Mental Blocks in Writing

Researchers and writers often experience mental blocks in writing. Mental blocks are occasions when one runs out of new ideas, one fails to link one idea to another in a convincing way, or one's brain simply refuses to function in usual productive way.  This leads to feeling of FAILURE, INCAPABILITY, DOUBTFUL of one's ABILITY, LOUSY, END OF THE WORLD........

Have I experienced that before? MANY many times, especially when WRITING LITERATURE REVIEW... So, you are NOT ALONE! How do I overcome that? To a certain extent, mental blocks are caused by tiredness or lethargic.  Thus, I usually allow myself to take half day off;  go watch a movie, sing a few songs, listen to audio books, read my favorite "chicken soup for the soul" book etc. Then, the next day, I will go back to search and read journal articles that gives me new ideas or justifications to link the concepts.

I know "WRITING" is not an easy task! But if you continue writing (KEEP TRYING, NEVER GIVE UP)  you will be surprise to see what you get in the end! The final version of the write-up will make you feel SO PROUD of yourself; discovering you can write so interestingly!

REMEMBER, writing is a skill! Not a born ability!  If you try HARD enough, you will get to the level you want!

Have you been seeing your supervisor?

Through a casual talk with a few lecturers over tea time, I got to know that some students who are supposed to submit their individual project proposal by end of this semester have not met the supervisors at all! HELLO, your supervisors are looking for you.....

This is not right! Students should see their supervisors at least once every 2 weeks! Supervisor needs to know your progress and see your effort, otherwise they are not able to even give you marks for EFFORT! Do not follow your way, get advice from supervisor and do it their way, they know the shortest route to PROPOSAL COMPLETION.

Now is week 8, not too late for you to change your strategy, your supervisors are there to help you, they are waiting for you, do not let them WAIT TOO LONG :)

The slide relating to "Writing Literature Review" is now uploaded in Putra LMS.

If you have compiled in a table format, a list of  independent variables reported to influence the dependent variable (the phenomenon you are trying to understand) you selected, bring them to class tomorrow. We will try to find themes among those independent variables and help structure your Literature Review chapter.

Literature Review Slide is Uploaded!

Putra LMS is kind enough to allow me upload Literature Review slide for week 6 lecture (tomorrow). Those who are interested, please download from Putra LMS.

Although several attempts were made to upload Research Objective and Problem Statement slide since last week until today, no signs of success is observed. Although my side appeared uploaded, the file doesn't show in main page, therefore not possible for anyone to download.

Frustration over technology stuff is especially painful when one is doing research. Make sure you keep a back up copy of all your soft copy journals, chapter write-ups and references. You wouldn't know when the computer disaster will hit you!

Mid Term Result

Mid Term Exam Result is released! Many of you must be very eager to see if your hard work paid off!

The answer is YES, your hard work paid off!

About 66% scored 80 marks and above, indicates that

1. Students in the class are hardworking, responsible and smart
2. The questions are too simple

Which interpretation best reflect the scenario? Whatever the interpretation is, I am proud of you. Well done everyone, keep up the good job!

BRM Tutorial class; to attend or not to attend?

Your ability to perform SPSS analysis for BRM SPSS ANALYSIS REPORT assignment and later on your PROJECT PAPER chapter four, is dependent on the attention you pay in tutorial class.

SPSS  is a very useful software for you to understand and interpret your data set. It is quite costly to take similar SPSS workshop conducted by private tutor. You wouldn't want to miss classes now and have to hire private tutor or consultant to help you in your project paper data analysis!

On top of that, once you grasp some SPSS skills, you will be able to understand and check result interpretation reported in journal articles, reading articles will then become more interesting. If you are able to pick up flaws in the article's result interpretation, you can justify a replication research (which will be conducted by you) is needed  to verify the flawed findings!

Putra LMS hiccup

Putra LMS is not publishing the file I have uploaded. Apparently, the system is not able to handle growing number of users. Plan B: The slide file is now forwarded to Desmond, those wanting the copy, please get it from Desmond.