JOHANSON ADVANCED COMP. 2 FALL 2005

Greetings Advanced Composition II "MIDNIGHT OWL" Students! Welcome to our class "web-log"! This is the site that you can visit to learn to learn how to learn to improve your ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS! Remember that we are a "TEAM" and that I am not the Professor, but the "FACILITATOR" of this course. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, right? Of course, I still determine your grade, but only you can really make yourself learn! Go for it!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

HOMEWORK (OCTOBER 12, 2005)

1) Do a REAL 30-minute timed writing
2) Visit one OWL and be ready to present it to the class.
3) Make a one-page outline of your presentation.

Example:

The University of Texas at Austin OWL

INTRODUCTION
Grabber idea or a question to get the audience’s attention
Statement that tells specifically what YOU ARE GOING TO SAY!
BODY
1
2
3
CONCLUSION
Restate the main ideas
And end with an optimistic or questioning statement about the future.

An interesting sentence: “That's definitely FOOD FOR THOUGHT, please let me ponder on that for a moment. Could you please rephrase the question?”


REVISED FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS OF ESSAY OF THE WEEK

Topic : When people move to another country, some of them decide to follow the customs of the new country. Others prefer to keep their own customs. Compare these two choices. Which one do you prefer? Support your answer with specific details.

Have you ever heard of the saying “Do in Rome as the Romans do”? Each country has its unique customs that make it distinct from others. When traveling to other countries, we should always be sure to respect its cultures and mores, and when we move there we should try our best to assimilate into the local ways of living. Therefore, if I hadthe opportunity to move to another country, I would do my best to follow its customs, because I want to fit into the local society comfortably and respect the local customs. The first reason why we should follow the customs of the new country to which we move is that we can avoid offending other people and getting into uncomfortable situations. For instance, when “foreigners” move to Taiwan, we, the local people, hope that they can do their best to understand our customs or culture instead of laughing at us. Take the way we worship, for example, when we worship we like to put incense into a dish of rice, which means that we are inviting our ancestors to “enjoy” the dishes. We Taiwanese have worshipped our ancestors this way for many centuries. We hope that “foreigners” will not laugh at us for respecting our departed relatives in this manner, but take it for what it is. Once, I saw a foreign teacher putting pencils into a cup of rice and laughing at this idea; I was very angry and wanted to yell at this foreign person. Therefore, if foreigners want to be welcomed and respected in our culture, they should do their best to assimilate into our culture.

[never use CONTRACTIONS: don't, can't, shouldn't…]

Besides fitting into the local society comfortably, if we respect the customs of the country into which we move, we will discover a newfound interest for the people of that culture. For example, one time when I visited my friend in Japan, her mother cooked “noodles” for us. Did you know that in Japan it is polite to make a loud sound when eating noodles to show that they are delicious? Because I saw that my friend and her family were “slurping” their noodles like this, I decided to do the same. The result was that I really enjoyed eating noodles this way because I discovered a new “culturally-appropriate” way of eating noodles. I “enjoyed” my noodles with an enormous sound in front of my friends’ family. For a moment, I almost even felt like a Japanese person myself! My friends told me I was praised by her family due to the way that I showed that I “enjoyed” the noodles and showed respect for their culture. All in all, when moving to other counties I decide to fit into the local society comfortably and respect the local customs. When doing so, I think we will find ourselves happy in the land we move in, make friends freely, and will have the same respect in return.

posted by Robert E. Johanson @ 7:09 AM  

11 Comments:

  • At Wednesday, October 12, 2005 9:27:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Dear Dr. J,

    This blog thing is so fun!

     

  • At Sunday, October 16, 2005 8:27:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and explain.

    Do you consider yourself a successful person, but wonder why your colleagues or fellow co-workers do not only respect your advice but also criticize you behind your back? A friend of mine always receives good compliments from her supervisor and other company directors. She gets good sense of achievement from work and leads a bright future in her career; however, once in a long while, she learns from her direct supervisor about the gossips and criticism about her made by other colleagues. All these little annoying incidents make her upset and doubt if she is really as successful as she thinks at work. In my opinion, I believe the most important skill that a genuine successful person should possess is the ability to maintain good interpersonal relationship with everyone, because good interpersonal relationship can help you earn respect from other colleagues and help you to negotiate in many cases.

