Thoughts on your English writing

Dec 10, 2020

Semi-colon

Simplification

• Having the experience of living in Salamanca, a city which is in the north-west part of Spain... → Having the experience of living in Salamanca, - a city which is in the north-west part of Spain, - ...

Minor issues

• The project aims to arouse your interests in experimental linguistics, hopes to bring you a new aspect to view the so called "language" in our daily life, and make you aware of how fun languages and research of languages could be! → The project aims to arouse your interests in experimental linguistics, hopes to bring you a new aspect to view the so called "language" in our daily life, and makes you aware of how fun languages and research of languages could be!
• The need of smaller volume of books as well as physical storages set independent bookstores in a highly disadvantageous position... → The need of smaller volume of books as well as physical storages sets independent bookstores in a highly disadvantageous position...
• Traveling oneself is for unfettered freedom... →l Traveling oneself along is for unfettered freedom...
• I like to travel with friends and enjoying the moment of laughing together, looking for excitement together, worrying about the next meal together... → I like to travel with friends and, enjoying the moment of laughing together, looking for excitement together, and worrying about the next meal together...

Oct 29, 2020

Chronological order

In an introduction to your backgrounds, always start with more remote events and then proceed to more recent ones.

Redundancy

There is always something that you can simply in your English writing, so this issue will always be the one I put emphasis on.

• Alongside my academic performance, based on my current ability to give something back to the society, I have volunteered to lecture basic science concepts and instruct high school students… → With the ability building upon my academic learning, I have volunteered…
• I am Syue, Wen Rou. and most of my friends call me Nata, which is my English name in short. → I am Syue, Wen Rou, and most of my friends call me Natalie (Natasha?) or just Nata.
• I am going to share a bit about myself. I grew up in Taipei and all my schools before university are within the same district, so home has always been my favorite safe place to be.

Connection/Transition

Remember, try to connect sentences whenever they are relevant and the end result is not going to be a super-long sentence (more than three lines in Word with the standard font settings). And you also need to make logical transitions between sentences.

• I am a hardworking student. I require myself to thoroughly understand the content related to courses. → I am a hardworking student and I have been devoting myself to the thorough understanding of course contents.
• My name is XXXXX. I am a college student in National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan now. My major is Foreign Language and Literature. → My name is XXXXX. I am a college student in National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan now with a major in Foreign Languages and Literature.
• Instead, I feel curious about special things. And, I hope myself to be a person who dares to dream and be creative. → Instead, I feel curious about special things and I expect myself to be a person who dares to dream and be creative.
• I love piano, however, I have to spend considerable time practicing for being a good piano player. → I love piano, but I have to spend considerable time practicing for being a good piano player.
• After taking literature course, I learn more about the ancient history and value, and my critical thinking is improved. Alternatively, I have joined the Glow Performance Club and became one of the club cadres. → After taking literature course, I learn more about the ancient history and value, and my critical thinking is improved. Additionally, I have joined the Glow Performance Club and became one of the club cadres.

"As for", "about", and "with regard to"

In terms of the independent study, our theme is "Reconfigurable Modular Robot Motion Control” and is divided into hardware and software groups. → I am currently collaborating with other students to work on an independent study, and the theme is "Reconfigurable Modular Robot Motion Control”. We are divided into hardware and software groups supervised by the instructor is Dr. Wei-Yu Chiu.

Tense issues

You probably don't need to use the future tense in all cases, but you need to be consistent in using the past tense in many cases.

• When encountering a problem, I willalways try to understand the cause and do my best to solve it.
• Besides, I attended Bee Partner Program held by the Office of Global Affairs. The program iswas set up to help Newbies ,and foreign students in NTHU, get familiar with new environment in a short time and ease cultural shock caused by cultural difference.
• I have workedused to work as an intern in the “Center for Corporate Sustainability” of “Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy” for two months in 2020…

Long sentence

Maybe you'll keep doing this unconsciously, but always check if you need to break a super-long sentence into half.

• As starting up my own business and inventing products or even opening up a new industry that is beneficial to the society has been one of my long-term future plans, I have been endeavoring to consolidate the fundamentals, which. This process enables me to exploit rigorous chemical engineering skills, concepts, and knowledge more cleverly to achieve this goal.

Avoid "I"s or "We"s

This is going to be a major issue in many autobiographies since it's always difficult to avoid "I"s and "We"s. I probably will have to keep providing relevant examples...

• I moved to New York City to attend Columbia University in 2017. Inspired by tThe dynamic art scene of the City and Columbia’s activist communities greatly inspired me, I decided to study visual arts and sociology. Beyond academics, I have been involved in film and theatre design, including Off-Broadway shows, immersive shows and commercials.
• With tThe eight-year experience of playing the piano, I can bemakes it easier for me to learn other instruments, such as violin, ukulele and guitar. But I am poor at singing. Even though I practice a lot, I am still easy to be out of tune.

