Search results for 'tag:Dates tag:Paragraphs' matching tags 'Dates' and 'Paragraphs'

The translation of a diploma

Doll — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:18:06 GMT

Hi everyone,

I tried to translate the following passage from my native language for my translation lesson. After working on the words and changing their order for a thousand times I got tired of checking them again and again and I felt the need of a native speaker very deeply for the first time. I didn't do any translations before and it is my first time so please be kind in your comments. Okay, kidding. I will be happy if you just tell me whether it reads well or not. It is a translation of a diploma from Turkish to English.

Thanks in advance.

Born on (date) in (city) , son of (name) (this is a tradition I guess. I don't understand why the father name is stated.) has been awarded this diploma on (date) having completed four years' duration of education (I thought for a long time to change this but I couldn't) of Foreign Language Teaching with a bachelor degree between 1990-1991 school years with all the rights, privileges and honours to use this diploma as an EFL teacher by ordinance and regulations. (I thoguht for a long time not to use right, privileges and ordinace in the same sentence but every time I changed the whole paragraph. Maybe I should have a look at this later.)

Re: minimal, minimalist, minimalistic

Avangi — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:13:29 GMT

I don't know either. I tend to think of the terms in connection with art. Of course "minimal" as an adjective predates all of that and is still used in the pure sense, as does and is the noun, minimum. "Please keep your paragraphs to a minimum." I guess "minimum" is also used as an adjective, but not exactly in the same way as "minimal." "Sign me up for the minimum donation." "She shows only minimal signs of having contracted the disease."

A minimalist painting is one which has been painted by a minimalist painter, who (I think) subscribes to the principles of minimalism, which could best be described as minimalistic.

Whether or not there's a parallel movement in literature which may be applied to the style of your journal entries, I'm not sure. Perhaps so.

But I don't think that's what you mean. I think you're simply talking about keeping your entries to a minimum, and not about stylistic issues. If so, I'd find another word. "I've decided to keep my journal entries as simple and as brief as possible." Or, "I've decided to keep my journal as simply and succinctly as possible."

I may be way off base.   Best wishes, - A.

Edit. Note that "keep" has slightly different meanings in these last two examples.
1."Keep it short." Keep = contain/restrict/control     I keep my dog on a leash.    I keep my gun loaded.
2. "Keep a record."   Keep = (I give up on a synomym) protect/maintain (that sounds the same as the other one) I can't get the action part of it! -   the "recording" part.           Anyway, they're different.

Re: How to pronounce often?

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:46:01 GMT

Dear Howard Leigh Ph.D., If we are going to get into silly mudslinging battles over the word "often" and claiming illigitimacy of posts due to lack of name, qualifications, and misspellings then I suggest that you start with the very word misspelling which contains two of the letter "s". That is, of course, unless you intended to say that the previous poster pelled something incorrectly, but unfortunately I am not the beholder of a Ph.D. and therefore pell as a verb is not in my vocabulary, nor is it in my trusty old Webster's. Again if we follow your rules that misspellings invalidate a post let us return again to your second sentence where you used the contraction for "You are" when I believe you meant to use the posessive form "your", unless you intended to write "yore" and refer to some other ancient post that you believe to be unreliable. Also I should further point out to you that when you spelled "hat" at the beginning of your last paragraph, your word choice does probably contain a "w" at the beginning to make the word "what." But alas, you have a Ph.D. (in some field that you did not mention - grounds for an unreliable post perhaps?) so you were surely aware of these slight misspellings before criticizing those of others. As for me, I happen to pronounce "often" without the "t" because that is how I learned it, but also to keep with pronunciation schemes words like soft - soften, haste - hasten, chaste - chasten, and also hustle, bustle etc. It does make me cringe a little inside when I hear "often" pronounced with the "t," but if, as several have suggested, this pronunciation has resurged as a result of better and broader education and literacy throughout the world, then I believe that coping with the occasional pronunciation with a "t" is something I dearsay I would be happy to accept as a consequence. I apologize for the somewhat pomptuous (yes, with a silent t - props to that comment by the way) nature of this post, but we all should know that advice we receive from the internet on forum websites should be taken with a grain of salt and misspellings and typos are a reality of the high speed electronic age. Cheers, Peter Broch (sans Ph.D.)

Re: Letter of Recommendation

Grammar Geek — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:48:13 GMT

Your letter is just fine. There are only a very few edits.

Dear Sir or Madam, -- Do you not have the name of the person you should address this to?
I am writing this letter to recommend [NAME] for admission to your Study Abroad Program.

