It is going to the end of my first year university life. I would like to say that the experience is sweet but also bitter. One of the nightmares is academic writing which varies a lot from my previous polytechnic study. It requires more brainstorming and organization compared to that in polytechnic.
My first problem is that I do not have the habit of pre-writing planning. When I grab a topic, I can straightway start writing without any plan in mind. I write down whatever I think. It is a very bad habit which I recognized it when I learned the module EG1471. Through teacher’s illustration, I found that planning is very vital to writing. Better planning could save a lot of time and help avoid irrelevant stuff. With a rough guideline of what the content is in different paragraphs, it is easy and clear to write an essay without a headache. In order to improve my writing, pre-writing planning is a good habit necessary to keep.
Content is also a very critical issue in writing. The language used and the organization of an essay are no doubt very important, but contents are much more worth of attention. Sometimes during my writing, I have no input but write repetitious words or irrelevant sentences to fulfill word requirement. It is really a bad experience! Lack of content is a weakness that it is not easy to get rid of. It differs from person to person. In order to lessen it, choosing a familiar topic is the first priority. If no choice to change the topic, doing a research related to the topic become more crucial. There is no fixed solution to deal with it. Maybe life-long learning could provide a better solution.
There are two more years to go in NUS. A lot of chances will be ahead for me to apply what I learnt in EG1471. Practice makes perfect, practice makes improvement.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
My common grammar mistakes
I have learned English as a second language for years. It is an interesting but tough process. After completing 2 writing assignments in EG1471, I identified 3 major grammar mistakes appeared in my essay.
First of all, wrong verb tense occurred quite often in my essay. For example, there is one sentence in my essay: “but in practice biofuel is not as environmental friendly as they claimed.” Here what I mean is that biofuel is not as environmental friendly as its supporters claim. I thought the action of claim was already happened in the past, so initially I used simple past tense. Simple past tense indicates that an action occurred in the past and is no longer true in the present. It contradicts my original meaning of claim. So I changed it to simple present tense: but in practice biofuel is not as environmental friendly as they claim. There are total 12 different verb tenses in English grammar. To understand their differences and similarities is very vital in English writing.
The next mistake I noticed is lack of transition signals. In the body paragraphs, my topic sentences come out without transitions which make me feel abrupt. Take last paragraph as an example: Biofuel is renewable and sustainable compared to fossil fuel. I corrected it as: Lastly, biofuel is renewable and sustainable compared to fossil fuel. Use of transitions gives readers a sense of hierarchy and helps readers understand articles smoothly and logically. My weakness is I do not have the sense of using transitions probably because my limited vocabularies. I used to write simple sentences but the connection between each other is plain and not coherent. In order to improve on it, memorizing of frequently used transitions is beneficial.
Lastly, I found a lot of missing articles in my essay. It is really unbelievable that I have made such a lot simple mistakes when I re-check my essay. But actually I do make those mistakes. I think it is because I do not take good care of nouns. Typical examples are as following: the 21st century, in the current situation.
In summary, verb tense, transition signals and articles are the building blocks of English sentences. They are vital and have different roles to play in English language. The appropriate way to strengthen my weakness in writing is to maximize vocabulary and take special attention to those common mistakes I usually made.
First of all, wrong verb tense occurred quite often in my essay. For example, there is one sentence in my essay: “but in practice biofuel is not as environmental friendly as they claimed.” Here what I mean is that biofuel is not as environmental friendly as its supporters claim. I thought the action of claim was already happened in the past, so initially I used simple past tense. Simple past tense indicates that an action occurred in the past and is no longer true in the present. It contradicts my original meaning of claim. So I changed it to simple present tense: but in practice biofuel is not as environmental friendly as they claim. There are total 12 different verb tenses in English grammar. To understand their differences and similarities is very vital in English writing.
The next mistake I noticed is lack of transition signals. In the body paragraphs, my topic sentences come out without transitions which make me feel abrupt. Take last paragraph as an example: Biofuel is renewable and sustainable compared to fossil fuel. I corrected it as: Lastly, biofuel is renewable and sustainable compared to fossil fuel. Use of transitions gives readers a sense of hierarchy and helps readers understand articles smoothly and logically. My weakness is I do not have the sense of using transitions probably because my limited vocabularies. I used to write simple sentences but the connection between each other is plain and not coherent. In order to improve on it, memorizing of frequently used transitions is beneficial.
