Neither last word nor last hope

Hello there! We have learned a lot of things in this course (BEL260) through out the whole semester. It provides us with a lot of new things that can enhance our soft skills. I am pretty sure that with this kind of knowledge and informative input, we can achieve great outcomes at the end of the day. 

I am going to take this opportunity to say a few words, to express my feelings and gratitudes. But before I am going to start, let me share with you guys something that people never curious about. It is about how you judge and make any kind of assumptions upon your lecturer. I've known a lot of lecturer since I was studied at UNITEN before this. I like to observe the way they react upon their students attitude. But mostly, I try to implement some of their teaching method when I am having my presentation. 

I do understand that it is difficult to create a fun learning process in the class especially if it is related to English subjects / courses. So in order to overcome this matter creatively, many kind of activity have been done in order to grab the student's attention. What I am trying to say is based on my own experience. I admit that I am always skip classes and come late. But I do realized when I keep on with this kind of attitudes, I will be left behind. 

I have been thinking a lot lately, thinking about my future, what I am going to be after I graduate, will I survive in this world, an do I have the courage to encounter any incoming problems. Most of my friends have almost finished their study and even some of them are doing their practical now. And the question is where am I right now? These matters do encourage me and sometimes it don't. But when I see any lecturer stand in front of the class and give a lesson, I will be motivated indirectly.

The effort shows by them is genuine. It is their responsibility to teach students, to let them understand about what have been learned. The way they talk and react gives you strength to learn. They are able to tolerate with most of the reasons given and provide full support for those who are interested to learn and commit. 

And the question is, why I am so curious about this matter. The answer is simple. Because one day, I will be on of them, stand in front of the class and teach the students on how to live your life. That's what I going to be for the next 5 years. Hence, I would like to say "I am Sorry" if any wrong-doing things that I purposely or accidentally did and please do pray for my success. Cheers!..Thank you.. 

Argumentative Essay

In this kind of essay, we not only give information but also present an argument with the PROS (supporting ideas) and CONS (opposing ideas) of an argumentative issue. We should clearly take our stand and write as if we are trying to persuade an opposing audience to adopt new beliefs or behavior. The primary objective is to persuade people to change beliefs that many of them do not want to change.Here is some example of argumentative that I wrote before.

Question

Certain television programs are considered to be unsuitable for children. Do you agree or disagree? Give your opinion

Introductory Paragraph

Children love to watch television with their family and friends during free time. As far as our concern, television programs can be a wonderful educational medium that can generates children’s imagination and idea during their learning process. Unfortunately, there is some poor content that is not suitable for them because it doesn't provide them with any educational value. I absolutely agree that some children's television programs do more harm than good, especially when the program has violence, inappropriate language, nudity or sexual content.

Body Paragraph 1

Children’s television programs do more harm than good because it provides the violence contents. We forgot that children spent most of their time watching television at home. By coincidence, they watch the inappropriate programs without any of their parent concern. For example, the wrestling programs, ‘Smackdown’, show a few years ago were being tried in order to practice the movements they saw from the wrestlers in the show. As a result, there were victims at home after the shows on TV. Therefore, children should not be allowed to watch violent television programs because they are easily influence to it. This is because they are unable to compare between reality and fantasy and they will try to copy what they see on television.

Body Paragraph 2

            Other disadvantages of children’s television programs is it content inappropriate language. For the past few years, a lot of children’s television programs contain an inappropriate language that can give a bad influence to them. For example, cartoon programs like Family Guy, Futurama, The Cleveland Show, and The Simpsons contain a lot of bad language. Some parents feel although it is inappropriate, their child is likely going to learn or hear about similar topics by other kids at school so they will let their children watch these types of shows at home. Parents should change their perspective about this problem because at the end of the day, their children will be influenced by these type of language that may lead them into social problem when they grown up. Hence, parents should monitor and be more concern on what type of television programs that is suitable for their children to watch.

Body Paragraph 3

            Another harm impact of children’s TV programs today is the nudity or sexual content. Since it is not mentioned what to watch at home, they get tuned into some channels, which are made for adults. The shows or the channel contain talk about sex, and other adult directed topics. Every kid wants themselves to turn to older people sooner because most of them want to be grown up. Therefore when they are hearing and watching this kind of programs, it influence over to their social life. For examples, many children that going to turn up into teenagers is mostly used to have pre-marital sex that can lead to a major problem which is pre-marital pregnancy. Hence, parents should take precaution by not letting their kids to watch this kind of programs.

Conclusion

Some people believed that television can be a powerful learning tool for children’s education. However, it can also be very destructive and this statement made my opinion clear that some of the children’s TV programs are unsuitable for them to watch. As conclusion, parents should monitor what their children are watching and set limits on time and content. If this prevention is taken, most problems occurred will be prevented effectively.
 

Full Essay

Previously, we have learned to write the introductory paragraph and body paragraph. Hence, I would like to post my group's full essay as for your kind reference.

