In this semester, I wrote 2 essays and I fing that essay-writing is rather difficult for college students. Especially if you want to write good essay, certain errors have to be avoided. Here I listed some errors I had in my writing assignment one and writing assignment two. I hope that by writing this essay I will be aware of the mistakes and can avoid them in my future writing.
Sometimes I fail to answer the question or neglect part of the question. Usually every fact given in the question will be relevant so considering each in turn and looking at whether they give rise to any particular issues is a wise decision.
Sometimes I fail to address what is being asked of me – for example, when the question asked to ‘discuss’ an issue but I only present a one-sided-argument. Just like in WA2, besides my point of view, I have the give the opposing side to make my essay completed.
The essay is poorly structured, perhaps missing an introduction or failing to reach a conclusion based on the evidence presented. In my WA1, many paragraphs in my essay do not have clear topic sentences. This is really bad because it makes my points not consistant with each other.
Some of my arguments are weak, not supported by evidence or reason or authority, or are non existent. This is a big problem for my WA2, because I always talk about things in distinct future. Human cloning is something not related to our real life and all my evidences are rather weak. Thus, the content for my eaasy 2 is not as good as what I have expected.
Some materials that I used are not properly referenced or no supporting material is cited. For my WA2 draft 2, no reference was made! I must be mad at that time. Academic writing is not like writing journals because we have to give concrete evidences for our arguments. Being objective and accurate is crucial, so we have to read and research a lot before writing and show them in our essays.
Above are the problems that often occur in my essays. In the following semesters I will take modules like critical thinking and writing and Singapore Study. In these modules, essay writing is almost the most important part. I will pay attention to the problems mentioned above and try to avoid them in future days.
2009年4月12日星期日
2009年4月4日星期六
Portfolio 6
The semester is coming to an end and from all the grammar exercises, I find that there are several grammar mistakes that I always make. Here I will list three of them
Firstly, the wrong use of "the" always appear in my essay. The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. "The" signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group. "The" is not used with noncountable nouns referring to something in a general sense. And I always make mistake here. For example, "Intelligence is difficult to quantify." , intelligence here is a general word and "the " shouldn't be used here. The is used with noncountable nouns that are made more specific by a limiting modifying phrase or clause, and it is also used when a noun refers to something unique, eg "the White House".
Secondly, I'm quite confused about the use of preposition. Prepostion is quite different from others words because most of its use is fixed, and we have to memorize it. For one point in time, on is used with days; at is used with noon, night, midnight, and with the time of day and in is used with other parts of the day, with months, with years, with seasons. To express notions of place, English uses the following prepositions: to talk about the point itself: in, to express something contained: inside, to talk about the surface: on, to talk about a general vicinity, at. The use of preporstion is very complex and in order to have a better understanding of it, I think I need to have more practice.
Lastly, the problem exists on the use of countable and uncountable nouns. In English, there is a kind of collective nouns, and their singular and plural forms are the same. Here, the choice of verb form is very important. The rule of pluralizing is that most count nouns pluralize with -s and noncount nouns don't pluralize at all. For a number of nouns, the rule needs slight revision. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally the noncount meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific. For example, I've had some difficulties finding a job. (refers to a number of specific problems) and She succeeded in school with little difficulty. (refers to the general idea of school being difficult).
The errors listed above always appear in my essays and in the future days I'll pay more attention to them.
Firstly, the wrong use of "the" always appear in my essay. The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. "The" signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group. "The" is not used with noncountable nouns referring to something in a general sense. And I always make mistake here. For example, "Intelligence is difficult to quantify." , intelligence here is a general word and "the " shouldn't be used here. The is used with noncountable nouns that are made more specific by a limiting modifying phrase or clause, and it is also used when a noun refers to something unique, eg "the White House".
Secondly, I'm quite confused about the use of preposition. Prepostion is quite different from others words because most of its use is fixed, and we have to memorize it. For one point in time, on is used with days; at is used with noon, night, midnight, and with the time of day and in is used with other parts of the day, with months, with years, with seasons. To express notions of place, English uses the following prepositions: to talk about the point itself: in, to express something contained: inside, to talk about the surface: on, to talk about a general vicinity, at. The use of preporstion is very complex and in order to have a better understanding of it, I think I need to have more practice.
Lastly, the problem exists on the use of countable and uncountable nouns. In English, there is a kind of collective nouns, and their singular and plural forms are the same. Here, the choice of verb form is very important. The rule of pluralizing is that most count nouns pluralize with -s and noncount nouns don't pluralize at all. For a number of nouns, the rule needs slight revision. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally the noncount meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific. For example, I've had some difficulties finding a job. (refers to a number of specific problems) and She succeeded in school with little difficulty. (refers to the general idea of school being difficult).
The errors listed above always appear in my essays and in the future days I'll pay more attention to them.
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