Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Thursday, 22 October 2009

How to write business emails

How to write business emails
================================

Many of us find it difficult to write emails because we often have to use English which is not our first language. We specially feel embarrassment when we have to maintain a business communication via emails e.g., while applying for jobs, requesting information for higher studies etc, and the lack of appropriate English language skills comes in our way. The purpose of this communication is to help those who are not very good with English language.

I must inform you that to write good emails does not necessarily demand you to be Shakespeare or an expert of English language. With very little effort and basic skills of English language you can write very descent emails. For that you just have to keep following Do’s and Don’ts in your mind.

1.Keep your sentences short.
2.Always read your email before sending.
3.Do not forget to write appropriate Subject.
4.Never use all Capital letters, it is considered rude.
5.Don’t forget to use words like "Thank you" and "Please".

For your convenience I am giving you some sample Emails which you can easily reuse according to your needs.

Sample 1: Email for Job/Internship Application.
===============================================

Hello Mr/Ms. NAME OF PERSON TO BE ADDRESSED, (If you don’t know who to address you can just use plain Hello)

I would like to apply for the post of TITLE OF POST. Please find attached my CV/Resume. Hope to hear soon from you.

Regards,

YOUR NAME
AND CONTACT DETAILS

Sample 2: Email for requesting information for higher Studies.
============================================

Hello Mr/Ms. XYZ,

I am interested to apply for Master’s/PhD program in your university/College. I would appreciate if you can help me with the application process. If possible kindly send me the prospectus and application forms at following address:

WRITE YOUR ADDRESS.

Thanking in anticipation.

Regards,

YOUR NAME
AND CONTACT DETAILS

Sample 3: Email for help in Final year Project/Mini project.
=========================================

Hello,

I am final year (or Second year) student of WRITE YOUR DEPARTMENT NAME and interested to do a project on XYZ (If you are open minded than don’t mention any specific area). Please suggest me guide me with any project proposal.

Thanking in anticipation.

Regards,

YOUR NAME
AND CONTACT DETAILS

Just keep these sample email in your access and you can reuse them according to your needs. Meanwhile continue your efforts to improve your oral and written language skills.

If on the other hand when you are writing an email to personal friends or may be sometime to teachers and you have to explain certain thing in your email in detail than don’t let your weak English language skills stop you. Tawhan sindhi men b email likhi sagho tha ya agar aap chahen to urdu ya koyee aur zubaan use ker saktay hen. However, it is not advisable for Business emails.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

About IELTS

IELTS

About IELTS:


The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a test administered to evaluate the English language skills of non-English speaking candidates seeking to pursue education programmes or immigration to English speaking countries. The test is designed to assess the candidate's ability to understand spoken and written English in academic and social contexts and also use the language to communicate in the spoken and written forms.

The IELTS test is conducted by the following educational bodies in partnership:

1. University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate (UCLES)
2. The British Council
3. IDP Educational Body, Australia (it's subsidiary is IELTS Australia Pvt. Ltd.)

IELTS scores are accepted by educational institutes, professional bodies, government undertakings and for immigration processing in Australia, New Zealand, U.K., Canada and certain American universities (like Princeton and Duke), where the IELTS scores are accepted in lieu of TOEFL scores.

What Does the IELTS Test:
The objective of the test is to assess a candidate's ability to understand and communicate in English in academic and social contexts. To make this assessment, the following skills are specifically tested.

1. The ability to read and comprehend written, academic or training language.
2. The ability to write assignments in a style that is appropriate for university study or within a training context.
3. The ability to understand spoken language in both lecture format as well as formal and informal conversational styles.
4. The ability to speak on general and given topics in formal and informal situations.

A Description of the Test:
The IELTS test has two versions:

1. The Academic Module - This module is intended for candidates seeking entry to a university or institution of higher education offering degree and diploma courses (i.e. those seeking undergraduate or postgraduate courses).

2. The General Training Module - This module is intended for students seeking entry to a secondary school or to vocational training courses. This module is also meant for candidates seeking immigration to an English speaking country.

The two versions do not carry the same weight and are not interchangeable.

All candidates are tested on reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Whereas the speaking and listening sections are common for the Academic and General versions of the test, the Reading and Writing sections are different.

Test Format:
The IELTS has four parts:

1. Listening Section - This consists of 4 parts with approximately 40 questions. Total time allotted to this section is 30 minutes, and another 10 minutes as transfer time (to transfer your answers to the answer sheet).

2. (Academic or General) Reading Section -This section will consist of 3 parts with approximately 40 questions. Total time allotted is 60 minutes.

