2015年4月19日星期日

Presentation Reflection

Through this presentation, I have learnt a lot of skills,including how to make a creative PowerPoint slides, how to effectively deliver my ideas and also how to engage my audiences. In my PowerPoint slides, I have inclued some 'impressive' pictures.In the feedback section, I realised that such 'impressive' pictures might have some bad effects as the audiances might feel uncomfortable. I think this presentation is a good opportunity for me to realise that and helps me to improve in the future. Besides that, I also think that a good presentation does not just focus on what you are presenting, but how you are presenting. The skills are very important to attack the audiences' attention.

Reader Response Draft 4

In the article “Writing Your Way to Happiness”,Parker-Pope(2015) states that writing one's own experience can help to develop mental health and bring a good mood,giving people a sense of happiness. The author believes that our world outlook and self-positioning depends on these personal statements.These claims were illustrated by examples. Stanford researchers once carried out a study on the college freshmen. Results showed that writing could encourage people and give them confidence towards their future. Parker-Pope also mentions that writing can help people to face the difficulties in their life truly. By taking an example of a woman, Siri in the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, she realized her real problems through writing.It is asserted in the article that writing indeed helps people recognize what hinders them and lead them towards the happiness. 

However, writing and editing one's stories is not sufficient to bring happiness and improve physical health.

In the article, the author states that "by writing and then editing our own stories, we can change our perceptions of ourselves". In order to be happy and shed the negativity, people are trying to subjectively ignore their shortcomings and delete them from their stories. By doing so, they can have more positive attitude to live on their lives. However, only looking at the good side of oneself is not helpful in leading a happy life in the long term. Through editing, people will get into an imaginary story easily and wallow in unreal happiness. Belmer (2013) mentions that in order to achieve happiness, people have to be honest about themselves. Even though people can put more attention on their strength, they still need to know their weaknesses well.After getting to know oneself better, they can be more rational and treat things in a more mature way. There are less trifles that bothering them and this will make them enjoy a more happy life.

Furthermore, the author believes that people can realize the real problems that stop them from happiness through expressive writing. It is true that writing allows people to calm down and recognize their real obstacles. However, writing does not give them the solutions to those problems. In reality, sometimes people might actually know what real problems are, yet they just deny them and get stuck. Writing indeed is a way to talk to oneself. It becomes difficult for people to solve those problems when they do not want to admit those. Instead of talking to oneself, Williamson and King(2014) states that "our relationships with other people are the most important thing for our happiness". People need to build a close and strong relationship with someone else and look for the solutions to the problems together. This is an effective and more useful tool to move away the obstacles on their ways towards happiness. For instance, there are many suicide cases of young people all over the world.From their last words, most of them were struggling against something but finally could not resolve them.In such a situation, expressive writing gives little help.In order to achieve happiness, writing is not sufficient. People ought to get more suggestions from their trusted which help them solve their issues.

The author also argues that writing about personal experiences can improve one's physical health,like reducing symptoms among cancer patients. However, in my point of view, writing is just a way to shift their attention to other things. It is not sufficient and they need more physical exercise to maintain health, including mental health. For most of the people, being overweight or not eating nutritious foods can have a negative effect on their mood.These root of unhappiness cannot simply solved by express writing. Widrich(2014) mentions that exercise is a cure for nearly everything in life and leads people to the happiness. Exercise has been known to have a positive impact boosting self-esteem, sense of control and endorphin levels which gives people a feeling of happiness.According to these evidences, physical exercise is also essential to have happiness.

All in all,Parker-Pope's assertion that express writing can help people to achieve happiness is not complete as there are lots of other important elements on the way to happiness. Other things,like knowing the weakness of oneself, building strong relationships to look for solutions,appropriate physical exercise, are all important to bring people a happy life.

