East is East and West is West
East and West are the names of directions, completely opposite to each other’s direction and dimension. But here the writer does not merely mean the direction and axis; here he wants to expound the differences in each of these horizons of the world. East and West have been having differences and conflicts in their ideologies which results in confrontation in their manifestation of their cultures. Though present just opposite to each other physically, these two arenas are two different worlds in wider sense.
Speaking on broader spectrum, East is a mix of religiosity ,love ,empathy and yearning for more humane life style , but , in a more subtle manner .In East people confuse worldly matters with divinity and thus , end in more confusion in their day to day life .
West, on the other hand, has less religious character in its constitution. It follows the religion of logic in every matter concerning their faith and belief.
Apart from this religious matter, there are few other things as well, in which, East and West have been experiencing periodical shifts, which are, awakening and learning in the arenas of politics, economy, medicine and social sciences.
There was time when East experienced political ascendancy,economis rise, medicine and other fields of social sciences were thorouly explored and discoveries and inventions were made , but all these things transferred themselves toward West when East ceased to dig deeper in these fields . This shift resulted in West's tilt towards higher grounds and all the earthly wealth was bestowed upon West.
Baring all , religion has been one thing which has its deeper roots in East and seems, times is waiting , when this discipline will also have its sapling in West .
Until then it can be safely assumed East and West will remain in their confines.

East is east and west is west
East and west are two opposite poles of the region.These are two different individualities not only in culture , norms but also in meditation,social structure,attitudes of individual and groups.
Capitalism is the central artery of western society.Earning bread and butter remain its top priority. People remain busy in hunting dollars and pounds, that effects their relations badly.This is one of the major reason that west has more psycho patients because they give less importance to human life.Whereas eastern civilization revolves around socialism, customs of predecessors and somehow religion too.But they don't follow the religion in practical or realistic view.In west ,things are taken in cognitive and logical perspective which enabled them to invent number of scientific and technology inventions.East is more emotional rather than practical.East got fame in fields of art like literature,poetry,music etc.
In west , independence remain a major dilemma.people are curious for self fulfillment goals.while in east , interdependence has been practiced, which adds beauty into east society.So called freedom of women in west is creating many social evils. Who were criticizing east on gender discrimination are compel to agree now, that there should be some limitations for honour and dignity of women to stop immoralities.
Easter world mostly based on underdeveloped countries. large percent of population is striving for his survival.But China And Japan got higher rank in economic race.In contrast, west has strong hold on economic indicators.
However world has become global village.In the era of fast communication, civilizations are intermixing and changing rapidly.But one thing should be focused that both entities should adopt other's good attributes to reduce its can of worms.

Your efforts are commendable

Count me in your group.......... What do I take part in your discussion and what are the requirements?

Am i too late to join this boat dear Colossal

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"Mera muj me kuch nahe..sab kuch hy tera.. tera tuji ko sonp dun.. kia lagy hy mera"

Asalam u alaikum , you can take part in any discussion , and the requirment is One and Only Hard Work .

Dear friends here i am sharing an article on Writing Skills from Dawn Newspaper written by Muttahir Ahmed Khan .
Those who interested in enhancing their creative writing skills , they must read this article at least thrice .

Developing Writing Skills

Developing Writing Skills, in general, and in a situation of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language, in particular, has always been immensely significant and equally perplexing for both students as well as the teachers, in our part of the world.

In our state-owned institutions and even in more than 80% of our so-called English medium private schools, the academic writing is mistaken for a theoretical subject that stands for learning a prescribed text by heart or by rot and to reproduce it in the examination without comprehending the meaning or grammatical structure of even a single sentence. Not to speak of grasping the nature and function of different types and genres of writing, the students of certain schools and colleges are not aware of even the basic principle that writing is a skill that is developed with practice and guidance and not a textual subject to be learnt by heart or to memorise. We often hear such illogical statements like “I have learnt three essays including ‘A Cricket Match’ and ‘My First Day at School” or “Teacher! I can’t write a paragraph on My Village, I have not memorised that. You did not dictate us this and it is out of course”.

Here, I would love to share a tickling joke for pleading my case. During a secondary level examination, a student saw the question paper and whispered into his fellow’s ears, “Oh My God! None of the topics stipulated and covered by the teacher is there in the options.” The second student replied, “You are a born stupid. Can’t you see ‘My Father’ in the options? The teacher has dictated us ‘My best Friend’. Use a bit common sense and replace the word friend with the father.” So, the first student kicked off his essay: “I have many fathers, but Ali is my best father........” It happens and will continue to happen unless we take initiative to develop writing skills amongst the students and shun the transferring of wretched conventional follies in the name of teaching writing.

