July 2008 Trip to Las Vegas

Due to the ERSA 2008 conference, I paid a short visit to Las Vegas from July 14 to 17.

I was supposed to fly on Sunday (13th) night from National Airport (DCA), however, the flight was cancelled due to the weather. At that moment, I have spent one hour waiting at the airport.
However, it was good for me actually since the new leather shoes were hurting my feet.
After I got back to the campus, I made a phone call to my wife and let her pick me up. Nevertheless, there was a miscommunication about the exact location. So, I waited at the the Vernon shuttle stop on H street and she expected to meet me in front of Tompkins Hall on 23rd street. Anyway, I finally found the car because she was blowing the horn.

The next day, the flight successfully departed from DCA with one hour delay. After a 4 and half hour flight, I arrived at Las Vegas. The first thing I had to do was to find my luggage, which I checked in Sunday night and arrived at Las Vegas with the first flight on Monday morning. It took me another 45 minutes to find it.

Then the bad thing happened. The taxi driver started playing scam on me. Instead of using the shorted route, he used the unnecessary I-15 and made a big circle. The price on the meter was 22, which I was pretty suspicious since one local told me it would cost around 12 dollars. I paid full without tip because I was overcharged already.

After checking into the room, I prepared for the presentation for a while before go to sleep. The presentation on Tuesday went quite well.

On Wednesday I decided to walk through the city. The Las Vegas Strip is not quite long and there are around 20 mega resorts and casinos standing along the Las Vegas Blvd South. I had no interest to the casinos and they look pretty much same to me. On the map, there is a downtown area and I decided to pay a visit as well. Therefore, I decided to keep walking after I passed the Sahara casino. Then I entered the original city before the development of the Stip. All of a sudden, you could not find any people on the street and feel like walking in a ghost city. Occasionally, you may encounter some homeless. Finally, I reached the downtown and saw a lot of tourists again. However, they all crowded in the same block. I took the bus, the deduce, as the most tourists did and back to the strip.

The next day, I decided to walk back to the airport since it is not very far. After the lunch at a Chinese buffet near the hotel, Monte Carlo, I started walking with my bag and luggage. Again, there is no people after one block away from the strip. Since it is hot and dry at Las Vegas, there is almost no tree and grass over there. It took me more than one hour to reach the airport.

At last, I get one the plane at mid night and head back home. I don't like the city at all.

The existence of alien intelligent life form.

Two thousand years ago, people thought the Earth is the center of this universe and human was the only intelligent life form in this world. Later, people discovered the vastness of the universe and found the Earth is only one of the countless planets. Then, logically it becomes interesting to find whether there are some other intelligent life form in other planet.

Personally, I believe there are some other intelligent life forms existing at remote planets in the universe, just like us. However, I don't think we are able to find them and contact them, and vice versa. Human, as one species living on the Earth, faces the same fate as other species. Eventually, human species will start extinguish one day and the culture developed at that time may not reach the level to perform inter-planet journey in an efficient way, i.e., we are not able to go to other planet as described in the movies.

The other intelligent species at other planets face the same situation.

We are not alone, however, we are lonely from the sense that we cannot contact other intelligent life form in other distant planets.

How to get accurate and balanced information in today's world?

Everyday, we get the information about the events happening in this world through different channels, such as news paper, radio, TV, Internet. It is impossible to witness these events in person; therefore, it is necessary for us to know what are happening through the media. However, media are produced by people based on the information they collect. There are several factors that may affect the accurancy of the information what they give us.

Firstly, the information they collect may not accurate or complete at the very beginning. In today's media market, different companies are competing against each other in order to get the eyeballs from the audiences. Hence, all the media are forced to provide the information to the public as quick as possible. Once something happens, the journalists working for different companies rush to the scene and start releasing information as soon as possible based on the information they can obtain at that moment. Therefore, the stories they tell may change as the time goes. For example, during the reporting of the Virginia Tech Massacre last year, the media was not able to provide the correct information about the exact number of casualties and kept telling different versions of the story.

Secondly, the information they give us is interpretated by the people working for the media. In the interpretation process, they inevitably add their personal opinions. Sometime, they even change the story by covering the truth. The extreme case is how CNN made news based on one picture, which was cut into half intentionally, for the event happened in XiZhang (Tibet) following 3.14. The right part of the original picture shows the rioters were throwing stones to the military trucks. What CNN did is to cut off the right part and only showed the left side with the trucks and then started making stories on the top of it.

Thirdly, the people who work for media even make the news based on nothing. Before America invaded Iraq, media kept telling the public that Iraq owned the MDW and chemical weapon by quoting the voice from the government instead of investigating the truth. Because their continuous effort for broadcasting the fake story, the public started to accept it as a truth until later the report from the government itself claimed that there was no any this kind of weapon at all in Iraq.

