My English Progress in last 7 years

Hi boys and girls. I've been around in this club for a while but i have not been paritcipating actively due to the insufficient of time. However, i'll try to manage to visit this club more often and post what i believe to be useful to everyone. In this topic, i would like to tell you guys about my English progress in last 7 years. Ok, the story begins here.

The first english word that i could say was "Hello", that is when i was about 6 years old. I first started studying English seriously in secondary school in Vietnam (year 6). At that time english is a compulsary unit in the curriculum. The teacher taught us alot about grammar but they did not consider students' communication skill. At the end of the year, my average mark was very satisfactory. I got 9,5 out of 10. This event made my parents quite happy. I actually did not spend alot of time for studying that year at all. However, when it come to year 7, my english's mark wasnt' as good as in year 6. It might be that i'm too lazy? I'm still unsure about it, but i still got 8 out of 10 for the average mark at the end of the year. It is similar to all the subsequent years.

When i finish year 9, I went to Australia and spend 4 months in an english centre(http://www.siec.act.edu.au/) to improve my english in both writteng and interpersonal communication skill. This was back in 5 years ago. After finising the 4 months english course there, i enrolled in year 11 at a local college. My English wasnt too bad at that time, it's sufficient to communicate with other people. However, my academic wirting was not very good. In college, i studied a lot of new things that i knew i would not know if i were in VN.

After finishing year 12 in college, i started University. The course that i picked was IT which i'm particularly interested in. In university, i have to write alot, specially report and essay writing. So far, everything is going smoothly.

In summarry, my english has greatly improved for last 7 years. From a non-english background to a competent english speaker. At least english has become my second langguage apart from Vietnamese.
----
If there is any error, could you please correct it.