Here, it is strange that students nonsensically enquire about the syllabus of story writing, essay writing and letter writing and, in response; the teacher prescribe a few letters, essays and stories that formed the “syllabus”. Who does not know about the same old and miserably repeated stuff like A Thirsty Crow, Lion and the Mouse, My Best Friend, The Postman, etc? Even at higher education and CSS levels, the students often ask me for guidance and say” Which topics should we ‘learn’ or ‘memorise’ for the paper of Essay?” It is just like claiming that one is a trained and qualified car driver, but he can control only Toyota and cannot handle Suzuki or Honda etc. Is it logical?

Time and again, being a teacher of English Language and Literature, I have received this complaint, during informal meetings, from the Editors and the senior English journalists that the students are securing high grades in their MA English, but are, regretfully, not proficient enough to write even a paragraph on their own personality. I myself have witnessed this phenomenon during my different sittings in the interview boards, as a special member, for the induction of Sub-editors and other such employees in different leading English newspapers of Karachi. So, it is not wrong to say that, presently, we are undergoing a crisis on educational, intellectual and imaginative levels, and it is the need of the hour to mend our ways. Here, I strongly wish to share some useful techniques of developing natural and internal writing skill.

The first and the foremost technique to develop genuine writing skill is the Free Writing in which a teacher gives a 10-minute time to the students for writing whatever comes to their mind, without deliberately focusing on any idea or being conscious of grammatical or spelling mistakes. The students must be clearly assured that their stuff will not be checked by anyone. After 10 minutes, the teacher asks all the students to stop writing, go through their content, select any appealing sentence or expression, make it their topic and start writing on it. In the end, if any student wishes, he can get his work checked by his peers or the teacher. This activity will not only pave the way for smooth flow of writing, but will also provide succor to the creative being of the students.

Maintaining daily Diary is another valuable tool, in this regard, and, besides crafting and finishing one’s writing proficiency, it offers an outlet to the pent-up emotions of the students. If a person makes it his habit to pen down all the important incidents of the day using short and simple sentences, before going to bed, he will feel the difference within days.

Unfortunately, our orthodox teachers discourage and even condemn the students’ urge for writing poetry, declaring it wastage of time and a spoiling practice. It is a sheer injustice with the students because such restrictions nip many beautiful roses in the buds. The teachers must encourage and share their students’ poetic and literary writings, it will definitely spur their natural flow of expressing feelings and thoughts after moulding them into words.

Developing a story from a beginning is also an equally interesting and useful tool to cultivate a smooth flow of writing, along with igniting the light of brainstorming. In this activity, a teacher writes the initial part of a story and then leaves it to the students to turn and mould it towards any logical ending according to their own wishes and intellect.

Describing a scene or situation, after looking at a picture or a domino of some images, gives full liberty to the students to pen down their submissions with their free will, imagination and ideas. In this regard, teachers can use some pictures, taken from the newspapers and magazines, depicting the scenes of hustle and bustle and a lot of activity such as people are shopping in a market, enjoying an exhibition, watching a live concert or demonstration.

So far as the role of subjective teaching, explanation of formal and generic writing, guidelines for paragraph and essay or letter writing, grammatical rules and vocabulary building is concerned, it is, decidedly, of vital significance, but at a later stage when the students have acquired writing skill. If they are made habitual, in the beginning phase, to write on externally imposed topics or thoughts, they will always need a peripheral idea to kick off their writing ventures.

(Dawn: 18 August 2013)







Introduction to Paragraph Writing

Most students, when asked to compose a paragraph on any stipulated topic, begin producing essays comprising several paragraphs within each of them, with overflowing details and immaterial and protracted contents. This practice is like an epidemic in the public sector institutions, especially the secondary schools for it is a part of the teaching culture there. Paragraph writing is not a fun or a task easier than essay writing, as it is often considered to be, but it is a technical art that is employed to capsulate the information and description in a compact and comprehensive manner, keeping adhered to its limits. The problem lies with the pathetic approach of the conventional teachers who wrongly believe and neglectfully convey their students that it is the length of the content and not the quality, compactness, conciseness, clarity and completeness of the matter that makes the difference, in regard to marking and evaluation. Even at higher levels, students cannot eradicate this misconception about paragraph writing from their minds and, if a teacher endeavours to mend their notions about this issue, they (the students) think it incredible to expect first-rate marks out of a small piece of writing.

The trouble-free details about the form and nature of a focused paragraph are explained in the succeeding lines.

A standard paragraph comprises eight to twelve sentences that are interlinked and focused on a single thought and topic in a way that they dissolve and form a unit giving a complete sense of oneness. A paragraph can be divided into three parts; topic sentence, supporting sentences and concluding sentences.

