English 2
This page includes the projects which i had to complete in this subject. It also includes what i have learned by doing the assignments. Lastly, i have also highlighted my strengths and my weaknesses which i came across while doing this subject.
The Vegetable (Brussels Sprouts)
As a first class assignment i was given the task to choose a vegetable of my own. After choosing the vegetable, my task was to produce an essay with a mindmap about the vegetable i chose. The essay was supposed to be based on my senses. Eg: The taste of the vegetable, the color of the vegetable, the smell of the vegetable etc. For this project i chose Brussels Sprouts as a vegetable. Below are some pictures of the vegetable and the final essay.
Pictures of the vegetable.
Final essay .
Reflective entry .
The learning outcomes of this assignment for us to analyze our vegetable using our senses and write those data as a form of an essay. I also believe that this assignment was given to improve our evaluation after observing the vegetable. By observing the vegetable before and after cooking, i believe that i achieved the intended learning outcome of this project. Because, when i observed the vegetable, i came up with a lot of information about the vegetable. After that, i prepared a mind map including all the information. Finally, i wrote my essay including all the information that i observed. So this process, made me use my senses to evaluate the vegetable. While i was doing this project, one of my strength that i discovered was my ability to create a good mind map including the things i observed. I think i did a good job on the mind map however, it was the essay which i had problem with. The way i see it, after writing the essay, i observed that i included more information from external sources rather than including what i observed. Therefore, i believe i should do a better job in explaining what i observed when writing an essay. All in all, i believe this project was effective for me as i had to use my senses and observe the vegetable. I believe this is a very effective learning strategy as, you can get more additional and unique information about an object when you observe it using your senses.
Compare/Contrast Essay
Our next class assignment was to choose two movies which belonged to either historical or musical genre. Then we were supposed to watch the two movies and write either a compare or contrast essay about the two movies. Therefore the two movies which i chose were, Braveheart and Schindler's List. These two movies belonged to historical genre. Below is the final essay.
Reflective entry.
The way i see it, the learning outcome for this assignment was for us observe the differences between two movies and express the differences in a contrast essay. In addition with this, i believe this assignment was given for us to identify the speakers role , expression, relationship and attitude as conveyed through stress and intonation. I think that i have achieved the intended learning outcome as i observed the differences in the two movies such as, the difference in the cause of problem, difference in how the problem was solved and the differences in the personality of the main characters in both the movies. By doing this assignment, i came to know that i am actually good in finding differences rather than similarities. That is why i chose to write a contrast essay and i believe this is something that i have learned about myself. The way i see it, the learning strategy used in this assignment was very effective for me because, i get to watch the movie, analyze it myself and find the differences. This was a good experience and could come in handy in the future as well.
Class Debate
For this assignment i created a group with my friends Mazen and Ragul. We were given a debate topic by our lecturer. The topic we got was whether the implementation of GST in Malaysia is something that is necessary for the economic stability of the nation. So as a first thing, we used different sources to find out the meanings of the key terms used in the question in order to understand the question better. Then we searched for the advantages and the disadvantages that GST can bring to the economy. After that, we tried to interview some of the businesses in Malaysia about introduction of GST and how it could affect their business. After that, we put all of the information we got from the sources as document, and use these document to build up our debate points. Below is the document we created.
Reflective entry
Our learning outcome for this assignment was :
• To communicate according to the situation and purpose and demonstrate an ability to analyse and response to various issues in the debate topic
• To be able to explain the basic ideas of each chosen topic with reference to other materials sourced either online or in the library.
• To show critical understanding of language in context
• To apply the principles of oral presentation in debates and and present this clearly and accurately
The first learning outcome was achieved by choosing a topic given by our lecturer. Therefore according to the situation we got , we had to analyze the question and come up with various debate points. We achieved the second learning outcome by finding information about the question we got by referring to published books, online sources and also by interviewing. By doing this we also achieved the third learning outcome as well. Then we achieved the fourth learning outcome by finding information about how to present in debates and by finally presenting in class as a debate. In my opinion, i feel that i did a good job finding information about the debate topic. By referring to books and online published sources i came to know the pro's and con's of introducing GST. However, after doing the debate, i came to know that i wasn't very good at oral presentation in debates. All in all, i feel that this was a very good experience and the different learning strategies used in this assignment was very effective. Mostly because, we got a random situation where we had to come up with debate points and debate about the issue. The way i see it, this is something important in real life too.
The Research Assignment .
As for our final assignment, we were given a task to do a research assignment about a particular business. This was a group work and my group chose tobacco businesses. Therefore, at first, we found some general information about how tobacco businesses are run. After that, we visited different tobacco businesses in Malaysia and met the owner of the business for an interview. We got a lot of unique and interesting information from our interviews. Below are some of the photo's from our visit to tobacco businesses and our final project.
Pictures of our visit .
Final Document
Reflective Entry .
Our learning outcome for this assignment was to :
• To identify the key issues in the question and explain them clearly and logically.
• Demonstrate the ability to prepare questionnaires and interviews to obtain information about the topic.
• To demonstrate the ability to analyse and synthesize information and compile them in the report.
• To communicate the relevant ideas and analysis in clear, logical and appropriate academic English.
• To select and present infomation clearly and appropriately to one’s target audience.
I achieved the first learning outcome by searching what the keywords that we came across meant. As we did our research we came across many new terms related to tobacco, so we had to search them online and refer to dictionaries for their meaning. As for the second learning outcome, we achieved it by preparing questionnaires and by interviewing the owners of the businesses. The last two learning outcomes were achieved by compiling all the information we had about the businesses in an essay, explaining the similarities and the differences of the tobacco businesses. As for my strengths and weaknesses i think this is the assignment where i realized most of my strengths and weaknesses. By doing this assignment, i found out that i am a good in interviewing people. I also believe that i improved in compiling all information into one essay. However, being the leader of this group assignment i believe that i need to improve my leadership qualities. Because, i could have done a better job setting up the group meetings. But in conclusion, i feel that this was the most effective assignment in this subject because, we had a lot of different opinions about this type of business and we had to take all those opinions into account and include it in our essay. This was a challenging task as this was the first time i gathered information by interviewing people. But all in all, this assignment was a very good experience.