For the last part of the class, you will do individual readings from either VoA or Science Daily about a particular topic or theme connected to you field of study. You will do five readings, each worth 10pts for a total of 50pts or 50% of your grade.

How to do it

• First, brainstorm a list of three or four topics that are interesting to you AND connected to your field of study. (No AKB48 articles!!!!)
• Next, look online and see if you can find at least 5 easy to read English articles about one of your topics.
• After that, read one of the articles a week, and write a two-paragraph report. In the first paragraph, summarize the Situation, Problem and Solution discussed. In the second paragraph, give your Evaluation. Try to submit one article a week.
• Also, collect the articles into a “portfolio” of sample English that you can use in the future for your own writing. While you must not copy the exact sentences in your future writing, there are expressions and patterns of language that will be useful for talking about technology and research. These articles can serve as good future resource for your research writing.

Places to search for your semester reading project:

• Green Technology: News & Opinion about the clean energy industry
• VOA News : Articles about many subject in three different levels of difficulty
• Science Daily : News from almost every branch of Science and Technology
• Live Science : Only the coolest Science and Technology news!
• English Online : Science articles in easy English
• Science : One of the top Science & Research Journals in the world, but free news
• Nature: The other, and my favorite, top Science & Research Journals!