Lastly, I found a lot of missing articles in my essay. It is really unbelievable that I have made such a lot simple mistakes when I re-check my essay. But actually I do make those mistakes. I think it is because I do not take good care of nouns. Typical examples are as following: the 21st century, in the current situation.
In summary, verb tense, transition signals and articles are the building blocks of English sentences. They are vital and have different roles to play in English language. The appropriate way to strengthen my weakness in writing is to maximize vocabulary and take special attention to those common mistakes I usually made.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Summary of roundtable discussions
This week we went through our roundtable discussion presentations. Through involvement of this discussion, I get familiar with the process and flow of roundtable discussion. The following is my summary about roundtable discussions presented by other 3 groups.
The topic for first group is green chemistry. There is one moderator, 2 supporters and 2 opponents. Green chemistry, also called sustainable chemistry, is a chemical philosophy encouraging the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. The supporters stated that currently global warming is a major issue all around the world, it is urgent to reduce the greenhouse gases. Green chemistry is a renewable and energy efficient technology. It uses safe chemicals and no harmful by-products are created during the process. So it should be focused on. But the opponents pointed out that it is better to deploy green chemistry in those developing countries. In developed countries, the industry was already fully established. Switching it to green chemistry technology will cost a lot. It seems not to be economical. I would to say that it is not necessary to destroy the established industries and rebuild them with green chemistry technology. It is optimistic to modify some important processes and gradually achieve the target.
Second group discussed whether microchip should be implanted to human body. Supporters listed its usefulness from a few fields like convenience, accuracy and fastness. The main point is that the microchip can record the human medical condition accurately. In case of an emergency, it is easily retrieved by doctors. But the opponents argued that this tiny device is moveable and its position cannot be controlled. If it goes to your heart by accident, the result could be disastrous. Human body may actually resist such an implantation. The microchip implanted in human body brought great convenience, at the same time it also brought potential identity theft. If your personal information was obtained by some intelligent hackers, it will be a huge lost. Under such a scenario, privacy is also an important factor to be considered if you decided to accept microchip implantation. I agree to the opponents. Microchip implantation seems far from reality and should be based on personal will.
The last topic presented is carbon filter technology. The supporters stated that it is a system of setup installed in factories to purify the exhausted gases. A graph was drawn to illustrate how it works. And such an act will help companies win good reputations. The opponents argued with logical thinking: Since such a technology is attractive, why there are no implementations in reality? I feel more towards the supporters. Sometimes technology implementation is decided by a lot of other social factors but not technology itself. As a company, it is responsible to do a part in the fight against global climate change.
That is all my understanding for all the topics discussed. I gained more in-depth knowledge about them.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Summary about 2 articles for roundtable discussion
The human history has stepped to 21st century. With the advanced technologies, challenges and opportunities co-exist in our society. Energy issue now becomes more and more important. Fossil fuel like oil is consumed in a large amount all around the world and emitted greenhouse gases which in turn contribute to global warming. Environmentalists and special interest groups have called on to replace fossil fuel with a renewable energy. Biofuels gradually come to our spotlight. I did some research and summarized 2 articles regarding biofuels as following.
First article is a brief introduction about biofuels by Justin Gillis in his article Biofuels published online on February 24, 2009. It starts the topic back to 19th century during which technological visionaries already conducted experiments showed that it was possible for engines to run on fuel made from plants. But fuels derived from plants lost out to fuels refined from crude oil in the days of motorized transport. It is not easy to replace fossil fuel now since they are the cheapest fuels for many decades and they are about as energy-dense as liquids can be. Biofuels attainted the greatest political momentum because they promise lucrative new markets for farm products. However, these 1st generation biofuels provoked intense backlash during applications. The 2nd generation biofuels are believed to offer greater promise but the technology to make them is still in its infancy. That is the main idea about this article.
Another article is “Biofuels: Green energy or grim reaper?” written by Jeffrey A McNeely who is a chief scientist of IUCN, the World Conservation Union based in Switzerland. He considered that biofuels could end up damaging the natural world rather than saving it from global warming. The reasons for his view about biofuels are summarized as below:
1. Huge consumption of grains;
2. Much of the fuel that Europeans use will be imported from Brazil, where the Amazon is being burned to plant more sugar and soybeans, and Southeast Asia, where oil palm plantations are destroying the rainforest habitat of orangutans and many other species;
3. One type of biofuels, ethanol, will likely come from maize. Growing maize appears to use 30% more energy than the finished fuel produces, and leaves eroded soils and polluted waters behind.
