My Favorite Place

I have many favorite places but one that I remember fondly is the inner court of Stavropoleos Monastery, one of the most beautiful old monasteries in Bucharest, Romania. It was built in Brancovan style in 1724 and it's richly ornate with beautifully carved stone and frescoes. The monastery, also known as Stavropoleos Church,  is located in the old centre of the city, crammed in a small space between large buildings. It is just few minutes away from Lipscani street, which in the Middle Ages was the most important commercial street in Bucharest, now full of pedestrian shops, restaurants and outdoor cafes. Within the monastery there is a library and also a collection of old religious objects, many of which are from churches demolished during the communist regime. I used to go there each time I needed to regain my interior balance, to take a break from the stressful days of my life at that time. In the inner court of the monastery there is in the middle a small table with four chairs where you can sit for how long you want and nobody will disturb you. I used to stay on that table for hours, forgetting the passage of time: sometimes lost in my thoughts, other times thinking on some ideas for my projects... I remember one sunny afternoon when I went there: it was hot and I could hear only the bees buzz around the old ivy that climbs half way the pillars, and a nun was sitting at the table putting dried flowers in small pots to decorate the rooms. That peaceful image and the beautiful location left indelible marks in my mind. Bucharest has it's share of big-city noise and the inner court of Stavropoleos Monastery was my favorite place to escape.

Graphs

According to this graph the US oil production continued to grow steadily between 1920 and 1970, reaching its peak in 1970. While the US oil production was growing, the US oil imports remained steady at a very low rate of million barrels per day from 1920 to 1950, followed by a slight increase until 1970.
While the domestic oil production dipped in 1978, followed by a slight recovery from 1978 to 1985, the oil imports shot up and reached a peak in 1979. However, the imports production plunged in 1985. These trends could have been due to the oil crisis that started in 1973 when the members of OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo.
After 1985 the oil production continued to drop until 2005, while the oil imports had a rapid recovery over the 1985-2005 period.







This chart illustrates the rapid expansion of China’s exports and imports over the 2003‐2006 period. It is clear from the graph above that Chinese exports and imports are following the same trend showing a continued growth over this period. The fluctuating growth at exports and imports witnessed two peaks: one in 2004 and another one between 2005 and 2006. However, this fluctuation doesn’t seem to bring a significant change in China’s exports and imports continue growth.

A possible explanation for this trend could be due to the fact that China has been actively participating in the globalization process, with a continuously expanding scale of international trade.

HW: Hedging in Data Commentaires

As can be seen in Table 16, 25 students enrolled in the introductory biology course took this make-up exam scheduled on Friday at 4:00 p.m. This make-up exam was arranged to allow students who missed the regular exam, due to their evening commitments, to have a chance to take it.
At a first glance, from the "Average score(out of100)" data field, it appears that there is a big discrepancy between the scores of the last regular exam and those of the make-up exam. This discrepancy can be explained by the fact that the number of students who took the regular exam it's much more larger than of those who took the make-up exam. In cases like this the average score is not so eloquent. For this reason, the numbers in average score data field can be viewed as a rough estimate. Instead, three important factors that shouldn't be ignored in planning a make-up exam, and they were, are the scheduled date, the board examples, and the room environment. Taking into consideration that the students who took this make-up exam were supposed to have evening commitments during the week, Friday is wasn't really a good choice. Furthermore, the room environment can affect the students' power of concentration and in this particular case the temperature was a little bit too high. At last, the board examples, even if are not considered necessary, can help students to figure out more quickly what they are suppose to do, and thus to save them more time and be more efficient.
Looking at the data table, if there was indeed a discrepancy, I might say that a more appropriate explanation is that the make-up exam was not so well planned.

Article presentations on introductions.

Among the things I learned from article presentations on introductions, there is the fact that the moves observed in English research papers are not necessary translated in other languages. At least 3 papers had as purpose of study a comparison between RAs introductions written in a foreign language (e.g. Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic) and those written in English.
These papers brought to the surface few findings that aim to this particular observation, and the most important ones are:
- cultural differences (e.g. Brazilian authors don't feel comfortable criticizing their peers. Education has a strong role in developing certain writing habits which are very different from culture to culture.);
- rhetorical organization (e.g Chinese writings are more reader-responsible in comparison with English writings that are more writer-responsible.);
- politeness theory (positive and negative face).

