Portfolio Task 2: Common grammar mistake

One of the grammar mistakes I often made is about subject verb agreement. Although subject verb agreement is one of the most basic knowledge in Enligsh, sometimes I tend to make mistake when using it, especially when writing in rush. I think this is because I'm not a native English speaker who is able to use them very naturally. Subject verb agreement is important because it is the rule to build up a correct sentence. 

The basic of subject verb agreement is the use of correct verb with singular nouns and plural nouns. I am sure everyone has no doubt about that. However, sometimes it becomes a little bit tricky, for example the sentence I just mentioned. "Everyone" seems to be many people, but we have to use singular verbs with it. It will be the same case for pronouns such as anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody, etc. This should be quite common but care must still be taken. What if we have two  subject in a sentences? For example, "Jane and Jo are very friendly." "And" and "as well as" has the same meaning, but the use of verb is different. It should be "Jane, as well as Jo, is very friendly". It is because the word "as well as" does not compound the subjects. 

Another point to take note in subject verb agreement is the use of either and neither. They are singluar and require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring to plural nouns. When nor or or is used, determine the type of verb by the closer subject. Whether the subject comes before or after the verb doesn't matter. A quick example: "Neither Jane nor her friends are leaving"  and "Neither the people nor Jane is leaving". Though, it is more usual to use the first one instead of the latter. 

Besides the above points, some of the words indicate plural and also singular, depending on the sentences. For example, "Some of the people are still angry", "A large percentage of the population is starving","Four times four divided by two is eight", etc. 

Subject-verb agreement is not difficult, what we need is to be more careful with it. Reduce mistakes in subject-verb agreement is the basic step to achieve a good writing.

Portfolio task 1: Earth needs engineers

Environmental problem is one of the greatest challenge our world is facing. This is one of the outcome of development. The burning of fossil fuels caused rising in planet’s temperature and threatened disruptive effects on climate. It could cause a disastrous effect, making our planet no longer suitable for living things. This is just one of the problem. With combination of other environmental problem, the possibility of the worst case - extinction of human beings is not really equal to zero. In my opinion, engineers play an essential role in the effort of saving our world. Despite building the world’s highest building, the fastest car, the cleverest robot, engineers should really do something to save our only earth. And in fact, they are doing so, for example engineers have explored technological methods of capturing the carbon dioxide produced from fuel burning and sequestering it underground(National Academy of Engineering, 2008). With the creativity and innovation that lie in engineers mind, there will sure be more and more environmental friendly technology. Moreover, the resource on our earth is finite. How will the world be if fossil fuels run out one day? It is still our main energy-source. That may happened after decades. In fact, the potential of environmentally friendly power such as sunshine is big, although with some technical challenges. However, this is why we need engineers. Engineers is called to be “engineers” as they solve problems, tackle challenges. Engineers used to build up this world. There is no way for them to leave it being destroyed in such manner. There will be a big success if engineers really put efforts in environment problem. Let’s count on engineers, who promised to make world a better place.



National Academy of Engineering. (2008, February). Introduction to the grand challenges of engineering. Retrieved June 3, 2008, from http://engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221/.aspx