Because it is impossible for us to witness all the events in person, it is necessary to get information from today's media. However, it is very important to get the correct information from the stories provided by these media. In order to get accurate and balanced information about any event as much as possible, the public can do the following.

1) Do not assume the information given by media is always correct and complete, particularly for big event. It is better to wait for enough time, such that we can get enough information before making the conclusion or judgement.

2) It is good to obtain the information about the same event from different channels. You may first hear some news from the radio or TV. Then you can check the Internet to see whether they are telling the same story, or there is something conflicting in different versions. It is always a good strategy to look for information from different sources and verify each other.

3) Use individual's own judgement. Once the individual hears some news, it is necessay to look at the logic behind it. If the logic does not make any sense, the information we get may not correct or complete at that moment.

Actually, the public can not completely blame the media itself for the inaccuracy. Most of the time, media is driven by the desire of the public to get news as quick as possible. Therefore, all the media companies always rush to provide the information to the public under pressure. If the public are able to give media enough time to collect information and acknowledge the accuracy and completeness, the media itself will start changing the way providing and interpreting information eventually

Temperature Figures

Although there were some fluctuations in the middle, the main trend of average temperature of each decade is rising, from 13.8 Celsius degree in 1890 to 14.6 Celsius degree in 2005. There was a small dip at the beginning in the curve. Then the average temperature kept climbing gradually until 1950, followed by a down trend. From 1970, the average temperature of each decade started rising again until 2005, however, at a rate much higher than before. The fluctuation seems reasonable in the first half of this century. Nonetheless, the recent temperature rising is rapidly enough to warn us the emerging of Global Warming.

Spam Email

One of the most annoying things about internet is spam emails. Most of them are unsolicited advertisements, and some of them are scams, which pretend to come from your banks, online sellers, or even government. I once received one scam email which claimed coming from Bank of America and let me give my account information. I almost trusted the email and was about to release my person information before I called Bank of America and found it was a fake.
Most of time, I will trash them right away without reading them. However, I may scan through the list of titles to make sure the mail server does not put some "good" emails into the "spam" folder by mistake before I delete them permantly.
In terms of sexually or inappropriate emails for kids, parents should set up the filters properly in order to filter those email before the kids access them. In the meantime, parents should educate them and make sure they are aware of the existence of these kinds of emails and deal with them appropriately in case they have access to them.
Spam emails are difficult to fight against. More intelligent softwares are needed to develop to deal with them. However, it is impossible to remove them completely because the technologies at both sides develop at the same time. Hence, the more viable way is to let people be aware of it and able to handle it in a correct way.

March 13th, 2008, EAV 7b #1

According to Chernicoff, Fox, and Tanner in What Caused the Extinction of the Dinosaurs, paleontologists are very interested in the factors contributing to the massive extinction 65 millions years ago, including 75% of all live forms on the earth and dinosaurs in particular. Some early hypotheses focuses on single factor, however, other proposed that global environment changes were the reasons. But none of them was able to explain why 75% species were lost and the other 25% species survived. One possible factor, which is agreed among several hypotheses, is the catastrophic collapse of the global food chain preceded the widespread extinction because of the "impact of winter". One group suggested that the massive volcanic eruption sent enormous ashes and gases into the atmosphere. The other group proposed the same phenomenon, yet, trigged by the strike of a meteorite. The third hypothsis combined both as trigger factors for the wordwild food shortage. Although there are numerous evidences demonstrating the correctness of these hypotheses, none of them has attained theory status. Hence, scientists are still searching more evidence to support their hypotheses.

March 6th, 2008 English Learning Experience

Although I have spent almost 20 years to learn and improve English, I am still not satisfied with it . In terms of the four basic skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing, I am able to read well and very weak with three others. First, I was not able to follow the news in the radio or the talking in the movie before I came to US. Most of the time, I heard the words, but I could not find the meaning very quickly. In another words, I had to translate English to Chinese in my mind for understanding the listening English. After five years of continuous listening, my capbility for this skill finally improves. Second, my English writing skill is still horrible. I am still not able to tell the minor differences among synonyms and feel difficult to find accurate word in writing. Very often, there is no natural connection between two contiguous sentences, which makes it suffering to read my writing. Notwithstanding I know that it is necessary to keep on writing to improve it, and I write English everyday, I still feel what I write is very awkward in terms of grammar and word selection. Finally, I have to say my English speaking is not acceptable at all. I keep making mistakes about the timing issue, the pronunciation, and plural form of nouns, which do not exist in Chinese. I am only able to speak in very simple form using simple words; hence, I repeat using same word when I present. Further, my voice always sounds dry and clumsy. The only way to improve my English is to practice and this is what I am going to do.

Assignment on March 4th, 2008

1. Name some types of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources that are used by researchers in your field.

Field: Computer Engineering

Primary source: the original publication of new data, results, and theories; or, own first-hand result, such as simulation result, the output of a program.

