So far I have entered in University for one year. Comparing study in polytechnic, one of the most difficult parts for me is report writing as university level report is not only required to be understandable, but also is required to be well-organized and coherent. The difficulties in my essay writing are idea generation, short of vocabulary and organization of the essay. Throughout the whole semester study on EG1471, it helped me to clear some of my problems in essay writing and guided me how to writing a good university level academic essay.
In EG1471 class, I have learnt how to generate ideas for an essay by using mind map, which shows the concepts, relationships, associations and consequences altogether and makes connection among these things. By using this technique, it could lead me to come out more useful ideas to the essays. Having useful ideas helps me to outline my essay much more easily.
Furthermore, I have learnt tow different types of essay comparison/contrast essay and argumentative essay. For comparison/contrast essays, we can use either point-by-point organization or block to explain the similarities and the differences between two items. Comparison and contrast is a very common pattern in most university academic writing. In argumentative essay session, I learnt how to express my point of view in an essay and how to convince readers that my opinion is right by giving examples to support myself ideas and argue with opponents’.
In conclusion, to further develop my essay writing I still need to improve the vocabulary as most of essays are technical essays. So using the appropriate vocabularies is required in order to express the ideas more accurately. Meanwhile, I also need more reading to help me to enlarge my ‘database’ because I cannot always rely on Internet. With more information in my brain, I think my essay writing can be more efficient. Although EG1471 will be finished shortly, my study will not be stopped.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Summary of common grammatical mistakes
Upon reviewing the writing assignment 1 and 2, I can conclude there are three common grammatical mistakes that are usually made in my essay writings.
The first common grammatical mistake is using wrong prepositions. I found that preposition is very tricky when try to describe position between two objects. For example:
Incorrect: I travelled China this year
Correct: I travelled across China this year
Preposition is hard for Chinese student as we are non-native English speakers because English preposition might have two or more translations in mandarin. That’s why it is very confusing when writing an essay.
The second common grammatical error made in my essay frequently is tense. Especially, I am always confused by perfect tense and past perfect tense.
Incorrect: The project has been finished last month.
Correct: The project had been finished last month.
Here I want to express that the project has been finished, but it was done in last month. So it has to use past perfect tense.
The last common grammatical error is run-on sentence. Sometimes in one sentence that joins two independent clauses without punctuation or appropriate conjunction. For example
Incorrect: Rachel is very smart, she began reading when she was three years old.
Correct: Rachel is very smart. She began reading when she was three years old.
The error is also can be corrected by changing ‘,’ to ‘;’.
In conclusion, throughout the course EG1471, it helped me to improve my English essay writing. I believe that EG1471 will also help me to write better essay in my following studies.
The first common grammatical mistake is using wrong prepositions. I found that preposition is very tricky when try to describe position between two objects. For example:
Incorrect: I travelled China this year
Correct: I travelled across China this year
Preposition is hard for Chinese student as we are non-native English speakers because English preposition might have two or more translations in mandarin. That’s why it is very confusing when writing an essay.
The second common grammatical error made in my essay frequently is tense. Especially, I am always confused by perfect tense and past perfect tense.
Incorrect: The project has been finished last month.
Correct: The project had been finished last month.
Here I want to express that the project has been finished, but it was done in last month. So it has to use past perfect tense.
The last common grammatical error is run-on sentence. Sometimes in one sentence that joins two independent clauses without punctuation or appropriate conjunction. For example
Incorrect: Rachel is very smart, she began reading when she was three years old.
Correct: Rachel is very smart. She began reading when she was three years old.
The error is also can be corrected by changing ‘,’ to ‘;’.
In conclusion, throughout the course EG1471, it helped me to improve my English essay writing. I believe that EG1471 will also help me to write better essay in my following studies.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Summary of group discussions
Group 1: Potential and usage in transportation of biodiesel. Biodiesel is a green and renewable energy that made from crops such as soya bean.
The supporting side went into details to explain that biodiesel is a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel that is made from crops. It can provide the equivalent energy power to run engines when the normal gasoline or diesel fuel is mixed with 20 per cent of biodiesel. With using biodiesel, the emission of carbon dioxide can be efficiently reduced compared to normal diesel fuel.
However, opponents said that the normal fuel may not be replace by biodiesel in cold countries because of biodiesel’s higher freezing point which will clog engines if the temperature is lower than its freezing point.
