My Essay for Mid Year Exam..

Before I begin, let me describe how this essay came to be.

I sat down at my place in class at 7.55am., feeling confident enough to take on the English paper one. I was certain I could reach my mark of 42/50 at least for the continuous writing.

At 8.00am, One hour and forty five minutes, it began.

When I finished my directed writing, I checked the watch.

WTFFFF?????9.10am????? SHIT ASS! 35 minutes left for continuous writing!

Without a second thought, I grabbed the question closest to me, question 5 ( lol, question 5 is at the bottom of the question paper, closest to me literally ) and started writing without even thinking. The title was simple, one word only ; "Books"

So I started introducing what was books. Then I wanted to say how important it is. Then, I thought to mention what it is used for and why is it important. So I began writing about the importance of reading. Then I went like 'WTF? Am i off topic again?' steer back to the roles of books. Then thought of how books can help improve language. Began writing about importance of reading again. Then I went like 'WTF? Am i off topic again?' steer back again. Then thought of my text book, and wrote about books in education. Then suddenly thought of 'Playboy' magazine ( don't ask me why, I don't know ) and I was like 'wtf lar, include everything only-lar..' then felt pissed off and ended it with a conclusion.

Checked the time. 9.25am. Wtf. I slumped down and died there. I produced a 3-and-a-half-page essay in 15 minutes. 20 minutes to go, and I just died there. I was like.. 'wtf, I would be happy if I can get 30 for this essay'. And then I died.

Enough said, this is the essay.

Books

In today's world, books come in many different forms and categories. We have magazines, comics, text books, novels and so forth. In the ancient human civilizations, people began writing on slabs of stone to store important information, or simply as messages. Then came the Chinese and Egyptians who invented paper, and later on these papers were put together to form a book. The uses of a book is simple, it simply functions as a vessel to store information or messages.

Because it is used to store information, we can say that books are actually tomes of valuable knowledge. Researchers, philosophers, professors and scientists for example put their findings and thoughts in books that they may refer to should any doubt come along. Philosophers like Plato wrote a great deal about his teacher, Socrates. Without Plato's writings, we would still be wondering how we got to today as these philosophers greatly influenced the progress of humanity.

Of course, books are tools for humans. Some humans are corrupt, and use these tools to spread their corruption. Although reading is encouraged, we must first ensure that what we read is healthy and not detrimental to our state of mind. While books can store valuable data, it can also give us misleading information. Therefore, we must be able to think and evaluate what we have read.

It is precisely this ability to think and analyze that people are encouraged to read books. It offers knowledge and serves to broaded a person's mind. For example, have you read the book "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaardner? It revolves around the history of human philosophy. By reading such books, readers can be amazed by the achievements of people some time ago and probably even formulate their own thoughts and opinions. Books can therefore be declared a kind of communication method between the writer and the reader.

Other than that, books also play a major role in human life since ages long past. For example, I am sure you have heard of "Sun Tzu's Art of War". It is mainly about strategies in warfare and battles that can lead to victory and vanquishing your foes. Sun Tzu wrote all his stratagems and compiled what is simply one of the most famous and well known book even until now. In today's world, the information from that particular book is still used except that it is applied in the business 'war' instead of open warfare.

Even back to the time where one of the main religions of today, that is Islam, books played their role as well. The first order from Allah to Prophet Muhammad was for all followers to read. And as time progressed, devout Muslims gathered Prophet Muhammad's teachings and thus the holy book of Islam, the Qur'an was born. In Christianity, it is also the same thing. We have the Bible, a book entirely about the religion and teachings of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Without these books, religions would be a chaotic issue as people could not refer to the past teachings of these great pioneers.

Besides being a source of information that can be vital for humans, books also have their values, for example, in languages. By reading books, our human brain works to comprehend what we read. This indirectly strenghens our mastery of a particular language. In this case, Malaysians are said to possess a low standard of English language mastery in general. Many had debated about this topic, and one of the most used reasons is because the books are not widely opened and read. According to statistics, an average Malaysian reads two pages from a book in a year. Therefore is it not true that if a person reads twenty books in a year compared to two pages, his language mastery is better?

It is an undeniable fact that a person can get very resouceful if he or she reads all the time. Some people shy away from books because they find it boring. Like it or not, they can not escape the influence books have on our lives. Our education system uses text books and reference books which students have to pore through them over and over again to completely digest what they are being taught. Therefore, we can say that books are among the many factors of what shapes a person and determines their future in the social world.

In fact, the power of books is so great that it can trigger worldwide interest. Two very interesting examples would be the recent 'Playboy' magazine published in Indonesia and the author Dan Brown's famous 'The Da Vinci Code'. The 'Playboy' magazie has triggered a nationwide protest by the natives because it contains explicit materials. Now, if books were not viewed that importantly, who would even care what they are in it? The same goes for the much acclaimed "The Da Vinci Code' which received much accolades and as much put-downs.

In the progressng world, books are slowly being replaced by technology, In a couple of decades or centuries, inventions such as the Internet will totally replace books. While that might happen, just know that whatever happens, books had played its role for humanity and will continue to do so for a long time more. Therefore, tarry no more! Grab a book of a genre you like and start reading and flipping through the pages to fully receive and utilize the benefits they bring!

- End -

Total score : 44/50 - A

Teacher's Comments :
1. Attempts subject matter confidentsly
2. A few minor slips
3. Displays maturity of thought
4. Ideas flow. Evidence of planning is there
5. Vocabulary is wide

My comments on teacher's comments :
1. wtf?
2. of course
3. Wtf?
4. WTF???
5. :)

Sometimes, I am just so good I amaze myself xD. I did think the conclusion sucked big time though..

What about your comments?