Post-course assessment of new literacies: MH 370

MH 370

The flight MH 370 which carried 239 passengers has been mysteriously disappeared for almost two years. The flight is an international flight flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China. On 8 March 2014, it lost contact and disappeared from the radar screens. The craft was carryiing 227 passengers from 15 nations and 12 Malaysian crew members. Before the aircraft vanished, there was no signals sent from the crew about delay, bad weather, wrong landing or even technical problem. After a wile, the Malaysian government decided to establish a Joint Investigation Team with foreign aviation authorities and experts to investigate the incident. The sudden vanish of this flight MH 370 is going to be one of the greatest mystery in aviation history.

In these two years, many places claim to discover some aircraft debris around the Indian Ocean. Recently, two more pieces of debris were discovered in South Africa and Rodrigues Island off Mauritius.  The international team of experts in Australia concluded that both pieces were consistent with the panels found on Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777 aircraft and one of the experts claim that "the team has confirmed that both pieces of debris from South Africa and Rodrigues Island are almost certainly from MH370"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/12/malaysia-two-more-pieces-almost-certainly-from-mh370/


MH 370 vanished for two years. Debris are found somewhere in the world. Bodies lost but souls remained. Searching continues and our prayers won't stop.

the literacies project: pre-course assessment of academic literacies

Part A:

2. It is a formal argumentative passage.

3. It is structured by providing background information and giving thesis in the first paragraph. Then, arguments from different perspectives are given to support the statement in other paragraph. It ends with a conclusion

4. There are some examples to show this structure. For example. at the end of the first paragraph, "...,this essay argues that antenatal selection is unwise," and "it will first consider arguments that support ...and then discuss the ...". In between. the supporting paragraph use some words and phrases like "However", "concern", "should". And at the end, the paragraph starts with the phrase "to conclude" to indicate the conclusion. The passage also provides references. This indicates that it is a formal academic work.

5. The writer does not support the issue of "designer babies".

6. The writer raises concern over the ethical problem, the freedom and worth of individual and the issue of creating the "perfect human".

7. Yes, there are counter-argument. In the second paragraph, the writer suggest the advantage of these newly invented technology. For example, antenatal genetic control can treat some diseases and can eliminate some hereditary disease and even control the attributes of infants in the future.

8. I agree with the writer's stance. I think this new technology can bring advantages to people especially in the medical area. However, it is important to take the ethical concern into serious consideration. Humanity and religions are also important aspects in people's lives. Therefore, it is essential to strive for a balance and achieve a win-win conciliation for this hot debate.


Part B:

Feng shui is a traditional Chinese system which guides people how to arrange their design in the environment. The environment varies. It can be home, workplace, the whole building and even the grave. It is done by specific arrangement and design. For example, people who believe in Feng shui can arrange their furniture in a particular way or decide the color of the wall. The rationale of Feng shui is the belief of energy (chi) (Robins 2000) and the balance of yin and yang (shady side and sunny side) (Mak 2008). The interaction of people and the environment can also lead to the interaction of the energy inside the person and outside at the environment. If a balance of energy and accumulation of proper energy can be achieved, people can get positive effects and well being. Feng shui is not an old concept anymore, it is exerting its influence in our modern world especially in the property market.(So 2009)

MH37O

It's been almost nine months since the missing of the Malaysian Airlines plane (MH370). The plane originally flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane sent out its last message when it was over the South China Sea. The plane carried 12 crew members and 227 passengers in total. Unfortunately, all passengers on board are still missing now.
The mysterious disappearance of MH370 caught a huge attention from the public. While experts from different nations devote their greatest efforts in searching the missing plane, the general public are making guesses about this mystery. Conspiracies of this missing plane seem to be hot issues among people. Some of them suggested this is related to terrorists or US military issues and even some made linkage with alien.

The new literacies project

Part A
2. It is a written argumentative article.

3.It starts with the introduction with the thesis statement that the author argues that antenatal genetic selection is unwise for both social and ethical reasons. In the next few paragraphs, the author explores each aspects with arguments. At the end, the author concludes that this biotechnology is morally unacceptable.

4. He uses words like 'arguments', 'support', 'discuss'. Also, he uses phrases like 'for example' to quote examples to support the arguments and he uses conjunction like 'however' to make counter-arguments so as to make the article become more persuasive.

5. He is against the issue of "designer babies".

6. He thinks that this biotechnology can cause social and ethical problems like the inequality in society, loss in freedom and individual worth, endless competition among human being.

7. Yes, the author believes that the genetic control can used to treat certain diseases and help eliminate hereditary diseases.

8. Yes, I agree with his position since I believe that human have no choice in  controlling or even conquering the nature. We human beings are part of the nature and we should adapt to it and to make our efforts to bring the greatest interest to it. We should also embrace our diversity.

Part b

Fengshui is a Chinese system which has a long history. It consists of rules that allow people to make arrangements in their surrounding environment like home and workplace to accumulate or boost the energy that can favors one's destiny. For example, people can accumulate prosperity, happiness and good health. And these good elements not only benefit the one who applies fengshui but also the future generations.