Discuss (v.) & discussion (n.)
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Why hold the discussion on an online forum?
Apart from the fact that ours is a reading and writing class, there are several solid reasons for holding at least some of our discussions online.- It practices response writing for fluency. Unlike in more formal academic writing, the goal is not to do research or even to plan carefully, but to quickly communicate your own ideas on a topic or in response to an issue. You should still write complete sentences organized in paragraphs, but we are not looking for a carefully planned piece of work that was extensively reviewed and revised after it was first written and posted. Response writing is not academic writing; it does, however, practice the fluency that is also important in more formal work.
- This sort of response writing is common at universities today. As part of their assessment, students are often expected to participate in online discussion forums that explore issues raised in lectures, seminars, or tutorials. This sort of response writing is a common component of academic work.
- Brainstorming and sharing ideas independently of face-to-face group discussion typically produces a wider and more thoughtful variety of responses, which is good for the group. See, for example, the articles on this in the Harvard Business Review by Art Markman (2017), Andrew O’Connell (2010), and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (2015). (If you are interested, read some of the sources I've cited here after our class. They are all short.)
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Warwick and Rogers' question
We have already shared our ideas on the first two discussion point questions, which relate to your own county's energy production. The third question asks asks for your personal opinion on a related issue that is often controversial today, so we will hold this discussion online, here on our class blog. - Do you think we should continue to use fossil fuels? Why or why not?
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You have 8:00 minutes to write your answer in the comment box below.
I suggest you spend 2:00 minutes to plan your answer. (Planning is usually a good idea.) That will leave you another 6:00 minutes to write your response to the question, stating your opinion and its support.
Why should we agree with you rather the opposite answer?
A helpful strategy
Imagine you are writing for someone who has neither seen the question you are answering. Your job is to clearly communicate your response to that reader. Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually helpful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer.
Remember: sentences in paragraphs
This is response writing. You want to communicate your ideas fluently as if you were speaking for a few minutes to someone actively listening. However, that person can't stop you to ask questions or clarify, so it's important to state your ideas in complete sentences organized into paragraphs.
Follow up
Finally, before you publish your comment, check "Notify me" below the comment box. You want to get updates on new contributions to the discussion.
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References
- Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015, April 2). Why brainstorming works better online. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online
- Markman, A. (2017, May 18). Your team is brainstorming all wrong. Harvard Business Review. 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. https://hbr.org/2010/02/when-its-better-to-brainstorm
- Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
From my perspective and from what I have known, fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas dramatically contribute to various kinds of pollution, and they are the major causes of global warming and climate change. Thus, I believe, if it is possible, we should stop, avoid or find the other choices of energy generation such as the alternative energy or green energy in order for us all to still have a fresh air to breath and also for the sustainable living for the next generation.
ReplyDeleteHi Dream--your comments reminded me of the air pollution in China, as recently the country has been facing the hazard level of PM 2.5 that is caused by the coal energy plants in the country. I am wondering how the people there live. I have never visited China, but I guess it might be annoying when they need to go out side the buildings. Thailand are facing the same air pollution problem as well, and that has prevented me from doing my favorite outdoor activities such swimming and cycling. I used to enjoy the dry season of the country, but recently I really hate it. I mean I feel uncomfortable when I am walking outside and cannot breath fresh air. That also effected other people. My nice is a good example. Her school needed to postpone 'sport day activity' that was usually arrange in December because of PM 2.5.
DeleteI think Thailand doesn't release much of CO2 into the air like the giant countries like China, the United States and India do. However, it faces the same problem, as we are all breathing the same air. I think the air pollution requires large collaborations from many counties to solve the problem.
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DeleteI realized I did not think about the effect of global warming and climate change from fossil fuels especially PM 2.5 which we are facing. It is the big problem of your world currently. But as I have written in my comment yesterday, fossil fuels is still the main source of energy of the world, if we stop using it right now, it will affect to all industries and economic. Thus, while we are trying to make alternative energy or renewable energy works better than now until it stands in contrast to fossil fuels, which are being used far more quickly than they are being replenished, we should reduce using fossil fuels as much as we can.
DeleteThank you so much for every comment shared in my comment. Many are interesting to be considered. And I do agree with the idea that though we might not be able to phrase out the traditional way of generating energy right now, we can gradually decrease using it until the more modernized and effective ways have been successfully implemented.
DeleteAlthough I think we should stop using fossil fuels, I'm not sure how practical that is. Our economies are designed to run on fossil fuels like oil. As Chight and others said before, cars use fossil fuels, and although more electric cars are being produced today, I think they are more expensive, so many people might find it difficult to move from oil powered cars to electric.
ReplyDeleteHowever, moving away from fossil fuels has lots of benefits. I would love it if the air in Bangkok was cleaner because millions of cars and other engines were not spewing their filthy pollution into the atmosphere. My home is on Silom, and sometimes walking to buy groceries or to Lumpini Park is awful because of the pollution from traffic. But to be fair, I think it's better than it was 25 years ago when I first arrived in Thailand. The worst producers of thick, black smoke are gone, but there are a lot more cars producing a little less pollution, so overall, it's still bad.