Another thing I learned is that Swales' (1990) CARS model applied to texts beyond introductions is largely used in English academic writing and has become more like a pedagogical tool that can help you to be successful in writing English academic papers. Even if CARS model can not be applied systematically to RAs in all disciplines, I personally consider that it offers me a strong background and a good direction to follow in my writings.

What I've found interesting and I would like to learn more about are the differences of language from a cross-cultural perspective and the use of positive and negative face (politeness theory).

Citation Theories: Move 1b

Move 1a

        Citations are widely recognized as being an important and distinctive property of academic texts. As a consequence, the presence or absence of citations allows the casual reader to get an immediate sense of whether a text is an "academic" or "popular" one. Because citation is such an obvious surface phenomenon, it has been much discussed in the academic world. Indeed, there are several theories about the role and purpose of citations in academic texts.

Move 1b

        This study attempts to identify the validity of six theories regarding the role and purpose of citations in academic text. The first theory is widely proposed in manuals and standard guides, the second one has some supporters, particularly in well-established fields like the sciences, and the remaining theories have been proposed by individual authors. All these theories lead into a comparison of the validity of citations in different disciplines.

The first theory seems straight forward and simple:

        Citations are used to recognize and acknowledge the intellectual property rights of
        authors. They are a matter of ethics and a defense against plagiarism.

I consider it to be valid for all disciplines, substituting the role of definition for the purpose of citations in academic text. While first theory is generally agreed upon, the second one," Citations are used to show respect to previous scholars. They recognize the history of the field by acknowledging previous achievements.", has a more narrow acceptance: it is considered to be more valid for sciences by indicating the fact that citations are used to show the point where a study was left off by previous researchers and used as a starting point by new researchers in the field.

        While these theories have a certain degree of validity, some of the earlier theories proposed by individual authors, such as Ravetz (1971) & Bavelas (1978), lacks a strong point in the role and purpose of citations and, therefore, are less valid. In contrast, the theory of Gilbert (1977) has become valid in all disciplines by referring to citations as "tools of persuasion", distinction that aim to describe the purpose of citations and clearly makes a powerful and relevant point. A later theory, Swales (1990), states that citations "are used to create a research space for citing author", distinction that provide useful points and make the theory valid, but does not provide the features that makes it always applicable. Clearly, there is space for a great deal more discussions about validity of these theories in the academic fields of different disciplines.

The problem graduate students face in managing time.

Homework / January 18, 2011

        We live in a rapidly changing and highly competitive society and therefore more stressful. How many times we find ourselves taking more tasks to do than we can accomplish? We keep moving forward, it is in our nature, but sometimes we end up overwhelmed and then we stop and wonder why.
        Back in Romania, in the first five years following my graduation I worked exclusively as a graphic designer for several employers while freelancing as well, but for the past five I went fully independent, enjoying the freedom of expressing my own artistic vision but facing a really challenging problem in dealing with projects deadlines, having time to keep me up to date with new technologies, and also having enough time to enjoy my life and taking care of my family.
        Applying for graduate school in a foreign country and returning to school as an adult it is very challenging for me. I wonder if it would be possible to make a smooth transition from working in a corporate world to graduate school and the academic mentality that
 is required? Would I have time for a part-time job to earn enough money to pay my tuition? Could I manage enough time to allow me to be successful and achieve my ultimate goal of attaining a Master’s Degree? Would I have enough time to dedicate to school projects, research, learning, dealing with difficulties what a new language can bring? Would I have enough time for my family?
        Over the past few years I've been confronted with many stressful situations and I've concluded that planning ahead my time, focusing only on what it is important, and prioritizing my tasks, would save me a great deal of time. However, how many days will pass until I'll have a complete understanding of how much time I need to dedicate to school and what does a Master’s Degree entail, I just don't know, but I'm confident that once I have a plan, I will have my days more organized, I shouldn’t be so stressed about important dates and deadlines, and I will simplify my life and make it more enjoyable.