After studying in NUS for one year, I have realized that university is very much different from polytechnic in terms of writing good English.
The similarity of both university and polytechnic is that we have to write a lot of reports for different modules. As a result, it is vital to develop my writing skills not only for the purpose of getting good results, but also prepare ourselves for the future when we graduate. However, the major difference between university and polytechnic is that university requires us to write a much longer and detailed report. As the report is getting longer, we have to include more stuff inside the report and thus we are more prone to making errors.
At university level, the proficiency of English language is undoubtedly high. Meanwhile, since NUS is a global university, there are many international students who are pursuing their higher education here. So it is important that we use professional and correct English to express our ideas to others. Having taken EG1471, I have noticed that after so many years of studying English, I am still facing quite a lot of problems in writing good English. Some major mistakes are verb tenses and spelling errors. That is the reason that sometimes my writing will cause a bit of confusion and misunderstanding. This kind of situation is always not desirable and it is crucial for me to improve my writing skills so that I will make the same mistakes in the future.
Writing a good essay or report does not necessarily mean using difficult words. Most of the time simple words and sentences will do a much better job. The important thing is that if I can use simple words to express what I want to say. For example, when I was writing argumentative essays, I always stuck at some points where I could not continue anymore. The reason for this is that I do not know which correct word or sentence to put in order to convey my ideas to the readers. After taking EG1471, now I have the habit of do the pre-writing before I start writing the real essay. All the knowledge that I have acquired from EG1471 is valuable to me and will definitely help me to write good essays and reports when I graduate and start working.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Summary of 3 Common Grammar Mistakes
Having gone through both writing assignment 1 and 2, I have noticed that the 3 most common grammar mistakes I made are verb tense, active/passive voice and spelling.
The first grammatical I have made during my writing assignment 1 and 2 is verb tense. I realize that my mistakes are mostly related to past tense and past perfect, I tend to use past tense for most of the situations and sometimes I use past tense when it is required or other tense should be used instead. For example, in my first writing assignment, there was one sentence which was “The first major test of CCS was actually taken place in 1996.” Clearly the “was” should not be used in this context.
The second major grammatical error I have made is active/passive voice. After reading through my 2 essays, I have found quite a few active/passive voice mistakes which I should have noticed during my writing. I always forget or rather ignore the active/passive voice. As a result, my sentence will always make people wonder due to lack of correct active/passive voice. For example, “many techniques and technologies that related to CCS have been proposed to conventional power plants such as fossil fuel.” In this sentence, “are” should be added before related.
The last most common mistake I made is spelling. Most of the time, I tend to type very fast. And I do not possess the habit of proofreading, consequently, there are always spelling mistakes in my essays. The most recent spelling mistake I have made was from my writing assignment 2, in which I wrote inter-gonmental instead of inter-governmental. Although Microsoft office word highlighted the mistake for me, I ignored it because I thought the word was ok.
These are just some of my most common mistakes, beside that, I still make other grammar mistake like articles and word form. In order to improve my writing skills, I have to try to prevent all those mistakes from happening again; after all, these elements are the foundation of writing good English.
The first grammatical I have made during my writing assignment 1 and 2 is verb tense. I realize that my mistakes are mostly related to past tense and past perfect, I tend to use past tense for most of the situations and sometimes I use past tense when it is required or other tense should be used instead. For example, in my first writing assignment, there was one sentence which was “The first major test of CCS was actually taken place in 1996.” Clearly the “was” should not be used in this context.
The second major grammatical error I have made is active/passive voice. After reading through my 2 essays, I have found quite a few active/passive voice mistakes which I should have noticed during my writing. I always forget or rather ignore the active/passive voice. As a result, my sentence will always make people wonder due to lack of correct active/passive voice. For example, “many techniques and technologies that related to CCS have been proposed to conventional power plants such as fossil fuel.” In this sentence, “are” should be added before related.
The last most common mistake I made is spelling. Most of the time, I tend to type very fast. And I do not possess the habit of proofreading, consequently, there are always spelling mistakes in my essays. The most recent spelling mistake I have made was from my writing assignment 2, in which I wrote inter-gonmental instead of inter-governmental. Although Microsoft office word highlighted the mistake for me, I ignored it because I thought the word was ok.
These are just some of my most common mistakes, beside that, I still make other grammar mistake like articles and word form. In order to improve my writing skills, I have to try to prevent all those mistakes from happening again; after all, these elements are the foundation of writing good English.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Summary of roundtable discussion
Group1:
Group1 discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of biodiesel, a green and renewable energy that is made from soya bean. The supporting party stated that biodiesel could benefit mankind in many ways. For example, it is renewable and safe; in addition, it will not produce much pollution to the environment.
