Tips. Tips. Tiiiiiiips!

Good day, classmates! As a college student, I know that it's hard for us to think of effective ways of studying. Most of us will just read and scan our notes, right? Since our final exam in English 1 is coming, I would like to share this site with all of you. This site contains tips that could help us in studying our lessons. These tips are applicable not only in English 1, but also in all of our academic subjects.

http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/fancher/study.htm

Implications of Text Language

Nowadays, everyone has a Facebook account, a Twitter account, and other social networking accounts. These sites helped him/her to communicate with other people, and to find new friends. On the other hand, these sites also create language usage problem since many people are fond of text language. Most of us are using "r" to express "are", "bcoz" to denote "because", and other shortcut form words. Moreover, social networking sites contribute to poorer writing skills since one is misusing the language.

I got the idea from this website:
http://www.papercamp.com/essay/19069/How-Social-Networking-Sites-Affect-The

Archetypes

Hello there! I'm actually searching sites for our group paper in psych when I realized I haven't yet posted on the blog, so I decided to share to you our topic. Our topic is about Carl Jung's Behavioral Psychoanalytic Approach. In his approach, Jung said that the personality of a person is mostly based on archetypes. What are archetypes? An archetype is a universally understood symbol, term, or a pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned. an example of an archetype is a meme, it is an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. I found a site that contains funny memes.
http://memebase.com/
sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungian_archetypes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype

We will have many exams this coming week. Reviewing is the best thing to do to past an exam, but there are also some things that could help in conditioning our minds. I found in the internet some tips that can help us to get positive results in our exams. 

http://ezinearticles.com/?Best-Possible-Exam-Results---Ten-Things-to-Do-Before-A-Big-Exam-to-Get-Them&id=172263 

Seeing Emily

Have you ever encountered a book written in verses? I do. The book is entitled Seeing Emily. It was written by Joyce Lee Wong. The author used free verses in order for her to deliver her piece. Actually, it is my first time to encounter such work. When I saw the book, I did not think twice to buy it, because I think there are only a few authors who write using verses. Hope that you can read or can encounter such works in the future.

I found this article on the internet entitled "The Sleep Equation", and this quote caught my attention: "School, studying, social life... the college student's struggle for sleep". I found it interesting to read; Literally, it is what we feel right now, we struggle for sleep.


Refernce:
Bowen, E. (2008, March 2). The Sleep Equation. Retrieved March 18, 2012 form the World Wide Web: http://www.miamistudent.net/mobile/2.8196/the-sleep-equation-1.1150316

The finishing touch

The finishing touch is the best part of doing or creating something. This is the part which gives the best feeling for artists finishing their obra maestra.

Also, on our final essay, our professor said that it is essential to check our essay thoroughly for certain errors or irrelevant ideas.

I found this site which can help us for our checking and finishing touches:

http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/finish.html

May God bless us all! :D

Essay Writing

My topic for my final essay is Making Friends In College. I looked for a site that will help me in making my essay. Upon looking, i saw a meaning of the word essay. It says that an essay is a work where in you will show others how you think. I know that the true purpose of our essay writing in English 1 is to show our learned skills from the said subject. I wish good luck to all of us.

Building your Vocabulary

Hi. Good day classmates! Essay writing in Eng 1 would be on Tuesday, right? I want to share this link with you. This might help you in choosing the right words that you will put in your essay. Vocabulary is very important in English compositions. I hope that you will visit this site. Thanks!

http://cutewriting.blogspot.com/2008/07/ten-tips-to-build-your-vocabulary.html

Passion or Commitment?

Passion and commitment are two of the important ingredients needed for a  relationship to last. Absence of either will result to a short-term or unsatisfying relationship. But what exactly is the difference between the two and how one alone is not enough to have a long-lasting relationship? Passion is the physical relationship while commitment is the cognitive counterpart of it . Passion happens in the start of the relationship and usually simmers as time goes by. On the other hand, commitment makes the bond stronger when passion starts to fade. Passion alone cannot guarantee a long-lasting union as commitment cannot assure the beginning  of a relationship.