The topic sentence is the gateway to our composition and introduces our topic to the readers. A recommended topic sentence is one that explains about the title and idea in the simplest way that even a layman can understand whether the title is the name of a person, a thing, a campaign, a place or a system etc. The topic sentence should preferably be the first sentence to set the proceedings on track, but, in some cases, to define a specific topic, it may be the second one or a combination of the both. For example, if we are writing paragraphs on the topics of “Computer, “Dr. Allamma Mohammad Iqbal” and “Democracy”, we can head out with the below-mentioned topic sentences:

A: COMPUTER

Computer is a programmable electronic device that performs mathematical calculations and logical operations, especially one that can process, store and retrieve large amounts of data very quickly.

B: DR. ALLAMMA MOHAMMAD IQBAL

Dr. Allamma Mohammad Iqbal was a great Muslim thinker, poet and philosopher.

C: DEMOCRACY

Democracy is the political-based system of governance that is based on the principle of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.



The second and the prime part encloses supporting sentences that provide further details and description of our topic and essential idea. This portion covers nearly the 80% of the whole paragraph. Below are the examples of supporting sentences.

A: There are two basic types of computers namely Mainframe Computers and Personal Computers. A "mainframe" is a large, high-powered computer that can perform billions of calculations from multiple sources at one time while a Personal Computer is small and user-friendly and is used by individuals for various domestic, official and business purposes. The physical parts of a computer are called Hardware while all the instructional programs come in the category of the Software………………

B: He was born in Sialkot on the 9th of the November, 1877. After completing his graduation from Murray College Sialkot, he joined historical Government College Lahore and passed his M.A. in Philosophy there. Iqbal was shaken by the tragic events of World War I and the disaster the Muslims had to face…………

C: In this political form of government, power is derived from the people, by consensus (Consensus Democracy), by direct referendum (Direct Democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (Representative Democracy). The term has its origin in the Greek language’s word δημοκρατία (dēmokratía) that means” rule of the people". It is a combination of two words; δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (Kratos) "power"……………

The third and the final phase is called the concluding sentence or, in few cases, a combination of two sentences. The concluding sentence provides verdict of the writer, results of the above-mentioned discussions and argumentation or summarises the central idea to exercise a lasting impact on the mind and soul of the reader. A suggested concluding sentence is one that winds up the whole matter and contents in a way that, even if it is placed on the last line of the page, the readers do not need turning over the page. It should commence with the phrases like, “In short, I want to…”, “The sum and substance of my plea is….” or “Keeping in view the above-mentioned merits and demerits, we can safely arrive at the conclusion…”, etc.

Keeping in view our topics, the recommended concluding sentences are as under:

A: In short, the explosion of computer has created an unprecedented revolution in our way of living and working and the life, sans computers, would be miserable in the 21st century world.

B: Although Dr. Iqbal is not physically existing today, his unforgettable memories, precious thoughts and worthy teachings are still alive in our hearts and minds.

C: After probing into all the pros and cons of Democracy, we can safely say that “Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”.

I hope this article will help the students and general people in mending their concepts about paragraph writing, and learning its certain very simple but delicate aspects.

(Dawn: 04 September 2012)

Principles of Paragraph Writing

The art of paragraph writing, especially the one associated with the academic sphere, is based on some basic principles and nuts and bolts worthy of being understood and learnt.

The first and the foremost principle to remember, in this regard, is the judicious selection of the topic out of the given options. A candidate or writer must touch only the topic he possesses firsthand knowledge about because one’s poor information and insufficient knowledge about the topic and facts and figures can washout his or her whole masterpiece accomplished with well-organised grammar, flamboyant language and arresting diction and decorum.

It is, indeed, unjust, but a bitter reality that your general knowledge manoeuvres the whole process of testing and evaluation of your command over language, grammar and writing skills. For example, a paragraph developed with highly inspiring language, strict grammatical criterion and exotic word selection can never be valued if it presents erroneous and misquoted facts and figures. The below-mentioned two paragraphs will make the picture more vivid and sharp.

(A): Kashmir Issue

Kashmir is a province of Afghanistan fully pregnant with fascinating landscapes, sky-kissing mountains, sparkling rivers and lakes, soul-elevating meadows and eye-catching farmhouses and prairies. Before 9/11 scenario, it was, beyond any cavil, an alluring “paradise on earth” for the tourists and was dubbed as an abode of fairies and a hub of mesmerising gardens. But, unfortunately, after the eruption of so-called war against terror, this paradise has been turned into a planet of death and doom………….