The other problem is how we will get energy if we no longer use fossil fuels. Thailand is well placed for sunlight, so perhaps solar energy would be a practical alternative.
Hi Peter--I agree with you that even though it is challenging to stop using fossil fuels, we should try to find alternative energy sources that make our world a better place to live. I strongly believe that another types of energy sources can help running our economies in the 21st century. When I look at the nature--the earth--I can see various kinds of energy exists. For example, when I look at the sky, I feel the heart from the sun and the power of the wind. When it rains, I see the power of strong wind and lightnings. When I go the beaches, I see the power of the wave in the sea. By nature, energy exists everywhere even in my body.
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DeleteI really like your idea. It also reminded me about less pollution in Bangkok during long holiday when people go to travel in another city. I realized that everyone can access to fossil fuels easily and easier than renewable energy even when we are driving we are using fossil fuels energy. It would be good if we can buy electric car in cheaper price or the government can support people to use electric cars like in Israel. Israel just began to use electric road which your electric car will be charging while you drive on this road. Thus, while worldwide is studying more about renewable energy, we should learn about alternative energy we can use currently and use the alterative energy to reduce using rate of fossil fuels
DeleteI like Emma's comment, which very effectively relates the issue to her own personal experience. I'm not a bike rider or swimmer since my days at university, when I swam regularly but not particularly well. However, I used to enjoy walking a lot more.
DeleteAnd the past week I've been walking to teach classes at Rajadamr: I've definitely been feeling the heat from the sun, although not so much wind! Even at 8:30 this morning, it was hot. My phone tells me it's now 34C, but that it feels 42C. That sounds right: the short walk I just made from Chongnonsri BTS to my home felt that hot even at 5:00 PM.
I couldn't agree more with Peter's idea on this issue. And, I believe that solar energy is a true answer for sustainable living in the future.
DeleteHowever, What can be a challenge in using energy generated by solar panels is that it might be ineffective for the panel to generate the electricity on the rainy days since they are mainly dependent on sunlight to gather the energy. Moreover, the costs of the equipment and purchasing solar system are quite high since it is not widely used these days, and it might also require a lot of space to gather the energy as well. But I believe that, with the technological advances we have been developing, it might not take much time to make it more effective to be used in the very near future.
I think we should not continue to use fossil fuels as it can damage the environment. First, fossil fuels are one of the major sources of global warming. The vehicles that we use to travel now use fossil fuels to run the engines, and when fossil fuels are burn, they release a lot of Co2 into the air that make the world's temperature higher. In addition to that, when the vehicles burn fossil fuels, they also release PM 2.5 that make the air polluted.
ReplyDeleteHi Emma, I also agree with you're idea.
Deletewhen we look at the pollution in the world, most of them are caused by the burning of all fossil fuel fires.
In my opinion, Fossil fuels is an important energy and we should continue using it. Fossil fuels is useful for electricity and we use electricity to produce so many things in industrial factory. But Fossil fuels take very long time to be ready to use. So, we should have limit to use it. For example we should use it 50% and other 50% we should use alternative energy from Solar or the Wind but we are new for alternative energy so we have limit manpower. That's why Fossil fuels is still important to our country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that fossil fuels are really important for electricity generation and we should have a limit to use. I think it's a good idea to use it with the other source of energy as your example. For me, I want to reduce the proportion of fossil fuels to be less from your idea from 50% to be about 20%-30% because as you said the fossil fuels take a very long time to ready to use, I think that mean fossil fuels we're using now is less and less. In the other words, it can be run out someday. In that case I think it will have some bad effect to the natural in the earth. So, I want to extend it time to be longer for more sustainable energy. Thank you for making me know the other aspect.
DeleteI think we shouldn't continue to use fossil fuels. We have used fossil fuels for a long time and this kind of files can be run out in the future. If we're still using it, it might destroy the nature of the earth. And now we have a lot of choices to produce the energy such as solar, wind, and hydropower which are unlimited and do not damage the earth.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! Let's heal the world by using alternative ways of producing energy like the green ones you mentioned. :D
DeleteWhen fossil fuels are burned through activities The final product released is Carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases (Greenhouse gases) that remain in the Earth's atmosphere. These gases are capable of capturing and retaining heat well, resulting in "global warming" and "climate change",
ReplyDeleteAlthough fossil fuels are energy dense as an small amount of them provides us a lot of energy, they give us a lot of negative impacts on our health and society. In my view, we should not continue using fossil fuels energy because these sources harm our health, such as allergy and lung cancer. They also have a bad effect on our environment because they emit greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide that causes our world hotter and intervene the balance of nature.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we shouldn’t continue using fossil fuels because of the bad effect from your comment. I want to share you about the other cons from using it, it can cause the climate change by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and also cause the global warming.
DeleteI think it’s not easy to stop using it due to it cost is quite cheap compare to the other source of energy, if we are stop using it immediately it may increase our living cost but it’ll be good if we try to use it less.
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