Writing difficulties in university classes

In this portfolio, I have explained the difficulties I faced when writing in university classes and how I managed to overcome it.

Although, most of the engineering work involves calculations, there are certain parts which need us to express our opinion on the problem. For example, if we conduct an experiment, we are supposed to write a report on what is the objective and describe about the experiment and compare the results. Other that writing experimental reports, most of the time we have to write project reports. Before EG1471 class, if I am supposed to write a report on my project, I will just start blindly without any outline or mind map. So in between the report I used to get confused and waste time in tracing back what I have written. But after EG1471 class, I have started writing the report by outlining the main ideas first.

For instant, in a module called EE2007, I outlined what I am going to write first and generated the ideas by thinking what I have done for my project. Secondly, I started the report by giving a brief introduction of the project, and then followed by a flowchart of my content and the main idea. I really felt very satisfied for the report than any other previous reports. I am very thankful for having the EG1471 this semester, since I have learnt quite a lot of stuffs which I can use for other modules.

In addition, in order to improve the standard of writing the usage of good vocabulary is necessary. When I was writing any essay, I just used simple words to express the content. But now I realized that I need to improve my writing standard to the university level by adding appropriate vocabularies. I used the website http://thesaurus.reference.com/ to get the list of words which has the same meaning but used differently depending on the context. For example, for the word “opinion”, I can replace the word with “notion”, “assumption” and “estimation” depending on the content of my essay. This may also increase our writing skills.

As a conclusion, I believe that my writing skills can be improved through step by step process which includes mind mapping, proper outlining, flowcharts and final report. Good usage of vocabularies also aids improve my writing skills.

Common Grammar Mistakes

The first common mistake i do is the misunderstanding between its and it's.
Example: Birds are known for it's ability to fly. (incorrect)
Correct Sentence: Birds are known for its ability to fly.
Until my poly, I thought that both its and it's have the same meaning. So if i write any essay i use 'its' all the time regardless of the meaning. But in my EG1471 class, I have learnt that its and it's have two different meanings. 'Its' is a possessive pronoun that means of it or belonging to it. 'It's' means it is or it has.


I always get confused between the usage of comma(,) and semicolon(;). Eventhough they are used to link 2 sentences, their purpose of usage is different.
Example: I love chocolate; but it's not as healthy as yogurt. (incorrect)
Correct Sentence: I love chocolate, but it's not as healthy as yogurt.
After some text book reading, I have learnt that when linking two independent clauses with coordinating conjuctions comma should be used. The semicolon is also used to connect two independent clauses but with out a coording conjuctions. That is use ';' to connect 2 independent clause.

The third common mistake is the usage of 'the'. In my writing assignment and text editing tests, I found that I got frequent article errors. Eventhough I know that 'the' should be used if you are refering an object or a process again, when writing a lengthy essay it is very difficult for me to keep track of the things geting repeated. This can be avoided by re-checking the essay again after writing it.