Word count:719 words

References:

Parker-Pope.T(Jan 19,2015). Writing Your Way to Happiness[Weblog post].Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?_r=0

Belmer.C(Feb 22,2013). 17 Ways to Shed Nagativity and Achieve Happiness.[Weblog post].Retrieved from  http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7806/17-ways-to-shed-negativity-and-achieve-happiness.html

Williamson.M & King.V(Nov 3,2014).Ten Easier Step to Happier Living.[Weblog post].Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/03/ten-easy-steps-that-will-make-you-a-happier-person

Widrich.L(Feb 4,2014).What Happens to Our Brains When We Exercise and How It Makes Us Happier.[Weblog post].Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/3025957/work-smart/what-happens-to-our-brains-when-we-exercise-and-how-it-makes-us-happier

Critical Reflection outline

what happened ?(describe the experience):
This is not the first English language lesson I take in my study life in Singapore. However, this is a fresh experience to me to have feedback from my classmates and my tutor for my every writing.
Blog group-> peer feedback->face to face consultation with the tutor-> tutor feedback


Why/how did it happen? What factors contributed ? How do you feel about it?
It is quit interesting and useful when peers and the tutor give me feedback on my every writing.
Why peer feedback: learn from the others(language, structure, analyzing skills) and avoid the same mistakes in our own writings
Why tutor feedback : give professional suggestions->things we learned from the peer


What will you do as a result of this experience ? How will you use it to inform your future?
apply to other aspect of lives

Essay Draft 4

Human Flesh Engine is a powerful product of social media in China. It is not the literally a traditional searching engine, like Google or Bing, but a phenomenon that people post questions on forum or blogs, allowing other uses to freely answer. Human Flesh Engine is a place where collaborative efforts are shared information online. It first appeared as the name of a forum on Mop.com - a discussion website popular in China. Internet users can post and answer various questions on it. The first Flesh Search was the Kitten-killer Incident in 2006('High-heeled kitten killer apologizes',2006). A video about one woman with high-heel crushing a kitten to death was widely spread on the Internet. Many of the angry Internet users blamed her, asking for the personal details of this woman on the forum of various websites. The actress and the video's producer were traced to Luobei County in the northern province. Since that time Internet users have been using this kind of search engine to pursue the justice and discover the truth in the real life. Due to the increasing use of the flesh search engine ,many of the ordinary citizens are also got attacked.Due to the information posted wrongly, innocent people are accused of actions that they do not commit. Because of that, the People's Congress of Zhejiang province has already made it a prosecutable crime for an Internet user to publish the address and private activities of anyone without their permission. Furthermore,another way to decrease the number of innocents affected by Human Flesh Engine could be through improving the education about privacy issues on the Internet.In order to protect the privacy of Internet users,the legislation by the government and the education on every Internet user should be used as the tools.

Internet users use a Flesh Search in order to correct some actions they deem wrong,but ordinary citizens are also deeply affected by being falsely accused of actions they do not commit. On the Flesh Search platform,this sleuthing process involves the probing and posting of personal details in pursuit of romance,kinship,justice or vindication. Citizens are exposed to a deluge of home and email addresses,bank statements and other private information. Sometimes, the exposed information does not belong to the person under "search". Innocent people have got been attacked by those angry, dissatisfied and unaware Internet users. One example is that of Yin Feng, a part time taxi driver. Internet users posted news about a taxi driver,who rolled down his window to spit on an elderly homeless person lying on the street. Witnesses recorded the first digits of the spitter's number plate and began to Flesh Search it. Through the Flesh Search Engine, Internet users put their eyes on Yin, whose number plates partially matched, and some anonymous users posted his mobile number online. Numerous callers berated innocent Yin, screaming obscenities. As other private information such as ID number,home address and even relatives phone number were also posted, Yin even got threatened by those callers. There are a lot of persons facing the same situation as Yin. Their daily lives are dramatically disturbed and their reputations are also ruined. Ordinary people begin to be scared by Human Flesh Search engines and against it. 