    The first reason why I think good interpersonal relationship is the most important skill is because it can help you earn respect from other colleagues. This is very important especially for someone who is very capable at work. If you are a very diligent and capable person but you forget to sharpen your interpersonal relationship with co-workers, your colleagues who work as rival may disrespect what you are and what you do, especially when it is you who get compliments. In this case, it may cause them to try to talk behind you and try to attack you in front of your supervisor which may someday knock you down eventually. Perhaps they are jealous, but it is not something you can control. The only thing you can do is to establish and keep good interpersonal relationship with them, so that they will respect you for who you are and what you have accomplished at work. If you are a successful person who receives no respect from your colleagues, you are not even successful as you tend to think.

    In addition to the benefit of earning respect, good interpersonal skill also helps you negotiate in as many tough cases as you can think. In colleague rival example as mentioned previously, gossip and bad comments about you from colleagues may hold your supervisor back about promoting you in despite of your high performance. However, good interpersonal skill helps you negotiate with your supervisor and even your co-workers. It gives you the opportunity to explain the cause of miscommunication or misunderstanding so that you can still get promoted; moreover, it offers you with the chance to improve yourself and ease the hostile relationship between your colleagues and you. Possessing good interpersonal skill helps you to negotiate for a better situation and opportunity.

    In summary, ability to manage harmonic interpersonal relationship is the most important skill that a real successful person should possess. Good interpersonal skill does not only help you to earn respect from your rivals, but also help you become a better negotiator in many cases. How could you be successful genuinely if you do not have good interpersonal skill to earn respect even from the people that you work with everyday? How could you call yourself successful if you do not even have a good interpersonal skill to negotiate when someone puts you in a bad situation? It is indeed true about what the old saying in Chinese says that conducting things properly is much easier than conducting oneself.

     

  • At Sunday, October 16, 2005 7:18:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    What is a very important skill a person should learn in order to be successful in the world today? Choose one skill and explain.


    Do you want to win a successful career? Do you want to get a raise? Tell you a truth, most people desperately want to do so. However, not all of them can achieve their goals smoothly. Those one who did not get what they want would always wonder why this happened to them. If you want to be successful in the world today, you should get two very important skills in your career.

    The first skill is concentrating. It’s no doubt that concentrating, realizing and then output amazingly! If you take thinks seriously in work then you get good things back to you. Supervisors always know who are working or not. Unlike people who are hanging in a chat room, those who are dedicated in their work get manager’s attention easily. According to a survey called “Cheer in Work”, 80% of people hate their work. Unfortunately, the rest of 20% are almost crying while they are working, that means – find a good job to involve with and concentrate on it.

    The second skill is learning. It’s information and technology age. If you don’t want to be thrown out from the office window, then keep in learning is a good way to survive. You’d better know how to word process and use excel or how to show power-point through your presentation. Besides, things related to your work should be noticed and see if better to learn or must to learn. However, information age is not information anxiety. There is a saying in Information Technology field, “Garbage in and Garbage out”! Choose what you need carefully.

    After all, everybody wants to succeed in the world but the world is just like a quick flood and it quakes frequently. Basically, many people were drown in the career river and shaken out by the promotion quakes. Concentrating is your good safe boat and learning is your concrete shelter. Two things above are your very important skill in successful career, keep in mind and try it! See what will happen!

     

  • At Monday, October 17, 2005 4:26:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Topics：Some movies are serious, designed to make the audience think. Other movies are designed primarily to amuse and entertain. Which type of movie do you prefer? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.


    Many people choose to see comic or humorous movie simply because it could release their everyday workload stress by a big laugh. And it is quite important to us to recover our energy to face many routine works next day. Especially when you are a sales manager, you have to try your best to achieve monthly sales target. Or, if you are a marketing supervisor, many new products launch plan and some kind of promotion schemes proposal wait for you to prepare all the time.