However, the opposing party argued that biodiesel was not suitable to be used in cold weather due to the fact that its high freezing point might clog the car engines. They also pointed out that biodiesel was impossible for countries such as Singapore that does not have environment condition to grow crops. The argument was rebutted by the supporting party as they argued that Singapore could buy from other counties.
Biodiesel will become a good replacement of diesel fuel if it gets support from the government and it is believed that more policies will come out regarding this issue.
Group2:
Group2 touched the topic of whether Singapore is suitable for green chemistry deployment.
The supporting party claimed that green chemistry is renewable and pollution-free. Moreover, green chemistry could be more efficiently manufactured compared to normal plastic that is used in our daily life now.
But the opposing party argued that green chemistry may be toxic to human. Also, it is a very expensive technology which will increase the cost of plastic production. In short, it will depend on Singapore government to decide whether to implement it or not.
Group3:
Group3’s discussion was about genetic engineering and whether government should allow parents to choose their baby’s gene.
The supporting party said that everyone has the right to choose what kind of baby they want to have in the future. However, the opposing party argued that every baby also has the right to decide what kind of person or what gender they want for themselves. If the parents get to decide the gene of their baby, the baby may be forced to accept something that they might not like. The supporting party rebutted by saying that gene selection could also prevent baby from having deadly diseases. The opposing party argued that other unknown disease may appear due to the change of gene. All in all, we need to be extremely cautious when it comes to genetic engineering and we must always bear in mind that we don’t want to create people, instead, we want to make people’s life become better.
Group1 discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of biodiesel, a green and renewable energy that is made from soya bean. The supporting party stated that biodiesel could benefit mankind in many ways. For example, it is renewable and safe; in addition, it will not produce much pollution to the environment.
However, the opposing party argued that biodiesel was not suitable to be used in cold weather due to the fact that its high freezing point might clog the car engines. They also pointed out that biodiesel was impossible for countries such as Singapore that does not have environment condition to grow crops. The argument was rebutted by the supporting party as they argued that Singapore could buy from other counties.
Biodiesel will become a good replacement of diesel fuel if it gets support from the government and it is believed that more policies will come out regarding this issue.
Group2:
Group2 touched the topic of whether Singapore is suitable for green chemistry deployment.
The supporting party claimed that green chemistry is renewable and pollution-free. Moreover, green chemistry could be more efficiently manufactured compared to normal plastic that is used in our daily life now.
But the opposing party argued that green chemistry may be toxic to human. Also, it is a very expensive technology which will increase the cost of plastic production. In short, it will depend on Singapore government to decide whether to implement it or not.
Group3:
Group3’s discussion was about genetic engineering and whether government should allow parents to choose their baby’s gene.
The supporting party said that everyone has the right to choose what kind of baby they want to have in the future. However, the opposing party argued that every baby also has the right to decide what kind of person or what gender they want for themselves. If the parents get to decide the gene of their baby, the baby may be forced to accept something that they might not like. The supporting party rebutted by saying that gene selection could also prevent baby from having deadly diseases. The opposing party argued that other unknown disease may appear due to the change of gene. All in all, we need to be extremely cautious when it comes to genetic engineering and we must always bear in mind that we don’t want to create people, instead, we want to make people’s life become better.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Summary of two articles related to roundtable discussion
The topic assigned to us for our roundtable discussion is “Investigate the status of one climate change mitigation technology adoption and explicate why citizen groups should support, promote, or oppose such technology. “The two articles related to this issue are “Going Underground” and “Warming Signs”.
Summary
“Going underground” is written by Mark Schrope, a freelance science writer based in Florida. He discussed about the basic idea of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology and also reported on a promising new method for monitoring carbon dioxide deep underground.
CCS is considered as a clean technology which holds huge promise. It can effectively strip 80 to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emission from conventional power plants and probably will reduce one third of the global carbon dioxide if it is fully deployed around the world. However, one worry is how to make sure that the carbon dioxide captured can be safely stored under the ground.
Throughout the years, scientists have been trying and testing numerous methods to monitor the carbon dioxide underground, for example, seismic surveys and gravity measurements. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. After years and years of measurement, it is concluded that gravity measurement is sufficient for long-term monitoring of carbon dioxide sites. Still, gravity measurement alone cannot fully achieve the job. Other techniques like seismic is needed to ensure carbon dioxide is suitably secure.
As CCS is becoming more and more promising, the next step would be put CCS into large scale. It is believed that CCS will play a significant role in reducing carbon dioxide emission.