In order to preserve the right of online users, some parts of China have implemented some protection laws to act against the Human Flesh Search Engine. In 2010, "Zhejiang Province's Informatization Promotion Regulations(Draft)" stated that "any unit or individual must not publish,distribute,delete,or edit another's related information without permission".At the same time, the State Council office also published a white paper on "The State of China's Internet",which indicated that Chinese citizens should receive protections under the law for free online speech(Song,2010). The Chinese government tried to use this law to crack down on the Flesh Search. However, it seems that it has not been working well. According to online research conducted by the Renmin Net, over 90% of the Internet users were against the ban of Flesh Search(Ming,2010). Internet users thought that Flesh Search was an effective way for the public, especially the ordinary citizens, to supervise the government officers and expose their corrupt actions. Through the collective work of online users, a lot of prodigal behaviours of officers are exposed. In this way, people are unwilling to give up this useful tool, even if they face the same risks of information leakage. Furthermore, many Internet users are anonymous when they share information online. This results in difficulties tracking them for prosecutions. People will also avoid the trouble of suing attackers when the influence is on a small scale.

Another move to reduce the damages that are brought by the Flesh Search Engine is the education and the restraints on the online users themselves. After seeing that many ordinary people are getting attacked, Internet users are voluntarily listing some rules about Flesh Search, called "8 Flesh Search Self-disciplinary Rules"('Who benefit from the banning of flesh search engine?',2010). This is an essential action to produce an orderly online environment.In the self-disciplinary rules, online users are advised to try not to search for the private information about someone and use the Flesh Search Engine as a mutual helping platform instead of simply satisfying self-interests. Instead of law regulations, this kind of self-discipline improves the reliability of shared information and try to use the Search Engine on a right way. It is the ideal online environment if all online users are following this kind of rules, making full use of flesh Search Engine in a positive way. However,there are still some selfish users who disrupt the correct use of Flesh Search Engine and also abuse the shared information.It will be a long way to make sure that the Flesh Search Engine is an helpful in people's lives, instead of a sharp sword hurting innocent people.

All in all, it is hard to solve the problems brought by the Human Flesh Search Engine in the short run. Innocent people will still be getting attacked by this Flesh Search. Despite the established laws and self-discipline raised by responsible online users, more attention should also be paid by the governmernt and Internet users on this kind of search engine.

Word Count:1025 words

References:

(1)Song,L.(June 21, 2010) 地方立法限制人肉搜索引争议 官员害怕网络监督[Controversy on the ban of human flesh search engine,officials scare the network supervision]. Liaowang. Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/lianzheng/2010-06/21/c_12243829.htm
(2)Ming,L.(Febraru 5,2010) 试析“人肉搜索”之利与弊[Advantages and disadvantages of flesh search engine].hljnews.cn. Retrieved from http://www.hljnews.cn/fou_baoye/2010-02/05/content_696831.htm
(3)立法禁止人肉搜索谁受益?[Who benefit from the banning of flesh search engine?](August 25,2010). lawtime.cn Retrieved from http://www.lawtime.cn/info/xingfa/xfnews/2010082559009.html
(4)High-heeled kitten killer apologizes(March 16,2006).chinadaily.cn Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-03/16/content_540375.htm

2015年4月17日星期五

Critical Reflection

As a foreigner studying in Singapore, the most important thing is to learn correct English. This is not the first English language lesson I have taken in my study life in Singapore. However, I can say that this is the most interesting and meaningful English lesson. This is because that I have a fresh experience by having feedback from my classmates and my tutor for my every writing.

At the beginning of the course, all the students were divided into groups of four or five as the Blog group throughout the whole course. This is the first step of the collaborative studying journey in ES1102. For every post, including the draft of essay and draft of Reader Response, our group members will read through the others' post and give feedback, which includes grammar corrections, structure advice and some other suggestions. At the same time, the tutor also makes comments under every post.

