EG1471 Blog

Difficulties in Writing in University

2009-04-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

After going through my two semesters in university, I found out that I have some difficulties when writing my essays.

The first difficulty I encountered would be the generation of ideas. Often, during the pre-writing stage, I found out that I would have insufficient points or examples to support my ideas. Also, most of my points or examples would be either unspecific or irrelevant. Thus, most of my ideas could not be communicated well to the readers due to the unclear points and examples.

The main reason for the lack of ideas is due to insufficient reading. Hence, in order to improve, I would read up more articles from magazines and newspapers. In situations where I need information instantly, articles from websites would be the best option. However, reliability would be the main the concern here. Therefore, I would check the sources and authors of the website before I use anything form them.

Vocabulary is my next difficulty. In my writing assignments, I have found out that I would repeat some of the words throughout the essay. Although it is not grammatically wrong, it lacks style and would not leave a good impression to the readers.

The main reason here, again, is the lack of reading. Thus, to improve this difficulty, I would have to read up on more articles, preferably from magazines.

To summarise, my difficulties in university writing would be the lack of ideas and vocabulary. The reason for both is due to the insufficient reading of relevant articles. Therefore, I would have to read up more if I hope to improve my writings.

My Three Common Mistakes

2009-04-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

After writing two essays for this module, I found out that there are some grammar mistakes which are commonly found in my essays.

The first common mistake that I made is the wrong use of articles. Usually, articles are used with common nouns or noun phrases. Articles such as "a" or "an" are used when the noun is singular, countable and nonspecific, for example, " an apple" or " a door". Articles like "the" is used when the noun is specified or known between the writer and reader. Articles are not used at all when the noun is general or uncountable, such as "water" or "oil". An example of my mistake is "... if that person has the passion and interest ...". The article "the" should be deleted and not used at all as the word "passion" is uncountable and general. Hence, the correct version should be "... if that person has passion and interest ...".

Another common mistake made would be the use of punctuations, specifically commas. Commas can be divided into four main categories: introducers, coordinators, inserters and tags. An introduer comma follows any elements that comes in front of the first independent clause in a sentence. An example is " Therefore, I decided to quit." Coordinator commas is used with a coordinating conjunction, for example, "She was tired, so she went home early." An inserter comma is used before and after any element that is inserted into the middle of an independent clause. An example would be "My brother, thus, decided to quit." A tag comma is used when adding certain elementsvto the end of a sentence, such as, "It is not right, is it?" My mistake in using the comma is "... the mindsets of people such as being..." The correct version should be " ...the mindsets of people, such as being..."

The third mistake that I made is the subject verb agreement. The verb used must agree with the subject in the same sentence. The "-s" or "-es" is used on a present simple tense verb with a third person singular, while for first or second person singular, or third person plural, there is no "s" or "es". An example of my mistake is "... the gravity measurement, which cost less..." The correct version should be "... the gravity measurement, which costs less..." since gravity measurement is third person singular and a "s" should be added to the verb.

Summary of round table discussions

2009-03-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

During the round table discussion, four groups had presented their ideas and argument which were based on the topics assigned to them.

The first group started out with the topic on whether or not hybrid electric vehicles should be promoted as a means of mitigation method against the climate change. The supporting side's argument was that the hybrid electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly to use since they produce less emissions to the atmosphere compared to petrol-powered vehicles. Furthermore, if more people support the idea of using these vehicles, then the cost of mass producing these vehicles would be economically affordable, resulting in more people being able to afford them. Moreover, with the rising price of oil, it would be cheaper to switch to using hybrid electric vehicles. However, the opposing side argued that there is a limited number of infrastructures related to the vehicles, leading to inconvenience to the users. Also, this mitigation might only be limited to the developed countries.

Next is my group which debated on the topic of regulations on the use of brain scan technology. The side that supported on regulating this technology argued that the use of such technology would violate a person's privacy since it is able to predict what is the person thinking of. On top of that, young children would be send for brain tests to see if he or she is capable of attending certain courses by their parents and this would trigger some ethic issues. The opposing team rebutted that it would be too troublesome for either the government or institution to regulate. Furthermore, since this technology is still in its infancy stage, there exists too much uncertainties presently. Hence, it would be impossible to regulate it at this point of time.

