L A IDENTIDAD DEL INGENIERO EUROPEO
III.1. El ejercicio de la profesión
I am sure many of you have a problem in starting your essay. Many of my students take a long time to start their introduction or worse, they use the overused intro.:
Everyone in this world has a friend...
Everyone in this world love to watch television..
Your introduction must be something that grabs people’s attention. Use the following ideas:
1 Use some startling information or fact
Start with a pertinent fact that explicitly illustrates the point you wish to make. Then, elaborate with a sentence or two.
Example:
Topic: Teenagers and their problems
o A recent survey on teenagers provided some food for thought for parents. It was found that about 70 per cent of them smoked, 40 per cent watched pornographic videos and 14 per cent took drugs.Several factors have been identified as contributing to these problems.
2 Use an anecdote
Example:
Topic: The loafing syndrome among teenagers
Raj and his friends do not go home after school. They hang out daily at a shopping complex to while their time away. There, they join many other students from other schools. Sometimes, they play some video games or just enjoy each other’s company. Raj and his friends are just the tip of the iceberg of the loafing syndrome among teenagers.
3 Dialogue
Use an appropriate dialogue to start your story or convey a point. Use only two or three exchanges between speakers to make your point.
Topic: An unforgettable incident
“Help! Someone just snatched my purse!” The screams shattered the still of the night. Suddenly, lights were switched on and heads popped out of doors and windows. “Hey, what’s the matter?”
4 Use a question
You can also use a rhetorical question which jolts people into attention. Topic: Reduce, reuse and recycle
Did you know that Malaysians throw away 1.2 million tonnes worth of newspapers daily? For every ten newspapers bought, only four are recovered for recycling. Thus, the government spearheaded a recycling campaign to encourage Malaysians to separate their waste.
Topic: Coping with peer pressure
What choice do you have if your friends are pressuring you to do something which you think is wrong? Would you walk away? Are you able to say ‘no’?
5 Use a definition Define your topic. Example:
Topic: Gawai Dayak Festival
In Sarawak, the word Gawai is the equivalent to a Festival. Numerous Gawais are
celebrated throughout the year by the State’s indigenous people but Gawai Dayak marks the end of the harvest season and heralds a new year.
6 Use a quotation
Topic: How to save water
It is better to be safe than to be sorry. That is the message of the environmentalists to those who take water for granted. For one day, we may be faced with the situation whereby there is not enough water for everyone. Thus, we should take steps to save water.
7 Use a general statement
Use a general statement about your topic, then narrow it to a specific point of view. Topic: Ways to reduce pollution
Of late, there has been increasing concern with the impact of pollution on the
environment and our society. The public outcry over the various environmental disasters in our own country should be lauded. How do we resolve these problems?
Quotes (:
“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get” ― W.P. Kinsella
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston Churchill
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ― Confucius
“Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand” ― Hayley Williams
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” ― Theodore Roosevelt
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” ― Robert F. Kennedy
“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”
― Bill Cosby
“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.” ― Dalai Lama XIV
“You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. To the best you can
do everyday.”
“Success is getting what you want..
Happiness is wanting what you get.”
― Dale Carnegie
“You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” ― Michael Jordan
“The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high
you bounce when you hit the bottom.”
― George S. Patton Jr.
“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde
“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” ― André Gide, Autumn Leaves
“Just know, when you truly want success, you’ll never give up on it. No matter how bad the situation may get.” - Unknown
“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.” – Les Brown
“I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.” –Unknown
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” - Joshua J. Marine
-“Its hard to wait around for something you know might never happen; but its harder to give up when you know its everything you want.” – Unknown
-“One of the most important keys to Success is having the discipline to do what you know you should do, even when you dont feel like doing it.” - Unknown
- “Good things come to those who wait… greater things come to those who get off their ass and do anything to make it happen.” – Unknown -“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, or worn. It is the spiritual
experience of living every minute with love, grace & gratitude.” - Denis Waitley -“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby -“Go where you are celebrated – not tolerated. If they can’t see the real value of you, it’s time for a new start.” – Unknown
- “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra -“Forget all the reasons it won’t work and believe the one reason that it will.”
-“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs
-“Life is short, live it. Love is rare, grab it. Anger is bad, dump it. Fear is awful, face it. Memories are sweet, cherish it.” – Unknown
“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” – Jack Canfield
- “The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered there is opportunity for growth.” - Unknown
-“Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” – Farrah
Gray
-“The only thing that stands between you and your dream is the will to try and the belief that it is actually possible.” – Joel Brown
-“We learn something from everyone who passes through our lives.. Some lessons are painful, some are painless.. but, all are priceless.” - Unknown
-“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. it means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” - Unknown
- “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard
“The biggest failure you can have in life is making the mistake of never trying at all.” – Unknown
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Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.Henry_Ford
1. “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build
theirs.”
Dhirubhai Ambani
2. “The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”
3. “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self- fulfilling prophecy.”
Tony Robbins
4. “When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
Audre Lorde
5. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
Mark Twain
6. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
7. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas A. Edison
8. “If you don’t value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents. Value what you know & start charging for it.”
Kim Garst
9. ”A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others
have thrown at him.”
David Brinkley
11. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
12. “Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present.”
Roger Babson
13. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi
14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
15. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Vince
Lombardi
16. “Success is about creating benefit for all and enjoying the process. If you focus on this & adopt this definition, success is yours.”
Kelly Kim
17. “I used to want the words ‘She tried’ on my tombstone. Now I want ‘She did it.’”
Katherine Dunham
18. “Really it comes down to your philosophy. Do you want to play it safe and be good or do you want to take a chance and be great?”
Jimmy J
19. “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
J. K Rowling
20. “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
Albert Einstein
21. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within
you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Harriet Tubman
22. “The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.”
Bruce Lee
23. “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on
that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”
Swami Vivekananda
24. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest
stepping stones to success.”
25. “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s
plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.”
Jim Rohn
26. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
Ayn Rand
27. “If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it – teach yourself to be
impatient.”
Gurbaksh Chahal
28. “Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.”
Robert Kiyosaki
29. “If you want to make a permanent change, stop focusing on the size of your
problems and start focusing on the size of you!”
T. Harv Eker
30. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking
backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Steve Jobs