This is indeed helpful and usefule to me when peers and the tutor give me feedback on my every writing. Reading through the comments made by my Blog menmbers, I can see the blind part of my thoughts about the essay. Some creative advice really helps me to improve my essay. On the other hand, the comments made by my tutor give me more professional suggestions. Some things we cannot obtain from our peers. Besides learning from those comments made by my peers and the tutor, when I do the same thing to my Blog members , I also learn a lot. By reading through others' essay or post, I have learnt new ideas and vocabularies. Analyzing some sentences carefully, it also helps me to improve my sentence structure and improves my analyzing skills at the same time. Besides all the good parts of others' posts, their mistakes are also worth learning. Reading their posts accompanying the comments from the tutor, I can see the mistakes much more clearly and this process  also corrects me if there are some errors which I thought correct at first.

As I have mentioned at the above , peer and tutor's feedback is very useful in helping improve my writing skills. However, it also has to be clear that there is no need to accept every suggestion, especially from peers as it just a suggestion and our peers are learning from others as well. Their comments may be wrong sometimes. It also challenges me when should I take those advice.

In conclusion, this kind of learning process can be used in everywhere of my life. Listening to others advice and taking into consideration helps to improve my work. Similarly, when I help people do the same reviewing work, I also absorb the good parts of their work and avoid the same mistakes as well.

2015年4月4日星期六

Essay draft 3

Human Flesh Engine is a powerful product of social media in China. It is not the literally traditional searching engine like Google or Bing, but one type of forum topic on every website. Human Flesh Engine are collaborative efforts to share information online. It first appeared as the name of a forum on Mop.com - a discussion website popular in China. Internet users can post and answer various questions on it. The first Flesh Search was the kitten-killer incidence in 2006('High-heeled kitten killer apologizes',2006). A video about one woman with high-heel crushing a kitten to death was widely spread on the Internet. Many of the angry Internet users blamed her, asking for the details of this woman on the forum of various websites. The actress and the video's producer were traced to Luobei County in the northern province. Internet users use this kind of search engine to pursue the justice and discover the truth in the real life. Due to the increasing use of the flesh search engine ,many of the ordinary citizens are also got attacked.Due to the information posted wrongly, innocent people are accused of actions that they do not commit. Because of that, the People's Congress of Zhejiang province has already made it a prosecutable crime for Internet user to publish the address and private activities of anyone without their permission. Furthermore,another way to decrease the number of innocents affected by Human Flesh Engine could be through improving the education about privacy issues on the Internet. We should use the law and education as the tools in order to protect the right of Internet users.

Internet users use a Flesh Search in order to correct some actions they deem wrong,but ordinary citizens are also deeply affected by being falsely accused of actions they do not commit. On the social media platform, Flesh Search this sleuthing process involves the probing and posting of personal details in pursuit of romance ,kinship ,justice or vindication. Citizens are exposed to the deluge of home and email addresses,bank statements and other private information. Sometimes, the exposed information does not belong to the person under "search". Innocent people have got attacked by those angry, dissatisfied and unaware Internet users. One example is that of Yin Feng, a part time taxi driver. Internet users posted news about a taxi driver, who rolled down his window to spit on an elderly homeless person lying on the street. Witnesses recorded the first digits of the spitter's number plate and began to Flesh Search it. Through the Flesh Search Engine, Internet users put their eyes on Yin, whose number plates partially matched, and some anonymous users posted his mobile number online. Numerous callers berated innocent Yin, screaming obscenities. As other private information such as ID number,  home address and even relatives phone number were also posted, Yin even got threatened by those callers. There are a lot of persons facing the same situation as Yin. Their daily lives are dramatically disturbed and their reputations are also ruined. Ordinary people begin to be scared by Human Flesh Search engines and against it. 

