IEC @ DVC Student Blog

This April,  Jeff Puccini, Anrisa Fannin, Matty Varban and Ali Tubio, will be heading to CATESOL in Long Beach, California to present at the annual conference. The topic of the presentation is the Advanced B Research Topic. In the fall of 2009, IEC implemented a “Guided Research Paper” as a stepping stone between a regular essay and an independent research project. A guided research paper is one in which all students work on the same topic, and are provided with some, or all, of the college-level sources. This sheltered assignment allows the class to work together on developing library research skills, formatting(MLA), recognizing author’s credentials and credibility, and avoiding plagiarism before students conduct their own research project. By focusing on the same topic, there is more examination of the research process, which helps students build awareness, skills and confidence.

This presentation represents a total of 21 8-week sessions of experience. We hope to pass on some of that experience to our fellow teachers at CATESOL.

For a long time, many people have thought about if should military service be mandatory or not. This is a controversial issue. I think military service should be required because people can learn be responsible and gain many different skills and experiences.

To begin with, mandatory military service is a good idea because people can learn to be responsible. Nowadays teenage problems have become more and more serious than before and the military is a perfect place to help them be responsible because in the army, people have to obey orders. If they disobey, they will be punished. For example, one of my friends, Kevin, is an irresponsible guy. However, since he joined the military he changed and he learned how to be a very responsible man. In conclusion, mandatory military service can help people learn about their duty.

Second, people can learn many skills from military, so military service should be required. If people are interested in some special skill when they enlist in the armed forces. They will be assigned specific duties according to their request. For instance, when I joined the army, I already had had a driver’s license for four years, so I chose to be a driver and I learned some skill about car, such as taking care of cars and how to check the cars’ conditions. Another example is my old brother. His major was accounting in his university, so he learned something about reporting taxes and rendering an account in the army. In short, people can learn some new skills for free in the military, so military service should be required.

Lastly, to have contact with different people through mandating military service is an advantage because people can learn from and understand others and make some new friends. First, people should have contact with other people and have some new friends. For example, if military service is mandatory, when people join the army, they will meet different kinds of people and try to understand them. To sum up, the military is a good place to have contact with others.

In conclusion, military service should be required because people can learn to be responsible and they will have different experiences with other people and understand them better.

By Yueh-Chen Wu (Jacky)