1st post by 31337
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi boys and girls. I've been around in this club for a while but i have not been paritcipating actively due to the insufficient of time. However, i'll try to manage to visit this club more often and post what i believe to be useful to everyone. In this topic, i would like to tell you guys about my English progress in last 7 years. Ok, the story begins here.
The first english word that i could say was "Hello", that is when i was about 6 years old. I first started studying English seriously in secondary school in Vietnam (year 6). At that time english is a compulsary unit in the curriculum. The teacher taught us alot about grammar but they did not consider students' communication skill. At the end of the year, my average mark was very satisfactory. I got 9,5 out of 10. This event made my parents quite happy. I actually did not spend alot of time for studying that year at all. However, when it come to year 7, my english's mark wasnt' as good as in year 6. It might be that i'm too lazy? I'm still unsure about it, but i still got 8 out of 10 for the average mark at the end of the year. It is similar to all the subsequent years.
When i finish year 9, I went to Australia and spend 4 months in an english centre(http://www.siec.act.edu.au/) to improve my english in both writteng and interpersonal communication skill. This was back in 5 years ago. After finising the 4 months english course there, i enrolled in year 11 at a local college. My English wasnt too bad at that time, it's sufficient to communicate with other people. However, my academic wirting was not very good. In college, i studied a lot of new things that i knew i would not know if i were in VN.
After finishing year 12 in college, i started University. The course that i picked was IT which i'm particularly interested in. In university, i have to write alot, specially report and essay writing. So far, everything is going smoothly.
In summarry, my english has greatly improved for last 7 years. From a non-english background to a competent english speaker. At least english has become my second langguage apart from Vietnamese.
----
If there is any error, could you please correct it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And the 2nd one
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
Dramatic advance in technology has given existence to a lot of new technologies, and these technologies again fuel other technologies to participate in further development of digital age. Computers can be considered as an example. Computer itself is a new technology (Krugs, p57). Along with this new technology, we have Human Computer Interaction study, World Wide Web and other computer related technologies. In this report, the usability aspects of Human Computer Interaction and particularly the web-site interface will be closely examined. The purpose of evaluating this website is to find out what exactly users want and what problems they might encounter (Preece, p 415).
The results of the evaluation methods used and suggestions will be taken into account for further examination. There is a questionnaire attached with this document that is based on the outcomes of the evaluated web site. The web site evaluated is www.paypal.com. The web site descriptions, methods of evaluation, results and further suggestions will be looked at further. Since the more understanding the designer have about the users??T needs the better designed the web site will be. This will give feedback to the designing team and improve the sitê?Ts ease of use.
Web-site description
Purpose
www.paypal.com is a website that allows users who have cre*** card to send and receive money online quick and simple. Money can be sent to anyone who does not have a Pay pal account, whereas the receiver will need to sign up a new account with Paypal to collect the money if he/she does not have an account. PayPal operates a small online shop to fit the customers??T shopping needs. However, the amount of stock is still limited. The site attracts a huge amount of traffic each day (PayPal). Most of the users come to the site to send or receive money. (PayPal)
Scenario 1
Malcolm Brooks is a regular customer of online auction sites. Malcolm usually visits his favorite auction site that is www.ebay.com at night, normally after nine ô?Tclock. He browses all the categories there and places a bid on item that he is interested in. Recently, Malcolm has won a laptop computer on e-bay. However, the seller is nowhere near where Malcolm is living. Charles (the seller??Ts name) recommends Malcolm to send him the money via the website www.paypal.com because the Charles claims that it is safe, fast and convenient. As suggested by the seller, Malcolm goes to www.paypal.com. He clicks on the ??oSend Money??? link and curiously waiting for the page to be loaded. The browser takes him to a new page within the same window and displays a brief introduction, the procedures of how to send the money, a login box and a ??oSign up??? link if the current user has not yet got a PayPal account. Since this is the first time Malcolm utilizes the site, he clicks on ??oSign up??? link. That action takes him to a new page that requires him to fill in all personal details about his name, address, phone number, email address, security question, cre*** card number and the expiry date. After having signed up for a new account successfully, Malcolm is then ready to send money to Charles. Malcolm fills in e_seller@hotmail.com to the sender??Ts email address field and ??o2000??? into the ??oAmount to send??? text field. He then clicks on the ??oSend??? button to start the transaction.
Scenario 2
John Matthew is a first year Information Technology student at University of Washington. Besides studying, John is also doing a part time job as a mobile phone dealer on PayPal??Ts shop. When the stocks arrive, John places an advertisement on the Paypal shop. If someone wants to buy the item then they will need to fill in the form about their personal details, their cre*** card number on the PayPal shop website and click on the ??oSubmit??? button. Once the user clicks ??oSubmit???, all the information will be sent to John and he will send the item back to the customer. John utilizes the online payment on PayPal to accept the payment from such transaction via cre*** card. After sending the item back to the customer, John logs in to his account on PayPal to check whether the money has been cre***ed to his account. If the fund has not been transferred after twenty-four hours, John will file a claim to PayPal Customer Service Department to have the problem worked out.
Structure of information
The structure of information in Paypal is well organised by dividing the information to different links according to its content. However there is not a hierarchical category of information from general to specific to reduce the user??Ts time to look for a specific piece of information. Each hyper-link leads to an appropriate document and the most important information is displayed as a big heading at the top of the page. The use of terminology, controls, graphics and menus are quite consistent throughout the system.
The way the website www.paypal.com is structured allows user to get to the main categories in a reasonable number of clicks. The site is divided to five major pages ??oWelcomê??, ??oSend money???, ??oRequest money???, ??oShop??? and ??oSell???. Few minor links are laid out nicely near the bottom of the page. However, the users??T initial attention will focus on the five main headings. The site is designed interactively because the users can view, update, and change their account details whenever they want. PayPal also gives users information about the company profile, the security, privacy and other useful information. There are some hyper-links that leads to some evidences show the efficiency, effectiveness and number of transactions has occurred so far on PayPal.
Evaluation Method
Various methods have been undertaken to evaluate the site usability. Initially, I browsed then investigated the usability aspects of the site. The test is conducted by supporting two scenarios. Each scenario illustrates different use of PayPal and different users??T perspective toward PayPal??Ts service. The two scenarios above mainly depict the situation and process of utilizing PayPal??Ts service that mainly named ??oSend Money??? and ??oReceive Money???. The following factors are also taken into consideration:
??? Efficiency of use
??? Visual presentation
??? Area of difficulty.
The result of the attached questionnaire is based on my individual browsing and analyzing. All the outcomes in the questionnaire are then grouped in appropriate categories.
Efficiency of use
It??Ts not quite true to say that Paypal is easy to use for a wide range of people with different expertise because there is some technical processes that a new user might find quite difficult to deal with. For instance, they might wonder how to get a log-in and password when they first come to the site because they see a blank log-in box, how it is possible to get the money on-line etc... In fact, everything will make sense to them later on when they gain more experience. Nevertheless, Paypal provides its users an excellent help faclitity which has a list of frequently asked questions and all the information that the users need. This help facility greatly contribute to the sitê?Ts usage efficency.
Visual Presentation
The use of colour is restricted appropriately since it is suitable for colour-blind users. The color is not too bright and not extensively dark; its color is somewhere in the middle so it is quite pleasing to the eye.
The visual presentaion is simple, intuitive, easy to learn and pleasing. The website free from irrelevant, unnecessary and distracting information so the users are not distracted from the irrelevant informations. Clear icons and buttons labelled and the use of graphic controls is very obvious. The user??Ts current state is always visible to himself/herself as to where they are, hence increases the efficiency of the usage.
Area of difficulty
In general, the PayPal is designed fairly well; however, there are still some areas that cause the users to encounter problems and limit their usage. These problems involve navigation, presentation and content.
It is little bit difficult to find where the search box is on PayPal??Ts home page. The search menu is not placed in the initial page when it is loaded, instead it is placed in the ??oHelp??? category. For example if John Mathew in the scenario above wants to find out the fees and charge that apply to him instantly without browsing the site, it will take him sometime hence leads to inefficiency of use. The approach to this problem is to place the search box in the initial page so it is visible immediately to the user when the hompage is first loaded. (See Figure 1)
It??Ts sometimes annoying to the users when the document is opened in a new window. This makes users unsure whether they are still surfing at Paypal have left there. Moreover, it brings confusion to users with little computing and/or Internet experience. For example, there are few journals about Paypal that on the ??oWelcomê?? page; however, when the users click on these links, the browser opens the journal in the new window. As mentioned above, thus it??Tll be a good idea not to open the document in the new window.
The users will understand and form an overall picture of the site better if the site map is included on the web site. The site map gives the users a list of area and content of the site hence improves the navigation usability.
It??Ts also inappropriate to have the ??oSend Money??? and ??oRequest Money??? link in the ??oWelcomê?? page, since those two link is not clustered to the ??oWelcomê?? title.
As a professional website, PayPal should offer a common place for virtual community like bulletin board or guest book so customer can comment, exchange their experiences about PayPal with others interactively. It is still limited in a way that its service is offered only in America and some European country.
It might due to the in-effciency of design time that bring PayPal to life with only one interface. There are not custom interface according to each typical sort of people. Therê?Ts only one interface to the general user. For example, if disabled people want to access the site they would have to access the same interface as normal people. So there are no equity among normal users and disabled users in both visualization and au***ory comment. In order to extend services to disabled users like sight partial, color-blind users, the designing team should consider the format of the font size, color setting etc??? so it creates a friendly interface according to each type of user.(Figure 2)
Conclusion
Overall, www.paypal.com is designed fairly good because it give the users opportunity to send and receive money over quick intervals. Moreover, it has the well organised information centered around transfering of money and related issues like security, privacy etc??? In spite of the good service that PayPal provides, it still has areas that require improvements. These areas include the inappropriate displaying of content, lack of clear overview and lack of consideration to disabled users. With little effort, time and expen***ure, the web-site can be made *****it all types of users and attract them in large numbers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man
Of moral evil and of good
Than all the sages can