The second article, “Warming Signs” from Mohan Munasinghe who is the vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chair of the Munasinghe Institute for Development in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He suggests that the ever-increasing global warming will cause a series of disastrous consequences for the planet that we are living. People from developing countries and poor countries will be mostly affected.
According to Mr. Munasinghe, people can respond by these effects in two ways, namely, adaption and mitigation. He urged developing countries to focus on adaptation whereas the rich countries to put the effort in mitigation and also to assist those poor countries. One promising approach was discussed in the article which is known as ‘sustainomics’. It has three crucial parts: making development more sustainable; balancing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development; lastly, ensuring any discussions transcend traditional boundaries across space and time, and among academic disciplines or interest groups.
Evaluation
The first article gives a comprehensive explanation of CCS’ monitoring system which provides readers with detailed information to help them understand and clarify their doubts.
The second article analyzes the current condition of global warming and gives some advices to both developed and developing countries to ease and prevent global warming from worsening.
APA citation
Schrope, Mark. (December 2008). Nature report climate change, VOL 2, www.nature.com/reports/climate_change, macmillan publisher limited
Munasinghe. Mohan, A world of Science in the Developing World, macimillan publisher limited.
Revelant vocabulary words
Seismic survey: produce an image of earth’s subsurface using reflected sound waves.
Gravimeter: equipment that can measure changes in gravity through the compression or expansion of a spring with a weight attached to the bottom.
Geology: composition, structure and origin of the rocks.
Sustainomics: balancing environment with social and economic aspects.
Summary
“Going underground” is written by Mark Schrope, a freelance science writer based in Florida. He discussed about the basic idea of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology and also reported on a promising new method for monitoring carbon dioxide deep underground.
CCS is considered as a clean technology which holds huge promise. It can effectively strip 80 to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emission from conventional power plants and probably will reduce one third of the global carbon dioxide if it is fully deployed around the world. However, one worry is how to make sure that the carbon dioxide captured can be safely stored under the ground.
Throughout the years, scientists have been trying and testing numerous methods to monitor the carbon dioxide underground, for example, seismic surveys and gravity measurements. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. After years and years of measurement, it is concluded that gravity measurement is sufficient for long-term monitoring of carbon dioxide sites. Still, gravity measurement alone cannot fully achieve the job. Other techniques like seismic is needed to ensure carbon dioxide is suitably secure.
As CCS is becoming more and more promising, the next step would be put CCS into large scale. It is believed that CCS will play a significant role in reducing carbon dioxide emission.
The second article, “Warming Signs” from Mohan Munasinghe who is the vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chair of the Munasinghe Institute for Development in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He suggests that the ever-increasing global warming will cause a series of disastrous consequences for the planet that we are living. People from developing countries and poor countries will be mostly affected.
According to Mr. Munasinghe, people can respond by these effects in two ways, namely, adaption and mitigation. He urged developing countries to focus on adaptation whereas the rich countries to put the effort in mitigation and also to assist those poor countries. One promising approach was discussed in the article which is known as ‘sustainomics’. It has three crucial parts: making development more sustainable; balancing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development; lastly, ensuring any discussions transcend traditional boundaries across space and time, and among academic disciplines or interest groups.
Evaluation
The first article gives a comprehensive explanation of CCS’ monitoring system which provides readers with detailed information to help them understand and clarify their doubts.
The second article analyzes the current condition of global warming and gives some advices to both developed and developing countries to ease and prevent global warming from worsening.
APA citation
Schrope, Mark. (December 2008). Nature report climate change, VOL 2, www.nature.com/reports/climate_change, macmillan publisher limited
Munasinghe. Mohan, A world of Science in the Developing World, macimillan publisher limited.
Revelant vocabulary words
Seismic survey: produce an image of earth’s subsurface using reflected sound waves.
Gravimeter: equipment that can measure changes in gravity through the compression or expansion of a spring with a weight attached to the bottom.
Geology: composition, structure and origin of the rocks.
Sustainomics: balancing environment with social and economic aspects.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Summary of speech
"An Inconvenient Truth" has told us how serious global warming can turn out to be, and this concept has been further reinforced by attending the presentations on global warming by Professor Andrew Palmer, Benjamin K. Sovacoo and Rajasekhar Bala.
Professor Andrew Palmer is from Centre for offshore research & Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, NUS). He touched on topic on Carbon dioxide capture & storage: technology & politics.
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring balanced in the air we breathe. It used to occupy a small amount of air. However, as the world keeps progressing and countries keep developing, more and more carbon dioxide has been released in the air. Gradually it traps heat in the atmosphere and heats up the temperature around us. As the temperature increases, global warming is likely to happen. The climate change will cause flood and drought which lead animals and mankind to extinction.
