Living in a material world

What I read

The BBC News article "Americans find meaning in money more than friends or religion" (2018) reports the results of two surveys that the Pew Research Center released just before Thanksgiving. The surveys, both done last year, used different methods to invite Americans to say what gives meaning to their lives. Although family was rated first in both and religion relatively low, other results were very different depending on whether responded by writing in their own words or chose set responses to 15 options. In the first case, career and money were rated as most important, while in the second, high importance was given to "being outdoors [and] spending time with friends,” both of which were ranked lower in the open-ended survey.

After choosing my source, reading it a couple of times (three or four actually), choosing what to include in my summary and in what order, the above paragraph went through six reviews and revisions, with the word count changing as follows: 156 → 139 → 133 → 113 → 117 → 121. The first version was much too long: it would have earned a failing grade. After small changes, I made a more radical revision in version 4, which allowed me to add a few more words again. 

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My response 

In the beginning,
with Pawit

There were a couple of other articles that I was drawn to as I was browsing the BBC website on Friday evening looking for something that interested me so that I could write another example of responding to a story in the news. In the end, I chose this one because it was a bit surprising and also because I like Thanksgiving. I'm not American, but the story behind this most American celebration is uplifting, spiritual even, and I love the food. In fact, I've already indulged twice at Dean & DeLuca in the last week, and have a Sunday lunch engagement for more with another group of friends. 

The results of the surveys, especially the one where people were asked to simply write their own responses interested me enough that I followed the link in the BBC News article to their source, the results that were published by the Pew Research Center, which naturally gives a lot more detail, for example, that although religion rates relatively lowly for all respondents, for some groups in the population, it is very important at giving meaning to their lives, which is what I would have expected. The biggest surprise for me was that so many people rated money and jobs more highly than friends or religion. That was not what I expected. Also interesting, even a little surprising, was how very different the results were when the same thing was asked in different ways. It shows how important the design of a survey is if you want to get meaningful results. 

Not the end ...
Dessert also came

Finally, it made me think a bit about what does, and what should, make our lives valuable and meaningful. But I'll save my ideas on that for now. I'm looking forward to Sunday when my guests are arriving at 10:00 so we can walk down to MahaNakorn for another go at their delicious festive foods menu. And my friend's eleven-year-old son is also looking forward to checking out the MahaNakorn Tower skywalk, which has finally opened. He's been waiting for years! I think I'm also looking forward to that, but I might not venture out onto the glass tray protruding from the 78th floor. It makes me shiver just thinking of it. 

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My question

What things most give meaning to your life?
(This question was easy. I just copied the open-ended survey question that Pew Research asked people to respond to.) 

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Reference

• Americans find meaning in money more than friends or religion. (2018, November 22). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46306037 

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I also revised my title a couple of times. The final one is taken from an early Madonna song.

Actually, I don't like Madonna or her music that much, but this bit of nostalgia seemed appropriate. It was very popular back in 1985 when I was living in Sydney an age ago. 

We have looked at a few basics in using blogger, but feel welcome to try out the other options that are available. 

However, the paragraph formatting is correct, so please do not change that. Having a consistent, simple appearance for the paragraph formatting makes it much easier for readers. 

The value of saving lives

Click to view images full size.

What I read

In "Should we pay people for donating blood?" (2018), Padraig Belton suggests that a compromise which reimburses donors for their time and inconvenience rather than for their blood plasma might solve the controversy over whether providers of plasma, the pale liquid that holds our red blood cells, should be paid for it. Plasma is used to treat a wide range of diseases, from immune deficiency to burns, with demand for this internationally traded product increasing rapidly, which has led some economists to support paying providers in order to maintain the necessary supply, while others, including the World Health Organization (WHO), argue that in order to maintain a “safe, sustainable blood supply,” it should be given freely not turned into a for-profit business transaction that might take advantage of poorer people.

As counted by Google's Word count tool, this summary paragraph is 130 words, which is just within the maximum of 130 words. If I had had more time, I would have tried to shorten it a bit more. It is two sentences, which is safely within the allowed four sentence maximum. The first sentence begins by telling readers the source of the ideas, as required to avoid being guilty of plagiarism (see page 36 of Skillful RW3), and there is one short quotation of four words that I copied and pasted from the source that I chose to summarize, while all of the rest states the ideas from the source in my words. It is academic writing. 