Another concern is that the farm and crops economy would be affected by replacing diesel fuel by biodiesel because the profit of growing crops such as soya bean will be increased exponentially as higher demand of biodiesel. So opponents pointed out that will cause imbalanced crop economy. But supporting side suggested that the problem can be solved by government to control the amount of crops that farmers grow.
Therefore, it will be encouraged to replace diesel fuel by biodiesel in future to mitigate climate change if the problems mentioned by opponents are solved.
Group 2 discussed about whether Singapore should adopt green chemistry or not. They focused on biodegradable plastic that is made from biomass such as corn and beans.
The advantages of biodegradable plastic given by supporting side is that they are renewable and safe as well as more efficient manufacturing and better waste conversion compared to normal plastic widely used in our daily life now.
The concern of opposite side are whether it toxic to human and will cause the price of plastic in Singapore going to very high because the cost of biodegradable technology is very high.
So whether to adopt biodegradable plastic in Singapore is depends on government or economy statement of Singapore.
Group 3 discussed about genetic engineering. It provides chance for human to alter ourselves but it’s also opposed by religious groups, ethnical and activists. So the topic of discussion was whether genetic engineering should be allowed.
Genetic engineering can give a chance to parents to get the baby with their expectations such as gender and characters. However, opponents said pre-deciding baby’s gender will cause sex imbalance all over the world which will result in decreasing of born rate if couple prefer having male over female.
The supporting side also pointed out that applying genetic engineering will be able to optimize gene of babies to help parents to obtain athletically stronger baby who will be more resistance to diseases. But it will be unfair to normal people if both normal people and optimized people are participating in sports competition.
In opinion, genetic engineering can make our beautiful, smart or stronger, but do we really know who we are.
The supporting side went into details to explain that biodiesel is a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel that is made from crops. It can provide the equivalent energy power to run engines when the normal gasoline or diesel fuel is mixed with 20 per cent of biodiesel. With using biodiesel, the emission of carbon dioxide can be efficiently reduced compared to normal diesel fuel.
However, opponents said that the normal fuel may not be replace by biodiesel in cold countries because of biodiesel’s higher freezing point which will clog engines if the temperature is lower than its freezing point.
Another concern is that the farm and crops economy would be affected by replacing diesel fuel by biodiesel because the profit of growing crops such as soya bean will be increased exponentially as higher demand of biodiesel. So opponents pointed out that will cause imbalanced crop economy. But supporting side suggested that the problem can be solved by government to control the amount of crops that farmers grow.
Therefore, it will be encouraged to replace diesel fuel by biodiesel in future to mitigate climate change if the problems mentioned by opponents are solved.
Group 2 discussed about whether Singapore should adopt green chemistry or not. They focused on biodegradable plastic that is made from biomass such as corn and beans.
The advantages of biodegradable plastic given by supporting side is that they are renewable and safe as well as more efficient manufacturing and better waste conversion compared to normal plastic widely used in our daily life now.
The concern of opposite side are whether it toxic to human and will cause the price of plastic in Singapore going to very high because the cost of biodegradable technology is very high.
So whether to adopt biodegradable plastic in Singapore is depends on government or economy statement of Singapore.
Group 3 discussed about genetic engineering. It provides chance for human to alter ourselves but it’s also opposed by religious groups, ethnical and activists. So the topic of discussion was whether genetic engineering should be allowed.
Genetic engineering can give a chance to parents to get the baby with their expectations such as gender and characters. However, opponents said pre-deciding baby’s gender will cause sex imbalance all over the world which will result in decreasing of born rate if couple prefer having male over female.
The supporting side also pointed out that applying genetic engineering will be able to optimize gene of babies to help parents to obtain athletically stronger baby who will be more resistance to diseases. But it will be unfair to normal people if both normal people and optimized people are participating in sports competition.
In opinion, genetic engineering can make our beautiful, smart or stronger, but do we really know who we are.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Summary of two articles, Going underground and Warming signs
The topic of my group is to investigate one of technologies about climate changes mitigation and explicate why citizen groups should support, promote, or oppose such a technology.
The first article is ‘Going Underground ‘, written by Mark Schrope, a freelance science writer base in Florida. The article is talking about that development of Carbon dioxide capture and storage technology, which can mitigate the current climate changes by capturing and storing carbon dioxide gas emitted by industrial plants from worldwide. It is also pointing out some technical issues that the scientists have to research more, such as the measurements of the force of gravity to monitor carbon dioxide storage sites. Lastly, the article introduces encouraging outlook of CCS based on some achievements and progresses from different countries or scientists.