(B): Kashmir Issue

Kashmir is a boon of contention between India and Pakistan. It has made three wars between these two states. In 1819, Kashmir was conquered by Raja Ranjeet Singh. In 1846, East India Company got it after Anglo-Sikh War. Kashmir was saled to Gulab Singh in 1846 by British. On partition, Kashmir’s Hindu Raja Hari Singh invited India to occupy the land. More than 75% people were Muslims in Kashmir. Pakistan and India fought a war in 1948 and Kashmir divided………

Now, keeping in view our prevalent marking and evaluation culture, we can safely arrive at this premise that the paragraph (B), in spite of all its shortcomings like spelling mistakes and ordinary language, will get more marks while paragraph (A) will summarily be rejected by the examiner. So, I strongly advise all the students to be very conscious of the knowledge and statistics factors while opting for a topic.

Appropriate length is another aspect of vital importance, in this behalf. Although one can deviate a bit from the ideal touchstone, the length of 8 to 12 sentences, according to his requirement and the nature of topic; it must not cross logical limits.

The oneness and the unity of thought too is a matter of prime significance for composing a valuable piece of writing. The unison amongst the beads of a rosary provides the best example for a compact and consolidated paragraph. Only a delicate thread or string that connects the several beads together gives them the form and identity of a rosary and if that string breaks the whole thing would be a collection of beads and not the rosary. In the same way, it is the mutual cohesion that differentiates between a collection of 8-12 sentences and a compact paragraph. For example, in paragraph (1) the sentences are not forming a unit and give an impression of scattered beads while in paragraph (2) the whole text portrays a collective entity and conveys a theme.

(1) The Lahore Resolution

The Lahore Resolution was passed in Lahore on the 23rd March, 1940. In the memory of this historical day, a minaret, Minar-e-Pakistan, was erected at Minto Park (Iqbal Park), the site of this resolution. Many people visit this place every day from all over the world. Lahore is also very famous for its other historical and beautiful buildings and parks. Lahore is called the cultural and intellectual capital of Pakistan. Minar-e-Pakistan is still the tallest minaret of the country. It was built by President Ayub Khan……….

(2) The Lahore Resolution

The Lahore Resolution, also called Pakistan Resolution, was a formal political statement adopted by the All India Muslim League on the eve of its three-day general session held at Lahore’s Minto Park, from 22nd to 24th March, 1940. During this session, all the leaders unanimously declared their demand for a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Sub-continent. The resolution was presented by A K Fazal-ul-Haq and was authored by Mohammad Zafrullah Khan. This day, the 23rd of March, is called Pakistan Day and is observed as a holiday in Pakistan…….

The next prerequisite for a worthy paragraph is the element of coherence and sequence because it makes a piece of text meaningful and comprehensible for the readers and the examiners. It means every sentence of the composition must be yoked with the next one as all the links of a chain are interconnected together harmoniously. Writing about a person’s biography you must be adhered to chronological order and start with his birth, early education, proceed to his higher education or practical life and, then, move onto his later stages, and, finally, conclude on his death or latest status. In the same way, describing a procedure or narrating about an event or journey, the sequence of the steps, events and the time spans must be followed. Let us have a look on the below-mentioned paragraphs to see the difference.

Improper Sequence

Allamma Iqbal was a great Muslim thinker, philosopher and poet. He awoke the Muslims who were in the slumber of slavery for many decades. He received his Ph.D. from Germany and became a teacher. He infused the idea of a separate homeland into the souls of the Muslims. He was born in Sialkot on the 9th of November 1877………….

Proper Sequence

Allamma Iqbal was a great Muslim thinker, philosopher and poet. He was born in Sialkot, on the 9th of the November, 1877. After receiving his early education there and passing graduation from Murray College Sialkot, he entered Government College Lahore and received his M.A. degree in Philosophy……..

Discussing a debatable issue, you must embark with an introductory note on the issue, touch its merits, advantages or pros, then, switch onto its demerits, disadvantages or cons, and , finally, drive home your own point of view or verdict.

superb maidah .

Hello Misbah and Maidah your effort is commendable, I hope other members will also take part so we can have different opinions to make our own mind.
Thanks maidah for sharing useful tips.

Sahar and Flyer no problem you can read previous tips and join this journey from now by participating.


Our Next Topic is

An Ideal bureaucrat.

I will write it tomorrow morning. I urge all members to speed up, so we could cover atleast one topic per day.

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I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.

respected brother please mention my mistakes and you posted topic list already. either we follow that or current ? and please give roughly idea about bearucracy and beaurucrate

Aoa all respected members,
I can't partipate in previous topic,happy to see that member are working and presenting great ideas....
I was not feeling well snice last weak....but now I'm fine....
Insh Allah will be posting my short as easy as well....

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Nothing Is Impossible To A Willing Heart