The third group to present was assigned the topic of should Singapore support the adoption of green chemistry technology. Both sides had considered several factors such as the feasibility of green chemistry in Singapore. The supporting side gave the argument that Singapore should adopt such technology because it has the capital and infrastructures to start with. However, the opposing side rebutted by saying that Singapore lacks the expertise in this field and may need to invite expertise from overseas to research green chemistry.

The last group debated on the topic of stem cell research and its implementations. Supporting side gave their argument that such research would benefit mankind as organs could be cloned and used in transplants. Hence, patients need not have to wait that long as compared to the present for transplant operations. However, opposing side argued that such cloning technology has no moral guidance and is seen as mankind trying to change the way nature works.

In general, I think that all the groups did come up with some interesting points and some of these points are worth arguing for. For example, hybrid cars may be inconvenient to use at this point of time but in the long run, situation may change and such cars may become more popular.
The use of brain scan studies may be seen as violating one's privacy, but it could just benefit the society by detecting brain disorders while it is still in its early stage. For green chemistry, although we have the infrastructures and money, we still lack the expertise in this field. Lastly, the benefit of stem cell research may outweigh the moral issues related to it, especially since more people may need the use if such technology to stay alive.

Summary and evaluation of 2 articles

2009-02-28T23:21:00.000-08:00

A computer that can 'read' your mind

This article is about a research conducted by Tom Mitchell, a computer scientist, and Marcel Just, a cognitive neuroscientist, which is about 'reading' a person's mind with the help of modern technology.

The technology used in this research is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is capable of detecting and locating brain activity when a person is thinking of a certain word. Thus, the researchers are able to develop a computational model that enables a computer to correctly predict what word is the person being tested thinking of by analysing the brain scan data with the help of the research results. They are now planning to expand this technology to the extend of predicting the brain patterns when the person is being associated with concrete nouns or things that he experiences with his own senses.

This technology could eventually lead to the use of brain scan data to identify thoughts and have useful applications in the studies of health problems that is either directly or indirectly related to the brain.

National Science Foundation. (2008, May 30). A computer that can 'read' your mind. Retrieved March 1, 2009, from http:/www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111641&org=olpa&from=news

Ethics and mapping the brain

This article mainly talks about the effects that the research of studying brain activity patterns may bring and some of the ethical issues which arises with this study. The main concern of this article is whether or not this technology should be used if the research is successful and if it should be used, who should they used it on.

The article also talks about setting some rules and standards should this brain scanning technology is used in the society. Some of the standards include which part of the technology is ready to be used in the market and which is not, if we should have every one's brain scan data and who would run it and the issue of using this test on the children. Hence, most of these standards are related to ethical issues.

Marano, L. (2003, June 3). Ethics and mapping the brain(An abridged version of the original in The Washington Times). Retrieved March 1, 2009, from the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics Web site: http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/brain_mapping_ethics.htm

The benefits that the research of brain scanning brings may be useful in today's society. For example, as mentioned in the first article, it can help predict what word a person is thinking of by studying the brain activity patterns. This can be applied in helping us to understand those people who are unable to speak due to illness. Hence, we can extend our aid to these people in much more ways as compared to the past. It can also help in identifying potential threats such as terrorists or murder cases that have yet to happen. Thus, making our society a safer place.

However, there are problems with the use of such technology. For example, in the second article, even though the person does not have any motive when taking the test, she was fired due to the results of her brain scan which shows that she has surprising familarity with assult rifle. Also, there are issues of privacy especially since it can tell what word a person is thinking of and how he reacts to it.

Lastly, the 5 vocaburary words.

Neuroscientist: an individual who studies the scientific field of neuroscience

Computational model: a mathematical model in computational science that requires extensive computational resources to study the behavior of a complex system by computer simulation

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): a type of scan that measures the haemodynamic response related to activity in the brain

Ethical issues: issues that concerns about proper conduct of society

Schizophrenia: a diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality

The Global Warming lecture

2009-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

On the 30 January, most of us have attended the lecture on global warming which is being presented by three different lecturers. While each lecturer has his own style of presentation, their main concerns are the same, that is the effects of global warming and how people, regardless of organisations or as individuals, can help to reduce the effects of it.

The first part of the lecture is presented by Prof. Andrew Palmer whereby he shares with us some of the possible solutions that can help to reduce the problem of global warming. One such solution would be to capture and store carbon dioxide to places like under the depth of the oceans, which is possible with modern technology. Switching to alternative sources of energy such as solar power, wind and biomass fuels is also an option to solving the problem. He had also talked about how we should response to climate change like accepting the world as it is and to focus on actions that could be taken now such as applying existing technology.

Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool is the second lecturer and he mainly focuses on using the Science and Technology System to help analyse the problems and suggest why certain solutions do not work even though they are considered to be good. For example, renewable power and electric vehicles can reduce the effects of global warming and yet they were not used for the past few years. This is due to other factors such as political, social and economical reasons. Hence, he said that technology can succeed technically but fail socially.

The third lecturer, Prof. Rajasekhar Bala, gave a presentation on climate change and its mitigation. He talked about the greenhouse effect gasses which contribute to global warming and some evidences on global warming like the rise in average global surface temperature and rise in sea level. He mentioned about the potential consequences of global warming, mitigation and the difficulty of carrying out the solutions. He had also talked about basic approaches that we can take and how government can reduce the threat of the climate change.

After attending the lecture, what I found interesting is the technology of capturing and storing carbon dioxide as this solution can only be possible with repeated research and development and today's technology. Furthermore, this idea of storing CO2 under the ocean is quite interesting in itself as we know CO2 is a gas and to store it, it would have to be liquefied and pumped onto the sea bed via pipe lines. Thus, I believe that with today's technology we can overcome most of the problems which includes global warming as long as each of us help to reduce the effects of global warming by doing whatever we can and hope that in the near future global warming will no longer be a threat to us.

An Inconvenient Truth

2009-01-28T07:46:00.000-08:00

There are some questions for people to think about while watching the movie "An Inconvenient Truth", these questions include the significance of global warming, the causes of it and the consequences it will bring if people do not do something to counter it.

In fact, the movie does discuss some of these problems and the presenter, Mr. Al Gore, former USA vice president, supported the view that global warming is getting worse with concrete evidences like the temperature and concentration of carbon dioxide measured over the years and the photographs of the same ice caps over a period of time which indicate the melting of ice caps, caused by the rise of global temperature. These would bring about results such as flooding of low lying areas due to rise of sea water level and climate change.

Therefore, it is important for people to come up with solutions to the problems of global warming as it is us who are contributing to global warming and us who are living on this planet. The government should step out and take a lead in providing the solutions since they have the most influencing power over the people. For example, the number of cars on the road can be reduced by increasing the price of COE, or having more fly overs and underground tunnels so that there is less traffic congestion, thus reducing the time cars spend on the road, which could lead to a drop in the emission of CO2 gas.

In Singapore, some actions are being taken by both the government and non government groups. These include having posters in some of the busy streets and MRT stations to remind people that taking public transport is more environmentally friendly, using the media such as television programmes and advertisements which teach the public on how to save the environment by reducing the usage of energy and recycle resources. There are also programmes being organised for the school like recycling competitions which aims to promote the habit of being environmentally conscience to the students.

Thus, the people and the government must take actions to combat this problem together as the effort of either one group alone is not enough. It is also equally important that the next generation is well educated on this area as they are the ones who are going to continue to live on Earth.

The Expanding World of Engineers

2009-01-19T17:05:00.000-08:00

According to Prof. Ramakrishna's article, "The Expanding World of Engineers", he stated that " an engineer's training helps to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic (systematic) approach in designing solutions."

It is true that throughout the education, engineers are trained to handle problems and come up with solutions in a systematic way such that the solutions are efficient and are able to tackle the problems effectively. An example would be when a student is asked to solve a complex mathematical question, the tutor would usually encourage him to use a method that is simple, and easy for others to understand so that less mistakes would be made and less time would be spent.

When an engineer analyze a complex information, he would usually first take note of the main points and tries to classify those points accordingly. This gives him a clearer view and enables him to see the main problems. After looking at the big picture, he would look at the details to see if there is any information that is useful to him that would enable him to design the solutions. Hence, by first summarising the information using main points and then looking at the small details for more data, the whole complex information could be analyzed systematically, without leaving out anything important.

After analyzing the information, an engineer would have to come up with solutions to solve the problems. He would usually approach the solutions in a holistic way so as to save time and effort. Thus, an engineer would first approach the main problem that leads to other problems, so that when the main problem is solved, the other problems could be solved as well with minimum time and effort. This could be done usually by listing out all the problems and try to link them together and see if there is any way of solving them with a method that is as simple as possible.