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My response 

Although I think both sides have good arguments to support their competing opinions, I tend to favour allowing profits to be made from giving blood. This might offend some people, who think we should do it because it's the right thing to save lives, but I'm not sure that their argument is strong enough. I don't disagree, with the argument that we should act from moral motives rather greed for money, but being morally right is not a good enough reason to use the law to force people to do something. For example, if we agree that it's morally right to look after our own bodies, does that mean that the government can make up laws to ban eating chocolate cake, which we know to be unhealthy since it contributes to all the diseases that come from excess sugar consumption. Of course, people who favour banning drugs like marijuana, heroin or yaa baa will probably agree that chocolate cake should be banned because it's unhealthy, just as they might also support bans on cigarettes and the deadly drug alcohol, but they are wrong. People have a right to determine for themselves how they live their own lives, and even if they do things that harm themselves, including getting drunk or giving themselves diabetes and heart disease from chocolate cake, their wishes must be respected except when they directly harm other people. 

Now that I think about it more, the idea that we should act from selfless, morally superior motives is not only morally suspect, I think the WHO is wrong. When we compare the success of communist nations with that of capitalist nations, it is the capitalists that are doing much better at supplying goods and services to more and more people. Who, after all, would choose to live in despotic China under the dictator Mao if they could instead live in the free and open society of the US, where life is not only freer, but vastly richer. It was only after Mao died and a better leader took power in China that that unhappy nation began to grow economically as greater liberty was allowed to its citizens. We see the same in the South American nation of Venezuala, which was destroyed by socialist policies while it's market oriented neighbours thrive. I am sure that Thailand would also do much better if there was less government interference in business and the personal lives of Thai citizens. 

This response to the ideas from my chosen source is two paragraphs, which is the minimum. Our response should me at least twice the length of the summary paragraph. Although, as see in the examples on page 9 of Skillful RW3, the style is fairly formal as appropriate to an academic context, avoiding the kind of language that would be OK on Facebook or in an email to friends, it is not an academic essay. It is OK to jump from one topic to another, and personal reflection is perfectly OK. This is a personal response to the ideas in something we have read. 

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My question

Should the law be used to settle disagreements about what people choose to do with their own bodies? 

Although you might want to write it as a couple of sentences, only ask one question to prompt your readers, us, to respond to. And we might ignore your question if a different response comes to mind. Again, our purpose here is not to write an academic essay. 

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Reference

• Belton, P. (2018, November 15). Should we pay people for donating blood? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46197271

• The reference citation for the source is written in APA style. Copy my examples for BBC News articles. Later, we will practice writing APA style reference citations for other sources. 

Mmm ... art

What I read

According to "Hockney painting breaks auction record for living artist" (2018), the reputation as a great modern artist of 81 year old David Hockney, whose work has become so well-known that it is even laughed at in cartoons, has been confirmed by the sale of his 1972 painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) for $90.3 million US dollars at auction, which set a new record for a living artist. It is said to be "one of the great masterpieces of the modern era" by auctioneer Christies, who sold the work, which depicts two figures, one swimming in a pool with the other looking down at him, and is known to be based on two photographs. 

This summary paragraph is 119 words in three sentences, which is safely within the word and sentence limits. 

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My response 

Hockney has long been an artist whose work I admire, so it was a pleasant surprise to see this recognition of his talent. Still, it's hard to believe that a painting, any painting could really be worth quite that much, and other works have commanded even higher prices in recent years. I largely agree with the art market's relative valuation of works of art. For example, Picasso's work now attracts prices of over $100 million, and I think they really are better than both Hockney and old masters like da Vinci, whose Mona Lisa, for example, whilst very good, is not nearly as great a work of art as man of Picasso's masterpieces. I think that the Mona Lisa is famous more for its place in history than for artistic excellence. And sometimes the art market makes mistakes: I don't think that Andy Warhol's work is really all that great, just radical and controversial. Being controversial is no bad thing, but it is not the same as artistic greatness. 

But then what does make a piece of art great? What is art? These questions have been around for at least two thousand years, and I don't think I have any final answer. I think it is in part to do with arranging the elements in a strong composition that gets everything in the right place to best connect them, which is also something we worry about when we write, where coherence (logical organization) and cohesion (connections between ideas within and between sentences) helps readers to easily follow the ideas that we are trying to communicate. But the best philosophers have been arguing for millennia about these questions. I think we make progress, but just as with science, it's perhaps safer not to claim to have finally got the perfect answers that will never be proved false or otherwise not good enough. 