I have known Mr. [NAME] for two years as a student of [PROGRAM] at the University of [CITY], [COUNTRY], and he has always shown a strong interest in our program. Personally, I taught him Project Management and Introduction to ERP-Systems and this gave me the chance to gain insight into his abilities and traits.

He is an ambitious student and has improved his skills steadily. I can attest that his performance has been consistently good and he has always behaved responsibly. Also, he is systematic and organized at work and has shown a predilection for applied economics.

As for his personal qualities, Mr. [NAME] is a well-disciplined, industrious student with a pleasant personality. He has always been a very open and respectful student who demonstrates a great capacity for integration into university life.

For all these reasons, I highly recommend this candidate to you. Furthermore, I believe that your program will provide him with valuable experience, helping him to improve his English level, and deepen his understanding of foreign cultures and values.

Should you need further information, please feel free to contact me at the address above.

Yours faithfully,

My only other comment is that "systematic and organized" seems to be part of "well-disciplined" so it seems redundant in the paragraph above, but there's no grammatical problem.

Re: I want to learn to speak clearly-What do I have to know/do?

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:35:36 GMT

I also have also had problems speaking clearly and coherently, making me seem less intelligent that i think i am. And as a result i have lost opportunties for relationships i had very much hoped for, so i had to be determined to work out my speaking problem. I think there are many reasons for me rambling non-sensically in person, some are:

1)feeling shy/inadquate/self conscious compared to those i am speaking with, and trying to impress too much (probably from having bad experiences with my fumbling language and social skills).

2) not having much experience/practice at expressing my thoughts verbally

3) not really sitting down and thinking my thoughts through logically and forming them well to myself before i go and sprout my opinions off.

4) not being formally taught the right way to structure my sentences. i dont know why i can speak so much more clearly on paper than in person.

But the way have attempted to fix this problem is by writing down on some paper some rules for me to follow when i am having my say in a conversation. (i collect these rules from books i read on communication at the library). and reading over those rules every night before bed, and asking myself: did i break any of those rules that day?, and what happend when i did?, and how could I have done it differently?. and trying to do better the next day.

Some of the rules on my list are these:

1) When a comment is made to you that was meant as a conversation starter, do not give one word answers, and NEVER EVER just start and continue talking until the other person interrupts you. Give brief responses, with clear pauses in it for interruption. You will either look like a mute or a babbling fool if you do anything else. Give brief but complete answers with a definite pause at the end to hand the conversation back over clearly. Donât just talk until you are interrupted. Give pauses for people to interject, and also this sounds much more powerful and simple. Most people are taught to not interrupt. and it can make people feel distressed if you donât, and then frustrated and bored. many people either talk too much or too little as their response. dont make your message too long or too short.

2) dont try to say too many things at once. make one point at a time, decide what is the most important thing you want to say is, and say that, and then hand the conversation back over.

3) when you tell a story or make a point, say the main idea first, and then add supporting detail afterwards (usually just one supporting detailafterwards, not 600). eg an example, a statistic, a story to support your point. keep it short and simple and you will have more weight to your words. and sound more powerful and authoriative and easy to listen to. dont make it hard work for them to listen to you. be economical with your words.

4) dont say anything without saying why you think that, so they understand why you feel that way. or else it sounds bossy, and opinionated, and not worth listening to.

5) pause before you speak, it sounds authorative. and also gives you time to think. think before you speak, dont just regurgitate information, its amazing how much structure you mind can give to your thoughts in 2 seconds.

6) The value of information depends on its relevance, how up to date it is, how complete it is, the timing that it is received, its impartiality, and its presentation.

7) becareful how you end your message. dont weaken your point by saying anything that could contradict your message, at the end of your message. just leave nothign at the end. to give your message structure, my english teacher used to say "tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you just told them". there should be a beginnign a middle and an end to your paragraph.

8) know what the purpose/goal of your message is before you give one. all communication is desgined to either inform, entertain, or persuade, or all.

9) make sure you use correct grammar, and use downwards inflections with your voice when you talk to sound more authorative and you can show if you are about to end your message or keep going talkign or not. keep it simple, with a main point first, and some kind of examples to help them understand, and then let them have their say.

* body language plays a large roll as well, but i am just saying some points about how i try to structure my messages now.

these are just some things on my list.

i hope it helps.