Life is like a game

Life is just like a game, may it be sports or in any field. I said so because in a game, there are many obstacles that hinders us from winning, and there are things that may come in handy for our victory. Life has its own troubles and challenges set for each and everyone of us. It is in our control on how we are to face it, and try to get a solution. Another thing that is similar between these two concepts is that when we are able to be triumphant, we rejoice so much, and we enjoy every bit of success. I hope that all of us will have a strong personality, in which we will never give up on things around us. :)

Plagiarism Plague

Plagiarism is the illegitimate use of words and ideas without properly recognizing the original author. It is like stealing somebody else’s intellectual property and taking it as one’s own. Most of us may have already done it, whether intentionally or unintentionally. We must all avoid committing plagiarism because there are risks that come with it. 

These links will give you tips on how to avoid plagiarism:

http://hustis.intrasun.tcnj.edu/avoid_plagiarism.htm 

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ways-to-avoid-plagiarism.html

A Word for a Day

       I know that most of us knew  this method already, but I wanted to give it an emphasis since we were going to start  paragraph writing soon.

    Words are the primary tool in writing a sentence, and sentences are the primary tool in writing a paragraph.What I am trying to say is that, we need to have a wide range of vocabulary in order to express the idea that we are trying to convey. And one good technique that my teacher told me, back in my high school days, is that, we need to learn at least a word or two each day. Another one is by listing down and searching word meanings that are unfamiliar to us whenever we encounter them through movies or normal conversations.These techniques are the best exercise, aside from reading, to fill up our word banks.

         I hope you would try them if you haven't yet. Remember that there is no lost in trying. Good luck and God bless us all. 

It's my Life (Comparing Paragraph)

It is annoying that while you are drawing or writing, the lead of the pencil that you use suddenly breaks. Of course, you will sharpen it again especially if you don't have any pencils around. You can proceed to your work after sharpening it, and you will realize that the newly-sharpened pencil works better. The broken lead of the pencil represents my failures, and sharpening a pencil shows my learning from those failures. Furthermore, it also reflects that learning from my mistakes makes me a better person. Indeed, my life is correlated with the story of a pencil.

Writing an Analogy Paragraph

Since the class is going to have a writing activity about an analogy paragraph next meeting, I want to share a link where there are steps on how to write an analogy paragraph. I hope that the link would help us have an idea on how to write an analogy paragraph.



Here is the link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_8656753_write-analogy-paragraph.html



KYLE PASCUAL

10 Basic Rules For Writing an Essay

Since we were already told that one of the requirements that we must work on in English 1 is making an essay, I looked for some tips that may help us. I want to share this link, http://awesomeessay.us/content/10-basic-rules-writing-essay, with you. There are rules and tips that you can read about in the said site. I hope it would help.

Implied Main Idea

So far, we have discussed many types of sentences. Most of those sentences we have discussed contain explicit topic sentences. However, there is another type of topic sentence called implied topic sentence. This type of topic sentence doesn't directly state the main idea of the paragraph.

http://www.harbrace6e.nelson.com/test/topc.html

Transitional Words and Phrases

In a week or two, we will start working on our final essay. We should start gathering tips and important notes about writing so we can come up with a good one. Now, let’s take a look on transitional words. Their main purpose is to bring two ideas together and also to maintain the connection between sentences or paragraphs. Through using transitional phrases or words, we gain coherence, which is an essential element in a writing composition.

Follow this link for a list of transitional words:

http://www.whitesmoke.com/how-to-use-paragraph-transitions

Pay More Than You Would (paragraph writing)

When you go to the grocery store, do you look for a breakfast cereal, fruit drink, or soap powder with a famous name? If so, you probably pay more than you would if you bought another household product.
Name brands -- products with well-known names are sold across the country. As a result, name brands are usually more costly than regional products, which are sold in a limited area. Producers of national brands know the value of package design and spend money to give the product appeal. Television, radio, and magazine advertisements add to the price of the product. So do the recipe ideas and premium offers that often accompany food products.
A cheaper alternative is the house brand offered by supermarket. House brands are specially made for the chain in enormous quantities. Savings is promotional and package costs are passed on to the costumer.