In the meantime, I'll continue to love Picasso and Hockney. I also like da Vinci, even though he isn't as great an artist as the later masters, who were less limited by trying to make accurate copies of reality. 

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My question

Can any piece of canvas, metal, or other art really be worth $90 million dollars? 

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Reference

• Hockney painting breaks auction record for living artist. (2018, November 16). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46232870

Before reading "Invasive species you should know": (SkR&W3, p48)

Before we read

Before we read "Invasive Species You Should Know," the first reading in unit 5 of Skillful RW3, Bixby and Scanlon have a question to respond to.

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Bixby and Scanlon's question

Discuss this question in a comment below. 

• What insects to you have in your area? What problems can they cause?

You have ten minutes to respond in a comment. I suggest you brainstorm on a scrap of paper for two minutes before writing for about eight minutes. 

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Reference

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful reading & writing: Student's book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education 

Fluke-drawn back to

I was drawn back to an amusement park that I love to visit when I was 6 years old. I can remember that I like to ride the rocking horse with my mother and I like to walk around the amusement park to find another.....

Yun - Drawn back to

I was drawn back to 1986 when I was 8 years old. At that time, I lived at an apartment on Rama 2 road. Every weekday I had to travel from my home to my school which is located in Charoenkrung Road. I had to wake up at 5.30 am and took the bus before 6.15 because the bus took 1 hour and 30 minutes to arrive my school. If my mum were free, she drove me to school which was a better way because I could slept in car and I could enjoy my breakfast which were banana and cheese.
At that time, banana and cheese was very delicious menu for me.

Phoenix-drawn back to US

        I was drawn back to San Francisco when I was seeing pictures that I took in the US. I took many photos there, so I have a very nice experience there. I'm gonna tell you about my stories and my experiences there. I went to San Francisco alone. I met my aunt and then she picked me up at SF-Airport. After that, we both went to New York. I've had I chance to eat the most delicious pasty in New York. I stayed there for a week. I came back to San Francisco. I had to study in a language school. I visited my relatives in Bayfair. My uncle's mother cooked a T-bone beef steak for me. WOW!!! It was very delicious, I can remember the taste of it. I stayed in San Francisco for 3 months. My friends made a party for me. I miss there a lot. 

Noon-drawn back to Hongkong

I have been drawn back to Hongkong Disneyland. I went there when I was 9 years old with my grandmother and my uncle. I was excited with my first time to go abroad and I was really impressed with this place because it is a wonderful fun park, the weather was good and the people there were kind.  In Hongkong, old people are exclusive so my grandmother and I could play the merry go round first, without a queue. There were several Disney products at the souvenir shops. I bought lots of snacks, clothes, and stationaries. The food there was quite expensive but it was decorated with the Disney characters which were so cute. The most memorable scene of this trip was the fireworks show above the Disney castle at night. It is colorful and stunning. I enjoyed this trip so much. I hope I will back there more than 10 times.

Jack The place that full of my childhood memories

I was drawn back to my previous address where I grew up 25 years ago. I was surrounded by all the good memories that I had when I lived there since I was born. I walked around the area and was trying to find someone that I knew in the past. Unfortunately, it seemed like that they had moved to somewhere else as there was no one that I could recognize. I went back to the build that I used to call home at that time.

I spent almost 15 minutes looking around that 3-story from the outside and smiled with myself ....

Nick-drawn back to

I was recently go to a restaurant that I usually go with my grandfather when I was a child. At first I couldn't remembered what is the restaurant name,but the tastes of the food reminds me about the time when I was young. I couldn't thought out  my memory to find the restaurant because the last that I went there ,I was only about ten years old and move to Bangkok to stay with my mom. It's quit reminds me of a precious memory when I was a child that use to .....

Fahsai drawn back to my high school.

                     I was drawn back to my high school when I came back to my home town last month. I had appointment with my friends at our school where we studied. I saw many changes of buildings and some place where i used to spend time with my friends. We walked pass filed  where we had to stand to pay respect to the flag in the morning. We founded that the filed have been changed to concrete and it was covered by roof. We feel that our juniors are luckier than us because they do not feel hot.