Re: Help with converting indirect speech to direct speech

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:03:53 GMT

ok this is the whole thing! im very confused with changing this from indirect to direct speech! im not being lazy in trying to help my friend i just want to get it right! it looks like its a report and im not sure of the correct use for direct speech here!

t29. Mr. Berdennikov ( Russian Federation) notes with appreciation the objectivity of the Director Generalâs report on the Agencyâs efforts to implement the work plan on outstanding issues and other matters related to the implementation of the safe guards agreement. He also note that Iranâs cooperation with the Agency in that regard. The positive progress confirms that the Director Generalâs approach was correct and The Russian Federation fully supports his work in the regard. It was important that all concerns Member States did their utmost efforts to seek resolution of the Iran nuclear issue by peaceful means . 30. The reportâs conclusions that the information provided by Iran on its and past P-1 and P-2 centrifuge programmes was consistent with the Agencyâs findings were an important component of progress towards resolving the outstanding issues on the Iranian nuclear programme. In that context, the Russian Federation noted also that Iran provides the Agency with the copy of the uranium metal document. In some cases, the work plan was implement ahead the schedule. His delegation expected that it would continue to be implemented in a constructive and cooperative spirit, showing initiative. Ongoing implementation of the agreements between Iran and the Agency is require, and an expansion of the Agencyâs verification activities in Iran. 31. The Russian Federation endorse the Director Generalâs call on Iran to resume application of the additional protocol as soon as possible and to implement the confidence- building measures requested in the relevant Security Council and Board of Governors resolutions, including suspension of all enrichment related activities. That decision is justified because it did not make good economic sense to establish indigenous and expensive nuclear fuel cycle capabilities in States, like Iran, with a low nuclear power plant capacity. Proposals are being examined to establish international cooperation regarding uranium enrichment services on mutually beneficial and economically sound The Russian Federation hope that Iran will consider carefully the options for meeting its own nuclear fuel cycle production needs and make a balanced and logical decision. 51. Mr. Berdennikov (Russian Federation) Welcome the decision of Chad and Mozambique to conclude safeguards agreements and additional protocols with the Agency, and the decision of Cote dâIvoire to conclude an additional protocol. 52. The Russian Federation supports the strengthening of the Agencyâs verification activities, in particular by extending the application of safeguards agreements and additional protocols, and it is in favour of the universal application of the additional protocol. Thus, on 2 October 2007, President Putin have signed a Federal law on the ratification of the Russian Federationâs additional protocol and, on 16 October 2007, that document have entered into force. He calls on all States party to the NPT which have not yet done so to fulfil their obligations under the NPT and conclude comprehensive safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and urge them to conclude and bring into force additional protocols. 77. Mr. Berdennikov (Russian Federation) My country have been following Agencyâs monitoring of nuclear facilities in the DPRK pursuant to the initial actions agreement of February 2007 and felt that, for the Agencyâs inspectors to perform their function effectively, appropriate coordination was needed between the Agency and the six-party talks process. 78. I stress the importance of the recently agreed second-phase actions for the implementation of the September 2005 Joint Statement. Work appeared to have commenced on disabling the three nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and was expected to be complete by 31 December 2007. It is also expected that the DPRK will provide a complete and accurate declaration f all its nuclear programmes by the same date. I stress the importance of compliance with safety requirements in that connection. Furthermore, it is to be hoped that, within the framework of the six-party talks, general agreement will be reached on the role that the Agency can and must play above and beyond the verification of the shutdown and sealing of the DPRKâs nuclear facilities. 79. Cooperation between the DPRK and the Agency was essential, as well as the restoration, at the appropriate stage, of that countryâs participation on the Agencyâs work and the application of Agency safeguards in the country. As the international body with the authority to conduct unbiased, reliable and trustworthy verification of the peaceful nature of the nuclear activities of States, the Agency will, of necessity, play an increasing role in the resolution of the Korean nuclear issue. 22. Mr. Hoxha (Albania) Our country has got full confidence in the Agencyâs handling of the Iranian nuclear issue and supports its efforts to resolve it. 23. The Director Generalâs report clearly demonstrated how right the international community have been to treat Iranâs nuclear programme very seriously. Once past nuclear activities have been clarified, Iran must continue to build confidence about the scope and nature of its currentnuclear activities. 24. While resolving outstanding issues on the scope and nature of Iranâs past nuclear activities is a major step towards reaching a politically negotiated solution, further steps are needed, including ratification and implementation for the additional protocol, as call for by the Security Council and the Board of Governors. 25. The Security Council had twice unanimously called on Iran to suspend sensitive nuclear activities, such as its enrichment activities and the building of a heavy water reactor. It is regrettable that the Director General has to conclude again that those demands had not met. Albania is seriously concerned that, contrary to the decisions of the Security Council, Iran had not suspended its enrichment related activities, and that it have continued with the operation of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant and with the construction and operation of the Fuel Enrichment Plant. A halt in sensitive activities would greatly facilitate ongoing diplomatic efforts. 26.As stated in paragraph 43 of the Director Generalâs report, confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iranâs nuclear programme required that the Agency be able to provide assurances not only regarding declared nuclear material but, equally importantly, regarding the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities, through the implementation of the additional protocol and transparency measures. Like other delegations, Albania urged Iran to implement fully the provisions of its comprehensive safeguards agreement, to ratify and implement the additional protocol and to provide the Agency with all the information and cooperation it requested. 27. We urge Iran to respond to the long-standing requests related to the scope and history of its enrichments programme in a comprehensive and transparent manner so that the work plan could be implemented in full and without delay, providings answers to the secretariatâs questions on all the outstandings issues. 28. Iran must now live up to the requirements of the international community. It should offer full, unreserved transparent and continued proactive cooperation to convince the world of the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme. Thank you, Madame chair

