a.What difficulties do you have in writing in your university classes? How do you resolve these difficulties? How will you continue to improve?
In this final post, I will be writing on the difficulties that I have encountered in my writing in my university classes, how I resolve them and how I continue to improve.
One of the difficulties that I have encountered is how to express what I want to write. This has been my main difficulty since my secondary school days. It is partly because I seldom interact with people and I have limited vocabulary which restricts what I want to say and write. Furthermore, I also tend to think in Chinese and sometimes just translate directly from Chinese to English. I try to resolve this problem by interacting with people more often and also try to speak in English more often. I seldom speak in English mainly because of my pronunciation. However, if I do not speak in English more often, my pronunciation will become worse. In addition, speaking English will also make me think in English. I also read The Straits Times and other newspapers in order to expand my vocabulary. I prefer to read newspaper than to read storybooks because the newspaper is usually easier to comprehend. Furthermore, when I am reading storybook, I do not like to read between the lines. I also try to express what I want to write or say in simpler words and structure so that others will understand. It is just like I prefer things to be as simple as possible in my daily life.
Another difficulty that I faced is the use of verb tenses. I remembered one of my secondary school teachers once told us that if we use the wrong verb tenses in our writing, people will laugh at it and it can create a lot of jokes. It is because she once received an email which has a lot of wrong usage of verb tenses. Frankly speaking, up till now I still have problems with when to use present continuous tense, past continuous tense, present perfect tense and past perfect tense. I try to resolve this problem by reading the grammar notes. But even after I have read these notes, I still do not know when to use which tenses.
In order to continue to improve my writing, I need to read more and speak more in English.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Post 6 - Three common grammar mistakes
In this post, I will be discussing three common grammar mistakes that I have made.
First of all, subject-verb agreement is one of the common grammar mistakes that I have made. Subject-verb agreement refers to singular subject should be followed by singular verb and plural subject should be followed by plural verb. For example, she goes to the market and they go to the market. An example where I have made such a mistake would be in my writing assignment 2, where I wrote “but his/her parent forbids him/her from playing because of the scan show that he/she has no talent”. The correct version should be but his/her parent forbids him/her from playing because of the scan which shows that he/she has no talent.
The second common grammar mistake that I have made is verb tense. There are many types of verb tenses such as present tense, past tense, present continuous, past continuous, present perfect, past perfect and future tense. Present tense is used to express facts, habits and something that happened regularly whereas past tense is used for events that occurred in the past. Present continuous tense is for events happen in the present or are going on now. Past Continuous Tense is for events that were going on at a certain time in the past. Present Perfect Tense is for events happening in the past that affect the present. Past Perfect Tense is used for events that happened some time before another action was completed in the past. Future Tense is for events that are going to take place in the future. An example where I have made such a mistake would be in my midterm test, where there is a sentence “in Schelling’s course at Harvard, they have been discussing congestion models”. The correct version should be in Schelling’s course at Harvard, they had discussed congestion models.
Finally, the use of preposition is also one of the common grammar mistakes that I have made. An example where I have made such a mistake would be in my writing assignment 1, I will be discussing on people’s resistance to innovation adoption. The correct version should be I will be discussing for people’s resistance to innovation adoption.
First of all, subject-verb agreement is one of the common grammar mistakes that I have made. Subject-verb agreement refers to singular subject should be followed by singular verb and plural subject should be followed by plural verb. For example, she goes to the market and they go to the market. An example where I have made such a mistake would be in my writing assignment 2, where I wrote “but his/her parent forbids him/her from playing because of the scan show that he/she has no talent”. The correct version should be but his/her parent forbids him/her from playing because of the scan which shows that he/she has no talent.
The second common grammar mistake that I have made is verb tense. There are many types of verb tenses such as present tense, past tense, present continuous, past continuous, present perfect, past perfect and future tense. Present tense is used to express facts, habits and something that happened regularly whereas past tense is used for events that occurred in the past. Present continuous tense is for events happen in the present or are going on now. Past Continuous Tense is for events that were going on at a certain time in the past. Present Perfect Tense is for events happening in the past that affect the present. Past Perfect Tense is used for events that happened some time before another action was completed in the past. Future Tense is for events that are going to take place in the future. An example where I have made such a mistake would be in my midterm test, where there is a sentence “in Schelling’s course at Harvard, they have been discussing congestion models”. The correct version should be in Schelling’s course at Harvard, they had discussed congestion models.
