Visited the 33rd Kuala Lumpur International Book Fairs

The 33rd Kuala Lumpur International Book Fairs is an international event organised by Majlis Buku Kebangsaan Malaysia (MBKM), Ministry of Education (Malaysia) in collaboration with 6 Industry association in this Country, with the theme for this year “Buku Menjana Kepintaran Kreatif”.

As a lecturer, this is a good time to update our subject reference list for the students. Textbooks are always important because they are the fundamentals of education. I hope our country's efforts to promote creativity through books will be able to cultivate a better learning environment for the students.

It is becoming uncommon for students to read reference books in higher education. The advancement of Information Technology, and fast and easy access to information using the Internet has become an excuse for many students not to use reference textbooks in their study. I may be 'old-school' but I still think that before we go onto the fast and easy platform to access for knowledge with the purpose of studies, we should value the reference textbooks as the fundamentals of learning. When the foundation is right, then we can use the Internet to enhance our knowledge or for quick reference.

If you agree with me, why not drop by to the fairs to see what are the fundamentals of education can help you in your studies. There exhibitors are not only from the local publisher, but also from ASEAN Country and International Publisher as well (Europe, United State, Australia, India and Middle East). The fairs will be from 24th April 2014 to 4th May 2014 at Dewan Tun Hussein On, Dewan Tun Dr. Ismail, Dewan Tun Razak 3, 4 and Legar Putra Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur. The gate will be opened to the public on 24th April 2014, from 10.00am to 9.00pm. Admission is free.

Related Post: Reading Academic Textbooks

Reading Academic Textbooks for Undergraduate Studies

While I was having dinner with my ex-colleague, another lecturer, we were having a debate over the use of textbooks for undergraduate studies. I got so engaged in this debate because before I went for the dinner today, I just told a few of my current students (Gen-Y) about the importance and usefulness of reading academic textbooks.

Personally, I always think that one of the best way to improve on academic writing is to start with reading the subject related textbooks. Althought there are various alternatives for readings, such as online journals, websites and even blogs; these are all good to have alternatives for reference purposes but it is not the core materials and blogs cannot be used as academic reference. 

I agree that some of these alternatives sources may be easily accessible and very looks informative but the scope can be very wide too as there are uncountable websites when searching by keywords. Also, a lot of web publishers simplify the subject information to make it easy to read, keeping it short and simple. By doing so, it will only provide some points or even without appropriate explanation on any concepts or models.

Web sources can be very specific on explaning some terms, concepts or models that myay provide limited elaboration or justification. Many web authors simply extract points from textbooks (in note form), similar to a student taking their notes in the class or while reading a text.

In this circumstances, how can a student learn the subject matters properly and able to see how the topic area can be explained or elaborated? Therefore, students only able to provide answers in point form and if essay is required, the student will just combine all the points they learned from the Internet in a paragraph, without taking into consideration the efforts of writing an essay.

At this point of time, I am not against the use of Internet as the medium for undergraduate studies. There are benefits of using the Internet for research or reading e-book too. However, how many students or even lecturers prefer to read e-book online and use the e-book as a main source of reference for assignment and preparing for exam? I am referring to academic e-books, not fictions or online magazine. Maybe there are some who prefer to do so, but how about you? Does your university or college provide e-books?

I belief the fundamental of learning comes from reading, and if it is for academic purpose, it should start from reading subject related textbook. This helps to build cognitive skills and expose the student to the fundamental academic writing style. Only when this is achieved, the student may go online to identify and read more sources to extent the knowledge and scope of the subject area. Textbooks provide definitions, explanations, implications, pros and cons, and illustration using valid examples, which are all critical for developing strong foundations of subject matters. Being in undergraduate means a student should build on the foundation of degree specialisation. To achieve this, there is no other better way but to read textbooks or e-books (as long as it is a published subject related book).

My philosophy is very simple. If someone want to think out of the box, this person should fill up the box with content before thinking out of the box. Think out of the box doesn't meant must go away from the box and never come back. A great mind can think out of the box only if this person has gained significant knowledge inside the box. If want to go to the world wide wide to look for answers for your studies, first thing to do is to understand the basic subject matters from textbooks, which are dedicated for teaching the subject purpose. This is the reason why textbooks still exist today (for a reason).

Top 5 Mistakes in Assignment

When you are writing for an academic assignment, you need to comply with the standards and some criteria set by the examiner. Many students knows about these but somehow, still allow the mistakes when submitting the final work.

Mistake #1

Never make full use of the subject main readings (textbooks) as the source of reference. With some common sense, one should see the need for using main texts as the fundamental of attempting assignment for a specific subject. Area like definition and concept should be from subject main texts rather than from www.

Mistake #2

Never understand the scope of the question and the requirements but rely on few keywords from the question to determine the direction of assignment. End up, answer given contain a variety of explanations for every keywords from the question, but not serving any purpose as per required by the question.

Mistake #3

Rely on limited source of references and the entire answer skewed towards these few references topic instead of the assignment question. This often resulted either plagiarism, or ambiguous answers that are irrelevant to the assignment requirement.

Mistake #4

Never provide in-text referencing such as citation or quotation in the answer. All justification using statistics, concepts, incidents, models or diagrams in the answer has to be cited based on the references provided at the end of the assignment. Failed to provide proper referencing for assignment will result in poor justification or making claims without supporting facts (fallacy).

Mistake #5

Never check the work before submission. This is the most basic thing to do when submitting an assignment but many take it for granted. Poor grammar, wrong used of punctuation, no paragraphing, inconsistency of font type and size, and incorrect spelling may result in confusion and ambiguity of explanation. Also, it shows that the student failed to show basic attribute of a scholar, mainly on writing skill and respect the subject assignment.

How about you?

Are you one of the student who allow such mistakes like the above to exist in your assignment? Be critical and responsible on your studies and don't give yourself any excuse for such mistakes to happen in your studies. If these become a norm and you think it is acceptable, what will happen at the workplace then? Disasters!!!

Can Wikipedia be used as source of reference for undergraduate and postgraduate assignments?

The answer is NOOOOoooo....

It is crucial to note that encyclopedias  or dictionaries, of any kind, including Wikipedia, Dictionary.com and Merriam Webster Online are not primary sources and should not be cited or used in constructing term papers at the undergraduate or graduate level. As such, these Internet websites can be useful to help gather some background information and to point the way to more scholarly source material (Simon & Goes, 2013).

For references, you should look for materials that are peer-reviewed or refereed and published in recognised academic publication. For example, reference books, professional journals or university publisher. The BEST source of referencing (highly recommended for undergraduate) is always "textbooks"!

So, do not waste your time to check if a website can be used as a reference for your assignment or research work, just head to the library/resource centre for the right materials.



Reference:
Simon, M. K. & Goes, J. (2013). Dissertation and scholarly research: recipes for success (2013 Edition). Seattle, WA: Dissertation Success, LLC.