english 106i
remember that your blog entries are GRADED
for content and for length!
Monday, September 22, 2003
I still don't know what I am going to write exactly. For sure, my main topic is about the relationship between North Korea and South Korea. But i have not thought about detail ideas of the paper. One idea that i have now is to write about many aspects of the situation in Korea. For examaple, for the second project, i write about how the situation is going to affect me and have affected in my view. I think once I get ideas about details of my writing, it is not going to be too hard to write. I have learned about the relationship with North Korea, and I have a clear idea about it. For the second project, I am going to write the army issue, which is related to me. To write this paper, i still need to work on some examples related with army issue. I believe this is a good opportunity to think about the situation in Korea and tell other people what kinds of problems we have.
Many cultures believe that when someone past away after a certain days, their spirits will come back and pay their love ones a visit. I, myself have this kind of experience in life’Äîmy god mother came back to see me after she past away for seven days. I do not believe in ghost until I personally have this encounter in life. I am very curious about this phenomenon’Äîthe spirits pay their love ones a visit after seven days.
I would like to start my project by explaining certain believe about spirits. Then, I would like to see what do different cultures have to say about this fact. Furthermore, I would like to do some research from the psychological point of view. I have this idea’Äîwhether it is true when someone we know or love past away, our minds might project the last image of that person before we accept reality that he or she is dead. Last but not least, I would like to conclude my project and tell the audience whether spirit does exist or not ÔÅä
It was very difficult to choose a topic, because once you choose a topic you have to write with the topic for four other papers. Yes, I have three exams coming up this week and I was kind of busy this weekend, too. However I kept thinking about the topic while I was doing other things and, I couldn't come up with other topic.
I think I will stick with the 'ESL program.' I am going to use my experience mainly for the papers and what I've seen, what I have heard. For the research paper, I am going to find more informations than what I know or surf the internet for more informations.
I would like to find out weather ESL programs are really helpful to international students or not, because some people say it separates the international studetnts from American students (both culturally and language).
Similar to some other classmates, the biggest problem I've had is chosing which topic to write about. Not because I couldn't think of any, but because I could decide between the ones I had. I was considering three different topics: the first was about the life and example of my great grandfather who was a very important figure in Costa Rica dozens of years ago, then I thought about writing about the benefits that Costa Rica has experienced and is enjoying presently with the abolishment of its army, and finally I thought about writing about how humans can become dependent computers and internet and if they minimize human relations. I am leaning more towards the the second subject, because it intrigues me to try and imagine how life would be different for me and my compatriots if we had an army. I also think that this is a subject that might be of interest to more people and has not been subject to study in the past. The third topic is also a very good one and I could write a lot of very good ideas about it, but I am challenged by the second topic and think it might be more exciting to explore this topic. I am thinking about writing about the impact that certain areas of our economy are experiencing because of this. For example if I chose tourism, I could compare my country with the rest of Central America because we have a similar history and natural resources, the difference is that we have been able to exploit them in a better way. However I am still not very convinced about my subject... it seems much to difficult to research on and comprehends a very hypothetical situation. I have not been able to find much information and am still considering my other options. I hope I can be able to make a decision by today at the most...
I was extremely busy this weekend mainly because of the exams coming up. I spent a lot of time thinking about a topic. Many topics came to my mind and in the end I decided that I would write about 'Match Fixing in Cricket'. This topic is of a lot of interest to me as I am a big cricket fan. The biggest match fixing scandal in cricket took 3 years back when Hansie Cronje (South African Captain) was caught taking a bribe to underperform in a match against India. I think I can write a lot on this topic as I am very interested in this topic and I know a lot about what happened. But it is not a very easy topic to write on as it requires a lot of thinking and research. I ould write about the main incident which took place 3 years ago and could add other information like the impact and consequences of match fixing. I still need to do some research on this topic so that I know everything about it. I tried to look up the internet and went through some books to find some extra information about the topic. I feel it is a good topic to write on as it interests me a lot.
Sunday, September 21, 2003
The primary concern with with my second project has been the selection of the topic. The main reason for this is that i have to write four papers about it. So it has to be something that i am deeply involved in and it has to have enough scope for four papers.
In the beginning i was very particular in writing about the Kargil War. Its a war thats going on between my homeland, India and its close neighbour, Pakistan. Its a territorial dispute and since i have strong feelings for my motherland, i thought that this would be a good way to express myself.
But then i realised that i really did not have a question; a query that i wanted to be answered.
I then shifted to another incident; one that is emotionally attached to me. It has to do with someone i know having AIDS. This person was not only a help in my house, he was more like family. And he got AIDS due to blood trasfusion. Now he's ostracised by the society.