    For the above-mentioned reasons, many working people have a great need for stress relief. On the other hand, many experts claim that stress management has become a very important issue for us all nowadays. Stress relief or total relaxation can be obtained with many self-help methods. Maybe they will suggest you to take a walk or listen to relaxing music are both great methods, but do you laugh often ？ When you go see a humorous movie that is good for you in handling your stress in real life. Humor is an effective way to relieve stress. Laughter leads to a cathartic release of emotion, therefore, to see a funny movie or humorous play. You’ll find yourself thinking about it after you get home, and often into the next day. I prefer to enjoy some comic or humorous movies rather than serious movies just because it could be a lubricator to ease my sentiment. For example, Jim Carrey makes the movie as humorous as it is, If you're looking for a good laugh, you’ll love his movie. Few comedians can master Jim Carrey's amazing techniques of exaggerated line deliveries and body movements. If you choose to see his movie, I guarantee you will like it.

    In short, though there are many different varieties of movies available in theaters nowadays; people have many options to choose a movie that was based on their personal preference. As for me, I would prefer a humorous or comic movie, which was primarily designed to amuse and entertain. However, you are the one that chooses what kind of movies you want to see, and be sure that you try to find some sorts of good quality ones as much as you can.

     

  • At Tuesday, October 18, 2005 4:37:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Topic: People attend college for many reasons. Why do you think people attend college or university?

    Have you ever thought about why you are here while attending the class in college or university? I do. I always wonder why I have to spend so many times to hang out with all kinds of “teachers”, and I also always wonder why I cannot play around but to study hard? Until one day, two quick thoughts, for the future career preparation and widen my horizons, come up to my mind, I then realized why I have to attend university.

    The first answer I got is that attending university can help us to do well in career preparation. You may raise a famous example, Bill Gates, to argue that he did drop out but have a successful empire; however, not everyone is Bill Gates. Attending university can help us to learn better in the skill we need to know in the future. For instance, a better way for a programmer to learn advance computer knowledge is to receive a higher education majoring in program design. By attending university, ones may be able to get a better career preparation than those who are not.

    While building the career preparation, widening your horizons is the another gift that comes with attending university. University is full of different kinds of people, and different kinds of people will give you different kinds of experiences. I met so many great friends in the university, but some students taught me some good lessons. One of my classmates told me that he was too poor to pay the tuition fee and asked if I could help him out. Not long, I found out that he used the same excuse to borrow the money from other classmates in order to buy a new car. Believe or not, I have indeed widened my horizons since then.

    Many reasons for students attending university or college, but I believe that most reasons including the reasons that I mentioned; career preparation and widening their horizons. Next time, when you get bored of sitting in class, try to come up with a better reason than mine to explain why you are here.

     

  • At Tuesday, October 18, 2005 5:34:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Topic: Hard Work v.s. Luck

    Some people may think luck is the key element to success while I consider hard work is the most significant factor to success. Do you still remember that the best grade of your examination in school which was because of your hard studying or only by luck? Beyond doubt, for most of students, the reason they receive good grades is due to hard studying not luck. Moreover, I think hard work is the effort to achieve our ideals, and the determination to overcome the difficulties; on the other hand, luck is a vain and impracticable dream.

    First of all, I think luck is a vain and unrealistic dream which cannot guarantee success. Let us think! How can a farmer harvest crops without cultivation but only by waiting for the crops to grow by themselves; how can a student acquire knowledge without studying but only by waiting for good luck to pass the exams; how can a worker achieve his goals without hard work but only by waiting for good luck to succeed? In contrast, a farmer can harvest crops by industrious cultivation; a student can acquire knowledge by hard study; a worker can achieve his goals by hard work. Therefore, I think hard work is the key factor to success.

    In addition to the reason that luck cannot guarantee success, I also consider hard work is the effort to achieve our ideals, and the illustration of determination to overcome the difficulties. Take the president of Taiwan Plastic Company – Mr. Wang Yuan Chin as a good example. Mr. Wang is a well-known enterpriser and highly respected for his own efforts to rise in the business profession. In addition to his success, people esteem his hard work and effort to achieve his ideals and his firm resolution to overcome the difficulties. Mr. Wang’s example illustrates the true significance of hard work.

    Accomplishment and success are what people search for; however, too much expectation of luck is unrealistic and cannot guarantee success. On the other hand, hard work is not only the priority and necessity to success but also represents the effort and firm determination for our accomplishment. In conclusion, hard work is the key to the promise of success.

