GUIDED LEARNING E-PORTFOLIO WEBSITE
monitoring
Week 01
0 words
At this stage, I had not started on the book and was searching for books in the TP Library to use as foundational sources while completing the Learning Contract and my action plan.
Week 02
0 Words
I found three books to use as foundational research in the TP Library. I started reading them one by one over this period.
Week 03
0 Words
At this stage of the book, I was trying to find more books other than the 3 I had already found from the TP library, however this became a tedious task which only drew my attention away from finishing reading the books and after a few days of reading through not so helpful books I decided I would just use online sources
Week 04
0 words
At this stage, I began consolidating the notes I had taken through reading the three books and started to form a narrative in which my book should be written in. I started off wanting to write focusing on the economic development of Japan through the transitions between several periods of its history, but at the same time did not want to gloss over important events which were not exactly relevant to the subject of its economy, such as the catalyst for the transition between the Edo and Meiji Periods, the Boshin War, and the successful wars Imperial Japan fought against Qing Dynasty China (First Sino-Japanese War, Boxer Rebellion) and Imperial Russia (Russo-Japanese War).
Week 05
150 Words
I started to write the book. I began by writing a foreword containing brief explanations of what certain Japanese terms which would be used heavily throughout the book meant, so that readers without any prior knowledge of Japanese history would have a basic understanding of these terms while reading this.
Week 06
250 Words
I continued to work on the book throughout this week, however faced some issues with the Microsoft Word save function when I accidentally shut down my laptop before saving the document and lost a day's worth of work as a result. At this point I uploaded the copy into my school account and worked on it with autosave ever since.
Week 07
550 words
I continued writing my book during this week. I managed to submit an individual assignment and complete my responsibility in a group project early so I managed to devote some time to focusing on the book, which helped me get to 500 words.
Week 08
800 Words
I continued to write the book during this week.
Week 09
1000 Words
Week 10
1,800
I resumed writing my book during the weekends. However, this week was also the commencement of the Temasek Foundation Specialists' Community Action and Leadership Exchange (TF-SCALE) Programme with students from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) which I was participating in, and thus I would only be able to work on my book during the evenings and nights.
Week 11
2,700 Words
I continued to write the book during this week, by this point I managed to finish the Edo Period and could start on the Meiji Period. However I opted to refine the Edo Period section even more and added some new parts such as additional examples of unfair treaties the Tokugawa shogunate signed with other countries which brought the word count to almost 3,000.
Week 12
3,500
After the TF SCALE event concluded I continued writing the book, I managed to hit the 3,500 word mark. Unfortunately right after the MST had ended two weeks ago and right as the new term began, to my dismay, I learned that we would be having a Class Test for Business Finance!! (⚆ᗝ⚆)
Week 13
5,000 Words
Met my GL Facilitator Ms. Lu so we could go through my progress thus far. She offered valuable advice on how I should proceed, as well as some important things I should take note of which would occur during the final weeks of GL so I could prepare in advance.
Week 14
6,700 Words
While writing the Meiji Period section, I started to feel the crunch as the realisation began to sink in that there was only a few weeks left before I needed to submit my GL project! I began to pump more effort into writing as many words as possible with the goal to cross 10,000 words in my draft as I did not wish to submit a draft book with anything less than 10,000 words.
Week 15
10,000 Words
During this week, I managed to hit the 10,000 word mark. As I had failed my Business Finance Class Test, I also needed to devote some time to study and save my grades in the retest so I resigned myself to fate and accepted that I would only be able to write up to 10,000 words and nothing more.
Week 16
10,000 Words
Met my GL Facilitator Ms. Lu so we could go through my progress thus far. She offered guidance on how best to structure my GL eportfolio website.
Week 17
10,000 Words
Submission. ∑(; °Д°)
Comments from Friends
Dennis M.
Consider mentioning Tokugawa Ieyasu was a Shogun. Adding a citation for the Toi Kinzan mine section would be helpful for readers.
Wai Soh Dim
The Meiji Period section talking about the Zaibatsu was quite long, especially the case study, it may be easier to condense the section and summarise it so the readers dont have to read through the entire history of the Mitsui zaibatsu.
Sumting Wong
Some parts are a bit choppy, they jump a bit too much, like the beginning with the Edo Period, not much information was provided besides it was a period of isolation.
Leiying Loh
Try to use more concise language, some parts trailed off from the main point and may distract readers.
Ai Bang Ni
Consider adding more photos, especially for the paper currency section so its easier for readers to visualise what the money actually looks like back then.
Hoh Lee Fook
More elaboration on who Tokugawa Ieyasu's sons are would be good, we only know he is the first Shogun but we don't know what else he did during his time as shogun or about his two sons during their time as shogun besides implementing sakoku.