Secondary source: interpretation, commentary, analysis and criticism of primary sources; examples include the validation or disapproval of a new theory.

Tertiary source: bibliographies, library catalogs, directories, and survey articles; particularly, a good survey article will give a comprehensive coverage of a particular field and list the most important publications in the field.


2. When you research a topic, how do you keep track of information
In scientific fields, Computer Engineering in particular, the main method to keep track of information is to build a bibliography which consists of all the citations the researcher once used in technical writing. Each item in the bibliography includes the authors, publication name, the original place, published time (year, month), and abstract.

Feb 28, 2008 Identify the three parts of introduction

Red: Move1
Blue: Move2
Green:Move3


Article 1.
Three recent publications serve to illustrate the growing interest in the teaching and researching of Business English (BE) amongst language teachers and researchers: the 1993 bibliography compiled by Kennedy, Hewings and Dudas, which lists research into various aspects of business communication, Dudley Evans and St. Johns’ review of BE research and teaching materials, and the 1996 special issue of English for Specific Purposes edited by St. John and Johnson, which contains articles relating to BE research and teaching, and the implications of research for teaching.
As these and other publications show, there as been a gradual but steady increase in Business English research during the 1990s in cross-cultural and intercultural studies, investigating the English used in business settings by native and non-native speakers (Yamada, 1990; Maier, 1992; Yli-Jokipii, 1994; Akar and Louhiala-Salminen, 1999). This no doubt reflects the fact that not only in English the language of international business but also that “as an international language, English is used as the means of communication in business transactions between people none of whom is a native user of the language” (Robinson, 1991, p. 98).
Despite the interest in both teaching and researching Business English in general, and in cross-cultural research in particular, little is known about the effectiveness of using hands-on cross-cultural and intercultural research as way of raising student awareness of the problems native and non-native speakers may experience in intercultural business encounters. This paper therefore outlines a course we have developed in research methods for intercultural text analysis for final year masters students in the business communication department at the University of Nijmegen. It begins with brief details of the background to the course, and it presents the literature we discuss and the types of activities we use during classroom sessions together with several examples of past student research projects. The paper concludes with discussion of some of the methodological problems we have encountered whilst developing and teaching the course, and, wherever this has been possible, the solutions that we have found and incorporated into our teaching.

Article 2.
An elaborate system of marking social distance and respect is found in the morphology of Nahuatl as spoken in communities of the Malinche volcano area in the Mexican states of Tlaxcala and Puebla. The complexity of the morphology involved, the semantic range of the elements, and the variation in the system in use raise questions of considerable interest for our understanding of the form and function of such systems, both in Nahuatl itself and in other languages.A system of elements usually referred to as 'honorifics' or 'reverentials' is reported by all the grammarians of Classical Nahuatl (cf. Olmos, 1547; Molina, 1571a; Carochi, 1645; Simeon, 1885; Garibay, 1970; Anderson, 1973; Andrews, 1975). Similar systems are reported for several modern varieties of Nahuatl (cf. Whorf, 1946 for Milpa Alta in the Federal District; Pitman, 1948 for Tetelcingo in Morelos; and Buchler and Freeze, 1966 and Buhler, 1967 for Hueyapan and Atempan in northern Puebla). None of these reports, except for Pittman's, describes the system in much detail. The present account is based on materials collected in 1974-75 and during the summer of 1976 in a linguistic survey of Nahuatl-speaking communities on the western and south-western slopes of the Malinche volcano.

Article 3.

In recent years applied researchers have become increasingly interested in the interpersonal relationships with manager-subordinate dyads. The majority of studies have focused on actual similarity between managers and their subordinates as related to managers’ appraisals of subordinates’ performance, subordinates’ job satisfaction and subordinates’ evaluations of their managers.
A few studies have examined the extent to which subordinates congruently perceive their managers (referred to here as “subordinate’s perceptual congruence”). These studies suggest that subordinates who are more perceptually aware of their superiors’ work-related attitudes receive higher performance evaluations and are more satisfied with their superiors.
Each of these previous studies has researched only a part of this complex dyadic interpersonal relationship. First, none of the studies has examined the effects of a manager’s congruent perception of a subordinate’s work-related attitudes. Second, no studies can be found that directly compare the relative importance of actual similarity with that of perceptual congruence. Third, none of the previous studies has looked at interpersonal perception by the manager and by the subordinates simultaneously within the same dyad.
The purpose of the present field investigation was to study both actual similarity and perceptual congruence and to examine them from the perspective of both the manager and the subordinate. The study investigated the relationships of these perceptual processes in two important organizational outcomes: subordinates’ satisfaction with work and supervision, and managers’ evaluations of subordinates’ job performance. Specifically, the study examined: (a) the relative magnitude of perceptual congruence and actual similarity with these two organizational outcomes; (b) whether the more congruently a subordinate perceives the manager (subordinate’s perceptual congruence), the more satisfied the subordinate will be; and (c) whether the more congruently a manager perceives the subordinate (manager’s perceptual congruence), the higher the subordinate’s performance will be evaluated.