Re: advantages and disadvantages of watching TV

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:53:45 GMT

I do not understand much more where the topic sentence of each paragraph is.

In your introduction, you mean there are 2 paragraphs: Ad. and disad.

In each p, you must make sure that you have a topic and some more sentences to suport it.

for ex,

TV benefits people in some ways. First of all, tv brings to us an enormous information about the word up to date.....Secondly, it help us relax......Thirdly,..... . Finally,(maybe, you should include a short, general summary of this p)

However, we can not deny some problems tv have influenced on people. Firstly,......... Next, ...... Then.....The last.....

i strongly agree that the effectiveness of an essay will be increased if the author uses the transition words appropriately.

Hope these tiny kinds of ideas can benefit u in some way.

Thanks for your reading.

Internship Cover Letter Details

InViVe — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:32:22 GMT

Any help "fixing" the following cover letter, would be greatly appreciated. I plan to send it to a research institute in the US which has a few internship positions available for students worldwide. In their own words, the cover letter should include a statement of my specific research interests, contact details and relevant coursework and grades received. Having discussed it briefly with some of my professors i ended up with this:

"My contact details"

"Contact details of the institute's member responsible for the internship"

Date

Dear Dr. ***,

I am writing in response to your posting for the *** Internship Program. I am currently a final year Masterâs student in *** at the University of ***, and I would like to be considered for the internship position on the *** project. I am particularly interested in working on expanding the simulation capability currently available within *** whose âevolutionâ I have followed in the literature.

My academic background includes the following relevant graduate courses:

Computer Programming, a course referring to C++ programming â both object oriented and structured programming - in which I received a grade of 9 (on a scale from 0 to 10).
Advanced Software Engineering, a course on design patterns, the Single responsibility principle and refactorings (ongoing).
Advanced Artificial Intelligence, during which I was taught Prolog, Constraint Programming, Constraint Logic Programming (using the ECLiPSe platform), planning with constraints (including a project concerning mixed initiative temporal planning with constraints), and reasoning under uncertainty (MDPs, chapters 13 to 17 of the book "Artificial Intelligence, A modern approach" by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig). I received a grade of 9.
Neural Networks and Evolutionary Algorithms, dealing with several neural network architectures as well as other machine learning approaches, including the first five chapters of the book "Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning" by Christopher M. Bishop (ongoing).

Other relevant courses from my undergraduate studies (also in ***) include:

Artificial intelligence, which covered the first twelve chapters of the AIMA textbook (including partial order planning). I received a grade of 10.
Object oriented programming, a course on Java programming and UML. I received a grade of 9.

This semester I will begin working on my Masterâs Thesis, the topic of which is "***. It involves simulating "...". In the future, I plan to pursue a Ph.D. in ***, possibly by extending my research in my diploma thesis.

It is my belief that I could contribute effectively as a member of your program, which in turn would allow me to continue to pursue my research interests and future academic career. I consider this internship an ideal opportunity to obtain hands-on experience. Also, it would greatly benefit me to collaborate with fellow interns and have as my mentor Mr. ***.

