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Monday, October 20, 2008
Portfolio Task 4: Difficulties In Writing
Writing of laboratory reports never failed to strike a chord for all engineering students. With the objective of presenting relevant concepts and clear ideas to the audience, one needs to understand and use academic English. Engineering reports may sound straightforward, but the ability to draft good reports is not just a body of knowledge that we can gain through study. More importantly, it is the skills that will eventually develop through long-term practice. Before starting on the report, one must consider two important aspects, which is the purpose of the report as well as the intended audience. The planning stage is pivotal as it helps one to keep track on the relevancy of the content while writing. Besides that, correct academic format should be adopted to ensure that it is reader friendly for the audience. Taking for instance that the report is intended for lecturers; hence accurate language conventions, format and structure within the engineering discipline are necessary. We have to recognize the fact that the lecturers are experienced in the engineering field and are able to provide a critical evaluation. In addition, the information and research provided should be precise, concise and specific. The importance of consistency of terminology and details as well as appropriate and precise procedural transitions should never be underestimated in report writing. On a personal level, writing the abstract for a lab report is the most complex task. An abstract serves to forecast all the major elements covered in the report. Thus, applying what was taught during English classes, abstracts are usually written last, that is after the completion of the research document. Although the paragraph is a summary of the report, the introduction-body-conclusion structure must be adopted and it should also follow the chronology of the report. Skills on writing better abstracts can be picked up through frequent reading of newspapers and also, reviewing of the main elements of effective abstracts.
Portfolio Task 3: Summary for Article - Provide Access to Clean Water
Water availability is not reaching out to everyone though it may be plentiful worldwide. This can be explained by political and economical barriers or environmental factors where water pollution is seen as a norm in developing countries. The vast usage of water not only in the agricultural and industrial sectors; but also in ecological processes, signifies its importance. Water is most abundant in oceans, however it is not usable unless after desalination. As for the planet’s freshwater, they are either in the form of snow or ice or present in groundwater aquifers, which are depleted much faster than they can be replenished. Thus, more state-of-the-art methods have to be developed in order to satisfy our present demands. Countries such as U.S., China and India have been adopting these large-scale diversion projects whereby water is moved from a plentiful source to a scarce region. Yet, this approach only alleviates short-term conditions and does not serve as a universal, long-term remedy. Moreover, this can turn into a sticky political issue as “diverting water to some people often means less for others” (Provide Access to Clean Water, 2008). In modern desalination plants, reverse osmosis engages the use of membrane to separate out the salt. Still, the high costs and high operating energy requirements of these desalination plants make it impossible for impoverished states. An alternative known as nano-osmosis helps in mitigating both the cost and energy factors. Recycling of wastewater can be another option but only under effective decontamination and thorough safeguarding measures. “Drip irrigation” is a new technology that lessens the agricultural water needs though one of its drawbacks includes affecting the plant growth. As for less developed areas, the idea of small decentralized distillation units is being favoured. Research on producing economical distillation units is still ongoing. Thus, in order to administer the world’s water supplies threats, new technologies have to be implemented.
References
References
National Academy of Engineering. (2008). Provide Access to Clean Water. Retrieved from 23 September, 2008 from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9142.aspx