Article 4.

Over the past twenty years there have been a number of significant changes to the health care system in Australia. These changes have occurred at the local, state, and federal levels. This paper will examine reforms at the state level for Victoria. This focus has been chosen because it is at this level that changes have had the most impact. Rather than superficially describing a large number of reforms, a detailed description and analysis will be presented of three revisions: the Workcare system, the deinstitutionalization of mental health patients, and the introduction of case-mix funding.

Article 5.
The thermal properties of glassy materials at low temperatures are still not completely understood. The thermal conductivity has a plateau which is usually in the range 5 to 10K and below this temperature it has a temperature dependence which varies approximately as T. The specific heat below 4K is much larger than that which would be expected from the Debye theory and it often has an additional term which is proportional to T. Some progress has been made towards understanding the thermal behaviour by assuming that there is a cut-off in the photon spectrum at high frequencies (Zaitlin and Anderson, 1975a, b) and that there is an additional system of low-lying two-level states (Anderson et al., 1972; Phillips, 1972). Nevertheless more experimental data are required and in particular it would seem desirable to make experiments on glassy samples whose properties can be varied slightly from one to the other. The present investigation reports attempts to do this by using various samples of the same epoxy resin which have been subjected to different curing cycles. Measurements of the specific heat (or the diffusing) and the thermal conductivity have been taken in the temperature range 0.1 to 80K for a set of specimens which covered up to nine different curing cycles.

Feb 26, 2008 EAV Chap12, 7b(#2)

Dear Mom and Dad,

It has been for a while without hearing from you. How are you doing at the countryside?

I am still working on the coal mine that I have been working for in the past ten years. The owner of the mine is a very mean person. He always provides us the worst food, which is stale and cold. I and another 9 young colleagues have to share a small room, which has not bathroom. There is no running water here; hence, I generally take a bath once a month. The winter is very cold in northern England; however, the owner even doesn’t give us the coal for heating in the room.

Everyday I work sixteen hours underground and I don’t have weekend. Even I am very sick sometimes, I am forced to work. I and other miners do the work manually. We dig the coal using pickaxe and shovel underground, put them into carts, and then pull them up. It is very dusty and wet at the scene, and I even can’t breathe sometimes. In addition, it is very dangerous for working underground. Two of my colleagues have been killed in the past year because of cave-in. However, the owner doesn’t care our lives and spends almost nothing to improve the working conditions and safety. Furthermore, I am paid very low.

In order to change this kind of bad situation, we form a worker union and are on strike now. Unfortunately, I don’t expect these mine owners are going to accept our requirements. The government is on their side. Moreover, it is very easy for them to find new workers to replace us since young fellows are flooding into this area from countryside to look for jobs.

In the meantime, I heard a lot of stories from the new continent, the United States. It is very easy to find a job there because the country is expanding fast and the labor is scarce. Even for the same job, it is paid much better than here. Maybe I will find my own fortune in the new continent. At the same time, I will be far far away from you then.

Yours son,

Tom

Homework on Feb 19, 2008 Positive and negative effects of monopoly

Most of the time, monopoly brings negative effects. First, monopolies tend to become less efficient and innovative over time because they do not have to be efficient or innovative to compete in the marketplace. Hence, the technology advancement is comparatively slow when one company controls a particular market. Second, monopolies generally overcharge the end consumers because there is no alternative on the market and companies are always greedy. Third, consumers have no place to complain if they are not satisfied with the products or services since those monopolies most often ignore these voices and do nothing. Most of monopolies become complacent giants eventually. Sometimes this very loss of efficiency can raise a potential competitor's value enough to overcome market entry barriers, or provide incentive for research and investment into new alternatives.

Hence, if one monopoly wants to keep its status for a long term, it behaves as if there were competition because of the risk of losing their monopoly to new entrants. Sometimes, consumers feel more comfortable if the market is controlled by one responsible monopoly because the product value will stay steadily, therefore, their investment is safe for a long term, particularly, in terms of these luxury, however, without any intrinsic value, jewelry such as gem-diamond.

From my point of view, the best business model is that the market is dominated by several (less than 5) major players. Hence, these companies are able to collect enough revenue to invest on research and development. In the meantime, they have to compete against each other to improve their product and service in order to stay in the market. These kinds of case can be found in the soft beverage market (Coca-cola and Pepsi), the computer microprocessor market (Intel and AMD), and the civil aviation market (Boeing and Air Bus).