Frankly, buddy, I have to tell you this. I see a huge gap in the quality of the two different writings you have posted recently, all in terms of word choice, writing skill and the level of creativeness.
Make no mistake, I am not saying that the second one (evaluation of Paypal,) which has a much higher quality overall, is not a work of yours. the case, it seems to me, is that you use much of outside writings, which you might have included in the (perhaps) exhaustive bibliography.
My point is, if such (that is, my thought) is the case, my suggestion for you is not to rely too much on reference sources in your writing. Of course, doing so would raise the quality of the writing, as I have said above, but quality is something you can find in the long run, while originality is not.
Try to write in your own words. I have to say that I like your first writing much better as it seems to have the originality that comes from your own exp.
Good luck, aussie buddy.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man
Of moral evil and of good
Than all the sages can

Ok, thanks for reading my posting. I do agree that the journal about my writing progress does not have such good quality that the evaluation report has. Indeed, the report took me not less than 7 hours to complete the final draft. On the other hand, the journal only took me 10-15 minutes to write since i typed what i was thinking.
Moreover, the report is in the field of "academic writing" so in term of word choices, reference... it's gotta be carefully considered. In contrary, my journal was very informally written. From my point of view, this is what you meant by "the huge gap" beween those two pieces of writtings.
Anyway, thanks folk for your attention and your frankness. I do like your comment.
Được sửa chữa bởi - 31337 vào 31/03/2002 20:12