     

  • At Tuesday, October 18, 2005 8:59:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hard work v.s. Good luck

    If someone asks that what the element of being successful is, the absolute answer must be always the one – hard work. Why? Because no one’s success is built on the unexpectable base, it means the pyramid foundation of success would not depend on any sudden material – good luck. Therefore, hard work is however the factor of meeting success, but not by good luck. The two main points will be raised as following to illustrate how it goes.

    First of all, hard work covers the precious experiences from failures, but not by good luck. People will not become successful overnight; they always have a great deal of sweat and tear on the way to their achievement. They have to face the variety of consecutive challenges while going toward success which can be only resolved by hard work rather than sitting there and waiting for unpredictable luck to come. For instance, do you know how many times of failure experiments Thomas Edison had to do to generate “electricity” – at least thousands of time! It explains that why he contributed his success to ninety-nine percent of hard work rather than one percent of talent. Therefore, we know that from all the positive or negative experiences of hard work people learned how to be successful, but not good luck.

    In addition to the priceless experiences from hard work, people success because they keep stable at their hard work which is good luck cannot compete with. The perseverance aiming their goals is the most important ingredient of success. As being successful is just like a long journey to go, we have to keep proceeding without stopping no matter what is going to come across. Not by enduring the suffering from being deaf and keeping moving on, how could Beethoven achieve his greatest masterpiece - Symphony No. 5? It is no doubt that being deaf is definitely a tragedy to a musician, but Beethoven kept working hard and ultimately proved it by the fruitful harvest. In that, no one would still clam that being successful is related to good luck and on one should wait for its coming. Hence, the stability of hard working is the key to success and that is not deniable.

    In conclusion, success is no doubt relying on hard work but not good luck. Good luck is just like a sweet break during the long journey on the way to your achievement while you still have miles to go. We can always tell it from the history. Remember this - God is fair to everyone - how much effort you put in to your work, then how much you will gain from it, and how wasteful you spend on waiting for good luck, then you will get nothing in return.

     

  • At Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:12:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? parents are the best teachers. Use specific reasons or examples to support your answer.
    There is a most vicious saying that I have ever heard among people here, “ Does his father die so early, so he does receive a good culture?”. I total agree the parent is the best teacher for how to get along with others to children. Especially when I saw my daughter who is 2 years old now putting her legs on table when she sit on sofa. I was shocked by this behavior, and one ideal come up in my mind.Is this what I and my wife doing exactly? The situation was pondered in my mind for a long time, and I analyst in following aspect.
    First, we play toys together all the time, of cause we shall tell her the methods of playing for toys. My daughter always tries to practice what she learn and ask us to repeat it when she fails, and she will do again until success in the atmosphere of parent’s cheering and applauding. She enjoys this atmosphere and she put her shoes by herself now.
    beside toys, we teach her to play the game and the rule also. There is a park with slider near my house, and lot of children enjoys those facilities together. One time my wife found my daughter yelling at others, since she thinks they are occupying “her toys”. The behavior was stop immediately, and the true value of sharing was transplanted from mother in sequence.
    In short, Parent is most important role for children, and parent is most closed to child. They spent the most time together. Parent can teach the skills and rules for children basically. Form this base or direction, children can extend their further education.

     

  • At Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:32:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Is it better to enjoy your money when you earn it or is it better to save your money for some time in the future? Use reasons and specific examples to support your opinion.

    Money is used by two kinds of people: the people spend it without saving it; the others save it for the future. I always save 90% of my monthly salary for my future, because it makes me feel that I could have better life when I retire in 30 years and the reasons why I work hard and save it are basis on the two reasons: physical condition and working opportunity.

    First reason is the physical condition. We know one’s physical condition is better when one is young. The younger a man is the better physical condition he has. If someone gets old, his might not have the energy to work and at that time, the saving could help them to have a good life without working. In contrast, if one can’t work and he doesn’t have saving to support him, the financial problem will get him into trouble.