Basically, the carbon dioxide capture and storage technology is to capture the CO2 from power-station chimneys and to store them deep underground safely. But before implementing this technology, researcher must make sure that the stored carbon dioxide gas would not leak out to pollute surroundings. Therefore, a method called gravity measurement was tested to track the spread and store of the buried carbon dioxide. The principle of the method is that the force of gravity is slightly higher at a spot that has seawater below it, compared with one that has less dense carbon dioxide. Researchers believe that CO2 could be stored safely with this method.
The second part of the article gives some encouraging outlook about the CCS. It says, a team has been able to achieve the remarkable precision of gravity measurement, needed to effectively monitor the buried gas although they still need a lot of data to be collected later on to be analyzed.
Schrope, Mark. (December 2008). Nature report climate change, VOL 2, www.nature.com/reports/climate_change, macmillan publisher limited
The second article ‘Warming Sign’ written by Mohan Munasinghe, vice chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chair of the Munasinghe Institute of Development in Colombo Sri Lanka, points out that nowadays, the climate changes are caused by recent human activities and greenhouse-gases emission. Here are two ways for human to deal with climate change, adaptation and mitigation, suggested by Mr. Munasinghe.
For the first way, adaptation, we have to increase our adaptability such as build dikes against increased sea-level. The second choice is to mitigate climate change by sustainable lowering the emission of greenhouse gases which is a clean development mechanism of Kyoto Protocol.
The article also points out that climate change spans the planet, play out over the countries and concerns on every human being. For developing countries, they should reduce the greenhouse gases emission while continue developing their economy. But for developed countries, display more leadership in mitigating climate change and share their experiences in this area to help developing countries.
Munasinghe. Mohan, A World of Science in the Developing world, macmillan publisher limited
Evaluation:
The first article goes into details of CCS technology in aspects of helpless of CCS, the technical issues to be solved and encouraging outlook of CCS. These information is very helpful for reader to understand this technology and to make decision whether they support, promote or oppose the CCS technology.
The second article analyzes the situation of global warming and suggests what policy-maker from developing or developed countries should do depends on the situation of their own country.
Clean Development Mechanism—it permits the industrial countries transfer part of the obligations to reduce emissions to other nations in exchange for payment.
The first article is ‘Going Underground ‘, written by Mark Schrope, a freelance science writer base in Florida. The article is talking about that development of Carbon dioxide capture and storage technology, which can mitigate the current climate changes by capturing and storing carbon dioxide gas emitted by industrial plants from worldwide. It is also pointing out some technical issues that the scientists have to research more, such as the measurements of the force of gravity to monitor carbon dioxide storage sites. Lastly, the article introduces encouraging outlook of CCS based on some achievements and progresses from different countries or scientists.
Basically, the carbon dioxide capture and storage technology is to capture the CO2 from power-station chimneys and to store them deep underground safely. But before implementing this technology, researcher must make sure that the stored carbon dioxide gas would not leak out to pollute surroundings. Therefore, a method called gravity measurement was tested to track the spread and store of the buried carbon dioxide. The principle of the method is that the force of gravity is slightly higher at a spot that has seawater below it, compared with one that has less dense carbon dioxide. Researchers believe that CO2 could be stored safely with this method.
The second part of the article gives some encouraging outlook about the CCS. It says, a team has been able to achieve the remarkable precision of gravity measurement, needed to effectively monitor the buried gas although they still need a lot of data to be collected later on to be analyzed.
Schrope, Mark. (December 2008). Nature report climate change, VOL 2, www.nature.com/reports/climate_change, macmillan publisher limited
The second article ‘Warming Sign’ written by Mohan Munasinghe, vice chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and chair of the Munasinghe Institute of Development in Colombo Sri Lanka, points out that nowadays, the climate changes are caused by recent human activities and greenhouse-gases emission. Here are two ways for human to deal with climate change, adaptation and mitigation, suggested by Mr. Munasinghe.
For the first way, adaptation, we have to increase our adaptability such as build dikes against increased sea-level. The second choice is to mitigate climate change by sustainable lowering the emission of greenhouse gases which is a clean development mechanism of Kyoto Protocol.
The article also points out that climate change spans the planet, play out over the countries and concerns on every human being. For developing countries, they should reduce the greenhouse gases emission while continue developing their economy. But for developed countries, display more leadership in mitigating climate change and share their experiences in this area to help developing countries.
