Module 1.1: Sanghvi's Article Continued

In the article, Sanghvi continues further. In the next paragraph, he says, "It was a time of change. New groups were springing up out of nowhere". He continues further in the fourth paragraph of the article:

At Tata headquarters, however, the crises mounted: record losses at Tata Motors, the much-derided plan to launch the Indica, criminal charges over Tata Tea’s alleged links with Assam militants, allegations of foolishness in the sale of Tata Oil Mills’ assets, a plan to launch a domestic airline with Singapore Airlines that was comprehensively scuttled and more. And many of us wondered if we were watching India’s greatest industrial group diminish before our very eyes.

The way he builds up the tempo, to use a term from chess, in the beginning of the article, in the first four paragraphs, makes it very clear that he is trying to show that when Ratan Tata came on to the scene, the Tata group seemed to be in doldrums and that Ratan Tata was the person who not only rescued it, but also transformed it into a giant. I do not disagree with Sanghvi but I'm trying to dissect his writing strategies. If you use similar writing strategies, you can also achieve similar effects.

This is one strategy of building up the tempo slowly as you go ahead in your article. It is an interesting writing strategy because it keeps the reader hooked on to the article till the end. So, I have had situations in my classes, where my students have disagreed with the contents of a couple of Vir Sanghvi articles but they have never faulted him for his writing style. I am sure this is something that beginners can inculcate.

In my next post, which would be a kind of follow-up and final post on this article, I would refer to various tough to understand and less commonly used words in the article and focus on their usage.

Series on E-learning

Keeping in mind my commitment to e-learning as also the fact that I would like to spread education and knowledge in myriad ways, I have thought of a new series of posts that I am going to run on my blog. I hope all of you shall like it. These posts are going to be instructional in nature and I plan to take full or partial articles from various sources, keeping in mind the copyrights, and analyze them for their language, the rhetorical devises used, usage of different styles of English and the way in which these articles are able to demonstrate language with a flourish.

Various Modes of Education: Some Thoughts

There are various modes of education which are prevalent in a system, such as formal education, distance education, e-learning and homeschooling. Homeschooling could also include distance education and e-learning. The university where I work has yet another system, which is akin to the non-collegiate setting in many universities. They have some called a private student, which is a facility extended to girl students. So, these girls are not requited to take admission through the entrance test or face interviews during the time of admission, however, they are allowed to pay the examination fees when the forms are accepted for examinations and they are allowed to take the final examinations. Private students are allowed in all courses except professional courses, such as Bachelors in Education [B.Ed.], Masters in Business Administration [M.B.A.] etc. They get the same mark sheets and the certificates which are issued to other regular students. The only difference is that their certificate has 'private student' written somewhere, which doesn't make any difference in their seeking further education from the regular stream in any part of the country or in their seeking employment. This system is akin to homeschooling at the college/university level but it isn't known by that nomenclature.

E-learning made its mark in recent times after the advent of the information superhighway and the technological revolution. Access to internet and email made it easier for people staying in remote locations to seek higher education or get trained by studying specific modules. It is a cost-effective option as well for people who cannot get visas or cannot afford to study in certain 'first world' universities in the West.

I would like to discuss more about these issues later as well. I think these are very important issues and one should ruminate on them.