Finally, the use of preposition is also one of the common grammar mistakes that I have made. An example where I have made such a mistake would be in my writing assignment 1, I will be discussing on people’s resistance to innovation adoption. The correct version should be I will be discussing for people’s resistance to innovation adoption.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Post 5 - Summary on Roundtable discussion
This post is a summary of the roundtable discussion that my group had. We chose question three for our discussion which is on whether the government should regulate the use of technology that can read human's brain. My group comprises of Angela, Jia Ru, Nurul'ain, Jian Feng and Shuai Xiang. Nurul'ain is the modulator for our group. Jia Ru, Jian Feng and Shuai Xiang supported the issue that is they feel that the government should regulate this technology. On the other hand, Angela and I are the opposition; we feel that the government should not regulate the use of this technology.
Firstly, Nurul'ain began the roundtable discussion with an introduction. She explained the topic that we are going to discuss and what Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is about. fMRI is used to collect data from our brain and together with a computational modelling, it can determine what words the subject is thinking about.
Next, Jia Ru argues that more research needs to be made for the fMRI and also to prevent people from abusing it. Shuai Xiang also argued that more research needs to be made. As for Jian Feng, he said that the use of fMRI is an invasion of privacy and people can used the data obtained to hack other’s people account. Therefore, the government should regulate the use of fMRI.
Next, Angela explained why she feels that the government should not regulate the use of fMRI. It is because using fMRI can help to cure disease without causing pain to the patient. In addition, it can also detect whether a person is lying and help in criminal investigation. She also explained that the information obtained from the scan can be kept confidential and the patient and the person conducted the test can be put in separate rooms. In this way, the privacy of the patient will not be intruded. As for me, I said that the data obtained can be used to control the robot so as to help the handicapped in their daily lives. Furthermore, no technology is perfect so error is unavoidable and improvement can still be made while using it. Therefore, the government should not regulate the use of fMRI.
At the end of the discussion, everyone agreed that the government should regulate the use of fMRI because of the cons for not regulating the use may bring upon.
Firstly, Nurul'ain began the roundtable discussion with an introduction. She explained the topic that we are going to discuss and what Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is about. fMRI is used to collect data from our brain and together with a computational modelling, it can determine what words the subject is thinking about.
Next, Jia Ru argues that more research needs to be made for the fMRI and also to prevent people from abusing it. Shuai Xiang also argued that more research needs to be made. As for Jian Feng, he said that the use of fMRI is an invasion of privacy and people can used the data obtained to hack other’s people account. Therefore, the government should regulate the use of fMRI.
Next, Angela explained why she feels that the government should not regulate the use of fMRI. It is because using fMRI can help to cure disease without causing pain to the patient. In addition, it can also detect whether a person is lying and help in criminal investigation. She also explained that the information obtained from the scan can be kept confidential and the patient and the person conducted the test can be put in separate rooms. In this way, the privacy of the patient will not be intruded. As for me, I said that the data obtained can be used to control the robot so as to help the handicapped in their daily lives. Furthermore, no technology is perfect so error is unavoidable and improvement can still be made while using it. Therefore, the government should not regulate the use of fMRI.
At the end of the discussion, everyone agreed that the government should regulate the use of fMRI because of the cons for not regulating the use may bring upon.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Post 4 - Summary on two articles
In this post, I will be summarizing the two articles, "Ethics and mapping the brain" and "A computer that can 'read' your mind", available from the IVLE. These two articles are about using the computer to read human's mind and the ethics issues involved.
First of all, the first article, "A computer that can 'read' your mind", is about using a computer to read what a human is thinking about. A computational modeling used to read a human's mind had already been developed. This modeling is further improved by the researchers. The improved modeling can predict what the brain activation patterns even if the computer did not have the FMRI data for that specific noun in advance. The accuracy is also better. When someone thinks of an apple, an apple besides being represented in brain areas responsible for tasting, smelling, chewing, it also triggers memories of the last time the person ate an apple, or initiate thoughts about how to obtain an apple. The computational modeling can be used to identify thoughts and in the study of disorders and diseases.
The five relevant vocabulary or phases are:
1. Neural - involving a nerve or the nervous system that include the brain.
2. Semantic - the study of meaning in language
3. Insight - (the ability to have) a clear, deep understanding of a complicated problem or situation
4. Intrigued - to interest someone a lot by being strange, unusual or mysterious
5. Neuroscience - the field of study encompassing the various scientific disciplines dealing with the structure, development, function, chemistry, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system.
After reading this article, I have a better knowledge of fMRI. However, I find that this article is not very useful because it does not include some of the ethnic issues involved.
