I picked a book from the library

Step 1: Answer questions

1. Why did you select the book you brought to class?
- The book that I chose caught my attention at first because it's a small, pretty, and new looking book. and then I saw the name and felt interested in it.
2. How many authors does it have?
- There is one author.
3. What is the title?
- Thailand
4. Who printed the book?
- The book was first printed by Kuperard, then was distributed by Random House Distribution Services
5. Which city was it printed in, and when?
- The book at first was printed by Kuperard in Great Britain in 2003, then was distributed by Random House Distribution Services in the United States and Canada. The book is also printed in Malaisia.

Step 2: Providing the same information as asked above, write a coherent paragraph about the book you selected. Pick a quote from the book and incorporate it into your text. Provide full bibliographical information at the end in a "Works cited" portion of your post.

The book "Thailand" by Roger Jones caught my attention at first because it is a small, pretty, and new looking book. And then when I read the name of the book, I felt interested in reading it. "Thailand" has complicated information since it is about a country outside of the United States, Thailand. the book was printed the first time by Kuperard in Great Britain in 2003. And then it was distributed by Random House Distribution Services in the United States and Canada. The book is also printed in Malaisia. The book is about the customs and culture of Thailand. At the first line of the introduction, "To most outsiders Thailand represents the East at its most mysterious and enigmatic" (Jones 8), the author states a general information of the book.

Work cited:
Jones, Roger. Thailand. Great Britain, United States, Canada: Kuperard, Random House Distribution Services, 2003.

How my group organized the presentation on "My native language is not English".

                                                                                                           Participants: Quyen Tran

                                                                                                                                Utku Hasbay

As an international student, each of us in the group has a problem about English language since our native language is not English. We have been realized that we still struggle each time writing an essay because there is still something confusing us. And then when looking at LEO website, the topic “My native language is not English” immediately caught our eyes. Each of us chose the most confuse part in the topic to research more about and prepared for the presentation in class. I was confused distinguish count and non-count nouns. On the other hand, Utku had problem using transactions in an essay, so all sentences seem to sound the same. After individually research about our own part, we made our group in class and started organizing our group presentation.

Firstly, each of us would work on our own part. About me, I first read the definitions of count and non-count nouns on LEO. I figured a lot out but still got a little confused in general due to the format of LEO is a little bit hard to read and organize every parts together in my mind. Therefore, I researched some more websites on Google. The most useful website that I found is www.learnamericanenglishonline.com. This website displays a lot of pictures and tables which is much easier for me to see the differences between count and non-count nouns by looking at the tables and example pictures. My mind was informed a lot after reading and researching about the topic. I now can smoothly distinguish count and non-count nouns, so that my writing skill would improve considerable.

About Utku, after we had discussed about the processes of our work, I got the ideal how Utku organized his work. First, he started to write his part of our group work. He used examples from LEO website to make his statement more clear. His goal was putting emphasize on the importance of transition words. How essays look like without them? What are their functions in papers? Those were the couple questions that he tried to give answer on his work.

When had finished working on our own part, we decided to put the individual parts into one page in order to present our topic. As agreement, Utku supposed to write the conclusion as  I would write the introduction. We tried to make the group presentation page looks seamless by using transactions. Since we were done working on our group work, Utku and me assigned each other the parts that we are going to present in front of the class and kept practicing at last.

In conclusion, after taking a look from the resources we had read, we have got to know the way to fix those problems we had got. More important, by group working, I not only figured out a lot about my problem but also understand more about the problem the other group member got. This would help me even improve more in writing skill.  I now know how to distinguish count and non-count nouns, and know how to avoid making all sentences looking the same as well thanks to this helpful group working. 

 

LEO Presentation - My Native Language is not English (The second draft)

Utku Hasbay

Quyen Tran

Our native language is not English

            Due to the same situation which is we are International students, today we are going to talk about the problems we get when writing an essay, since our native language is not English. If you are an international student, you might get the same confused as we do. There are two aspects that we get trouble with the most. The first one is the differences between count and noncount nouns, and the second one is that all sentences sound the same in a paragraph.

            First, we are going to distinguish count and noncount nouns. After we had understood about these differences, we will be able to use the noun plural ending -s correctly and use words that express quantities, such as little, much, . . . Knowing how to use count and noncount nouns will make it sounds much better while speaking and make essays look perfectly corrected.