Grammar/Wording

I willplan to graduate in one year.

I’m an undergraduate student of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan currently studying Foreign Languages and Literature (FLL) and alsoas well as Economics.

Function is beauty just as muchjust as beautiful as form, but combining the two is anonly the combination of the two could be acknowledged as ART.

…double-majoring in English and Education.

…they are also related to my interest, and who knows?, wWith the knowledge, I might be able to see films from different perspectives.

In my spreespare(?) time...

Contrary to the common belief, art does not(?) have right and wrong.

I am Chan Hiu Laam, or calledyou can call me “Zita”.

Studying linguistic, like phonology, phonetic, syntax, is contributes to me formy analysis and learning ofanalysing and learning different languages.

Chia-Li Chou, Yu-Chi Chuang, Yu-Ping Tseng

Oct 16, 2020

Content

• Do not use give the last name first in your writing, as the comma used to single out your last name would confuse your readers:

  Hi, my name is Chen, Tsung-Ying. → Hi, my name is Tsung-Ying Chen.

• Please focus more on yourself and what you have done or what you're currently doing, rather than the people around you (e.g., your family). Your autobiography is supposed to show some more professional side of you.
• Following the above suggestions, you should be discrete about being vague in your personal website.
• Describe who you really are first (if you think this is necessary), and then elaborate on what you have done.
• You need to get the proper names right:

  Tsinghua University → National Tsing Hua University

  Foreign Language and Literature → Foreign Languages and Literature

  carelife club → Care-life Club

• There is no need to talk about yourself from a third-person perspective.

Organization

• Less is always more

  I am currently learning how to write creatively, well, struggling to put my scattered thoughts into a complete paragraph is probably a more precise description. Anyway, words to me are like a refugee or an alternative world for the disturbed, and ultimately a provider of different ways we can view the world.

  I spent a lot of time trying to become the one who I want to be, a person who outgoing and initiative.

  When I say free time, I mean... → By free time, I mean...

  After taking the course for a year, I decided to take the job as a course organizer, aka TA, and now this is my second year as a TA in the program in this position.

  However, I found out that this kind of "interesting and productive" life wasn’t what I wanted. Therefore, I started to spend time on things that I am interested in. I spent time practicing my drawing skills, learning how to edit video clips, and working out to keep myself fit. → However, I found this "interesting" life to be in fact uninteresting, so I followed my heart and shifted my focus. I started to learn drawing and video-editing and work out regularly to get fitter.

• Avoid lengthy statements

  In the seminar of Phonetic theory, she gave out her first try in designing a perceptual experiment to testify one of the controversial claims proposed by modern speech perception theories. Deeply attracted by the experimental approach to theory-testing, she then chose the topic for her term project, as well as her future research focus, since she found using experimental design in theory-testing to be really attractive.

• Connect relevant sentences (if the result is not a lengthy sentence)

  Hi, I’m Chris, or you can call me Yon-Gjun Hou in Chinese. I was born in Chiayi in a family of five. There are five people in my family.

• Make a proper contrast

  The most difficult part in teaching them is to design some games which can help them to remember those words quickly, but for most of the time in the end, I’m always happy to see them learn with joy and have progress.

  Since my father also graduated from the Department of EE. In fact, I was taught and influenced by my father when I was a child, and thus developing developed some interests on in mathematics.

  Unfortunately, despite receiving an 88.75 on my English test, I wasn’t able to enter be admitted to the department. Nonetheless, I have been enthusiastic, but with a strong interest in literature and linguistics; therefore, I still chose to enterentered the Department of English Instruction.

  I’m an extroverted person in private life; however, so there’s no chance of getting to know me, if you wdon’t start a conversation. So, dDon’t be shy and just to start talking with to me.

• Avoid "I"s

  I am an independent person because of my growth environment. I live My home is located in the countryside of Taichung where is far from the downtown area which forced me to. Therefore, I lived outside by myself when I was in in a house close to my senior high school. It took me little time to practice living alone.

• Be careful with oversimplifcation

  Summer 2019 was a remarkable memory for me. As a university student...

Grammar

I was born in Taichung, where is also my favorite city due to for the weather.

Briefly, If I have to use one sentence to describe my personality, It would be "Never regret the consequence of what you did, but regret why you never did."

Even (?), every time I finish an activity, I will get a great sense of accomplishment.

My students are in second and third grade in elementary school.

One of my interests is to interact and make friends with people from different groups and with various backgrounds.

During my current college life, I have joined several clubs and took taken part in quite many activities.

My talent in writing flourished during this period. I won several writing awards in the national and citywide contents.

Knowing that I could have learned more made me reconsider whether studying in this department is was the right decision.

With most of my time occupied, I am trying to hold on to trivial time I used to let pass waste away easily is now something I'm working on.

Writing examples

Yu-Shan Tsai, Chih-Mei Young