A Letter to Future ENG110 Studnets

Dear Future English 110 Students,

I took this course as a requirement in my major; I think everybody has to finish this class to pursue a bachelor degree. At the beginning of this quarter, I was nervous about this class, because I am an international student, and I am not very confident in my English writing skills. Also several sophomores told me that they had terrible grades of English 110, and that makes me even worried about my own grade. However, I am telling you now, English 110 is a interesting and helpful class. About the grade, if you treat it seriously, the grade won’t disappoint you.

English writing is a basic skill for everybody, and it is helpful to anybody in all kinds of fields. For instance, I am an engineering student. In my opinion, engineering class does not require any writing stuff, however, it does. When in Engineering 183, I was assigned memos for each lab, and there was one memo that turned out the instructor did not only care about your lab data and result, but also how you describe and explain the reasons. And unfortunately, I got a few points off, because several sentences in my memo did not quite make sense to the TA. I find the problem that is I did not know how to use some sentence format correctly and abuse some words. The TA suggested me going to the writing center for help. I was shocked. I never thought even a engineering assignment requires me to go to the writing center. This is what I mean that English writing is important in every field.

Back to this course, I found writing is not that torturing as long as I know how to find materials to make the paper more comprehensive and inclusive. This is the goal that English 110 would help you to achieve. I enjoy the way that the course English 110 teaches us: step-by-step. First is the primary source analysis, which asks me to find the primary source that is related to the issue or topic that I am interested in. And then move to secondary source integration, which requires me to find another source to support and enrich the paper we were working on before, and finally adding some my insight thoughts to make it become academic research paper. These steps taught how to work on a research paper step by step, and I think it works all the time.

Moreover, this class does not only tell me how to write academically, but also publicly.

The commonplace essay is another practice assignment that tells me the way to express my thoughts publicly and not that serious. The three elements for commonplace essay: timely, relevant and compelling are also useful to remember for the future public writings.

In all, English 110 is not easy, but it is useful to all the students. I think that’s why it is marked as a requirement for all majors.

Best,

Yuwen Sun

EAST TO WEST

I put these four pictures together in a collage, and I named it EAST TO WEST. It is obvious that what I am presenting in this collage is acculturation. East Asians accepted those typical western countries’ food many years ago, like burgers and fries; and now, people from western countries are also fund of Asian food, like the man eating moon cake in the picture. Food is not a basic daily supply for human beings any more, but also could be a great tool for cultural exchange.

Hunan cuisine-smoked meat

I was born in a Province called Hunan in southern China, and my parents and I moved to Beijing when I was 12. However, my family is still keeping the taste of Hunan cuisine dishes. There are eight different Cuisines in China. One famous cuisine is Hunan cuisine, which is original from Hunan Province. Hunan cuisine consists of local Cuisines of Xiangjiang Region, Dongting Lake and Xiangxi coteau. It characterizes itself by thick and pungent flavor. Chili, pepper and shallot are usually necessaries in this division. Different from spicy dishes in other regions, the Hunan cuisine dishes looks good, smells better, and tastes the best. Also Hunan cuisine chef mainly focus on three aspects of the dishes. The first thing is they must be Skilful of using kitchen knives, because they want to make sure each dish has a delicious taste and a beautiful shape. Secondly, chefs know how to make sour and spicy dishes by adding various kinds of seasonings. Thirdly, adopting a wide variety of techniques is helpful for a Hunan cuisine chef to be creative on making new dishes.

In China, people know that Hunan people usually pay attention to details and creative. That characteristic could be exemplified by what I mentioned above. Detail is an important concept for Hunan people, and that is why Hunan People can make such delicious dishes.

The most common dish in Hunan is smoked meat, like bacon in western countries, but that tastes even better. Because of the location of Hunan Province (southern China), the air there is moist, and food there are easily getting musty, so Hunan people use their intelligence to smoke the meat in order to store it to pass the cold wet winter. And in modern times, smoked meat becomes a regular dish for the spring festival and other big events in the family to celebrate all the relatives getting together. This tradition shows that Hunan people are kind and like to be together with family members. I think this is a sweet characteristic of Hunan people.

As people around the world accept the Hunan cuisine, it is not hard to find a Hunan restaurant overseas. I know a very good Hunan restaurant in Columbus, but I can’t its English name. Maybe later I can post in the blog.

Possible Primary Sources

Movie: Food, INC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0



The first material I choose is a movie trailer and its poster. Actually, this movie is more like a documentary. The trailer shows that movie is mainly talking about the truth hiding under the American food industry. The unique thing about this movie is that I rarely find a movie that is not story-based; on the contrary, it is made to exposure some subtle relationship between the food companies and government. The reason why I choose this movie trailer as a source for my PSA is when talking about food, the first thing comes to people's mind is the taste, which is the most important factor to attract customers. However, people barely think about the nutrition, because there are also several factors might influence their decisions, like the price and quantity. So this movie is also a good source to best present the American foodway.



They Say: Schools Near Fast Food Makes Fat Kids
Posted by JeanneSager
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2008/12/26/they-say-schools-near-fast-food-makes-fat-kids.aspx


This is an online report posted by Jeanne Sager. I was drawn by this picture that looks funny, but in fact, this picture shows an aspect of our concern about children obesity. The interesting thing in this picture is that these two big boys are eating McDonald's, and it seems that they want more fast food while they are staring at some something in front of them. I choose this online article because it is a serious social concern about children eating not healthy, and I want to dig deeper to know the way they became fat and the solutions. Also I like the problem that reporter found: schools near fast food makes fat kids. I only noticed that children are getting fat because of eating too much fast food before I read this report; I never thought the location of school would also affect this problem. That's why I choose this online report as a possible primary source.

I love Dim Sum

Hi, I am Yuwen Sun, originally from Beijing, China. I am so excited that I can talk about the food in this English course, because everyone knows there are all kinds of fascinating food in China, and I would love to introduce them. Also I think OSU students also love Chinese food, since I can easily find more than five Chinese restaurants along the North High Street, and some school cafeterias provide Chinese food, too.

I want to say something about my favorite meal,

which is not easily found in Columbus, the Dim Sum.

This kind of food was originally from Guangdong Province in southern China and Hong Kong. It was create for breakfast, so based on its cradle and its particularly eating period, people named it Cantonese Morning Tea. I love this kind of food because there are various dim sums I can choose, and those are delicious. But I have my own favorite dim sum among all these food: it is Shrimp Dumpling. The Shrimp Dumpling contains a fresh shrimp with other seven different ingredients, which make this little round dumpling tastier. I remember the first I encounter this dish, three semitransparent and stuffed dumplings sit in a small bamboo steamer, the hot air rushed to come out while open the lid, the smell was good and attracting. It was the first day of a new year; all the family members got up early and went to have morning tea. I still miss that harmony atmosphere. After years, relatives went to different places for their own goals, and it is really hard for them to get together for a dinner, maybe only once at new year’s eve. I think making family get together to have a dinner was the purpose of creating this traditional food, and the tradition continues.