That question came flooding my mind since I attended the Writing Workshop past two days.
Flash back...
We were listening to a lecture delivered by a friend on techniques of writing.
Half way through the lecture, we were guided on ways to select good articles and how to differentiate between good and poor articles, hence journals.
In order to do that, a wild search on Western scholars paved us to a google site that records the h-index of one's scholar's contribution to the academics world. It displayed hundreds and even thousands of scores per one's western scholar who is declared as prominent in his/her areas.
Then, we tried a few top Malaysian professors, which revealed a very low h-index. That's where Malaysian scholars stand. Oh my God...
And...out of curiosity, I tried my name.
Guess.. what would you find out?
Well, with no orientation and climate on academic inclination at our institution, it is of no surprise to find my name, with no hits on h-index despite a number of writings/publication/articles that I wrote thus far.
Though the articles I wrote were vividly displayed there (and of course, I was quite overwhelmed to find that), but to find the truth of how you stand in the academic world, was a real an eye-opener to me.
When I saw how Western scholars score hits on h-index, I came to realise the wide gap between what is defined by a scholar in Western world and Malaysian's academic world.
I went back that day, with questions swirling in my mind.
I started to flip through my collection of writings, including the ones I sent to international journals. How come they were not cited? Hmmm...of course, the so-called journal 'cap ayam' term was the answer.
Then what is the issue here? Moral of the story, anyone?
Well, you know it.
Our standard of writings aren't at par as the international scholars'.
The lack of critical reading and writing that leads to poor argumentation in how we write makes it difficult for us to achieve the real definition of scholar.
So, there you are.
Hmm...What should Ido next?
Polish up my critical reading.
How?
Put on multiple lens while reading, wear different hats of thinking while so doing.
Then we will eventually be able to see loads of different perspective even in a single line of writing.
Of course, easier said than done. But nothing is easier than doing for believing.
Practice makes perfect. There you go, Eyja.