The actions people should take in order to prevent such things from happening are: fuel efficiency & conservation; fuel switch to gas; solar displaces coal and carbon dioxide capture & storage. Among all those actions, carbon dioxide capture & storage is the most interesting one. It is done by diffusing the gas into the ocean or storing them in large sausage-shaped membranes. It seems very hard to achieve but at least people are putting their best effort to solve the problems.
The second presenter, Associate Professor Benjamin K.Sovecool talked about using STS to address energy (and technological) problems. He showed us the revolutions of various technological inventions and how those things have affected our life. He listed out technical challenges; economic challenges, political challenges and social/culture challenges faced by people and proved to us that STS methods are very useful in evaluating latest technologies.
For the final part of the presentation, Mr. Rajasekhar Bala gave us an excellent speech on climate change: assessment & mitigation. He basically showed to us the effect and consequences of greenhouse gases with detailed data and models.
According to Mr. Bala, greenhouse effect will lead to global warming and the evidence to support that is the 2007 IPCC report and fast-rising average global surface temperature. Some potential consequences were also pointed out such as droughts, floods and tipping point.
All of those consequences can be avoided if necessary actions are taken such as we can rely on more renewable energy resources and government should tax greenhouse gases emission and subsidize energy efficiency and renewable energy use.
Global warming is a global issue. So everyone has to play a part in fighting it to protect our beautiful earth from all kinds of disasters.
Professor Andrew Palmer is from Centre for offshore research & Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, NUS). He touched on topic on Carbon dioxide capture & storage: technology & politics.
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring balanced in the air we breathe. It used to occupy a small amount of air. However, as the world keeps progressing and countries keep developing, more and more carbon dioxide has been released in the air. Gradually it traps heat in the atmosphere and heats up the temperature around us. As the temperature increases, global warming is likely to happen. The climate change will cause flood and drought which lead animals and mankind to extinction.
The actions people should take in order to prevent such things from happening are: fuel efficiency & conservation; fuel switch to gas; solar displaces coal and carbon dioxide capture & storage. Among all those actions, carbon dioxide capture & storage is the most interesting one. It is done by diffusing the gas into the ocean or storing them in large sausage-shaped membranes. It seems very hard to achieve but at least people are putting their best effort to solve the problems.
The second presenter, Associate Professor Benjamin K.Sovecool talked about using STS to address energy (and technological) problems. He showed us the revolutions of various technological inventions and how those things have affected our life. He listed out technical challenges; economic challenges, political challenges and social/culture challenges faced by people and proved to us that STS methods are very useful in evaluating latest technologies.
For the final part of the presentation, Mr. Rajasekhar Bala gave us an excellent speech on climate change: assessment & mitigation. He basically showed to us the effect and consequences of greenhouse gases with detailed data and models.
According to Mr. Bala, greenhouse effect will lead to global warming and the evidence to support that is the 2007 IPCC report and fast-rising average global surface temperature. Some potential consequences were also pointed out such as droughts, floods and tipping point.
All of those consequences can be avoided if necessary actions are taken such as we can rely on more renewable energy resources and government should tax greenhouse gases emission and subsidize energy efficiency and renewable energy use.
Global warming is a global issue. So everyone has to play a part in fighting it to protect our beautiful earth from all kinds of disasters.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Global Warming
Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Increasing global temperature will probably cause sea level to rise which change the amount and pattern of precipitation, likely including an expanse of the subtropical desert regions. The effect of global warming will lead to species extinctions if we do not do anything about it.
There is a movie named "An Inconvenient Truth" which talks about Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. He presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful way to urge everyone to act boldly and quickly to fight global climate crisis. Although Mr. Gore did not tell people what and how to do in order to react to global climate change, all the facts that he provided are more than enough for audience to draw their own conclusions.
As a matter of fact, with effect from 1 January 2009, more areas in Singapore are prohibited from smoking due to the “Smoking Ban Extension” campaign introduced by National Environment Agency. Those areas include any amusement centres, any foodshop, any air-conditioned hall or function room, any lift and any cinema. There are still other places where smoking is disallowed. This is a good way of preventing global warming. By doing that, Singapore has shown to other counties its firm determination to fight climate change and protect our earth. According to a statistic from United Nations in 2008, Singapore's climate-change index has improved from 49th to 38th out of 57 economies in a climate change performance index. The improvement is probably due to the new climate change strategy unveiled last February which includes a $170 million injection to facilitate research clean energy sources such as solar power and campaigns in the media to promote energy efficiency and reduce power usage.
However, Singapore alone cannot save earth from global warming; every country in the world should play a part in fighting climate change.