I enclose a recent curriculum vitae for your attention and I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

"My name & surname"

My doubts are as to:

Whether there are any grammar or syntactical errors
Should the cover letter have information on where i found their program advertisement? For example "I am writing in response to your posting for the *** Internship Program, of which I learned through an email from the *** googlegroup."?
The part "I am particularly interested in working on expanding the simulation capability currently available within *** whose âevolutionâ I have followed in the literature." in the first paragraph originally was "I would wish to be considered for the intership position on the *** project, and if possible for the part of ***, of which I read and was particularly interested in, in the paper â***â which was presented in the *** Workshop on ***." Which version do you think is better?
If i should include the sentence 'Also, it would greatly benefit me to collaborate with fellow interns and have as my mentor Mr. ***." or maybe it sounds "fake" (although it is in fact true!)
In the original version of this cover letter, the last paragraph was
"Also, it would greatly benefit me to have as my mentor Mr. ***, whose career in the *** and *** I think of very highly, and collaborate with fellow interns, as until this time, I havenât had the opportunity to work in a multi-member research group. Finally, travelling and actually staying in the United States has always been one of my dreams, being an avid traveller, but unfortunately, I havenât been able to make this trip a reality due to its excessive cost." Was i right in replacing it?
Finally, should the courses' information also refer to the teacher who instructed me (especially since one of them has cooperated in the past with the internship's project mentor), or not?

Thank you in advance for any help given!

Re: What is wrong with this IT CV?

Mister Micawber — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:36:10 GMT

I have indicated the few outright corrections I could find in bold. Because you have chosen to present your information in sentence fragments, it is very difficult to analyze or make consistent any grammar present. If you continue to get complaints, I would suggest that you try casting it in paragraphs ( "I was a sales consultant for Oracle Bl solutions, using demonstrations, prototyping, proofs of concept and presentations prepared for both potential and existing customers. I also designed customer business needs analyses and matched them to solutions, conducted internal sales team training, and had some involvement in marketing.")

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

05/2006 ~ Present ACME â Sales Consultant

Salesconsulting on Oracle BI solutions using demos, prototyping, proofs ofconcept, presentations to potential or existing customers. Customerbusiness needs analyses, matching them to solutions. Internal training for sales team. Marketing involvement.

10/2005 ~ 05/2006 ACME â Oracle Consultant

Oracle Partner. IT Consulting Company.

Projectat ACME - Federal Government IT Services - in partnership with ACME.Consolidation of 118 Oracle databases spread across the country,running at local/regional federal offices. All databases were migratedfrom 8i and 9i to 10g and transferred to a clustered IBM P590 machine,located at ACME main data centre in <city>.

09/2003 ~ 07/2005 ACME â Oracle Consultant

Oracle Partner. Big 5 Consulting company.

ACMEinternal IT offshore from US HQ to ACME's subsidiariesin <country> and <country> implementing 24x7 worldwidesupport. Consulting during the work transition process at ACME's BSC -Business Support Centre, in <country>. Training on customer's ITinternal processes received at ACME HQ's at <city>and <city> during one month.

06/2001 ~ 06/2003 ACME Consulting, now Triscal â Oracle Consultant

Oracle Partner and 1st Oracle CAP Partner in Latin America. IT and Management Consulting firm.

Pre-sales.Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse projects. Oracle solutionspresentations for potential customers and Oracle User Groups. Proofs ofconcept. Technical proposals definitions and technical support to thesales team, sales consulting. Technical courses definition anddelivery. System auditing, Oracle LMS. Warehouse Builder, Discoverer.

06/1998 ~ 06/2001 ACME â Oracle DBA/Analyst.

Oracle Partner. IT Consulting company, focused on public sector.

DataWarehousing and system integration projects in taxes, telecom, health,transportation, education and marketing industries. Customerinteraction. Data analysis and validation. Consulting in applicationdesign, architecture and development. Oracle courses delivery eitherinternally to teams or externally to customers. Technical evaluation ofcandidates through interviews.

03/1998 ~ 06/1998 ACME â Oracle Analyst

Oracle Partner. IT Consulting company. One of the biggest IT consulting firm in Brazil.

Improvement,extension and updating on a nationwide retail chain ERP: payables,credit, deliveries, inventory, stores and sales modules.

07/1996 ~ 03/1998 ACME

Oracle Developer and Analyst

OraclePartner. IT consulting company. Financial software house and OAEC(Oracle Approved Education Centre) analysis, development and migrationof financial and banking applications, such as open-market, accountmanagement, loans. Banking/financial market business rules andprocesses. SQL, PL/SQL, Web, Forms/Reports, Designer experience.

Re: Please check it. Does it sound good?

Avangi — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:45:03 GMT

Suggestions:

Heavy Equipment Driver (I don't understand "Cont.Est.w.e.f.") Do we need a "from" before the first date?

For the second sentence in the middle paragraph, how about: "The company is indebeted to him for his meritorious services."

In view if his experience, proficiency, and deep knowledge in the field of heavy equipment operation, - - - - - - - to whatever company he joins.

in life seems a little excessive.