Summarizing comments about Obama on 02/14/2008

Bloggers gave different, even disparate, comments about Obama.
Some bloggers [Sarah, Show-Me MO, Amy in Ohio] say Obama does not have any detailed plan and doesn’t say anything so far. However, other bloggers [Bryan] disagrees with this and claims he has specific policy proposal.
Some bloggers [Spock, Randy] claim that Obama is the most liberal Senator and has never stood on single issue. Instead, his answers in general are to appease both sides. Other bloggers [Ryaple] totally disagree to this and give a detailed list showing Obama stands on a lot of issues.
Some bloggers [No Obama] says Obama is not producing results and not work hard. While, others [Mrsnivel] argues that Obama is there to work for us.
A lot of bloggers [Kfol, etc.] claim that the support wave for Obama is a cult. Others [Digital Disease] say it is a movement.
In general, it is very normal for a lot of people to have diverse opinions to a heated debated news or characters, especially on the internet. For the case of Obama, it is interesting to know how people think of his sweeping success in the current primary election and find the reason behind it.

Citation Review on 02/142008

Researchers have arguments about the purpose of citations in academic writing. Most researchers agree that citations are good ways to acknowledge other’s original work. However, different points of view about citations are proposed as well. Some researchers suggest that proper citations are a matter of ethics and are a means to prevent plagiarism. Some researchers [Gilbert 1977] claim that citations are mainly for providing support to authors’ statements. Other researchers [Bavelas 1978] argue that the completeness of citations can show the writers’ familiarity to a particular field. In a word, citations are used to give credit to original authors, to prevent plagiarism, to support claim, and to demonstrate familiarity with the field. More investigation are needed to show their relationship in the future

EAV Chapt 7, 7b(2)

I once did a three-month internship at Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) in the summer of 2006. At that moment, SGI was developing and testing its new released high-performance reconfigurable computer and I was hired to write applications for performance testing. The working environment was quite typical and I was assigned a cube in a big office. The employees at SGI were always happy to help when I encountered any technical problems. Because I already knew the platform I was going to use before the internship started, I was able to begin my work from day one. In the meantime, my supervisor at SGI didn’t assign other work to me except the application development; so that I was able to focus on one single task and produce a lot of result at the end. Overall, I was doing the work I was interested; I was able to get the help immediately when problem arose; and I was paid quite well too. However, the disadvantage of this three-month internship is that I didn’t get a lot of challenges. I knew what and how I was going to do even before I went to SGI; hence, I just moved from one application to another one and didn't have a lot of chances to try something beyond my knowledge. Although I accumulated a lot of experience for one particular task, my overall knowledge didn’t grow. I believe the latter is more important.

Homework on Feb 07, 2008

EAV Chapter 6

1.
a) heart
b) structure
c) first
d) major
e) changes
f) percentage
g) enough
h) salary
i) change
j) restrictions
k) duties
l) skills
m) says
n) factors
o) money

3.
1) a steady job
2) working class
3) job security
4) odd jobs
5) workplace
6) task force
7) on-the-job training
8) workout
9) works of art
10) workload
11) foreign assignment
12) job description
13) job satisfaction
14) workaholic

4B.
1) initially
2) interactive
3) dominant
4) locate
5) sufficient
6) comments
7) illustrations
8) emphatic
9) react
10) correspondingly

5.
1) emphasis
2) basic
3) sufficient
4) routine
5) put
6) theoretical
7) outcome
8) funds
9) gave
10) raise

7B.2.

Testing, i.e. exam, can evaluate how comprehensive a student has understood a particular subject and mastered the necessary knowledge. In the meantime, subjects of arts and subjects of science may require totally different ways for testing. In order to realize the testing objective of scientific subjects, different methods should be applied in the test. For example, multiple-choice questions are good for assessing the basic points of a subject by mixing solutions with false ones. Then simple questions can be given to test the student’s capability of solving problems that are related with only one or two elements in the subject. At the end of the test, one or two advanced or difficult questions can be used to demonstrate the student’s skill of applying multiple elements together to solve a problem. However, testing methods for subjects of arts may use one method only. For instance, writing an essay is the typical way for testing a student’s skill in English writing class. Doing a small project and giving a short presentation is a good way for pushing students to dig up the real story in history class. No matter what kinds of testing methods are used, it is necessary for them to assess the knowledge comprehensively and deeply.

Summarization Exercise on 02/07/2008

1.a.
Electronic communication can let students find classmates, contact scholars, post and share ideas by attending online groups easily, and provide a good means for project research; hence, it dramatically extends the way for students to work with other people.

1.b.
In order to maximize the learning effect for most possible students, teachers should adjust the teaching methods appropriately to reflect the different learning styles of students and differnt learning activities from time to time.

