assignment 1

ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)

LECTURER: NAT WOON WAI CHEONG

OBSERVING THE UNFAMILIAR - THE TOOL

The aim of this assignment is to help us to understand how our descriptive writing can improve as we deepen our capacity to observe. We had to choose an object to observe and analyse and write a well-developed and well organized descriptive and narrative essay. The object can be a cosmetic tool, a cooking implement or a specialized tool from kitchen drawer or tool chest. In this assignment, I chose a ladle as my object to observe and analysis as it can be found easily in my hostel's kitchen. First of all, I had to set up my workplace so I can observe the chosen tool carefully with no obstructions. Next, I took my time to explore the object by behaving like a curious person or dedicated scientist. Then, I wrote down my first reactions and spend about fifteen minutes to note down the visual details and exploring the object with my five senses: touch, smell, hear, taste and sight. After that, I had to combine and organize my information together to write a descriptive essay where the details would enable my readers to imagine the appearance of tool by following the process of observation. At the end of essay, I had to summarize my feeling towards the observation of the object.

i) Aims and Accomplishments

Click on the image for the descriptive essay (PDF) .

ii) Reflection

In this assignment, it was the first time I observed a ladle with a close distance since I was already seen it used by my mother who cooking in the kitchen and not surprised with its existence in my hostel's kitchen. However, I was surprised that, the ladle used in my hostel was pretty different with the ladle used in my home. Even I had just using the sense of touch and smell to observe the ladle, I can actually gained more informations of the ladle than just using my sight on it. The ladle used by my housemate was very dirty and I was afraid if I will get diarrhea after lick that dirty ladle. From this assignment, I have learnt the important of observation and anaylse to everything we see, hear and touch before we make our decision and take the next step, just like observe the ladle before I taste it. Also, I found that this skill is very useful as an architect to obsever the elements of surrounding at site and analysis the factor affect the place before we take our next step to action. In conclusion, this assignment was interesting and useful as a skill for our future occupation.

BACK

iii) References

ePortfolio.org (2012). Use ePortfolio to achieve your goals. Retrieved on 12nd December, 2013. Connecticut
Distance Learning Consortium (CDLC). Available at http://www.eportfolio.org/

Nadarajan,S. (2008). Undergraduate Language Teaching. The E-Portfolio Way. Paper presentation at the
National Student’s Development and Educational Conference (Nasdec ‘ 08), at University Teknologi
Malaysia on 22nd October,2008. Retrieved on 12nd December, 2013, from http://kk1.um.edu.my/Student%20Development%20Journal%20on%20web/Shanthi%20Nadarajan_Und
ergaduate%20Language%20Teaching%20The%20E-Portfolio%20Way.pdf