W9T2: Difficulties I have in writing in EG1471

W9T2: Difficulties I have in writing in EG1471

Up to now the main difficulty I have had in writing is that I cannot express my ideas clearly. When I write the essays, I always think the sentences in Chinese way then translate them into English. This bad habit makes the sentences’ structures are very strange. That causes I cannot express my ideas properly and people cannot understand me. In addition, I always misuse some words such as “consequence” and “sequence”. It causes readers’ confusion. Moreover, sometimes, I want to express too many ideas in one sentence. However, I cannot handle it, which makes the essay very complicated.

In order to resolve this difficulty, I set a learning plan. This plan has three parts. The first part is reading. The best way to write a good essay is reading. I will read all kinds of good articles, such as academic essays, scientific report and news. In this way, I can get a lot of useful information, such as the good structures of sentences, the proper use of the words and so on. The second part is practicing. When I was in secondary school, my teacher had said that if I want to improve my writing skills, I should write regularly. Hence, doing more writing practice cannot only help me improve my writing skills, but also can help me find the problems of my writings. I think keeping a diary is a good and rapid way to improve my writing skills. I can record a lot of writing material as well. The third part is peer-review. Sometimes, the problems in our essays are not easy to be discovered by ourselves. We need others’ help. Sometimes, people are more sensitive to others’ shortages. We need them to figure out the shortages of our essays. And we need others’ suggestion to make the essays more perfect. 

I believe that if I can carry on this plan for half year at least, my writing skills will have a big progress. 

W7T1:Engineering’s greatest challenge: Our survival

Summary:  

Title: Engineering’s greatest challenge: Our survival

Sub-title: Panel puts 14 jobs on to-do list, ranging from clean water to clean fusion

In Feb 15, 2008, in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 14 Grand Challenges for engineering were announced. These challenges were as followed: making solar energy affordable, providing energy from fusion, developing carbon sequestration methods, managing the nitrogen cycle, providing access to clean water, restoring and improving urban infrastructure, advancing health informatics, engineering the brain, preventing nuclear terror, securing cyberspace, enhancing virtual reality, advancing personalized learning, engineering the tools for scientific discovery. These challenges fell into four general themes: promoting sustainable technologies, advancing human health, reducing vulnerability to threats and increasing the joy of living. It reported that was imperative for our survival on the planet to meet these challenges, since some of these challenges would improve the quality of life in the world. They would make us more secure against both human and natural threats. In addition, W. Perry, who was an engineering professor at Stanford University, noted that almost of these challenges were caused by the great achievements of the 20th century. He thought that scientists and engineers should not only look at how we seize the opportunities of new technology, but how they meet the challenges that were created by the developments in the 20th century. 
While, the details about these challenges project are offered in the official website of the National Academy of Engineering. And the academy did a survey in the website which was asking the public to vote for the most important challenge and provide comments about it. A lot of people did response. A man called Vest mentioned that in order to solve these challenges as soon as possible, it was very important to get the support from the high authority.  

Reference:
Boyle. A (2008). Engineering’s greatest challenge: Our survival. Retrieved September 30, 2008, from:
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23175788/