In order to preserve the right of online users, some parts of China have polished some protection laws to against the Human Flesh Search Engine. In 2010, "Zhejiang Province's Informatization Promotion Regulations(Draft)" stated that "any unit or individual must not publish,distribute,delete,or edit another's related information without permission".At the same time, The State Council office also published a white paper on "The State of China's Internet",which indicated that Chinese citizens would receive protections under the law for free online speech(Song,2010). The Chinese government tried to use law to crack down the Flesh Search. However, it seems that it has not been working well. According to the online research conducted by the Renmin Net, over 90% of the Internet users were against the ban of Flesh Search(Ming,2010). Internet users thought that Flesh Search was an effective way for the public, especially the ordinary citizens, to supervise the government officers and expose their corruption actions.Through the collective work of online users, a lot of prodigal behaviours of officers are exposed. In this way, people are unwilling to give up this useful tool, even if they face the same risks of information leakage. Furthermore, many of the Internet users are anonymous when they share information online. This results in difficulties of tracking them for the prosecutions. People will also avoid the troublesome of suing attackers when the influence is in the small scale.

Another move to reduce the damages that are brought by the Flesh Search Engine is the education and the restraints on the online users themselves. After seeing that many ordinary people are getting attacked, Internet users are voluntarily listing some rules about Flesh Search, called "8 Flesh Search Self-disciplinary Rules"('Who benefit from the banning of flesh search engine?',2010). This is an essential action to produce an orderly online environment.In the self-disciplinary rules, online users are advised to try not to search for the private information about someone and use the Flesh Search Engine as a mutual helping platform instead of simply satisfying self-interests. Instead of law regulations, this kind of self-discipline improves the reliability of shared information and try to use the Search Engine on a right way. It is the ideal online environment if every online users are following this kind of rules, making full use of flesh Search Engine in a positive way. However,there are still some selfish users who disrupt the correct use of Flesh Search Engine and also abuse the shared information.It will be a long way to make sure that the Flesh Search Engine is an helpful in people's life, instead of a sharp sword hurting innocent people.

All in all, it is hard to solve the problems brought by the Human Flesh Search Engine in the short run. Innocent people will still be getting attacked by this Flesh Search. Despite the established laws and self-discipline raised by responsible online users, more attention should also be paid on this kind of search.


References:

(1)Song,L.(June 21, 2010) 地方立法限制人肉搜索引争议 官员害怕网络监督[Controversy on the ban of human flesh search engine,officials scare the network supervision]. Liaowang. Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/lianzheng/2010-06/21/c_12243829.htm
(2)Ming,L.(Febraru 5,2010) 试析“人肉搜索”之利与弊[Advantages and disadvantages of flesh search engine].hljnews.cn. Retrieved from http://www.hljnews.cn/fou_baoye/2010-02/05/content_696831.htm
(3)立法禁止人肉搜索谁受益?[Who benefit from the banning of flesh search engine?](August 25,2010). lawtime.cn Retrieved from http://www.lawtime.cn/info/xingfa/xfnews/2010082559009.html
(4)High-heeled kitten killer apologizes(March 16,2006).chinadaily.cn Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-03/16/content_540375.htm

2015年3月13日星期五

Essay draft 2

Human flesh engine, a powerful product of social media in China. It is not the traditional searching engine like Google or Bing, but collaborative efforts to share information online.. It was first appeared as the name of a forum on Mop.com - a discussion website popular in China. Internet users can post and answer various questions on it. The first flesh search was the kitten-killer incidence in 2006. Internet users use this kind of search engine to pursue the justice and dig out the truth in the real life. Due to the increasing use of the flesh search engine ,many of the ordinary citizens are also got attacked. Because of that, People's congress of Zhejiang province has already made it a prosecutable crime for Internet user to publish the address and private activities of anyone without their permission. Furthermore,another way to decrease the number of innocents affected could be through improving the education about privacy issues on the Internet.