Recent study shows that China has facing global warming disasters more and more often. Its largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake has shrunk to 50 square kilometers from its peak. The fluctuation in the lake's area from the summer flood season to the winter dry period has long been commonplace. The official was told that the winter drought is likely to continue for the next 10 years. So the Chinese government should start thinking how to resolve the problem so that the China will not have exploited all its available water supplies to the limit.
Fighting global warming is not one man's job, every one of us have to play our part to save ourselves as well as our next generation.
There is a movie named "An Inconvenient Truth" which talks about Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. He presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful way to urge everyone to act boldly and quickly to fight global climate crisis. Although Mr. Gore did not tell people what and how to do in order to react to global climate change, all the facts that he provided are more than enough for audience to draw their own conclusions.
As a matter of fact, with effect from 1 January 2009, more areas in Singapore are prohibited from smoking due to the “Smoking Ban Extension” campaign introduced by National Environment Agency. Those areas include any amusement centres, any foodshop, any air-conditioned hall or function room, any lift and any cinema. There are still other places where smoking is disallowed. This is a good way of preventing global warming. By doing that, Singapore has shown to other counties its firm determination to fight climate change and protect our earth. According to a statistic from United Nations in 2008, Singapore's climate-change index has improved from 49th to 38th out of 57 economies in a climate change performance index. The improvement is probably due to the new climate change strategy unveiled last February which includes a $170 million injection to facilitate research clean energy sources such as solar power and campaigns in the media to promote energy efficiency and reduce power usage.
However, Singapore alone cannot save earth from global warming; every country in the world should play a part in fighting climate change.
Recent study shows that China has facing global warming disasters more and more often. Its largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake has shrunk to 50 square kilometers from its peak. The fluctuation in the lake's area from the summer flood season to the winter dry period has long been commonplace. The official was told that the winter drought is likely to continue for the next 10 years. So the Chinese government should start thinking how to resolve the problem so that the China will not have exploited all its available water supplies to the limit.
Fighting global warming is not one man's job, every one of us have to play our part to save ourselves as well as our next generation.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Modern Engineers
In many people's opinions, engineers are those who build skyscrapers, make electronic goods and manufacture chemicals. However, they are only partially right about engineers. Nowadays, engineers are more than what people think they are. Due to the fact that the conventional scope of engineering has changed tremendously along the time, tons of new engineers have emerged from many other disciplines such as medicine, biology, arts and even politics. As more and more sectors are related to engineering, engineering education has also transformed to become more flexible and diversified to suit the high-demanding needs for engineers.
Since engineering is considered as a branch of mathematics and science. Majority of modern engineers have undergone curriculums that train their minds to analyze complex sets of information systematically and apply logical thinking in problem solving and designing solutions. Whatever they do, they tend to follow a string of procedures or protocols. At first, Engineers will create an appropriate mathematical model of a problem which allows them to analyze it and come out with potential solutions. Most of the time there will be multiple reasonable solutions exist, so engineers will evaluate the different design choices and choose the best that meets their requirements. After that, engineers will attempt to predict how well their designs can perform before turn their designs into full-scale production. Professional engineers take seriously responsibility to ensure the end-products will perform as expected and will not cause any unintended harms to the public at large. However, a technically successful product is not good enough for engineers as it must be further improved to meet future requirements. The crucial part of the task for engineers is to identify, understand and interpret the constraints on a design or solution. By understanding the constraints of the current products, engineers will keep on learning and modifying their products to make them better.
Under such a systematic structure of learning and working environment, engineers have been trained to become more systematic in doing things and are bound to be involved in more challenges ahead.
Since engineering is considered as a branch of mathematics and science. Majority of modern engineers have undergone curriculums that train their minds to analyze complex sets of information systematically and apply logical thinking in problem solving and designing solutions. Whatever they do, they tend to follow a string of procedures or protocols. At first, Engineers will create an appropriate mathematical model of a problem which allows them to analyze it and come out with potential solutions. Most of the time there will be multiple reasonable solutions exist, so engineers will evaluate the different design choices and choose the best that meets their requirements. After that, engineers will attempt to predict how well their designs can perform before turn their designs into full-scale production. Professional engineers take seriously responsibility to ensure the end-products will perform as expected and will not cause any unintended harms to the public at large. However, a technically successful product is not good enough for engineers as it must be further improved to meet future requirements. The crucial part of the task for engineers is to identify, understand and interpret the constraints on a design or solution. By understanding the constraints of the current products, engineers will keep on learning and modifying their products to make them better.
Under such a systematic structure of learning and working environment, engineers have been trained to become more systematic in doing things and are bound to be involved in more challenges ahead.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)