Summary of Chapter 1 of "The craft of research"
In the first chapter of "The craft of research", the authors explain what research is, why we need to write the research report, and why we have to write the report in a formal way. Research basically is a process to find the solution for a particular problem by exchange information with other people in this world. In order to make the research valuable and accessible, it is important to write it up; furthermore, writing a report can help remember what the researchers find, understand the results better, and make your idea clear. To achieve these three objectives of writing, it is necessary to write the report formally because it can help make the ideas more accurate from readers' point of view. In a word, writing the report in a formal way can help both, the researchers and the readers, for better understanding each other and making the research more valuable to the community.

Homework on 02/05/2008

EAV Chapter 4

4b.
(1) participation, (2) categorized, (3) participate, (4) random, (5) tradition, (6) voluntary,
(7) injuries, (8) acquire, (9) regional, (10) normally, (11) energy.

6a.
(1) import, (2) porter, (3) port, (4) report, (5) deportation, (6) transportation,
(7) portable, (8) portfolio, (9) export, (10) reporter.

7b. my extracurricular activities in college

It was the story long time ago; however, the experience of extracurricular activities in college is imprinted in my memory forever. I started to feel a little bit loneliness after I spent one and half semesters in the first year of college. One day, I saw the hiring post of the campus café, which was managed by students under the supervision of university. I decided to do something different than studying at that time and went to apply for the position of waiter. I was recruited and started the par-time job of working behind the bar once or twice a week. In the café, I had the chance to know the students beyond my own major, such as the students from business school, law school, etc. In the meantime, my devotedness to the part-time job was acknowledged by those managers, who themselves were students; hence, I was promoted to be one of the shift managers after one and half semesters and later was appointed to the position just behind the general manger. At the beginning of my third year in college, I was picked up by the university and joined the unit that supervised all of those student-organized small businesses, such as café, supermarket, etc. I spent one year to work with these different types of organizations, and decided to quit at the beginning of the forth year.
The two-and-half-year experience participating in these student-organized businesses dramatically changed my life from the outside. In one sentence, I was wearing sneakers at the beginning and was wearing leather shoes at the end. However, my inside didn't change a lot actually. I was still a very naive student after I quit from the part-time job at the end.
At the same time, my focus was shifted from study as well and my grade was not as good as the first year. I was not sure this bad influence of the grade was related with the part-time job because that job didn't take a lot of time indeed.

Homework of Jan 31st, 2008

1.
1) e
2) j
3) m
4) o
5) h
6) g
7) f
8) k
9) a
10) l
11) i
12) n
13) c
14) d
15) b

4.
1) administration
2) distributes
3) reside
4) primary
5) perception
6) securely
7) finalize
8) restrictions
9) construction
10) institutional

5A
1) maintenance
2) primary
3) labor
4) computer
5) positive
6) security
7) community
8) final
9) residential
10) prime

5B
1) person
2) time
3) Day
4) attitude
5) guard
6) college
7) exam
8) school
9) community
10) graphics

6B
1) designer
2) interpreter
3) author
4) finalist
5) mathematician
6) vegetarian
7) advisor
8) administrator
9) lawyer
10) individualist
11) theorist

Homework of Jan 29th, 2008

Chapter 2.

1,
b, c, a, b, c, a, c, c, a, c, a

3,
1) age range
2) out of range
3) mountain range
4) gas range
5) range of symptoms
6) open range
7) firing range
8) within normal range
9) viewing range
10) price range
11) range of products

4A,

achievement achieve
conduct conduct
creation create
definition define
estimation estimate
function function
requirement require
item itemize
impact impact
range range
consultation consult
response respond

5A
estimate size, speed, cost
seek advice, shelter, assistance
create jobs, problems, poems
derive satisfaction, pleasure, benefit

5B
2) the sports section
3) legal issues
4) a friendly environment
5) yearly income
6) a university function
7) achievement test
8) financial assistance
9) welfare state
10) licensed psychologist


7B

Experience of Test Anxiety

In general, I don’t have real test anxiety. I always feel very nervous during the preparation of the tests because I am afraid of missing some important points that would be tested. This kind of feeling culminates when I am sitting in the classroom and waiting for the exam sheet to be distributed. At that moment, I feel thirsty, not able to focus, and temporarily memory loss. However, as soon as I get the exam sheet, things change dramatically and I calm down promptly. One thing that makes me peaceful is the thought, “everything is settled down already and you can not change the test result at this moment. So, why are you anxious now?”
However, the testing process does not go smoothly always. The worst scenario is that you suddenly find a big mistake for a major solution and you almost run out of time in the mean time. At that moment, I would feel the real anxiety, not because I do not know how to solve it, but because I do not have enough time to fix it. My brain starts heating up, my hands start sweating, and the worst, I am not able to concentrate. The outcome is always disastrous, even I try hard to correct the error at the last minute.

Comparison of Academic and Informal Writing

Here after, Kim2006 is used to denote article “Academic oral communication needs of East Asian international graduate students in non-science and non-engineering fields”; Azuma1997 is used to denote article “A graduate school survival guide”.