What is the definition of count and noncount nouns?

Count nouns:  “count nouns use singular and plural verbs and pronouns”. (1)

A count noun have the –s at the end if it’s plural.

Example: car, table, orange, television

-          The is a car in the garage./ There are five cars on the road.

-          How many cars are there?

Noncount nouns: “noncount nouns use only singular verbs and pronouns”. (2)

Example: traffic, furniture, fruit, video equipment

-          There is some fruit on the table.

-          How much fruit do we have?

 

Special case: There are some nouns which are used with both functions count and noncount: fruit(s), wine(s), food(s), drink(s), coffee(s).  Usually, it happens when using words with food and beverages.

Example: Some types of Vietnamese fruits are starting to be grown in America fields.

             Next, we will talk about the way to use transitions in an essay, so that the essay will flow smoothly and all the sentences do not sound the same. As an international student I have a hard time with writing fluent English papers. When I review my papers and try to compare them with the “perfect” ones. I realized that I don’t know how to use transition words such as furthermore, and, so, because, but, nor, where, which. Lacking of using transition words my sentences usually sound like, I am emphasizing same points. So this problem bothers the reader and my papers are far from being fluent. Let me give some examples that I took from Leo:

 

Original	The two countries reached an agreement on trade policies. They then were able to complete their peace treaty.
Revision	After the two countries reached an agreement on trade policies, they were able to complete their peace treaty.

 

EX 1* (3)

 

Original	The program's format allows individual users to make changes. This can be done each time users encounter problems in implementing the program.
Revision	The program's format allows individual users to make changes whenever they encounter problems implementing the program.

 

EX 2* (4)

 

 

           As we can see from the examples, when we use those short but extremely significant words in correct place of our sentences, they change the way how our sentences sound, they help us to make our paper smoothly and more excited. Also they undertake the role of being main component between sentences as well as paragraphs.

            In conclusion, after taking a look from the resources we had read, we have got to know how to fix those problems we have got. We know how to distinguish count and noncount nouns, and know how to avoid making all sentences looked the same. We hope you also figured it out with us, of course, if you are an international student that has the same problem with us.

References:

(1), (2): http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Blue%20Level/B19%20Count%20and%20Noncount%20Nouns.html

(3), (4) http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/style/sentencev.html (9/17/2012)

 

 

 

 

LEO Assignment - My Native English is not English

Knowing the difference between count and noncount nouns will help you do the following: 

- Use the noun plural ending -s correctly

·         - Use words that express quantities, such as little, much, . . .

Count vs. Noncount

The main difference between count and noncount nouns is whether or not the things they refer to can be counted.

Count nouns refer to things that can be divided up into smaller units which are separate and distinct from one another. They usually refer to what can individually be seen or heard:

Car, desk, bed, heart, book, paper, pen, mirror, finger, dancer

Noncount nouns refer to things that cannot be counted because they are regarded as wholes which cannot be divided into parts. They often refer to abstractions and occasionally have a collective meaning:

Progress, love, coolness, warmth, weather, courage, importance

Illustration: Think of the batter from which a cake is made. Before putting the batter into the oven, you cannot divide it into its parts because it is a liquid mix. Once it has been baked, however, it becomes solid enough to be cut into pieces. Think of noncount nouns as the batter which forms a mass, and think of the pieces of cake as the count nouns which may be numbered and distributed.

Pluralizing

The Rules

• Count nouns can be pluralized by adding a final -s to the nouns.
• Noncount nouns cannot be not pluralized at all.

This rule works for the nouns in the list of examples in the first section.

Exception: The rule needs to be slightly revised for a number of nouns. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally, the noncount meaning is abstract and general, and the count meaning is concrete and specific.

Compare the changes in meaning of the following nouns if they work as count or noncount nouns:

Count:

-          The researcher had to overcome some specific problems to collect the data.

-          The political arguments took the nation to a situation of political instability.

-          There were bright lights and harsh sounds.

Noncount:

-          The researcher had no problem finding studies that supported his view.

-          The author’s argument was unsupported and stereotypical.

-          Light travels faster than sound.

Special Case: A special case is the use of the mass/count distinction for the purpose of classification. The nouns which function both ways mainly denote foods and beverages: food(s), drink(s), wine(s), bread(s), coffee(s), and fruit(s).