Paragraph Writing Exercises

Since our classmates gave tips on writing essays, I searched a site that contains paragraph exercises. Here is the site I found. We need these exercises to improve our writings and to identify our mistakes. According to this site, the examples given are all original beginner papers. Enjoy!

http://www.buowl.boun.edu.tr/students/Paragraph%20Writing%20Exercises.htm

400 Writing Topics

Hello. Since we're about to compose a lot of essays in our future meetings, I thought that maybe you're running out of topics. I decided to share this link that can give you an idea on what to write. It contains 400 different topics that can help you to have an instant subject. I hope that it'll be helpful to you.

http://grammar.about.com/od/topicsuggestions/a/causeff07topics.htm

Open up your minds & think twice: RH Bill is definitely pro-life (Paragraph Writing)

I believe that the RH Bill is the Filipino people’s best ticket to a decent and respectful life each person supposedly deserves to experience for the rest of their existence. That being said, I highly recommend the RH Bill be passed and approved.

 Contrary to widely popular but technically implausible allegations that the RH Bill supports abortion, RH Bill actually discourages any means that can cause abortion as indicated in Section 3 letter M of the proposal. Under this premise, a doctor can only perform abortive measures if and only the pregnancy is already risking the health and safety of the mother, and/ or the child. Thus, the government confidently claims that the RH Bill does not kill—it promotes and protects life, safe for both the mother and the child.

Contrary again to widely popular but impractical and unrealistic allegations that the RH Bill props up pre-marital sex and disobeys the law of chastity, the RH Bill actually offers the needed protection to both the man and the woman who engages in sex, and not unforeseen danger, as claimed by a lot. Media, with no doubt, promotes pre-marital sex, so should we therefore ban unmarried from watching the TV? In an ideal world, being chaste is the solution to prevent a lost virginity and unexpected pregnancy. But then again, let’s face it—we live in a world far from the ideal. As real as the fact that there are murderers despite God’s law Thou shall not kill, pre-marital sex is prevalent in our generation. The problem is already here. The act of being chaste needs a materialized help in order to lessen the problems brought about by unexpected pregnancies, the help which goes by the names contraceptive and sex education. Let us not coward and be ashamed to face the problem. Thus, RH Bill does not endorse pre-marital sex—it solves the problems brought about by pre-marital sex.

Last but not the very least, to those who are saying that the promoters of RH Bill are against God, think again. How can a bill which promotes responsible parenthood and decent lives be against God? As a final word, the government would like to point out—the RH Bill is God’s manifestation here on Earth. The RH Bill is definitely pro-life.

The ten golden rules

In the Bible, we have the famous ten commandments. In writing paragraph, there are also ten golden tips, which can also be rules, for writing a pleasant paragraph.

These helpful tips can be found here:
http://grammar.about.com/od/developingessays/a/quicktips.htm
I hope it can help. :D

Verbless novel

For us, an essay or a sentence without verbs would be like the Lewis structure on the picture below -- incomplete. Can you imagine writing an essay without using verbs?

Well, here's an amazing thing:
While browsing on the "Most ignored fact", I found something interesting. A french author Michel Thaler wrote a book with 233 pages without using any verbs on it. He said that, "The verb is like a weed in a field of flowers ... You have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish."
Fascinating, isn't it?

Essay Writing

Good day, classmates! I want to share this link with you! This link contains tips that can help us in writing a good and substantial essay. We will be needing these tips! I know that some of us are having difficulties when it comes to writing an essay. I hope you will visit this site! Thank you! :)

http://www1.aucegypt.edu/academic/writers/

Don't forget "the"...

I want to share this photo that was taken last week. Can you identify what's wrong in it?

The statement "Avril, welcome to Philippines" sounds awkward, isn't it? An article seems to be missing between the words to and Philippines. 
The is a definite article. It is used to refer to specific nouns, unlike a/an. According to my source, the should not be used before the names of most countries or territories (such as China, Japan, Korea). However, it is used before the names of the countries like: the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, the United States, and the Philippines.Therefore, the statement above should be written as "Avril, welcome to the Philippines."