Next, the second article, "Ethics and mapping the brain", is about the ethic issues involved in using the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) to read human's mind. Although this new technology can help to cure diseases, not everyone welcomes such technology. This new technology made use of the relationship between the brain activity and behavior patterns which can reveal the content of a person's memory, predict mental disorders or giftedness, and whether a person is lying. Standards should be set to ensure the proper use of this new technology such as seeking consent of others. However, if the consent of people was seeked, then the criminal may refuse such scan which might in turn affect jury. Another issue is about privacy because people are able to gain access to data obtained from the brain, so the privacy of others may get intruded. Next issue is whether it should be used on children. The predictions from brain imaging will get more and more reliable, so the main issues are who will be tested, why they will be tested and how the results will be used.
The five relevant vocabulary or phases are:
1. Alzheimer's disease - a common form of dementia of unknown cause, usually beginning in late middle age, characterized by memory lapses, confusion, emotional instability, and progressive loss of mental ability
2. Correlations - mutual relation of two or more things, often one in which one of them causes or influences the other.
3. Genomics - The study of all of the nucleotide sequences, including structural genes, regulatory sequences, and noncoding DNA segments, in the chromosomes of an organism
4. Envision - imagine or expect as a likely or desirable possibility in the future
5. Reductionist - Simplify a complex problem
After reading this article, I find that it is a very useful piece of article because it not only explains what is fMRI, it also includes some of the ethnic issues involved.
The APA citation is used in both articles which are in the format:
Surname, Initial of given name, year and date of publication, title, date of access, website, URL.
Sources of the meaning of the vocabulary or phases are from Cambridge International Dictionary of English and www.dictionary.com
First of all, the first article, "A computer that can 'read' your mind", is about using a computer to read what a human is thinking about. A computational modeling used to read a human's mind had already been developed. This modeling is further improved by the researchers. The improved modeling can predict what the brain activation patterns even if the computer did not have the FMRI data for that specific noun in advance. The accuracy is also better. When someone thinks of an apple, an apple besides being represented in brain areas responsible for tasting, smelling, chewing, it also triggers memories of the last time the person ate an apple, or initiate thoughts about how to obtain an apple. The computational modeling can be used to identify thoughts and in the study of disorders and diseases.
The five relevant vocabulary or phases are:
1. Neural - involving a nerve or the nervous system that include the brain.
2. Semantic - the study of meaning in language
3. Insight - (the ability to have) a clear, deep understanding of a complicated problem or situation
4. Intrigued - to interest someone a lot by being strange, unusual or mysterious
5. Neuroscience - the field of study encompassing the various scientific disciplines dealing with the structure, development, function, chemistry, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system.
After reading this article, I have a better knowledge of fMRI. However, I find that this article is not very useful because it does not include some of the ethnic issues involved.
Next, the second article, "Ethics and mapping the brain", is about the ethic issues involved in using the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) to read human's mind. Although this new technology can help to cure diseases, not everyone welcomes such technology. This new technology made use of the relationship between the brain activity and behavior patterns which can reveal the content of a person's memory, predict mental disorders or giftedness, and whether a person is lying. Standards should be set to ensure the proper use of this new technology such as seeking consent of others. However, if the consent of people was seeked, then the criminal may refuse such scan which might in turn affect jury. Another issue is about privacy because people are able to gain access to data obtained from the brain, so the privacy of others may get intruded. Next issue is whether it should be used on children. The predictions from brain imaging will get more and more reliable, so the main issues are who will be tested, why they will be tested and how the results will be used.
The five relevant vocabulary or phases are:
1. Alzheimer's disease - a common form of dementia of unknown cause, usually beginning in late middle age, characterized by memory lapses, confusion, emotional instability, and progressive loss of mental ability
2. Correlations - mutual relation of two or more things, often one in which one of them causes or influences the other.
3. Genomics - The study of all of the nucleotide sequences, including structural genes, regulatory sequences, and noncoding DNA segments, in the chromosomes of an organism
4. Envision - imagine or expect as a likely or desirable possibility in the future
5. Reductionist - Simplify a complex problem
After reading this article, I find that it is a very useful piece of article because it not only explains what is fMRI, it also includes some of the ethnic issues involved.
The APA citation is used in both articles which are in the format:
Surname, Initial of given name, year and date of publication, title, date of access, website, URL.
Sources of the meaning of the vocabulary or phases are from Cambridge International Dictionary of English and www.dictionary.com
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