Audience
How do the intended audiences of the two articles differ?
Kim2006: the audiences are East Asian international graduate students in non-science and non-engineering fields.
Azuma1997: the audiences are PhD students in science and engineering fields.

What are the concerns of these audiences?
Kim2006: the audiences concern required academic listening and speaking skill levels in their university courses.
Azuma1997: the audiences worry about whether and how they can graduate from the PhD program.

What do these audiences already know?
Kim2006: the audiences know the skills, academic listening and speaking, which they are required to master, however, have difficulties to meet them.
Azuma1997: the audiences know it is difficult to finish a PhD program, particularly, when the student has to work alone on a long-term research topic without detailed direction from the advisor.

What are their expectations when they read the article?
Kim2006: the audiences want to know how to improve the academic listening and speaking skills.
Azuma1997: the audiences want to know how to solve the problems in the process of PhD program and graduate as soon as possible.

What do they want to know and/or feel?
Kim2006: same as above.
Azuma1997: same as above.

What elements of the articles indicate the intended audience?
Kim2006: the title.
Azuma1997: the title.



Tone
Writing conveys a certain tone or “feeling” about the author and the author’s attitude towards the topic of a text. When referring to more expressive texts, tone is often discussed in terms of voice—the idiosyncratic features of a writer’s style. How does the tone or voice of the two articles differ? Provide some examples from the text.
Kim2006: this article is published in a journal, hence, the author has to be as much objective as possible. Basically, the author wants to do some analysis based on the data the author collected. In order to make the analysis convincible, the author provides a complete description about how the data are collected, filtered and demonstrates the different between the result and other researchers’ conclusions.
Azuma1997: Because the author was a recently graduated PhD student from computer science field and wanted to give some advices to junior graduate students in the same or close fields, the author basically wrote a letter in the flavor as a personal letter.



Authority
Audiences are interested in reading informative writing (or listening to informative oral presentations) because of the author’s authority or expertise in a given domain. What is the basis of the two authors’ authority? How is this established in the texts?
Kim2006: the author analyzed the data collected during a survey and compared the analysis with other researchers. Basically, this article is data-oriented.
Azuma1997: the author gave his personal experience for easing the difficulties met during the PhD program. Because the author has successfully finished the program, audiences are willing to believe him.


Rhetorical Structure
Texts are more than collections of words: They have a structure that sets up and meets readers’ expectations. What is the structure of the two texts? How and why does the structure differ? What purpose do the structural elements serve?
Kim2006: this article is a technical paper published on a journal and this means this article follows the typical format of a regular paper, i.e. abstraction, introduction, background (or related work), methodology, data analysis, and conclusion. In order to make the paper valuable and not repeat others’ work, it is very important to compare this work and the work done by other researchers and point out the difference at the very beginning. Then the methodology follows and results are provided. Analysis based on the data should be detailed and demonstrate the points what the author wants to present in the paper. Finally, a conclusion or summary presents the main points again.
Azuma1997: this article is a guide to junior PhD graduate student and, hence, does not follow any format. At the beginning of the article, the author presented his motivation for writing this article. Then the author started several sections focusing different aspects of the skills or techniques a PhD student needs to have to successfully reach the end of the program. Every section talks one particular skill, however, no direct relation between two contiguous sections.

Argument
How do the texts put forth their arguments? Are there different standards of proof in the two texts? How do they treat claims, reasons, evidence, counter-arguments, and basic assumptions? Do they position their discussion within the previous discourse of a particular community? If so, what is this community?
Kim2006: In this paper, what the author exactly does is to analyze the data collected from a survey. In order to make the analysis valuable, the author compares s/he work with previous related works and emphasizes the different between his/her work and others. In the writing, the author refers a lot of research papers published before and emphasizes the conclusions that differ from previous ones. The paper is written by EAP professional and for classroom instructors in general and EAP professional in particular.
Azuma1997: In general, this article is the collection of personal experience about how to finish PhD program in science and engineering fields successfully. Because this is only an informal writing, the author does not try to prove what he claims all the time and it is up to the audience to make the decision accepting them or rejecting them. This article is mainly for new PhD students.


Scope
What is the scope of the two texts? Which text deals with a wider, more general topic and which one deals with a more focused topic? What factors are responsible for the difference in scope?
Kim2006: This article discusses how to improve the English writing and speaking skills for East Asian international students in US. Thus, the topic is very much focused on one particular point which is very common for technical papers. Limited by page size and numerous efforts done on the similar topics before, it is very difficult to cover a broad topic in a 10-page paper and the author has to narrow its scope to the contribution only.
Azuma1997: This article discusses different skills a PhD student needs to master or pay attention to in his/her degree program. Hence, it covers a much broader scope than the other one.