4. It will cause food price to increase more.
Then he suggested 2 things to do in current situations. The first step is to apply biotechnology to enhance the ethanol yield, reduce environmental damage from feedstock, and improve bioprocessing efficiency at the refinery. But it is not enough yet. The 2nd step is to mandate improved fuel efficiency for all forms of transport based on current technology.
These 2 articles broaden my knowledge about biofuels. There are reasons why some people still could not adopt them. The technology to make them still need be refined to meet requirements.
Five words/ phrases:
1. First-generation biofuels: ethanol made from corn or sugar cane, or biodiesel made from vegetable oil.
2. Second-generation biofuels: biofuels made from plant wastes, or from crops specially grown for the purpose on land not suitable for food production.
3. Fossil fuels: carbon or hydrocarbons found in the earth’s crust.
4. Monoculture: the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area.
5. Biodiversity: the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth.
Reference:
Justin Gillis, February 24, 2009, “Biofuels”, Retrieved March 8, 2009, from
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/biofuels/index.html
Jeffrey A McNeely, September 22, 2006, “Biofuels: Green energy or grim reaper?”, Retrieved March 8, 2009, from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5369284.stm
First article is a brief introduction about biofuels by Justin Gillis in his article Biofuels published online on February 24, 2009. It starts the topic back to 19th century during which technological visionaries already conducted experiments showed that it was possible for engines to run on fuel made from plants. But fuels derived from plants lost out to fuels refined from crude oil in the days of motorized transport. It is not easy to replace fossil fuel now since they are the cheapest fuels for many decades and they are about as energy-dense as liquids can be. Biofuels attainted the greatest political momentum because they promise lucrative new markets for farm products. However, these 1st generation biofuels provoked intense backlash during applications. The 2nd generation biofuels are believed to offer greater promise but the technology to make them is still in its infancy. That is the main idea about this article.
Another article is “Biofuels: Green energy or grim reaper?” written by Jeffrey A McNeely who is a chief scientist of IUCN, the World Conservation Union based in Switzerland. He considered that biofuels could end up damaging the natural world rather than saving it from global warming. The reasons for his view about biofuels are summarized as below:
1. Huge consumption of grains;
2. Much of the fuel that Europeans use will be imported from Brazil, where the Amazon is being burned to plant more sugar and soybeans, and Southeast Asia, where oil palm plantations are destroying the rainforest habitat of orangutans and many other species;
3. One type of biofuels, ethanol, will likely come from maize. Growing maize appears to use 30% more energy than the finished fuel produces, and leaves eroded soils and polluted waters behind.
4. It will cause food price to increase more.
Then he suggested 2 things to do in current situations. The first step is to apply biotechnology to enhance the ethanol yield, reduce environmental damage from feedstock, and improve bioprocessing efficiency at the refinery. But it is not enough yet. The 2nd step is to mandate improved fuel efficiency for all forms of transport based on current technology.
These 2 articles broaden my knowledge about biofuels. There are reasons why some people still could not adopt them. The technology to make them still need be refined to meet requirements.
Five words/ phrases:
1. First-generation biofuels: ethanol made from corn or sugar cane, or biodiesel made from vegetable oil.
2. Second-generation biofuels: biofuels made from plant wastes, or from crops specially grown for the purpose on land not suitable for food production.
3. Fossil fuels: carbon or hydrocarbons found in the earth’s crust.
4. Monoculture: the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area.
5. Biodiversity: the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or for the entire Earth.
Reference:
Justin Gillis, February 24, 2009, “Biofuels”, Retrieved March 8, 2009, from
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/biofuels/index.html
Jeffrey A McNeely, September 22, 2006, “Biofuels: Green energy or grim reaper?”, Retrieved March 8, 2009, from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5369284.stm
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Summary of the lecture on 30 Jan
The presentations are beneficial and interesting to me. The speakers talked about climate change or energy problems from different points of view and with different approaches. After the speech, I digested the knowledge given and summarized the main ideas they presented based on my own understanding.