Reference: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/

So near, yet so far

Less than two months from now, I'll be leaving the walls of our campus. Hopefully. 

On April 21 this year, it will be my Graduation Day - the culmination of the four years of sleepless nights and struggles which really pushed me to my limits, and really tested me how far I would go to turn my dreams into reality. But somehow, as that day slowly makes its way to existence, I feel that I'm about to reach my breaking point. I know it's stupid to give up, now that there's just little time to bear the exhausting demands of acads and org. I can't help but feel some sort of jitters, like the brides-to-be before their wedding day. My family's expecting too much now, they're even starting to plan a grad party for me, and it makes me nervous. .very nervous. What if things won't happen according to plan? What if I fail just at the last minute? What if I won't make it? I am afraid of disappointing either my family or myself. Graduation day seems so near, yet so far.

I'm trying my best not to think of those things, to lessen the pressure that I'm feeling. 

I will study harder, like I have never did before. I will push myself even farther, like I have never did before. I will do whatever it takes to get that diploma on the 21st day of April. I will graduate. .on time. I will make it. I just have to believe in myself and in what I can achieve. 

- Mikko I. Ong (08-07976)

That Akward Moment When You Read Posts on 9gag

Why not take a break and have fun? Go to www.9gag.com and laugh your face off. The posts on this site are hilarious. I doubt you could resist correcting the grammatical errors on almost every post. Even if you leave this site, your job is not done.

Do-Re-Mi

When I want to refresh myself after an exam, I sometimes watch a movie. This afternoon, I traveled back in time. I want to share this link with you. It is a video clip from the movie Sound of Music. I always sing this song, whatever my mood is. I'm also overwhelmed by the fact that I still had the opportunity to watch this, even if it's an old film. Hope you'll sing too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEodUg43Zpo&feature=fvsr

It's Such A Relief

Early this morning we had our second long exam, and hopefully we could all pass the exam. The questions were very tricky. I had a hard time on several items that seemed so easy, yet it confuses me. There were some items that were easy, but I do not want to be complacent with my answers, so I still analyzed the items. I hope I could pass the exam.

Let us all thank God for guiding us earlier. Without Him, it would not be possible for all of us to answer the items in our exam. :)

FLAMMABLE

Back in high school, I was in the car with my brother and my mom and we passed by a gas station. I read aloud the words written on a signage, one that is like the image on top, and I said aloud, "FLAME-able area, no smoking within 50 ft."

My brother gave me an "are -you-serious?" look and said, "it's FLAM-able, not FLAME-able". From that day on, I never forgot how to pronounce Flammable correctly and when someone mispronounces it, I do my best to correct them in the nicest way possible.

Check out other common mispronounced words and phrases at http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/mispronounced_words.html .

Fragments and Run-ons

I want to share this link about fragments and run-ons. I actually made it as my basis when we had our assignment. It covers the basic of a sentence, fragments and run-ons. It can also help you find them. Hope it can help you.

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/citation/fragments-and-run-ons

Conditional Tense

Have you ever heard of conditional tense? This is verb tense that is used to indicate that an action or state of being is dependent on the occurrence of a condition. For example: 


Present conditional: If he had the money he would goPresent continuous conditional: He would be getting up now if he was in   Australia.Perfect conditional: She would have visited me if she had had time.Perfect continuous conditional: I would have been playing tennis if I hadn't broken my arm.


Conditional Tense are formed using the auxiliary verb would. 




Source: Spanish language
http://spanish.about.com/cs/verbs/g/conditonalgl.htm

Practice on Comma Splice and Run-On Sentences

Talking about run-on sentences, we learned how proper punctuation is important in sentence structure. They are also called fused sentences because two complete sentences are being fused together.

Comma Splice was also introduced to us. Commas aren't meant to join main clauses all by themselves; to force them into that role is to perpetrate a comma splice.