Munasinghe. Mohan, A World of Science in the Developing world, macmillan publisher limited
Evaluation:
The first article goes into details of CCS technology in aspects of helpless of CCS, the technical issues to be solved and encouraging outlook of CCS. These information is very helpful for reader to understand this technology and to make decision whether they support, promote or oppose the CCS technology.
The second article analyzes the situation of global warming and suggests what policy-maker from developing or developed countries should do depends on the situation of their own country.
Clean Development Mechanism—it permits the industrial countries transfer part of the obligations to reduce emissions to other nations in exchange for payment.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Summary of the lecture on Global Warming
By watching ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, my awareness of global warming was reinforced and I realized that the actions must be taken against the effects of global warming either by governments or individuals. On January 30th lecture, there were three experts in the area of global warming gave us three presentations which focus on carbon dioxide, social science systems approach and difficulties in dealing with global warming. The following is a brief summary of the ideas of the presentation.
The first speaker, Professor Adam Palmer, focused on effects of carbon dioxide in global warming and the technology on capture and storage of carbon dioxide. First Prof. Palmer used several slides to explain how carbon dioxide affects climate and the trend of climate change on earth if human do not take actions against the emission of carbon dioxide. Next, he mainly concentrated on introducing the technology of capturing and storing carbon dioxide. The method is to pump CO2 into sea and store it in a membrane bag which can prevent CO2 diffusing into the sea and acidifying the sea to affect marine life. But, unfortunately whether to implement this technology is decided by politics who are only interested in short-term goals.
The next speaker was Associate Professor Benjamin K. Sovacool from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Police. He mention that how to use Science & Technology System (STS) to address energy problem. First he elaborated four determinisms, structural, autonomous, consequential and normative determinism. After that, he went on talk about how social factors affect the development or implementation of a new technology. For example, US people protested against their first nuclear power plant reactor. From Prof. Sovacool’s presentation, social factors also can affect dealing with global warming.
The last speaker was Dr. Rajasekhar Bala. His speech was mainly focused on the effects of greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Next Dr. Bala talked about what we can do about global warming. For instance, we can increase energy efficiency, rely on renewable energy resources and reduce emission of greenhouse gases. At end of his speech, he mentioned about the difficulties encountered in fighting against global warming. For example, global warming is global problem which needs worldwide cooperation to deal with.
With the experts’ presentation, I believe that everyone has realize how important to fight against global warming. I hope everyone can play a role in contributing to protect our planet and saving our planet from suffering global warming.
The first speaker, Professor Adam Palmer, focused on effects of carbon dioxide in global warming and the technology on capture and storage of carbon dioxide. First Prof. Palmer used several slides to explain how carbon dioxide affects climate and the trend of climate change on earth if human do not take actions against the emission of carbon dioxide. Next, he mainly concentrated on introducing the technology of capturing and storing carbon dioxide. The method is to pump CO2 into sea and store it in a membrane bag which can prevent CO2 diffusing into the sea and acidifying the sea to affect marine life. But, unfortunately whether to implement this technology is decided by politics who are only interested in short-term goals.
The next speaker was Associate Professor Benjamin K. Sovacool from Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Police. He mention that how to use Science & Technology System (STS) to address energy problem. First he elaborated four determinisms, structural, autonomous, consequential and normative determinism. After that, he went on talk about how social factors affect the development or implementation of a new technology. For example, US people protested against their first nuclear power plant reactor. From Prof. Sovacool’s presentation, social factors also can affect dealing with global warming.
The last speaker was Dr. Rajasekhar Bala. His speech was mainly focused on the effects of greenhouse gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Next Dr. Bala talked about what we can do about global warming. For instance, we can increase energy efficiency, rely on renewable energy resources and reduce emission of greenhouse gases. At end of his speech, he mentioned about the difficulties encountered in fighting against global warming. For example, global warming is global problem which needs worldwide cooperation to deal with.
With the experts’ presentation, I believe that everyone has realize how important to fight against global warming. I hope everyone can play a role in contributing to protect our planet and saving our planet from suffering global warming.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
After watching the 'An Inconvenient Truth'
Today, Global Warming has become one of the most serious environmental problems encountered by all over the world. Frequent disasters caused by Global Warming, happening in every year are telling us that the human being must pay attention to this problem while we are intently concentrating on developments of national industry and economy. In ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, American ex-vice-president Mr. Al Gore shows several serious natural issues caused by Global Warming with statistical proof. His point of view is to raise awareness of public to let them know how serious the consequences of Global Warming are. Mr.AL Gore wants the governments around the world that contribute to the global warming to take action to slow down the global climatic deterioration by their policies and public education.