3.(Academic or General) Writing Section -This section will consist of two writing tasks. Total time allotted is 60 minutes.

4. Speaking Section - Total time allotted to this section is 11 to 14 minutes.

The total duration of the test is 2 hours 45 minutes.

Scoring:
The result will consist of a score in each of the four skills (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking) which is then arranged to give the Overall Band Score or final mark. Performance is rated in each skill on a scale of 9 to 1. The nine overall Bands are as follows:


9 Expert user
8 Very good user
7 Good user
6 Competent user
5 Modest user
4 Limited User
3 Extremely limited user
2 Intermittent user
1 Non user
0 Did not attempt the test

Pass Mark:
There is no fixed pass mark in IELTS. The acceptability of a score is totally at the discretion of the institute-applied or govt. body (immigration). However, as a general rule, scores below Band 5 are considered to be too low and above Band 6 are deemed to be adequate to good. Band 5 to Band 6 scores are borderline. An overall score of Band 6.5 is mostly accepted as a good score. The individual module's Band score is considered as per the requirement.

For example, an Engineering Institute will emphasise on a good Band Score (6.5 or above) in Listening Module, as the institute's mode of teaching is lecture-oriented, whereas if a person is seeking a job in public - relations, then more weightage is given for a good Band Score (6.5 or more) in the Speaking Module.

In the Listening module and the Reading module, each question carries one mark and there is no negative marking for incorrect answers. Then the overall score is converted into a Band score from 9 to 1. The other two modules (Writing and Speaking) are rated as per the effectiveness, language skills, communication ability, clarity, fluency and spontaneity of the candidate. The same in these two modules can be developed by referring to the assessments made in various books. The candidate must gauge and try to comply with the examiner's assessment method.

Test Dates:
For latest test dates, contact the nearest BRITISH COUNCIL office or visit www.ielts.org. The Listening, Reading and Writing Modules are conducted on the same day as the test date, but the Speaking Module is conducted on any date between the period starting from seven days before to seven days after the examination date for the other three modules. This is at the discretion of the test centre, subject to the availability of slots.

The test can be taken up to a maximum of four times in a year, as there must be a gap of at least 90 days between the two tests. The test is a PBT (Paper Based Test) but some selected centres offer CBT (Computer Based Test) on request of the candidate.

How to Apply:
The IELTS application form can be procured free of cost from the British Council. This, along with the necessary documents (as prescribed in the application form), needs to be submitted to the nearest British Council, along with a Demand Draft of Rs.??? in the name of "British Council Division" payable at British Council.

The application form should be submitted at least 5 weeks before the examination date (as chosen by the candidate) or as per the slot-availability at the test centre where the candidate is interested in taking up the test.

Results:
The results reach the candidates two weeks after the test by post. In case a candidate needs to obtain the results within a week, the candidate needs to pay an extra amount, as mentioned in the application form.

Validity of Scores:
The Band score obtained is valid up to two years. While obtaining admission to an educational institute, the latest IELTS score is considered.

Thursday, 20 August 2009

THE NEW CENTRAL LIBRARY OF MUET


By Saad Kalwar


A library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. The term can mean the collection, the building that houses such a collection, or both. The library may be public or institutional.
In almost every institute of world, students are provided with the facility of
library. That has two main purposes, first and most important is that students may have some place to spend their leisure in studying or some research work. The other purpose is that the students may get the books issued from there for a particular time.
Talking about the old Central Library of MUET, many of the students had even not bothered to get the library card due to few reasons. One of the reasons was that they had seen the crowd inside over each other trying hard for getting books. The amount of books was also very small as compared to the number of students. If any one had to get the books issued, he would have to get at the cost of leaving his classes and be in library for whole day. There was also a very good and silent room for studying and passing leisure in reading books or any other creative activity for the hard working students.
But the main problem with that library was its location. One can say that the library was located in a corner of campus. Only the students of Electrical, Civil, Mechanical and C.R.P could use it regularly. For the students of other departments it was not so easy to go to library and use it at any time because they had to cover a long distance to reach there. This was one of the major reasons that most of the students of IT departments did not use the library.
Now as the new Central Library has been inaugurated, it is located in the centre of campus so students from any department can come and use their time in some creative activity. There are various floors dedicated for each work. Ground floor is only for book returning. 1st floor is dedicated for the students who are interested in reading books. There is a huge hall with separate portions for boys and girls. A very good number of books on almost every subject are available with electronic catalogue system. Now students don’t need to rush towards mid-point after being free from classes because it’s a very good place and students will really love to sit there and utilize their time. 2nd floor is for book issuing. Book issuing system is also new and nice. Now students don’t need to wait whole day for their turn to get
the books but they just have to go and search for books themselves. If some one finds the books, can get issued easily.
As the library has just started working, its timing is 9am – 2 pm. But we hope it will soon be opened in evening as well so that the hostellers can utilize it more effectively. There is no any photo copying, printing and scanning facility at the moment. We request higher authorities to please consider such things so that students may get as more as possible from the Library for which they had been waiting for years.