Last meeting, we have learned how to fix them in several ways. We discussed using semicolons and coordinating conjunctions. Here are exercises on the said topic for us to answer. So,let us give remedy to each run-on sentence and fix those with comma splice.



Avoiding Comma Splice
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova4.htm

Repairing Run-On Sentences
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/runons_quiz.htm


References:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/comma-splice.aspx
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/run-on-sentences.aspx

Run-on Sentences

Since we have discussed about run-on sentences, I want to share something about run-on sentences. According to my source, run-on sentences are two complete sentences that are incorrectly combined and are sentences that lack signal words.


Here is a link that contains information about run-on sentences:
http://www.myenglishteacher.net/runonsentences.html

I hope you will also try to answer the quiz.

The Longest Words in the English Language

Are you looking for words with complicated spelling? 

Here are very long words for the difficult level of the spelling bee competition:

Honorificabilitudinitatibus

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Antidisestablishmentarianism

Floccinoccinihilipilification

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

If you want to know more, just click this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUhQN-PGWDg

(Is the title of my blog grammatically correct? I think it isn't. A superlative adjective cannot describe a plural noun. On the second thought aren't there exemptions?)

Heart Shape

Have you ever wondered why the hearts is drawn or made like how it looks like today? Did you ever tried to search for it's true sense?

My Biology instructor during my high school days told us that the current shape of the heart is actually the shape of a kidney's horse. It's unbelievable at first, but I trust my teacher's credibility and knowledge.

Until now I don't know why we are used to drawing hearts the way we do. It's funny how a close-fist-shaped organ is drawn the way it is today. :)

TYPES of CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

I've been missing the class since Tuesday so I decide to surf the net to catch up in the lesson. I found N interesting type of adverbial clause known as conditional sentence. It is common, I know. However, it seems very handy for me because I use it almost every day. If I were you....., If only I...., etc. I always think of something that is impossible to happen or was possible to happen before but impossible now. I often use this when I've done something terrible. I think I can't end a day without murmuring a single type of conditional sentence.(>_<)  Bad habit of mine.


http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/conditionalclauseterm.htm

Valentine's Day is one of the most special day of the year, specially for couples. Why is it called as a "romantic day"? Where did its celebration came from? To know more about Valentine's trivias, you can visit this site: http://www.romancestuck.com/holidays/valentine/valentines-day-trivia.htm


Reference:
Valentine's Day Facts & Trivia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2012 from the World Wide Web: http://www.romancestuck.com/holidays/valentine/valentines-day-trivia.htm

Comma Splices

Comma splices are one of the serious grammar errors in the sentence level. I assume that these are just like "comma in a wrong place," but I am wrong. A comma splice occurs in these ways:

* Two independent clauses are connected by just a comma without using coordinating conjunctions.
* Two sentences are combined and fused together in one sentence without using any punctuation.

By referring to the conditions of committing comma splices, I realized that I made a mistake in our assignment last time. ;(

Here's the link that you can visit:
http://www.gdn.edu/pdf/ssc/writingcenter/CommaSplices.pdf

A Look into the Past

Methinks that along with the evolution of life, comes the evolution of grammar. A look into the past would not hurt. I came across the short story, David Swan by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which was written during the nineteenth century. I realized how much grammar has changed since then. Read it!






http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/nhawthorne/bl-nhaw-davsw.htm

The Sentence Fragment and the Run-on Sentence

While doing my home work, I found a good reference for reviewing fragments and run-on sentences. I found this material quite helpful because it has plenty of exercises about our recent topic. I was so worried. I thought that I wouldn't be able to catch up with our last lesson because I missed the class. Thank you google! :)

www.iconlogic.com/pdf/abrams.pdf

Slip of the Tongue

I bet all of us have already experienced the slip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. But what does this phenomenon really means? Well, to answer that question, it is the unconscious and unintentional uttering of a person’s thoughts or intentions. This phenomenon is sometimes called the Freudian slip because it is said that the speaker often accidentally express his or her hidden motives and sexual implications through these slips.

 

The following comic strips demonstrate how the slip-of-the-tongue phenomenon can situate some people in trouble: