Portfolio 7

I have always been spending more time doing things that I like and neglect those I am not familiar with. I attribute my poor command of language more to this “vicious cycle” rather than my lack of aptitude for writing, partly because I believe I could have done more during my pre-university education. I was initially reluctant to take this writing module because I believed the time spent on it could be better used. However, after reflecting on how I struggled to write the Qualifying English Test essay, I felt it was time for me work on this weakness.

To be honest, before this writing module, I have never made a proper attempt to learn grammar because I thought that structured learning of grammar is useless. As long as the sentence sounds correct to me, it should be correct. Verb Tense, Parallelism, Articles, Pronoun Reference, fragments. As familiar as they may sound to me, I did not know what they mean at all, not until I take this module.

This module has taught me 2 things which I feel is particularly important for academic writing. Firstly, I have to learn to appreciate the different operators in grammar. Finding mistakes in text editing is more of a systematic process to me now. I can apply the same concepts when I check my essays for grammatical mistakes. Secondly, I have learnt how to cite sources and references using the APA format. Even though I am still quite unfamiliar with this format, I believe, eventually, I will get the hang of it when I use it more often in future.

Writing is a skill that requires a lot of practice; therefore, I do not think there is a lot of improvement in my writing after these two writing assignments. Nevertheless, I will continue to read and practice more. Only through this will I not forget the knowledge I have acquired from this module, I will also become more comfortable and proficient in writing essays.

Portfolio 6

There are quite a number of glaring grammatical mistakes I make in my academic writing; this explains why I am taking this module. In this entry, I shall identify and discuss 3 errors I commonly make.

One of the most common errors I make is fragments. I tend to add transitions with semi colons into my sentences unnecessarily. For example, in my writing assignment 2, I wrote “They (stem cells) can be used to study the human cell differentiation process; therefore, providing us an insight into the causes of genetic abnormalities and birth defects.” A transition with a semi colon is used to join 2 independent clauses together. In the above example, the second sentence is a dependent clause; therefore, adding a semi colon and a transition after the first sentence results in a fragment. The sentence should be written as “They (stem cells) can be used to study the human cell differentiation process, and therefore provide us an insight into the causes of genetic abnormalities and birth defects.”

Another mistake I make is with regards to pronoun reference. I tend to be unaware of the shifting in my pronoun. In my writing assignment 1, I wrote “They hold great potential to improve our lives. However, if it is misused, it can destroy our lives.” The corrected version should be“They hold great potential to improve our lives. However, if they are misused, they can destroy our lives.” In view of the above, I will remind myself to specifically look out for pronoun shifting in my future academic writings.

Lastly, I do not know the difference between a relative clause and a restrictive clause, or the significance of which versus that. I have been using them inter-changeably, until Ms Khoo pointed them out during the conferencing session. The following is an extract from my written assignment 2: “Since ESCR uses embryos which are less than 14 days old, the argument of ESCR being unethical is unsound and lacking.” Relative clause can only be applied in situations when the gist of the sentence still remains even after the removal of part of the sentence after the relative clause. In this specific example, the embryos used in ESCR must be less than 14 days old. If I remove the part of the sentence after which, the sentence does not make logical sense. Therefore, I should use a restrictive clause instead of a relative clause. The sentence should be written as “Since ESCR uses embryos that are less than 14 days old, the argument of ESCR being unethical is unsound and lacking.”

After making the attempt to identify and explain my common grammatical mistakes, I hope I will pay extra attention to them during my future writings.