Abida's Songs

A Sindhi Classic

Wednesday, 19 August 2009

Student Action Committees (SACs) at MUET

Contributed By:

Ms. Zunera Aziz (07TL88), Mr. Umair Mujtaba Qureshi (07TL16), Mr. Saad Kalwar (07TL21), and Mr. Fahim Umrani

There is a need for effective student representation in our educational institutes. We have a long way to go in this regard. As students in our education institutes virtually spent dormant life. It seems that their sole purpose is to get (not earn) degree and grab good job to make money. We should realize that this should be changed.

We need to establish Student Action committees which can uphold the core values of providing a platform for every student voice and help enhance the quality of student life. It should consistently be able to deliver tangible results and strive to continue to fulfill that responsibility. Student Action committee should be a party that learns from the past, acts in the present, and builds for the future.



We are glad that some students of our departments from Faculty of electrical, electronics and computer engineering, MUET have already taken initiatives in the form of “M.U.S.T Forum” which is running and flourishing as the time passes. However, to keep such committees alive, we need to institutionalize them and the first step in that direction would be to kill the typical “lack of participation” attitude from our students and faculty members. We need to devise a strategy which not only ensures the increased participation of students but also increases the usefulness of such forums/committees. Keeping this in mind, we in this article would like to introduce the readers what actions have already been taken to establish such committees and also propose future plans. But first let’s start from the scratch by introducing what are Student Action Committees (SACs)?



What are SACs?

SACs -- These committees formed by the students are a representation of those individuals who want to mould their student life in a better way. These organizations/committees work on a number of activities including student supervising, newsletter publications, seminar placements, book fairs, project fairs, fund raising, establishing blood banks and more. 'Student societies often aim to facilitate a particular activity or promote a belief system; although some (explicitly) require nothing more than that a member is a student. Some are not affiliated with a specific university and/or accept non-university students.' (Courtesy: http://www.wikipedia.org/)

Importance of SACs

The activities of a student should not only be confined to books. There are a number of activities that the student should engage himself into, which would help him and other students as well. To initiate such a committee, the first thing that the student should realize is the thing which he is best at. Either its leadership, management, problem solving, or a lot of other factors could be taken into consideration.



By establishing a student action committee, an individual is actually nourishing his personality, the environment and providing his services to other individuals in a better way. This would enhance his confidence, leadership skills, time management skills, problem solving, team management and a number of other elements.



These committees provide a platform to students to engage in a number of projects that are hard to initiate on standalone basis. For example, a student cannot initiate a blood bank all by himself, he has to engage a lot of other people in his project. This is where the need of an effective Student Action Committee arises.



MUST -- A Student Action Committee at Mehran UET!




Mehran University’s students have brought some revolutionary ideas that shape in M.U.S.T forum. MUST is a non-political body and most of its agenda and activities are concerned with the campus life of the students. The acute and primary task of M.U.S.T forum is to understand the student’s educational needs and provide them the solutions of respective subject’s problems. M.U.S.T forum is currently in its infant stages but progressing with the support of all teachers of concerned departments, efforts of its members and appreciable student’s corporation of various disciplines.

Organizational Structure of the MUST forum





M.U.S.T forum has now targeted the students of 09 & 08 batches of Electronics, Telecommunication, Bio-medical & Software engineering departments and providing its maximum services to troubleshoot the different problems of students. It will be heading throughout the MUET in near future.




M.U.S.T forum has finally laid down its foundation and managed to hold its 1st general meeting, comprising of all the members from their respective departments, in which the constitution containing the core aims and objects of the forum were put forward in front of all members for an open debate. All members were taken in confidence and finally different responsibilities were distributed amongst the nominated members who have been actively participating since the organization’s birth. The members of the M.U.S.T forum being students themselves are very well aware of the difficulties that a student encounters and have keen interest and will in solving those problems.



Aims and objectives of MUST



We are the interface between the students and the administration and we work together to identify and address concerns that affect the students directly and indirectly. It represents the interests of the students and participates in discussions and decisions that affect the student community.

  • To represent and voice for the student’s of Mehran UET.
  • To help student’s of MUET in developing academic skills.
  • To help student’s of MUET in developing their professional skills.
  • To help student’s of MUET in coping the life at campus problems.
  • To organize, participate and encourage extra-curricular activities for and by the Students.

Current Projects

Following are some projects that the MUST forum has already initiated in each of its chapters:

  1. Committee on Learning Assistance: M.U.S.T forum has initiated a team that is dedicated in providing the learning assistance by conducting lectures in those subjects in which a student finds difficulties within the university premises in the free hours (specially for junior batches).
  • InfoTech: The idea is to aware the students (specially from junior batches) about different projects & thesis that are under development. A file will be brought on the wall which will list all the projects/thesis currently being worked on and it will also suggest new final year project or mini project ideas based on latest and innovative technologies for them to consider.
  • Group Discussions: M.U.S.T forum realizes to build a consensus among all the students. Keeping in view that the forum is designing a strategy to initiate a program of group discussions among all the willing students, the topic will be pasted on the student’s notice board a week before so the students willing to participate can prepare themselves to have a debate on the topic. In the similar manner, small seminars can also be organized.

2. FEECE e-Newsletter: M.U.S.T forum has dedicated a team of its volunteers which regularly releases an e-newsletter under the supervision of Sir Fahim Umrani on the 15th of every month through an online yahoo group “sar_muet”. Following the directions of Sir Fahim, steps are being taken to make the newsletter available to students through the library and through the notice boards in hard form.


Future Projects

Student's Life Committee: Many students come to MUET scare of ragging and bullying but when the left they often have tears in their eyes. But they all start loving this institute in hard way. We aim to stimulate the process of enjoying campus life as quickly as possible. The core objective of this committee is to help the student’s quickly familiarize with the campus life of MUET and make him/her part of our big family!

  • Establish Blood bank where each student will be requested to provide his/ her details of Blood group and contact address so that they can be approached in the times of emergency – Already started working.
  • Accommodation Committee where the volunteers/officials will accumulate the first hand information of how to apply for hostel rooms in MUET and contact details for private property lenders in Jamshoro/Hyderabad.
  • Recreational Committee where the volunteers/officials will organize one-day or multi-day tours during Weekends, Mid-terms, winter or summer vacations. And also make efforts to organize Sporting events (inter-departmental or interuniversity or even at higher level). This recreational committee should NOT need any financial support and has the potential to sustain it. As throughout world (and don't forget we too are part of this world) students pay themselves for Tours and participation in Sporting Events. Of course when they will organize they will get all sorts of benefits and Discounts from University and of course the owners of touring spots.
  • Event Organizing Committee where the officials will take efforts to organize Workshops/ Seminars/Conferences/Extra Classes/Quiz, Book fairs, debate or Project Competitions.
  • Student’s Money Matters Committee where the members will accumulate the information for different scholarships and every student will be able to get necessary information from one point. In this regard, 2KES Scholarship Foundation supporting students financially has agreed to closely work with MUST to bring this foundation under the umbrella of Students Money Matters Committee. For further details about the foundation please visit:

    http://fahimumrani.googlepages.com/2kesscholarshipfoundation

  • MUET’s Women Affair Female students’ or the staff of MUET faces most problems than any body else, ranging from access to proper transport, obnoxious hooting, stalking to sexual harassment and gender discrimination. We believe that some of those problems can be resolved if we coordinate and organize. Keeping this in mind MUST forum has decided to form a committee exclusively for the Women at MUET. We also hope that the female staff teaching and otherwise will also honor us by becoming part of this committee.


We also intend to engage closely with Student Welfare department and MUET’s Sport department to work together for the welfare of Students. We are confident in hoping that seeing our passion and determination the officials of SWD and Sports section will encourage and cooperate with us in best possible manner.

MUST forum is now being officially registered by the cooperation of Chairman ES Sir Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry. For that we are ever grateful to him. We, as representative of the MUST forum, would also like to thank our Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Rajput for considering our request to legalize this forum. We would also like to request the higher authorities to stretch out their hands for their essential cooperation and to help us so that we can extend this forum to other departments as well and cover the whole university.

We would like to end this article thanking you for reading and with the following quote “Self improvement can be achieved but not with a quick fix. It is long ardous journey of personal experiences and discoveries – Lisa Simpson – The Simpsons”

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

2KES Scholarship Foundation

25 people willing to contribute just 100 Rs. per month can help graduate a needy bright student to graduate from the 2nd best engineering university of Pakistan!

For further details please visit:

http://fahimumrani.googlepages.com/2kesscholarshipfoundation