Examples:

Units: Several types of French wines are grown in the French Riviera.

Mass: The crops of Columbia coffee are more resistant to dry climate than are the crops of Brazilian coffee.

A Revision of the Rules: The exceptions require that the rule for pluralizing be revised: count nouns and nouns used in a count sense can be pluralized; noncount nouns and nouns used in a noncount sense cannot.

Pluralizes with –s: Count Noun, Count Use

Does not Pluralize: Noncount Noun, Noncount Use

Story-in-a-box

The Inventory of 12 items

1. Money: They are some coins from China. These coins represent the year of dog from 12 Chinese Animals.
2. Chestnuts: These chestnuts are from chestnut trees in a village. They are brown, hard, and shiny. They taste sweet.
3. The Wallet: A colorful wallet with decoration. It's rectangular shaped, thin and small.
4. The Piece of cloth: It is a beautiful piece of cloth with some decoration on. It looks like a tiny Aladdin's carpet and seem to be made from wool.
5. The face: This is actually a wooden head which has a strange face with both eyes closed. The lips are painted with red. It looks a bit mystery.
6. The Ruler: A person who is the ruler of a town. He creates rules for people.
7. The plate: This is a tiny plate with the diameter of about 1.5 inches. It has colorful decoration. The plate is an American Indian product.
8. The canoe: This is a wooden canoe with bright color. Both sides of the canoe are sharp and this is a consistent canoe.
9. The Chinese stamp: It's a green gem stamp which is carved dragon pattern. It's about 2 inches height and gets a square stand.
10. The Glass Jar: This is a jar with something looks like sand inside. It's a small jar but can bring luck.
11. The Man:  He wears an outfit which is not a normal outfit. It looks like a homely dress. The man always sticks both hands together in front of his chest.
12. The Drum player: He is a street drum player. He wears a colorful outfit and his drum is even also colorful. He looks happy and can make people feel happy each time he plays the drum.
13. The Village: This is The Man's home. We can see his house with a garden and a pond in front.

The story:

The Journey of a Countryside Man

There is a man who lives in a small village. He works as a farmer year around. Everyday, he wakes up in the early morning, start working in his farm. He harvests fruits, vegetable and nuts. He also raises cow, chicken and he raises fishes in a big pond in front of his house. His life is keep going day by day without anything new. One day, he thinks to himself: “This is boring, I want something different”. He feels like he’s bored of his constant life in the village. He has never been gone anywhere outside of the village, so he feels curious about the outside world. After that, the Man decides to pack stuff and get on the way to discover the world.

In the early morning, the Man leaves his hometown by a consistent wooden canoe. He brings with him some coins which are put in a colorful small wallet. He also brings a jar which can bring luck to him, and a bag filled of chestnuts as his food. And then he starts his interesting journey by rowing the canoe along a river.

The Man rows the canoe for a day and a night. Finally he get to a town, he sees that people are walking around on the street. There are a lot of stores along the street. While the Man is looking around, suddenly there is a man appear in front of him. He is the ruler of the town. He said to the man that everybody has to be allowed by him before get into the town. The Man takes his lucky jar out from his bag and gives it to the ruler. Then he has a paper signed by the Chinese stamp states that he can get into the town.

After that, the Man walks on the street and see lots of things that he never seen in his life. The Man stops by a store that has a beautiful tiny plate that he really likes. He buys the plate by the Chinese coins he has been brought. He smiles and thinks he is going to put it in a glass box at home, so that he can see it everyday. He keeps walking and sees a drum player, this is the first time he see an entertainer like this. After he had listened to the drum sounds, the Man feels so happy surprisingly and decides to give the player some of his special coins.

The Man goes to everywhere in the town until sunset. His stomach is empty and he takes chestnuts out and eats them. After done eating, the Man keep going and meets the ruler again, the ruler gives him a piece of cloth due to the jar bringing him real luck. The piece of cloth will transfer into a carpet which can bring the Man anywhere he wants each time he says: “Let’s get on the trip”.

The sky is dark now, everybody are back to home. The man decides to come home by the carpet and end his journey after discovered lots of new things. It again takes him a night and a day to get home. The Man, after that, puts the plate that he got at the town in a glass container then goes to bed with a happy feeling.