E portfolio 7
At the end of the semester, reviewing what I have learnt, there are some difficulties in my writing. I have taken one of FASS module, GEK1003, an introduction to political science. There is a term paper required in this module. In the process of writing the paper, I find the improvement which is required in my later English language learning.
The first one is organization. As an argumentative essay, it is required to give a clear thesis statement and some opposite ideas which are stong and persuasive not weak like a straw man. I have met the problem about how to organize the opposite ideas and rebuttal them clearly. And I have failed to link the example with my supporting idea, because I have first given my idea, then following the example without showing the link. Also I didn’t give a clear roadmap about how my idea is going. This problem was very serious, and I have modified it after my friend’s peer reviewing.
Apart from this problem, another problem is that I am not very good at expressing my idea clearly. For example, when I want to show that nationalism is not good for a multiethnic-society. I have to show that ethnic group may have different interest needs. But I am not good at expressing it specifically. Sometimes the word is exaggerated and not convinced. In order to change such errors, I think I have to read more articles and memorize some sentence structure. Also I think I have to think more about how to make a clear structure.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
E-portfolio 6
My common grammar mistakes are verb tense problems, and parallel structure, and fragments.
For the verb tenses problems, I always fail to identify the correct verb tenses. I can’t clarify the perfect and present verb tense. In my writing assignment 2, for instance, there is a sentence: Facing this energy crisis, many governments begin to invest into energy research and build nuclear energy plant to solve this problem.
Since the government has taken actions from past till mow, it is wrong to use present form, it should be: Facing this energy crisis, many governments have begun to invest into energy research and build nuclear energy plant to solve this problem.
Another one is Like in June 2007, for instance, thousands of people showed their opposition against the nuclear power building in Indonesia. Here it is wrong to use past form, but past perfect form because it has happened before June 2007, the correct form is Like in June 2007, for instance, thousands of people had showed their opposition against the nuclear power building in Indonesia. I will have to spend some time to learn how identify the correct sentence form.
My second grammar problem is parallel structure. There are some non-parallel problems in my writings, and here I show some standard problems from textbooks.
Eg1:
My English conversation class is made up of Chinese, Spaniards, and some are from Bosnia.
Corrected one: My English conversation class is made up of Chinese, Spaniards, and Bosnians.
Eg2
The students who do well attend class, they do their homework, and practice speaking in English.
Corrected one: The students who do well attend class, do their homework, and practice speaking in English.
Eg3
The teacher wanted to know which country we came from and our future goals.
Corrected one: The teacher wanted to know which country we came from and what our future goals were.
My third grammar problem is fragments. I am likely to neglect some elements in a sentence. Eg1
The subject I enjoyed the most in high school.
Corrected
The subject I enjoyed the most in high school was physics.
Eg2
The desire of all humankind to live in peace and freedom, for example.
Corrected
The desire of all humankind is to live in peace and freedom, for example.
I will try to avoid such grammar mistakes and spend some time to do the practice.
For the verb tenses problems, I always fail to identify the correct verb tenses. I can’t clarify the perfect and present verb tense. In my writing assignment 2, for instance, there is a sentence: Facing this energy crisis, many governments begin to invest into energy research and build nuclear energy plant to solve this problem.
Since the government has taken actions from past till mow, it is wrong to use present form, it should be: Facing this energy crisis, many governments have begun to invest into energy research and build nuclear energy plant to solve this problem.
Another one is Like in June 2007, for instance, thousands of people showed their opposition against the nuclear power building in Indonesia. Here it is wrong to use past form, but past perfect form because it has happened before June 2007, the correct form is Like in June 2007, for instance, thousands of people had showed their opposition against the nuclear power building in Indonesia. I will have to spend some time to learn how identify the correct sentence form.
My second grammar problem is parallel structure. There are some non-parallel problems in my writings, and here I show some standard problems from textbooks.
Eg1:
My English conversation class is made up of Chinese, Spaniards, and some are from Bosnia.
Corrected one: My English conversation class is made up of Chinese, Spaniards, and Bosnians.
Eg2
The students who do well attend class, they do their homework, and practice speaking in English.
Corrected one: The students who do well attend class, do their homework, and practice speaking in English.
Eg3
The teacher wanted to know which country we came from and our future goals.
Corrected one: The teacher wanted to know which country we came from and what our future goals were.
My third grammar problem is fragments. I am likely to neglect some elements in a sentence. Eg1
The subject I enjoyed the most in high school.
Corrected
The subject I enjoyed the most in high school was physics.
Eg2
The desire of all humankind to live in peace and freedom, for example.
Corrected
The desire of all humankind is to live in peace and freedom, for example.
I will try to avoid such grammar mistakes and spend some time to do the practice.
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