The first presentation: Carbon dioxide capture and storage: Technology and Politics, was given by Professor Andrew Palmer, Department of Civil Engineering, NUS. He started the presentation by pointing out one of the perceived priority change: global warming is actually happening. Then what is the response to climate change? One important response is to capture and store carbon dioxide. He focused on the actions to reduce carbon dioxide: One is to store carbon dioxide in depleted oil/gas field; the other is to store carbon dioxide in ocean. These 2 methods sound simple and I am really interested in how to actually execute them. The following question is will carbon dioxide capture and storage really happen? It depends on political will. In the end, he also pointed out the advantages and disadvantages for spreading particles in upper atmosphere.
The second presentation: Using STS (Science & Technology Studies) to Address Energy (and Technological) Problems, was given by Assistant Professor Benjamin K.Sovacool, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His presentation was started by a quick introduction to STS with traditional approach and social science system approach. I found the social science approach interesting because it places the technology as part of the social system. In another word, he inter-connected the technology with social system which I thought they are isolated. Then he gave us two case studies –Renewable Power and Electric Vehicle to prove his point of view. Sometimes the failure of certain technologies has nothing to do with its technical feasibility but the social factors.
The last presentation: Climate Change - Assessment and Mitigation, was given by Professor Rajasekhar Bala, Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, NUS. He started presentation by showing us 4 graphs clearly indicated the rising of average global temperature. Global warming is indeed happening and is related to greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. The consequences for global warming are bad but maybe a few countries will benefit. How to prevent global warming? Prof Bala focused on the Government’s responsibilities and what we can do as individuals. I found the last part useful and interesting. Global warming is a huge thing and normally we will just skip it and leave it to Government. But it is not right to do that. Prof Bala’s presentation provided an answer to us as individual.
I really learned a lot through this lecture. In the end I decided to do my own part to protect our earth.
The first presentation: Carbon dioxide capture and storage: Technology and Politics, was given by Professor Andrew Palmer, Department of Civil Engineering, NUS. He started the presentation by pointing out one of the perceived priority change: global warming is actually happening. Then what is the response to climate change? One important response is to capture and store carbon dioxide. He focused on the actions to reduce carbon dioxide: One is to store carbon dioxide in depleted oil/gas field; the other is to store carbon dioxide in ocean. These 2 methods sound simple and I am really interested in how to actually execute them. The following question is will carbon dioxide capture and storage really happen? It depends on political will. In the end, he also pointed out the advantages and disadvantages for spreading particles in upper atmosphere.
The second presentation: Using STS (Science & Technology Studies) to Address Energy (and Technological) Problems, was given by Assistant Professor Benjamin K.Sovacool, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His presentation was started by a quick introduction to STS with traditional approach and social science system approach. I found the social science approach interesting because it places the technology as part of the social system. In another word, he inter-connected the technology with social system which I thought they are isolated. Then he gave us two case studies –Renewable Power and Electric Vehicle to prove his point of view. Sometimes the failure of certain technologies has nothing to do with its technical feasibility but the social factors.
The last presentation: Climate Change - Assessment and Mitigation, was given by Professor Rajasekhar Bala, Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, NUS. He started presentation by showing us 4 graphs clearly indicated the rising of average global temperature. Global warming is indeed happening and is related to greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. The consequences for global warming are bad but maybe a few countries will benefit. How to prevent global warming? Prof Bala focused on the Government’s responsibilities and what we can do as individuals. I found the last part useful and interesting. Global warming is a huge thing and normally we will just skip it and leave it to Government. But it is not right to do that. Prof Bala’s presentation provided an answer to us as individual.
I really learned a lot through this lecture. In the end I decided to do my own part to protect our earth.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Government Policies about Global Warming
After viewing this documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" presented by former United States Vice President Al Gore, I had a clearer image of global warming and its causes and consequences. I summarized global warming as the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans. As the video shows, global warming is undoubtedly caused by greenhouse gas emissions. The consequences are very destructive and worldwide. One of the impressive parts is that the sea level increases and floods a few famous cities in the world like New York, Beijing and Shanghai. It is scary and persuasive. I start to look for how the government of PRC tackles such a challenge faced by all the governments around the globe.
The results are surprised. I found the Central Government had published a lot of policies regarding environmental protection online. There are total 8 areas of concern regarding it, namely Framework Provisions, Prevention and Control of Water Pollution and Air Pollution, Solid Wastes Management, Noise and Vibration Management, Hazardous Chemicals Management, Environmental Impact Assessment, and Pollution Discharge and Levying. After reading through some of the policies, I have an outlook on how our Government contributes to reduce the problem of global warming.