To reduce the effects of global warming the governments must play a very important role in coming up with policies to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. As we know, the emission of greenhouse gases is a major cause of the global warming; the policies can be used to restrict the factories’ emission of greenhouse. For instance, in China, there is no limit to emission of greenhouse gases in a lot of companies and factories as they only focus on profits and neglect environment. According to the latest environmental report, China has become a country that emits the most greenhouse gases all over the world. Therefore, the policies are really helpful for China government to monitor their companies or factories on environmental issues. Only with these policies, the effects of global warming could be reduced.
Beside the policies, the public education on global warming is also very important for every government. Though the public education, people can realize what effects of global warming are and how serious it impacts the future of human being. Nowadays, in some developed countries, more and more people have realized their role in protecting environment through their public education on environment. For example, in United States, Japan and some European countries, many people use solar water heater instead of traditional gas or electrical water heater, the energy of cars are no longer petrol and is replace by clean energy like ox hydrogen battery. So the education and public awareness are very helpful for reduce global warming.
As we have known the effects of global warming, the governments around the world should enact more policies or law to protect the environment and raise the public awareness of global warming if we don’t want our children to suffer from climate change.
To reduce the effects of global warming the governments must play a very important role in coming up with policies to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. As we know, the emission of greenhouse gases is a major cause of the global warming; the policies can be used to restrict the factories’ emission of greenhouse. For instance, in China, there is no limit to emission of greenhouse gases in a lot of companies and factories as they only focus on profits and neglect environment. According to the latest environmental report, China has become a country that emits the most greenhouse gases all over the world. Therefore, the policies are really helpful for China government to monitor their companies or factories on environmental issues. Only with these policies, the effects of global warming could be reduced.
Beside the policies, the public education on global warming is also very important for every government. Though the public education, people can realize what effects of global warming are and how serious it impacts the future of human being. Nowadays, in some developed countries, more and more people have realized their role in protecting environment through their public education on environment. For example, in United States, Japan and some European countries, many people use solar water heater instead of traditional gas or electrical water heater, the energy of cars are no longer petrol and is replace by clean energy like ox hydrogen battery. So the education and public awareness are very helpful for reduce global warming.
As we have known the effects of global warming, the governments around the world should enact more policies or law to protect the environment and raise the public awareness of global warming if we don’t want our children to suffer from climate change.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Blog 1
Nowadays, engineers are no longer thought as the specialists in the fields of making cars, constructing buildings and so on, but are thought as people who can help to systematically analyze complex or cross-disciplinary information and apply knowledge to come out solutions in areas of running transportation system, managing efficient distribution of energy supplies and so on. This is because of that now engineers are educated or trained by the programs which are not only concentrating on students’ majors. Today’s universities are more focusing on the skills of applying their knowledge to solve complex problems systematically. Therefore, with the systematic diversified training, engineers can apply them to accomplish those complex projects mentioned above by applying what they learned in university.
Generally, engineers are trained that, first of all, they must analyze problem carefully and systematically to have overall picture about the problem when they are assigned to a project. Secondly, engineers have to redefine the problem to make it less ambiguous. Then, once have a clear understanding of the problem, engineers need to generate a list of specifications that will establish the solutions. Next, the alternative solutions should be identified to ensure that there will be another solution if the first or second solutions are failed. At this time, engineers can start solving the problem step by step. During the solving process, engineers still need to continue redefining the problem, adding specifications and generating alternative solutions, reiterate this process until the problem is perfectly solved.
In conclusion, with systematically analyzing complex information and applying a holistic approach in designing solutions, today’s engineers can accomplish various complicated assignments or project with their excellent skills.
Generally, engineers are trained that, first of all, they must analyze problem carefully and systematically to have overall picture about the problem when they are assigned to a project. Secondly, engineers have to redefine the problem to make it less ambiguous. Then, once have a clear understanding of the problem, engineers need to generate a list of specifications that will establish the solutions. Next, the alternative solutions should be identified to ensure that there will be another solution if the first or second solutions are failed. At this time, engineers can start solving the problem step by step. During the solving process, engineers still need to continue redefining the problem, adding specifications and generating alternative solutions, reiterate this process until the problem is perfectly solved.
In conclusion, with systematically analyzing complex information and applying a holistic approach in designing solutions, today’s engineers can accomplish various complicated assignments or project with their excellent skills.
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