Prior to the 1980’s, predatory animals were rare sights in rural areas in Malaysia. Even in wilderness areas, bears, tigers, and other predatory animals were rarely being spotted.  As far as this concern, people that were attacks with these kinds of animals are not always the friendly animals.  Between 1989 and 1995 there have been 14 tigers attack peoples.  In one attack, a rubber tapper was killed in his rubber farm near Negeri Sembilan.  Attacks by bears and alligators are also increasing during this period of year. This statistics shows that there is an increasing of wild animal attacks. The reasons why these animal attacks peoples are because they are hungry, feel threatened and try to protect young.

One of the reasons why these animal attacks people is because they are starving. When there is no food in their habitat, they will go to the nearest place such as village to find food. These animals are also likely will attack a livestock animal at the village. On the other hand, when the livestock were all eaten by them, the beast will attacks people to fill their stomachs. Hence, because of the extreme hunger, the wild are brave enough to attacks human. 

 

Other than that, these animals are also attacks people when they feel threatened. In some situations, they will attacks human no matter the person is their master or not. So, they will attacks before being attacks or getting hurt. For example, dogs have a tendency to attack if it was within the public or places that have many people because the tumultuous circumstances would cause the dogs fear. As we can see, when these animals were afraid and threatened, they will attack anyone to save themselves.

Besides that, one of the most reason why these animal attacks people is because they try to be the safeguard of their young. Human should not disturb when the female was with her young, especially if the child is newly born. This is because, the female was very sensitive and they think the human wanted to take their child away. In order to protect the young, the female will attack human immediately. As we can see, these animals are willing to do anything to safe their child from peoples. 

            In conclusion, people cannot blame the animals because these animals have their own reason for attacking man. When the animal feels hungry, threatened and try to protect young, they will attack human. So, people should not disturb the habitat and population of these animals to avoid from being attacks.  

Subject-Verb Agreement

Although you are probably already familiar with basic subject-verb agreement, this chapter begins with a quick review of basic agreement rules.

Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular or plural).  Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural.

In the present tense, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: nouns ADD an s to the singular form; verbs REMOVE the s from the singular form.

These agreement rules do not apply to verbs used in the simple past tense without any helping verbs.

The agreement rules do, however, apply to the following helping verbs when they are used with a main verb: is-are, was-were, has-have, does-do.

The agreement rules do not apply to has-have when used as the SECOND helping verb in a pair. 

They do NOT apply to any other helping verbs, such as can, could, shall, should, may, might, will, would, must.

The subject-verb agreement rules apply to all personal pronouns except I and you, which, although SINGULAR, require PLURAL forms of verbs

Compound Subject

The word “compound” means “made up of two or more parts.”  Two or more words can be compounded or linked by joining them with any of three words:

                                               and, or, and nor

Here are some examples of compounding:

Compound nouns can function as a “compound subject.”  In some instances, a compound subject poses special problems for the subject-verb agreement rule (+s, -s).

However, instead of using two sentences (as above), we may choose to give the above information in one sentence.

This sentence makes use of a compound subject (two subject nouns joined by and), illustrating a new rule about subject-verb agreement.

Although each part of the compound subject is singular (ranger and camper), taken together (joined by and), each one becomes a part of a plural structure and, therefore, must take a pluralverb (see) to agree in the sentence.

SUBJECT-VERB RULE #1

Two or more singular (or plural) subjects joined by and act as a plural compound subject and take a plural verb (singular + singular = plural).

You can check the verb by substituting the pronoun they for the compound subject.

Or and nor as joiners word somewhat differently from and.  While the word and seems to ADD things together, or and nor do not.  They suggest a CHOICE.

Look at this sentence.

This sentence makes use of a compound subject (two subject nouns joined together by or).  

Each part of the compound subject (ranger, camper) is singular.  Even though both words function together as subject (joined by or), the subject still remains SINGULAR (ranger or camper) since a CHOICE is implied.

This compound subject, therefore, requires a singular verb to agree with it.

SUBJECT-VERB RULE #2 

Two or more SINGULAR subjects joined by or (or nor) act as a singular compound subject and, therefore, take a singular verb to agree.

Note:  Two or more plural subjects joined by or (or nor) would naturally take a plural verb to agree.

However, or and nor can pose a more difficult problem.

Thus far we have been working with compound subjects whose individual parts are both either singular or plural

What if one part of the compound subject is singular and the other part is plural?

What form of a verb should be used in this case?  Should the verb be singular to agree with one word?  Or should the verb be plural to agree with the other?

Solution:

1.      If the individual parts of the compound subject are joined by and, always use a plural verb.

2.      If the individual parts of the compound subject are joined by or or nor, use the verb form (singular or plural) which will agree with the subject closer to the verb.

Group Nouns

Some nouns which name groups can be either singular or plural depending upon their meaning in individual sentences.

