lodge over looking a water hole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel "inadequate".

6. A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she'd been locked in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the "do not disturb" sign on the back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.

7. "The beach was too sandy."

8. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."

9. A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.

10. "Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."

11. "We bought' Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five Euros from a street trader, only to find out they were fake."

12. "No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."

13. "There was no egg slicer in the apartment..."

14. "We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish..."

15. "The roads were uneven.."

16. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only took the Americans three hours to get home."

17. "I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."

18. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation’. We’re trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying there?"

19. "There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners now live abroad'"

20. "We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."

21. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel."

22. "I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite."

23. "My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."

Can't remember where I got this internet fodder from,,,