Advice needed from Brother Bilal Hassan
 

AOA dear Bilal Hassan, first of all congratulations on your tremendous success, I have been following you here on this forum since last 3 years, and It is my assesment that every analysis, advice and statement of yours is very beneficial for every asspirant on this forum, perhaps I am also not the only one who is impressed of your English vocabulary and structure, I mean the way you write is impressive and it also inspires us to write the way you do....So whats the trick?? I know that getting to this level takes alot of time and effort but still I would need your advice on how your english written got to this level.. Please share your strategy I believe your this favour will benefit many candidates on this forum...

Profound Regards.

[COLOR="Blue"][B]Dear Daniyal,

I'm so humbled by your kind words. I would also like to thank the person who let me know about this thread, otherwise it would have gone unnoticed. I just logged in to assure you that I have seen this thread and would definitely guide you and all others to the best of my abilities. However, due to paucity of time, I'm unable to say anything right now but would post a detailed reply on this weekend Insha Allah.

I reiterate my thanks to you, I'm indebted. Will come back on this weekend Insha Allah.

Regards,
Bilal Hassan.[/B][/COLOR]

Dear bilal "humble" is not a verb , so it cannot be written as humbled.

[QUOTE=Mazhar Ali Khokhar;831752]Dear bilal "humble" is not a verb , so it cannot be written as humbled.[/QUOTE]

If only you used google before you said that...

[QUOTE=Mazhar Ali Khokhar;831752]Dear bilal "humble" is not a verb , so it cannot be written as humbled.[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Century Gothic"][SIZE="3"][B]humble[/B]
verb
past tense: humbled; past participle: humbled
Not cool at all![/SIZE][/FONT]

[QUOTE=Bilal Hassan;831612][COLOR="Blue"][B]Dear Daniyal,
I'm so humbled by your kind words. I would also like to thank the person who let me know about this thread, otherwise it would have gone unnoticed. I just logged in to assure you that I have seen this thread and would definitely guide you and all others to the best of my abilities. However, due to paucity of time, I'm unable to say anything right now but would post a detailed reply on this weekend Insha Allah.
I reiterate my thanks to you, I'm indebted. Will come back on this weekend Insha Allah.
Regards,
Bilal Hassan.[/B][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Dear bilal bhai thanks for replying, I will anxiously wait for your detailed response...

Thankyou.

[COLOR="Blue"][B]I'm really sorry for being late, I would humbly state as much as I know.

I would make you understand with the help of an analogy, being a student of Logic, I'm quite habitual of drawing analogies to make things clear.

I would compare impressive English with a perfect edifice, which is an epitome of strength and paragon of beauty. So first of all we have to build a strong foundation and then we will adore it. I tell you how to do that.

We start with building a strong foundation. English, like other languages, is made of certain words which have their respective functions. These words are parts of speech. You must start with studying the parts of speech and then identifying their respective functions in a sentence. Once you know what the function of a verb is, or why we use adjectives etc, you would use them precisely and your first stage to acing the English language is complete.

Second stage is about have your hands on different structures. You must know which modal verb or auxiliary verb to be used to convey certain meanings. You must know the conditionals, auxiliary verbs for ability etc.

Some good helping books:

[COLOR="DarkRed"][SIZE="3"]A Practical English Grammar by A.J Thomson & A.V Martinet.
Practical English Usage by Michael Swan
Oxford Idioms by William McMordie[/SIZE][/COLOR]

Now you have built the foundation. You can add more strength to it if you gain prowess on above mentioned grammatical components.

Now I tell you how to adore and beautify your language. They say that "To become a good writer, you'll have to become an avid reader." You must "read", not study, good books with profundity of knowledge and beauty of language. You must read good books, books with awesome prose, these will equip you with amazingly awesome structures and felicitous vocabulary. All you need to do is read these books and emulate their style.

I tell you some quality books and other sources:[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR="DarkRed"][LIST=1][*][B][SIZE="3"]History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russel (An amazing fusion of knowledge and prose)[/B][/SIZE]
[*][B][SIZE="3"]Essays of Francis Bacon (Only if you can stay engaged with drab things)[/B][/SIZE]
[*][B][SIZE="3"]Wall Street Journal (My favorite, combination of Current Affairs and fabulous language)[/B][/SIZE][/LIST][/COLOR]

[COLOR="Blue"][B]You must also learn idioms, but also know how to use them precisely.

I hope I have been able to tell you whatever I did, and I believe doing all that will make you as incompetent as I am, after all choice was yours. :)

Staying engaged and committed in all that journey is the sine qua non to become adroit at English language or even any other thing. [/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR="Green"][SIZE="3"][B]Learn=> Apply=> Practice=> World is yours[/B][/SIZE][/COLOR] :)

[COLOR="DarkRed"][B]I can't resist my temptations to tell you my favorite quote of Aristotle which motivates us to practice as much as we can.

He says "We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit."[/B][/COLOR]

[COLOR="Blue"][B]I wish you very best of luck in your endeavors. If you wanna hit the mark, always aim above the mark. Best of Luck.

P.S: If somebody believes that he/she got a strong foundation already then don't follow my advice. You may straight away go for reading and practice. [/B][/COLOR]

[FONT="Century Gothic"][SIZE="3"]Okay this maybe a bit awkward
But what are the mistakes you made in your first attempt and what did you learn from them?
And how can they be avoided by newbies?[/SIZE][/FONT]

[QUOTE=Nazish Hina Shafiq;832295][FONT="Century Gothic"][SIZE="3"]Okay this maybe a bit awkward
But what are the mistakes you made in your first attempt and what did you learn from them?
And how can they be avoided by newbies?[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Blue"][B]Good question! I didn't make any mistake in my first attempt, because I did not have time to make one. :pp

I had appeared in CSS 2012 with hardly one month preparation right after doing my MBA, and even that when I didn't have any other option. You may make a guess of my state of preparation by one instance. I came to know that I have to attempt the paper on blank sheets when the same were handed over to me in the exam hall, and I was like "Sir, meri sheets py line ni lgi hui" :pp

Best of Luck[/B][/COLOR]

Salam, Bilal bhai.
Needed a bit of guidance regarding my choice of optional subjects for 2016 exams. It would be really kind of you to help.
I have decided to go for Environmental Sciences, Geology, Philosophy, Psychology, Public Administration, and British History . So, does this choice of subjects seem ok to you :/ ? I was really confused between criminology and philosophy.. Then I read one of your posts about philosophy and I decided to go for it. Also, should I replace Geology and Public Ad. with International Relations? I am good at stuff related to IR but I don't consider it my USP.
Please reply ��
N, one more thing, Environmental Sciences or Gender Studies, which one seems a better choice to you? Since I've no other other source of guidance, I'll be waiting desperately for your suggestion!