Nee - drawn back to high school

Last vacation, I was drawn back to high school that studied with friends when I was young. I had lots of good memory and share about the story with friends but at the same time it was very fun. Now I don't have enough time to go there because I study near Hua-Hin and the province of my high school is in Samutsakhon. Sometimes I and my friends had plan to go there then some of  my friends were study or some of friends were did some project at university. After that we didn't go there. And I hope in some day we will go there together to share about the story or experience that they went to internship to tell us. When I thought in back, it was very good to spend that time together.

Amm - drawn back to Bangkok Planetarium

Last December, I was drawn back to "Bangkok Planetarium", where I visited several times when I was younger.

When I was primary school student, I had many chances to visit museums in Thailand during my school trips. I remember that I had good memories there. But when I was grown up, I rarely go to that kind of place because I am too busy.

Two years ago, my friend told me about "Night at the museum event", the event which allow you to visit any government's museums in Thailand for free. I was interested so I made my plan for joining that event. First time, 2 years ago, I went to "Museum Siam". Last year, I went to "Bangkok Planetarium" for a day. The planetarium building is quiet old, like when I was young, but I really love the documentary that they showed me. It's about light pollution in urban area. It was so great. Moreover, I went to another buildings that there are a lot of science exhibitions. They showed things that I have learnt when I was a student. They weren't something new, but they reminded me about the time when I was just a little girl. I played a lot of science toys and really enjoyed science shows. I felt like I was a kid again.

That was a good memories of me. I was relaxed and forgot the stressful. I think I want to visit the place like this again.

Pim - drawn back to my high school time

I was drawn back to my time spending with friends in high school when I saw my sister's friends visiting her at home last week. Thinking about high school time always makes me realize how easy life was before. I had the most amazing time there with my friends. Back then, after finishing the class, we used to catch up in a group to just chat and enjoy our after school snacks. Someday we would play badminton at the court under our classroom building with our friends from other classes. If we were about to have an exam coming in the next few days, we would always assemble and help each other revising the lesson we had learned. However, we had never have a good exam score from doing so. Lastly, the best part was that we had been to many holiday trips together comparing to this moment where I stuck everyday with load of works to be done. I have never regretted any of those times.

Peter - drawn back to the cloisters

I had many happy memories of my years at Sydney University, but had not visited for many years until on my annual visit to Australia two years ago, I was drawn back to the buildings where I had spent five years of my youth. As usual, I was having an early breakfast of bacon and eggs at a small cafe in front of Sydney Harbour after the train trip into the city from the airport. I do this every year. It's a nice welcome back to Australia to enjoy bacon and eggs with a view of Sydney's iconic bridge and harbour. I also like bacon and eggs. As I was eating them two years ago, and wondering what to do until it was time to catch my connecting flight in the evening to the north coast, where my family live, I though of Sydney University, and decided that I would like to wonder the old sandstone buildings again where I had studied philosophy, argued with my professors and fellow students, and enjoyed many pleasant days. There was also Fisher Library and the fascinating mummies and other relics in the museum. Getting there was no problem, except that I wasn't sure if the same bus services would still be running. When I was a student, I would walk from the university to the city, but these days I'm not so energetic. I could have taken a taxi, but decided that the bus trip would be part of reliving the old days, so I set off to the bus stop, only to realize that I didn't know where the nearest bus stop was. I hadn't taken a Sydney bus for more than ten years! Asking a couple of people quickly solved this problem, and I was shortly on the way in the same old bus number 421, although it was a more modern version than the ones I used to take back in the late 1970 and early 80s.

Getting into Unit 5 = Movement (SkR&W3, p47, Discussion point)

Click to view full size

What we read

Bixby and Scanlon introduce each unit with a discussion activity, that is, an opportunity for us to share our ideas on the topic of the unit in a way that relates it to our own lives, ideas and experiences. Unit 5 of book 3 (Bixby & Scanlon [=B&S3], 2013, p.47) does this.

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My response 

The research solidly shows that brainstorming or discussion activities for groups are more effective if participants start by working individually (O'Connell, 2010; Markman, 2017). In fact, experts at Harvard University's School of Management and elsewhere are sure that this can be very effectively done using online tools (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2015). Blogging is one effective way to do this, which is the reason I've turned Bixby and Scanlon's discussion exercise into a quick blogging discussion.

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Bixby and Scanlon's questions 

Discuss these questions in a comment.  

• Why do some birds migrate? 
• What other animals migrate? 
• What animals migrate to or from your country? 
• What human activities can disrupt of interfere with animal movement? 