    Addition to physical condition, the working opportunity is another problem for people to earn money forever. During the past years, since the economic recession, many companied have layoff staff. Most people thought they could work in a company until retiring, but in fact, the rapid change of employing market totally shift the circumstance. The highly competition in companies make staff have to follow the companies steps. If they can not do it, they will be fired. In addition, many companies restrict the ages of their employees. Many companies refuse female interviewees over 35 years. These reasons limit the working opportunities.

    Since I am physical condition is not better than before and I am close to 30 years old, I have to save money so that I may have a better life in the future.

     

  • At Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:08:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    A foreign visitors has only one day to spend in your country. Where should this visitor go on that day? Why? Use specific reasons and details to support your choice.

    What if I visit a country as a foreigner in one day, what would I like to know? It must be something fantastic, attractive and unforgettable! Converting the thought on the foreign visitors who comes to Taiwan, the ideas may just fit their need. What makes Taiwan differ from other orient countries is what we can introduce to them. Next, please be ready for what I design for my foreign friend from three different categories of Taiwan, Taiwanese religion, Taiwanese lifestyle and Taiwanese cuisine.

    The first spot I will show to my foreign friend should be the temple to catch their eyes on the beauty of Taiwanese architecture. Beyond the delicate sculptures and carvings on the columns or eaves shown the Taiwanese workmanship, is the profound history and origin leading to the way Taiwanese worship. Follow the procedure we locals do in the temple, they will get the picture of how important the religion to Taiwanese and admire the culture poured in.

    The second spot should be the traditional markets where they can experience the energy as well as the particular agricultural products belonged to the beautiful land, Formosa. When I traveled in other countries, I always take chances to stroll in their markets where I got surprises from strange stuffs I would never seen before or after in mine. In Taiwan, the fertile land which nourishes more delicious fruits and vegetables than most countries of the world. That is why I would like to show them since I am so proud of it. Furthermore, that the vivid lifestyle and the unique joy could not be replaced would last on the visitor’s mind.

    Last but not the least, I will take them to the night markets to taste the genuine Taiwanese cuisine, such as stinky dofu, steamed dumplings, oyster omelet, meat balls and etc. whatever we Taiwanese used to eat, arouses their appetite with curiosity. Not only would be introduced the characteristic food we have, but also the peripheral recreations around. Being served with the advanced entertained services in our message salon will ease their exhausted body but refresh their soul. From the series of my well-designed activities, they must be amazed successively.

    If I were a foreigner toured in Taiwan and being treated in this way, I would be impressed by the consideration from the hosts or hostesses. Only one day in Taiwan would be a pity for who has ever had the same experience because the most appealing feeling usually comes from the ordinary scenes happened everyday and everywhere anytime. Once feel it, the memory will be rooted deeply and unforgettable!

     

  • At Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:38:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    A company is announced that it wish to build a large factory near your communication. Discuss advantage and disadvantage of the new influence your community. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your position.


    I disagree that a large factory is build near our community although it brings both advantages and disadvantages to our community.

    First of all, let’s discuss its advantage. Firstly, building a large factory near our community would create a lot of job opportunities to the residences. In addition to this, it save a lot of commuting time for those who work in the large factory, they don’t have to spent long hours stuck in the way during commuting everyday. This will make their life easier and happier as they can spend more hours accompany with their family and friends to maintain personal relationship. Moreover, a large factory would bring a large population, this will help economic grow in the community. Take Shin-Tien city for example, it used to be a countryside 20 years ago, since factory establishing one after another and people move in Shin-Tien for convenience to their work. Than, big buildings and numerous stores roaring up along with population and now it become one of the since and technology city in northern Taiwan.

    Except for above advantages, there are numerous disadvantages too along with a large factory. Firstly, it would ruin original tranquility life and get mass traffic, take Shin-Tien city for example, it used to have a lot farmyard growing crops, since factories established one after another, the farmyard lost and traffic jam during peak hours every morning. The factories and the vehicles also generate air pollution and affect residences living condition. If a factory produce chemical product, it would also contain the soil, plants around, and eventually hazardous the health residences.

    All in all, I disagree that a large factory builds near our community after comparing its advantage and disadvantage. After all, health is the most important issue to our life. It is better to maintain tranquility life with health than a wealth but unhealthy life.

     

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