In our university life, we have to do a lot of writing assignments and projects. Each time is a great challenge for me, since the content is much more difficult than what I learned in the junior college, and I have met many difficulties in such writing.
At the beginning of this semester, I was struggling with my writing assignment of Economics, because I have no basic ideas in this area at all. The tutor let us to answer the short answer question and present the answers during the class. That question was mainly about the analysis of the demand and supply of a kind of product in the market. At first, I don’t know how to start at all. My brain was totally blank, because in the given articles, there was so much information for us to choose as the first target. I read this article once and once again and tried to select out the useful information. Then I read the lecture notes to find the principles that I could apply onto this question. How ever, the information on the notes was quite abstract. So I decided to discuss it with my friends and take my effort to search on the Internet. I also went to the Central Library to borrow useful books. After 3 days struggling, I finally finished this assignment.
I think the most important thing we should remember in writing assignments or projects is to understand the questions very well. Only after understanding it, then we could start thinking and writing efficiently. At the same time, it is also helpful to discuss with others, which we can share with each other’s idea and learn from others.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Summarize the RTD
During our round table discussion last week, we were divided into four small groups and we focused on different topics. They are hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), green chemistry, brain scans and embryonic stem cell researches. Most of us prepared a lot before the actual discussion in the lesson and did quite good jobs at that day. Here is a brief summary of all four round table discussion.
The first group’s topic is HEV and they discussed about the usage, the cost and the feasibility. The pro-side pointed out the current global warming effect is largely due to the high emissions of CO2 and CO2 mainly comes form the conventional vehicles. Since HEV uses electricity instead of fuel. There is Zero emission of green gas, hence, it HEV is environmental friendly. the pro-side suggested that HEV should be used widely. The opposing side listed a few disadvantages. For example, since HEV uses electricity, it has a much smaller horse power compared to conventional vehicles. In addition, it depends on batteries too much and has a long charging time. The discussion between the two sides was very exciting.
The second group talked about the brain studies. This research could help us to understand our brain better. However whether this technology should be used is a very controversial issue. The supporters argued this brain scan could help us to identify terrorists. They also said that government should not restrict on this technology because if would slow down the development of this technology. However, the opponents claimed it was an invasion of peoples’ privacy. Furthermore, they believe if this thing was used in the public, it would result discrimination. For example, employers can scan employees’ brains first and then decide who they want to hire. This would make those applicants who were rejected feel unfair and insulted. This will cause a serious social problem.
The third group’s topic is green chemistry. As we are getting richer, we are beginning to pay more attention to our living environment. The supporting side claimed Singapore should take her initiative to adopt the green chemistry as she has the capability. However the opposing side said, due to the recent economic crisis, its better for us to follow others.
Lastly is our group. We debated on whether embryonic stem cell research should be adopted or not. This part I am going to leave to others to make the judgment.
The first group’s topic is HEV and they discussed about the usage, the cost and the feasibility. The pro-side pointed out the current global warming effect is largely due to the high emissions of CO2 and CO2 mainly comes form the conventional vehicles. Since HEV uses electricity instead of fuel. There is Zero emission of green gas, hence, it HEV is environmental friendly. the pro-side suggested that HEV should be used widely. The opposing side listed a few disadvantages. For example, since HEV uses electricity, it has a much smaller horse power compared to conventional vehicles. In addition, it depends on batteries too much and has a long charging time. The discussion between the two sides was very exciting.
The second group talked about the brain studies. This research could help us to understand our brain better. However whether this technology should be used is a very controversial issue. The supporters argued this brain scan could help us to identify terrorists. They also said that government should not restrict on this technology because if would slow down the development of this technology. However, the opponents claimed it was an invasion of peoples’ privacy. Furthermore, they believe if this thing was used in the public, it would result discrimination. For example, employers can scan employees’ brains first and then decide who they want to hire. This would make those applicants who were rejected feel unfair and insulted. This will cause a serious social problem.
The third group’s topic is green chemistry. As we are getting richer, we are beginning to pay more attention to our living environment. The supporting side claimed Singapore should take her initiative to adopt the green chemistry as she has the capability. However the opposing side said, due to the recent economic crisis, its better for us to follow others.
Lastly is our group. We debated on whether embryonic stem cell research should be adopted or not. This part I am going to leave to others to make the judgment.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Common Grammar Mistakes
Mistake 1:
Sentence: These people are really geniuses, but will those cloned become scientists as we expected?
There is a Verb Tense mistake here. The word “expected” should be changed to “expect” to agree with the simple tense here.
The corrected sentence: These people are really geniuses, but will those cloned become scientists as we expect?
Mistake 2:
Sentence: All of these magical things come into reality in twenty-first century.
There are two mistakes here. First one is the verb tense problem. It should be simple past tense because of the twenty-first century. Hence the “come” should be “came” instead. Second mistake is there is a missing article in front of the “twenty-first century”. The definite article “the” should always be used in front of the ordinal.
The correct sentence: All of these magical things came into reality in the twenty-first century.
Mistake 3;
Sentence: The administrator have informed all the staff about the new policy.
The mistake here is the subject-verb agreement. Since the “administrator” is singular, the verb should be “has” instead of “have”. In order to make these two agree with each other, we can either change “administrator” to plural or change “have” to “has”.
The corrected sentence: The administrators have informed all the staff about the new policy.
Sentence: These people are really geniuses, but will those cloned become scientists as we expected?
There is a Verb Tense mistake here. The word “expected” should be changed to “expect” to agree with the simple tense here.
The corrected sentence: These people are really geniuses, but will those cloned become scientists as we expect?
Mistake 2:
Sentence: All of these magical things come into reality in twenty-first century.
There are two mistakes here. First one is the verb tense problem. It should be simple past tense because of the twenty-first century. Hence the “come” should be “came” instead. Second mistake is there is a missing article in front of the “twenty-first century”. The definite article “the” should always be used in front of the ordinal.
The correct sentence: All of these magical things came into reality in the twenty-first century.
Mistake 3;
Sentence: The administrator have informed all the staff about the new policy.
The mistake here is the subject-verb agreement. Since the “administrator” is singular, the verb should be “has” instead of “have”. In order to make these two agree with each other, we can either change “administrator” to plural or change “have” to “has”.
The corrected sentence: The administrators have informed all the staff about the new policy.
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