For all of these, you should write full sentences. You will also need to write a few sentences for each of your ideas, giving explanation, examples and other details to clarify and develop your ideas. 

You can address the questions in any order. You can write one comment, or if you prefer, two comments, but not three. So that you don't worry about Bixby and Scanlon's numbers too much, I replaced them with bullets. 

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Useful tip 1

Jim: "Because it's hot." 

I expect that you have a problem with Jim's answer above. He assumes that we know what he's talking about, and this often causes problems for readers and listeners. When you write your comments below, just as when we are talking in class, it is a useful communication strategy to imagine that your readers have not heard or read the question you are responding to. You need to write enough so that your comment makes sense for readers who have not read the above questions. 

Useful tip 2

You are not writing an academic essay here. This is a fluency activity where your aim is to communicate a series of ideas quickly. It's OK if you go off topic a bit, or even a lot. And unlike in academic work, you don't have to give solid support for everything you say. Just turn your idea into a sentence or a few, and then do the same for your next idea, and then the next one. And keep going. 

Now, open a new comment box and start writing. In your nine minutes, aim to write three paragraphs, one for each of Bixby and Scanlon's main questions.  

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References

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing: Student's Book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education
    
• Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015, April 2). Why brainstorming works better online. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online
   
• Markman, A. (2017, May 18). Your team is brainstorming all wrong. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-team-is-brainstorming-all-wrong
   
• O'Connell, A. (2010, February 4). Sometimes, it’s better to brainstorm alone. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/02/when-its-better-to-brainstorm 

Fahsai's academic interests

korean language
- alphabet
- culture
- food
- entertainment - series

        I am interested in korean language. I like to learn their alphabet because it is easy to write. Moreover, i like the korean culture. Fore example, the traditional korean clothing- hanbok- is beautiful style. Korean food is also interesting. I love to eat kimbab. It made from cooked rice and other ingredients that are rolled. Furthermore, korean series are very popular in Thailand. I like to watch korean series because the mood and tone are very fantastic.
        Finally, I love korean language as my academic interests because korean language is easy to learn.

Phoenix's academic interests

             There are many majors that I would like to study in Stamford International University. I'm interested in IBM. It's about Accounting and Marketing. I'd like to be a business owner.
I think I'm good at organization.  I also want to study about Psychology because I think I need it for my job in the future.
              
             I'm planing to go to study aboard. I'd like to study in the UK or the US.  I'm studying in Debsirin School. I'm study Sci-Math, so It's very different from the major that I decided to study in the university.

Amm's academic interests

Because I study and work in the environmental field, I am interested in "Environmental issue", such as climate change, plastic pollution, air pollution, wastewater, and waste management. I concern about eco-friendly lifestyle and how to live healthily.

Moreover, I am also interested in social movement and political issue. I found that they are complex topics. There are many different opinions on the same topic. Everything is always done for reasons which I have not known before. This kind of topic is always surprised me.

To sum up, I am interested in social topics, such as environmental issues and social movement activities. One is my major which I concern. Another one is very new for me.

Noon's academic interests

         My academic interest  is about business and management which support my career inthe future.I want to be a businesswoman because I can help my family business and I will be rich.
         Since I was young ,I have helped my mom to calculate company account,sell products and ckeck the stocks.I really like it.I think my family has made a good start ,so I should continue it to be more successful.
        I would like to study international business program in the university(BBA) in Thailand like Chulalong korn and Mahidol university.Now,I have to focus on practicing English and preparing for SAT and IELTS to use for admission of the university.I think international program is better because we can use English untill we die and English is one of  important languge for all levels of business.
        I hope I will be a BBA student and I will have my wondderfull business which makes a lot of money for my family.
       

Jack's academic interests

I am interested in aviation, tourism and education. However, my priority will be focusing on aviation as it  is one of my prfessional area that I am currently teaching at Dhurakit Pundith University.

It is required by the universtiy that every teacher has to produce a kind of academic serearch paper at least 1 per academic year, and also for the reason that every teacher has to commit him/her self to the life long study.

Reading other researchers'works is a good idea to get some ideas to create your own ....

TLE's academic interests

My academic interests is Chemistry, Mathematics, and Economics

I am currently studying in a science major for high school. Chemistry is one of my favorite. I would like to spend a lot of time in the laboratory and see the results of the test. In addition, calculation is required in most of science branches. Following this, mathematics skills is needed in wide ranges method. 