I would like to lern the reason why AIDS is still such a prevalent disease in the under developed countries? I would like to understand the feelings of those people who have been condemned by society?
I think that i have found my right topic now.
This weekend has been pretty hectic. I kept on switching from topic to topic. At first I was thinking about a philosophical kind of topic; who do we have to believe in a divine power that rules us? It's pure philosophical; I however, tried searching for some scientific evidence whether from psychology or sociolgy. Furthermore, I couldn't find a solid relevance statement for such topic. The information I had found wasn't sufficient enough to write a solid based paper. I soon gave up and switched to another topic; the gulf war. The gulf war is still that of a broad topic, it's a topic I had to haggle around with. I was thinking of writing about the environmental effects, but I soon changed my mind. I then thought of writing about Soon after, I had decided to write about both the social and economic effects of the war on the Kuwaiti society. It might seem broad, however, its not of a broad topic because both of these effects are interdependent. Neglecting any of them would cause the essay to have a huge void which will lower its level.
At first, I was really confused about my topic for the second project. So I asked for advice from some of my friends. And from the conference, I finally choose to write about the impact of September 11 to international students. I think that this is a good topic because many people suffered from the impact and it is relevant with my experience. Now, I'm still thinking about the problems and questions and I will make an outline for all those problems. For the research, I think I will search for people who also got the impact and ask them questions like do you think that the new regulation for international students is necessary, what do you feel about that, etc. I will also ask some people who deal with international students and ask them about the regulation and what they think about that. In addition, I will also search from the news to get more information about my topic. I hope that it will go well and I will have a good and interesting paper.
After picking out several topics. i have finally decided on one that i am interested in. I am going to write my future papers on the exploitation of the word Jihad in the media. In my paper i will focus on the medias protrayal of the word and how that has affected the thinking of the people abroad. Keeping this as the focus of my paper i will branch out to how international students from the sub-continent and islamic countries are being steriotyped. I am aware that this topic could get a very dry, so in order to make it interseting i would have to find sources that elicit facts and ideas that hardly anyone would be aware of.
Finding information for this topic wouldn't be too hard. The first thing i would do is try searching most of the news and article sites. And there are a number of books written already on this issue. The goal of my paper would be to bring around awareness of the true meaning of Jihad, and also find out more about the issue for myslef.
I'm kind of decided about my topec now, but i think that I may not find very speciefic resources about it. I'm going to talk about alcohol in Saudi Arabia, that's why I think that it's going to be easy to find information about it. I'm going to descuse the topic giving the reasons of the govrenment for this issue and logicaly deciding if it is reasnabol or not. I belive thet this topic is directed to me because i used to live in Suadi Arabia and now I'm going to live in the US for at least four years and alcohol is available here.
I don't have the details now that's why I have to think about it more.
I'm still thinking about which topic I'm going to write about, because the decision will affect the rest of my semister. I think I'll most likely go with "the politic issue between Taiwan and China" even though it is the most boring one of all my considerations, for the reason that this one should be the easiest one to generate informations, and can fit every single paper. I might probably take about the historical aspect at first, which I will explain how the tense situation took place, why there isn't a solution so far, what might happen later on, and the viewpoint from myself as a Taiwanese, and my Chinese friends' opinions.
Hopefully I'll come up with more ideas soon enough and will able to write some good papers!
I want to write about asthma. I think this is a good topic for me because my son has it. This was a health problem that my son got seven years ago when it started. At first we didn’Äôt know that was asthma because his pediatrician didn’Äôt come up with that diagnosis. We were very frustrated with many times taking him to see his doctors It took a long time for his doctors to figure it out. Then he was referred to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis, the Indiana's capiaol. Now he is still having it in the winter. I want to know more about this health problem; therefore, I can help him to avoid his asthma attacks as much as he can.
The problem is that I don’Äôt know who I am going to interview. As we all know doctors is very busy; it is difficult to take their time. But during the time at Riley Hospital for children, I asked many questions about asthma that marveled me over time.
I don’Äôt know what the sub-topic will be. Maybe what is the relationship between asthma and gastrointestinal reflux disease that he also has? And I wonder if asthma will be a good topic for the later writings as it develops.
I am not worry about the information because asthma is a common health problem in the United States. I can find the information in many places such as medical books, magazines, on the internet with key words ’Äúasthma’Äù, and may be more that I will find out later.
And there is another reason that I choose this topic is that I want to find out why it is common inthe United States. What makes the people living in the United States more chance to develop asthma and how to minimize them?