Sentence Mechanics and Grammar
Academic and informal texts have different requirements in terms of grammar. In broad terms, how does the grammar of the two texts differ? What specific features differ? Provide some examples from the text. Examples should include punctuation rules.
Kim2006: Academic paper should be written in an objective way. For example, “Because the response rate was fairly low, it should be emphasized that the results of this study do not reflect the opinions of all EAGS in the academic departments surveyed. Since the survey was rather long, it is likely that the respondents were primarily those who had strong interest in academic listening/speaking tasks and may thus not be representative of all EAGS.” In the above example, the author avoids to use “I”, “you”, etc. and tries to describes the things as a third-party viewer.
Azuma1997: Informal papers generally are more interesting for reading and consist of many subjective opinions. For example, “If you do not have an acceptable answer to this question, then don't get a Ph.D. I repeat: if you do not have a rock-solid reason for getting the Ph.D., then it is better that you leave with a Master's. Why? Completing a Ph.D. is a long, hard road with many potholes and washed out bridges along the way. You may run over some land mines and have to stop and turn around and explore other routes. If the goal is important enough to you, then these obstacles will not prevent you from completing your journey. But if you don't know why you are on this road, then you will get discouraged and will probably leave without finishing, having wasted years of your life. ” In the above example, the author writes the paragraph like he is talking to you directly which never happens in formal writing.


Style
Do the two texts include colloquialisms and casual expressions? Provide some examples.
Kim2006: This article does not include colloquialisms and casual expressions.
Azuma1997: This article is full of those words and expressions. The example given above demonstrates this very well.


Reference to Others’ Ideas
What conventions do the two texts use to refer to others’ ideas? What’s the purpose of the citations in each text? What determines the citation style used in each text?
Kim2006: This article refers others’ work a lot and follows the formal way to put citation in the text. The purpose of the citations is mainly to provide arguments developed by other researchers and proof materials for its own arguments.
Azuma1997: This article almost does not refer any others’ work except providing further reading at the end.


Vocabulary
How does the vocabulary used in the two texts differ? Discuss the differences in detail and provide concrete examples.
Kim2006: this article uses formal vocabulary, such as “examine”, “concern”, “consider”, “explore”, “conduct”, and “perception”.
Azuma1997: this article uses casual words, such as “toil and sweat”, “strike”, “magically”, “star graduate student”, “rock-solid”, and “soul searching”.

Homework of Jan 24th, 2008

EAV Chapter 1

4B:

1)Scientists always analyze their data before writing up the results of their research.
2)We conceptualize the idea for the project after discussing it in our group.
3)Our ability to find a good job after graduation will depend on some extent on the strength of the economy.
4)We are encouraged by our professors to formulize and express out own opinions.
5)You need two forms of personal identification.
6)Although the members of our study group have individual learning styles, we all work well together.
7)Most students change their majors at least once during their undergraduate studies.
8)There was a strange occurrence in the dorm last night when all the lights suddenly went out.
9)It is normal for first-year students to experience periodic homesickness during their first semester away from home.
10)Our professor specifically said to turn in the assignment on Thursday.
11)Students often find it difficult to understand their classmates’ editorial comments when they are peer reviewing an essay.

5.

1)Student can gain considerable benefits from learning to work together.
2)Our assignment was to define the general concepts in Chapter 10 of the textbook.
3)Our group project is to study environmental data on annual rainfall in our state.
4)I could not find the correct formula to complete this calculation.
5)When Bill performed a careful analysis of his project, he realized that he had made a mistake.
6)In our first class, the professor introduced the basic concepts of the course.
7)In our group project for Business 101, we have to analyze the financial data of a major company.
8)We should carry out a brief analysis of the topic before we spend a lot of time on it.
9)I expect to gain substantial benefits from my degree program.
10)Our group found a successful formula for identifying the chemicals.

6A: g, j, a, f, b, k, c, d, h, e, i

6B:
1)poor visibility
2)visitation rights
3)visiting hours
4)visual aid
5)visible to the naked eye
6)visiting professor
7)20/20 vision
8)visually impaired

7A: 6, 2, 1, 5, 3, 4

7B (1):

Based on my experience of team work, the best part is that you can get a lot of thoughts from other teammates for the same topic. Every individual may have totally different angle to look at the same problem, thus can provide a much broader view about the problem than your own and figure out the approach more quickly.

If the project workload is evenly and clearly distributed among the team and each team member takes his/her part seriously, the project can be efficiently carried out and each member can benefit from other teammates. However, if some members are lazy and do not do their jobs, the cooperation in the team may be damaged. Firstly, some parts of the project are not finished and then the whole project may be influences. Secondly, those teammates who deal with their parts seriously may feel unfair and do not like to put the same energy as before. Hence, in order to make all teammates of the same project cooperative, open discussion and commitment are very important. Otherwise, the efficiency of a team will be even less than a capable individual.