Because they can describe either the individuals in the group (more than one – plural), or the group as a single entity (one only – singular), these nouns pose special problems.

However, there are some guidelines for deciding which verb form (singular or plural) to use with one of these nouns as the subject in a sentence.

If we refer to the group as a whole and, therefore, as a single unit, we consider the noun singular.  In this case, we use a singular verb.

If, on the other hand, we are actually referring to the individuals within the group, then we consider the noun plural.  In this case, we use a plural verb.

Of course group nouns, like other nouns, can also appear in plural forms (with an s).

When used in the plural form, group nouns mean MORE THAN ONE GROUP.  Thus, it uses a plural verb.

Thus, there are three important subject – verb agreement rules to remember when a group noun is used as the subject:

• Group nouns can be considered as a single unit, and, thus, take a singular verb.
• Group nouns can be considered as individual members within a single unit and, thus, take  a plural verb.
• Group nouns can be given plural forms to mean two or more units and, thus, take a plural verb.

Plural Form / Singular Meaning Nouns

Some nouns are regularly plural in form, but singular in meaning

Even though these nouns APPEAR to be plural because they end in s, they actually refer to only one thing made up of smaller, uncounted parts.  Therefore, they are considered singular

You can see that substituting that pronoun it instead of they makes more sense here.

Another group of plural form nouns end in –ics.

Similarly, it is a more suitable substitute for any of these words than is they.

These nouns appear to be plural (end in s), but generally refer to only one thing and are, therefore, generally considered singular.

NOTE:  Occasionally, however, the –ics nouns can have a plural meaning:  We can speak about individual parts of these wholes.  In this case, we apply the same rule as applies to group nouns when we consider the individual members within the group (see Section 3.3):  We use a plural verb.

Note the difference in meaning and, therefore, in the verb chosen (singular or plural) between the two uses of the –ics noun, statistics.

Indefinite pronouns can pose special problems in subject – verb agreement.

The difficulty is that some indefinite pronouns sound plural when they are really singular.

As subjects, the following indefinite pronouns ALWAYS take singular verbs.  Look at them closely.

These should be easy to remember.

However, the following indefinite pronouns ALWAYS take plural verbs

EXCEPTIONS:

A third group of indefinite pronouns takes either a singular or plural verb depending on the pronoun’s meaning in the sentence.  Look at them closely.

So far we have considered subjects that can cause subject-verb agreement confusion: compound subjects, group noun subjects, plural form – singular meaning subjects, and indefinite subjects.

The remainder of this teaching unit examines subject – verb agreement problems that can result from word placement in sentences.  There are four main problems: prepositional phrases,clauses beginning with who, that, or which, sentences beginning with here or there, and questions.

Here is a list of frequently used prepositions:

 

                             
A prepositional phrase may be placed between the subject and verb.

                    

In the above example, the singular verb is agrees with the singular subject boy.

Sometimes, however, a prepositional phrase inserted between the subject and verb makes agreement more difficult.

 

     
Car is the singular subject.  Was is the singular helping verb which agrees with car.  If we aren’t careful, however, we may mistakenly label riders as the subject since it is nearer to the verb thancar is.  If we choose the plural noun, riders, we will incorrectly select the plural verb were.

 

     
Solution to the Prepositional Phrase Problem

• Learn the major prepositions.
• Be alert for prepositional phrases placed between the subject and verb, and identify the noun in the phrase immediately as the object of a preposition: An object of a preposition can NEVER be a sentence subject.
•  Locate the true sentence subject and choose a verb which agrees with it.

         

• Remember the indefinite pronoun EXCEPTIONS :  
• Some, Any, None, All, and Most.  The number of these subject words IS affected by a prepositional phrase between the subject and verb.

A clause beginning with who, that, or which and coming BETWEEN the subject and verb can cause agreement problems.

Like the prepositional phrase, the who / that / which clause never contains the subject.

  

TO AVOID SUBJECT – VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS  

1.      Identify who / that / which clauses immediately.

              

2.  Locate the true sentence subject and choose a verb that agrees with it.

             

When a sentence begins with there is – there are / here is – here are, the subject and verb are inverted.  After all that you have learned already, you will undoubtedly find this topic a relatively easy one!

                      

The verb in such constructions is obviously is or are.  The subject, however, does not come BEFORE the verb.

Instead, the subject in this kind of sentence comes AFTER the verb, so you must look for it AFTER the verb. 

                

In this example, because the subject, book, is singular, the verb must also be singular.

If the subject is plural, however, then the verb must be plural.

                      

In this example, because the subject, books, is plural, the verb is also plural.

Remember: In here is – here are / there is – there are constructions, look for the subject 

AFTER the verb and choose a singular (is) or a plural (are) verb to agree with the subject.

And finally, sometimes creating a question will cause the subject to follow the verb as well. 

Here, identify the subject and then choose the verb that agrees with it (singular or plural).