Internet users arise a flesh search in order to correct some actions they deem wrong,but ordinary citizens are also deeply affected by being falsely accused of actions they do not commit. On the social media platform, flesh search this sleuthing process involves the probing and posting of personal details in pursuit of romance,kinship,justice or vindication. Citizens are exposed to the deluge of home and email address,bank statements and other private information. Sometimes, the exposed information does not belong to the person under "search". Innocent people have got attacked by those angry, dissatisfied and unaware Internet users. Taking an example of Yin Feng, a part time taxi driver. Internet users posted news about a taxi driver, who rolled down his window to spit on an elderly homeless person lying on the street. Witnesses recorded the first digits of the spitter's number plate and began to flesh search it. Through the flesh search engine, Internet users put their eyes on Yin, whose number plates partially matched, and some anonymous users posted his mobile number online. Numerous callers berated innocent Yin, screaming obscenities. As other private information such as ID number,  home address and even relatives phone number were also posted, Yin even got threatened by those callers. There are a lot of persons facing the same situation as Yin. Their daily life were dramatically disturbed and their reputations were also ruined. Ordinary people begin to scare human flesh search engines and against it. 

In order to preserve the right of online users, some parts of China has polished some protection laws to against the human flesh search engine. In 2010, "Zhejiang Province's Informatization Promotion Regulations(Draft)" stated that "any unit or individual must not publish,distribute,delete,or edit another's related information without permission". The State Council office also published a white paper on "The State of China's Internet",which indicated that Chinese citizens would receive protections under the law for online free speech(Song,2010). Chinese government tried to use law to crack down the flesh search. However, it seems that it was not working well. According to the online research conducted by the Renmin Net, over 90% of the Internet users were against the ban of flesh search(Ming,2010). Internet users thought that flesh search was an effective way for the public, especially the ordinary citizens, to supervise the government officers and expose their corruption actions.Through the collective work of online users, a lot of prodigal behaviours of officers are exposed. In this way, people are unwilling to give up this useful tool, even if they face the same risks of information leakage. Furthermore, many of the Internet users are anonymous when they share information online. This results the difficulties of tracking them for the prosecutions. People will also avoid the troublesome of suing attackers when the influence is in the small scale.

Another move to reduce the damages that bring by the flesh search engine is the education and the restraints on the online users themselves. After seeing many ordinary people are getting attacked, Internet users are voluntary listing some rules about flesh search, called "8 Flesh Search Self-discipline"('Who benefit from the banning of flesh search engine?',2010). This is an essential action to produce an orderly online environment.In the self-discipline, online users try not to search the private information about someone and use the flesh search engine as a mutual helping platform instead of satisfying self-interests. Instead of law regulations, this kind of self-discipline improves the reliability of shared information and try to use the search engine on a right way. It is the ideal online environment if every online users are following this kind of rules, making full use of flesh search engine. However,there are still some selfish users disrupt the correct use of flesh search engine and also abuse the shared information.It will be a long way to make sure that the flesh search engine is an helpful in people's life, instead of a sharp sword hurting innocent people.

All in all, it is hard to solve the problems brought by the human flesh search engine in the short run. Innocent people will still be getting attacked by this flesh search. Despite the established laws and self-discipline raised by responsible online users, more attention should also be paid on this kind of search.


References:

(1)Song,L.(June 21, 2010) 地方立法限制人肉搜索引争议 官员害怕网络监督[Controversy on the ban of human flesh search engine,officials scare the network supervision]. Liaowang. Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/lianzheng/2010-06/21/c_12243829.htm
(2)Ming,L.(Febraru 5,2010) 试析“人肉搜索”之利与弊[Advantages and disadvantages of flesh search engine].hljnews.cn. Retrieved from http://www.hljnews.cn/fou_baoye/2010-02/05/content_696831.htm
(3)立法禁止人肉搜索谁受益?[Who benefit from the banning of flesh search engine?](August 25,2010). lawtime.cn Retrieved from http://www.lawtime.cn/info/xingfa/xfnews/2010082559009.html