Firstly, our Government is committed to adopt preventive measures and enhance environmental management, so that there will be less or no pollution produced.
Secondly, our Government support the execution of environmental policies economically like giving financial assistance to the national major pollution abatement and ecological protection projects.
Thirdly, our Government promotes the whole society to raise the energy and resources utilization efficiency and reduce the pollutant’s discharge like CO2.
Fourthly, environmental industry has drawn a lot of attention so our Government put much effort on the technology advancement in environment-friendly products and their standardization.
The last thing I want to point out is that international cooperation for global warming is very important. Our Government take part in the environmental affairs actively. In May 1998, our Government signed The Kyoto Protocol and ratified it in August 2002. It shows the determination of Government to protect our home planet- earth.
Reference:
Ministry of Environmental Protection, the People’s Republic of China
http://english.mep.gov.cn/Policies_Regulations/policies/
The results are surprised. I found the Central Government had published a lot of policies regarding environmental protection online. There are total 8 areas of concern regarding it, namely Framework Provisions, Prevention and Control of Water Pollution and Air Pollution, Solid Wastes Management, Noise and Vibration Management, Hazardous Chemicals Management, Environmental Impact Assessment, and Pollution Discharge and Levying. After reading through some of the policies, I have an outlook on how our Government contributes to reduce the problem of global warming.
Firstly, our Government is committed to adopt preventive measures and enhance environmental management, so that there will be less or no pollution produced.
Secondly, our Government support the execution of environmental policies economically like giving financial assistance to the national major pollution abatement and ecological protection projects.
Thirdly, our Government promotes the whole society to raise the energy and resources utilization efficiency and reduce the pollutant’s discharge like CO2.
Fourthly, environmental industry has drawn a lot of attention so our Government put much effort on the technology advancement in environment-friendly products and their standardization.
The last thing I want to point out is that international cooperation for global warming is very important. Our Government take part in the environmental affairs actively. In May 1998, our Government signed The Kyoto Protocol and ratified it in August 2002. It shows the determination of Government to protect our home planet- earth.
Reference:
Ministry of Environmental Protection, the People’s Republic of China
http://english.mep.gov.cn/Policies_Regulations/policies/
Monday, January 19, 2009
Keys to engineer accomplishments
As an engineering student, one may wonder: How can I grow and eventually acquire the ability to analyze complex information systematically and apply a holistic approach in designing a solution just as Prof Seeram Ramakrishna said in his article -” The Expanding World of Engineers”. In my opinion, the engineering course structure matters most in the external side. Nowadays, due to globalization, advancement in technology and so on, there is a need for the workforce to be knowledge and technology intensive. Such a fact requires that our tertiary education organizations to review and progress their course syllabus and teaching method to satisfy the new requirements .Besides the fundamental knowledge and science needed for engineering education, how to encourage engineering students like me to systematically apply what we learnt in our class is another important issue for both varsities and students to work on.
Engineering scope is widened and deepened. Most of the time, the problems engineers faced are so huge and difficult that teamwork is a must. Soft skills like effective communications, work co ordinations and management of resources and time all come into play. As future engineer, we shall not concentrate on the engineering study only but also improve our soft skills as mentioned above. It does not mean that we could spend little time on engineering study and join a lot CCA to improve soft skills. After all, the professional knowledge is very important to an engineer, just like a solid base is the foundation for us to add on more structures. So balance study and social life. During study, our aim should not be just scores in the exam. It is more about the method we study. Learning is not just the task during student days; it has been extended to our whole life. So focus on the method. I think that is what an engineering student should do in order to make the accomplishments stated by Prof Seeram Ramakrishna.
Engineering scope is widened and deepened. Most of the time, the problems engineers faced are so huge and difficult that teamwork is a must. Soft skills like effective communications, work co ordinations and management of resources and time all come into play. As future engineer, we shall not concentrate on the engineering study only but also improve our soft skills as mentioned above. It does not mean that we could spend little time on engineering study and join a lot CCA to improve soft skills. After all, the professional knowledge is very important to an engineer, just like a solid base is the foundation for us to add on more structures. So balance study and social life. During study, our aim should not be just scores in the exam. It is more about the method we study. Learning is not just the task during student days; it has been extended to our whole life. So focus on the method. I think that is what an engineering student should do in order to make the accomplishments stated by Prof Seeram Ramakrishna.
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