ESLS Investigative Study

Finally... after 6 months of hard work... numerous sleepless nights... much effort... and even more depression and dread... I have completed my ESLS Investigative Study Final Draft!

"Is the Kyoto Protocol an Effective Answer to Global Warming?"

Thats my investigation topic. Canggih rite? But damn hard to do.

This is how investigation works. First u find an issue, then the issue gets rejected. Then u find more issues and eventually 1 get accepted, but it wont be a topic that you're really sure u want to do after that.

But anyway, there's nothing u can do anymore. So next u come up with an investigation question regarding that issue. Then your question gets rejected. Then u come up with 10 more questions regarding the issue and watch in horror as they get rejected 1 by 1. Then u reformulate and reformulate ur question untill ur lecturer reluctantly accept it.

Then u start to find ur sources. They must be credible, well substantiated, of considerable lenght, full of useful information, in English, not biased, able to explain ur issue objectively and present arguments with concrete proofs. After that u learn to cite ur sources using the Harvard system (where the fullstop comes after the bracket). Annotated Bibliography comes next, where u make a summary and a critique for each of ur sources. Then when ur lecturer gives u back ur annotated biblios with red marks all over them it wipes clean any fantasy that u might have that u are actually quite good in doing this. You learn to accept rejection as a common thing in ESLS. Then, of course, u have to re-do ur annotated.

But more misery awaits, because u still have to do an outline. It must be 2 pages in length, 1" margin on all sides, font of Times New Roman size 11 line spacing 1.5, and some classes even impose a maximum of 300 words. Then when u r halfway through trimming ur outline, omitting some rather important details, ur lecturer suddenly tells u that its ok use line spacing 1 and page margin as little as possible. Then u start putting n all the info inside again but the outline will still come back smeared with red ink. Your apprehension deepens.

Then u spend days making a detailed outline coz ur lecturer request u to do it but after that dun need you to submit it.

Next, comes the 1st draft, which will later turn into the 1st and only draft. As at 1st u'll think that its only the 1st draft and is not that important, you will procrastinate, delaying and delaying until the day before the date of submission. When u finally manage to get urself to do it, there will be something to distract u (in my case a champions league semi final match). But then, u'll think that its only the 1st draft and there'll be a 2nd one so u do cincai cincai. Ur lecturer will then surprise u by announcing that you shall have no more draft to make mistakes in. Ur draft comes back, as usual, with more red suface area on paper than black one. It's not unexpected, but this time it'll be even more depressing because u know the next thing that u produce u can afford no red marks on it...

Then, hehe, the ultimate task - THE FINAL DRAFT. In a couple of long nights, u trim down the 3000+ words of ur 1st draft into 2000 while at the same time putting in more information ur lecturer thinks vital but ur draft lacks. It may sound impossible, but ur lecturer expects nothing less. On the day u r supposed to submit, the majority of ur class have not finished yet, so ur lecturer unhappily postponed the date for a few precious days. When D-Day arrives, u hand in ur work with "die, die lah" attitude. And that closes an important chapter in your life where u found a whole new dimension to the word 'depression'.