One cannot deny that people spend money in their daily routines. Therefore, studying about money is quite interesting for me. Economics can help us to know how to manage the limited resources which is money for our unlimited demands.

As mentioned above, these are some of the examples of my academic interests.

Nee's academic interests

I'm interesting about programmer because In Thailand, many company want program for their company. Some company has people to write for their company after that they can login and changed it later. It not good to want profile for customer. Program and website are very useful for all company.

And another one is about marketing. Lots of company has marketing department. Customer will buy things or tell another people if things and marketing are good. Now many company want their products awareness of consumers. It is useful to business to grow up in the future and  make people like and buy product later

But economic is important too. If economic bad, people don't buy thing a lot. They will buy important things such as food.

Peter's academic interests

I had academic interests before I ever knew the word academic. While I was still in early primary school, I was fascinated by growing plants. I grew oak trees, coral trees, and best of all a fig tree. This led me to start reading about botany in magazines, encyclopaedias and books at my parents'  and school library. From botany, I got interested in biology generally, although by the time I entered high school, I was more into chemistry and physics, which I loved.

But all the time, another subject was growing in interest: mathematics. This subject underlay all of the other sciences, but was different to them because it could actually prove things with absolute certainty. I was impressed by that, and loved exploring the different areas of mathematics and their perfect consistency. And the interrelations between, for example, complex numbers, pi, and the basics 0 and 1 in Euler's famous equation.

But I went to Catholic schools, and my maths and physics master was also a Marist Brother. I think he worried that my passion for science and mathematics might lead me away from our religion, so he introduced me to Christian philosophers - a big mistake, since I soon started reading pagans like Plato and Aristotle, and even worse people like Kant, Hume and Sartre. At university, I began a science degree, but soon switched to arts, with a major in philosophy, although I did continue with the mathematics, which went well with the logic I was studying in philosophy.

These days, I'm still interested in these subjects, but also economics, law, history and politics, none of which I've ever studied at university. Some of my friends think it's a bit weird, but I enjoy reading the opinions of the US Supreme Court. I'm not American, but I like the US Constitution, and the nine justices of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS), write great academic English. If you looking for some examples of how to do things with English words, they are a great source, but we won't be reading any of those this term.

Yun's academic interests

There are several academic subjects that I interest, which are Language, Code, and design.
Language, such as English and Chinese are very interesting while technology, such as
coding and programmings are necessary. Furthermore, I used to be Architect student so
I interest design too.

Language isn't easy for everyone. English has a lots of vocabulary as well as
Chinese to remember. However learning English or Chinese as a second
language has many benefits. Firstly, learning new language helps people to
memorize. People who learn new language memorize things better than who
don't. Secondly, people who learn new language are always enthusiasm.
People always active when they find new words that they don't know.
Thirdly, 

Welcome to RW2b and to our class blog

What I read

Although I've read a lot in preparation for it, this post has a different purpose. I want to welcome you to your EAP class on Saturday mornings.

So, welcome.

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My response 

Thank you for joining our Saturday class in Reading and Writing for academic purposes. I hope you find the next six weeks useful, productive, also challenging, and perhaps even fun. 

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My question

I hadn't planned on a question, but I guess I should follow my own template for our blogs. Perhaps it's worth asking you to write a comment on your previous experience or ideas on using online discussion boards. As you will see in our book, online discussion makes an appearance early on in Unit 1 (Bixby & Scanlon, 2013, p. 9) and there is a more extensive coverage of this common part of modern university courses on page 66, so I do have a question. 

Also, in her foreword to students on page 4 (or perhaps page 6 if you have a later print than mine), the series editor, Dorothy E. Zemach, gives some strategies for successful learning, one of which is to "be an independent learner" (in Bixby & Scanlon, 2013). This class blog is one way for us to do this. As Zemach suggests in her comment, it is one way for you to "find and then share information about ... different topics." Some of the topics you will write about here are the unit topics, but I also Zemach's suggestion that "reading for pleasure and using the Internet in English" are important, so your writing here will not be limited to the topics of the units that we study over the next six weeks. 

• Do you agree with Zemach and the authors of our book and myself? Is a class blog a useful addition to our class this term? (This is two sentences, but it's only one question for you to respond to.) 

You can respond as soon as you accept the invitation I will soon send you to join this blog. 

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Reference

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education