It is generally agreed that writing is one of indispensable parts of university life. For engineering course, even though writing is not the most important skill which a student needs to acquire, yet it cannot be underestimated for any reason. Thus, improving writing skill is by no means necessary .Personally, one of my difficulties when working on any writing assignment in engineering course is that I cannot generate enough interesting ideas to write about and grammatical mistakes also contribute to my writing difficulties.
Having attended module Eg1471 and read several books on university writing, I have drawn certain ways to resolve my writing difficulties. First of all, I will discuss ways that could help me generate more ideas for my writing assignment. Since most of engineering writing assignment is about responding to some scientific or technology articles, thus, reading more books and articles on the same topic will definitely help. The more books and articles I read, the more general view I will have about a specific topic I have to work on. Take my assignment to write an essay responding to climate change as an example. Initially, I had no idea what I should write about, where I should start and how I would demonstrate my ideas. Then I spent time working on articles on climate changes from NUS library as well as online resources. Different articles I read have varied ways to approach the problem and discuss different obstacles as well as solutions that encompass climate change. As a result, I have not only collected enough useful information to start working on my assignment but also acquired an in-depth view of climate change. All would help me complete my assignment with sense of satisfaction.
Secondly, grammatical mistakes also pose difficulty for me. However, since it is obvious that the best way to improve grammar in English is to study and do more exercises, this problem come into re-reading grammar lessons and practicing myself whenever possible.
Two of my writing difficulties described above can be tackle with a strong enough determination and consistence and I believe that I possess these two characteristics.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Climate change - Another effect
Recent expanded research and in-depth scientific reports have proven the existence of climate change by dramatic increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, people seem to be unaware of the critical side-effect of climate change which is the high level of absorption of CO2 ¬by the oceans.
Chemically, when CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, it lower the pH which is the scale to measure whether the water is acidic or basic. For a long time before industrial era, the nature has done a great job in keeping the pH of the oceans nearly unchanged about 8.1(slightly basic) through the equilibrium of acids from volcanoes and bases released by the weathering of rock. However, since the industrial era begun, the pH of the oceans has declined by 0.1 unit, a relatively small number for most of us. Yet, if we take into account the fact that the decline took place in only 50 to 80 years under the industrial era while it would take the nature 5000 to 10000 to carry out the same drop, such an amazing difference. Further predicts of another drop by 0.4 unit in the century and 0.7 beyond 2100 have been made.
The question is how the decline in pH of the oceans affect its ecosystem, and furthermore, us? According to the article, 89% of absorbed CO2 exists in form of bicarbonate ion (-HCO3-), 10% as carbonate ion(CO32-) and 1% as dissolved gas. Many sea creatures intake carbonate ion to build their own skeletons such as snails, urchins, clams, crabs. Carbonate ion also support the phytoplankton whose role in forming food chain in the oceans is indisputable. The more CO2 we dispose into atmosphere, the more CO2 ¬ is absorbed by the oceans which raises the rate of dissolved CO2 and thus, lowering the concentration of carbonate ion. As a result, creatures find it hard to build their structure, the food chain in the oceans is affected and the whole ecosystem may experience significant turmoil. Furthermore, throughout evolution, most sea creature have developed their metabolism subjected to narrow range of pH, therefore, change in pH scale could result in drastic effect to those creature.
We are counting on the oceans to resolve the climate change without being aware of the long-term effects and even if we know, there is one dilemma need to be reconciled “Society can continue to depend on the ocean for help, but the cost is a rising threat to all marine life”
Information adopted from "Rising Acidity in the Ocean: The Other CO2 Problem" , http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rising-acidity-in-the-ocean
Chemically, when CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, it lower the pH which is the scale to measure whether the water is acidic or basic. For a long time before industrial era, the nature has done a great job in keeping the pH of the oceans nearly unchanged about 8.1(slightly basic) through the equilibrium of acids from volcanoes and bases released by the weathering of rock. However, since the industrial era begun, the pH of the oceans has declined by 0.1 unit, a relatively small number for most of us. Yet, if we take into account the fact that the decline took place in only 50 to 80 years under the industrial era while it would take the nature 5000 to 10000 to carry out the same drop, such an amazing difference. Further predicts of another drop by 0.4 unit in the century and 0.7 beyond 2100 have been made.
The question is how the decline in pH of the oceans affect its ecosystem, and furthermore, us? According to the article, 89% of absorbed CO2 exists in form of bicarbonate ion (-HCO3-), 10% as carbonate ion(CO32-) and 1% as dissolved gas. Many sea creatures intake carbonate ion to build their own skeletons such as snails, urchins, clams, crabs. Carbonate ion also support the phytoplankton whose role in forming food chain in the oceans is indisputable. The more CO2 we dispose into atmosphere, the more CO2 ¬ is absorbed by the oceans which raises the rate of dissolved CO2 and thus, lowering the concentration of carbonate ion. As a result, creatures find it hard to build their structure, the food chain in the oceans is affected and the whole ecosystem may experience significant turmoil. Furthermore, throughout evolution, most sea creature have developed their metabolism subjected to narrow range of pH, therefore, change in pH scale could result in drastic effect to those creature.
We are counting on the oceans to resolve the climate change without being aware of the long-term effects and even if we know, there is one dilemma need to be reconciled “Society can continue to depend on the ocean for help, but the cost is a rising threat to all marine life”
Information adopted from "Rising Acidity in the Ocean: The Other CO2 Problem" , http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rising-acidity-in-the-ocean
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