EU individual paragraph

Brainstorming

Happened mainly in class while discussing in groups: content of the text, understandable, cohesive without linking words, headings, register, long sentences, "but" and "so" at beginning of sentence

Original paragraph

When I read the text “What the EU is for” the first time I found it rather impressing and well structured. The author did not need any linking words to connect one sentence with another and the usage of different headings for each paragraph made it easy to follow.  The choice of register also appealed to me, since the Author used beautiful but easily understandable language. “For want of a better word” and “reluctant to be disadvantaged” are expressions which caught my eye. However, after reading the text again more carefully there were also some negative aspects. The quite frequent use of the conjunctions “but” and “so” at the beginning of a sentence do not really agree with the rather high register used in the rest of the text.  The usage of very long sentences had better been avoided, since in English, it is better to write shorter sentences as it is linguistically more beautiful and easier for the reader to follow the text. Apart from the slightly inconsequent use of register, the text “What the EU is for” is, in my opinion, well written and really informative.

Feedback summary 1 (Topic Sentence, Register)

My classmates thought that my topic sentence and concluding sentence go well with each other and that they are referring to the same statement. They did also agree with the register but they advised me to find another adjective instead of "beautiful" in order to describe the language.

Feedback summary 2 (coherence, cohesion, vocab)

Overall, my colleagues agreed that my paragraph was cohesive and coherent. Nevertheless, they gave me some helpful advice how to improve it. They pointed out, that in my text are a lot of "the" and that I could leave some of them out. In addition to this, the thought that I should change the sentence abouth the negative aspects and make it clear that this is just my opinion.

Final paragraph

When I read the text "What the EU is for" the first time I found it rather impressing and well structured. The author did not use many linking words to connect one sentence with another. The different headings for each paragraph made it easy to follow. The choice of register also appealed to me, since the author used sophisticated but understandable language. "For want of a better word" and "reluctant to be disadvantaged" are expressions which caught my eye. However, after reading the text again more carefully there were also some aspects I did not agree with. The quite frequent use of the conjunctions "but" and "so" at the beginning of a sentence are not appropriate for the high register used in the rest of the text. The usage of very long sentences had better been avoided, since in English, it is advisable to write shorter sentences as it is linguistically more aesthetic and easier for the reader to follow. Apart from the slightly inconsequent use of register, the text "What the EU is for" is, in my opinion, well written and really informative.


Second final paragraph

When I read the text "What the EU is for" the first time I found it rather impressive and well structured. The author did not need many linking words to connect one sentence to the next and the different headings for each paragraph made it easy to follow. The choice of register also appealed to me, since the author used sophisticated but understandable language. "For want of a better word" and "reluctant to be disadvantaged" are expressions which particularly caught my eye. However, after reading the text again more carefully, there were also some aspects I did not agree with. The quite frequent use of the conjunctions "but" and "so" at the beginning of a sentence are not appropriate for the high register used in the rest of the text. The use of very long sentences should have been avoided since in English it is advisable to write shorter sentences as it is linguistically more competent and easier for the reader to follow. Apart from the slightly inconsistent use of register, the text "What the EU is for" is, in my opinion, well written and highly informative.

My top five

Welcome to my blog for this semester! My first post is going to be about my choice of 5 EU-related topics. Our task was to decide on 5 topics which are in some way related to the EU and explain why we think they are interesting. This should help us to decide on one topic we want to write our SUK3 paper about. Since the EU is a very complex topic I think this is a great idea and will help us to find one aspect of the EU we are really interested in.

These are my top five:

Currencies of the EU

When we talked about what the first thing is that comes to mind when you think about the EU, a lot of people said the euro and as a reason that it is the currency of the EU. But that is not exactly true, is it? The euro is the principal currency since it is adopted by 17 EU members as their common currency but there are 12 other currencies within the EU. However, all of the remaining states have to adopt the euro too once they meet the criteria to do so. Except for the United Kingdom and Denmark, which have a de facto permission to keep their currencies. And that is where it is getting interesting. Why are the UK and Denmark allowed to keep their own currencies and what is the advantage of it?

The Erasmus Program

This is probably a topic all of us are interested in since a lot of us are planning on spending a semester abroad. Thanks to the Erasmus program it is less complicated to study abroad since you do not have to pay fees to the foreign university and you even receive financial aid. For these and a lot more reasons I would like to find out more about Erasmus, its history and how it is working exactly.

Schengen Treaty and Schengen Area

This is also one topic we came across while talking in class. I think it is a really interesting topic because probably all of us have already heard about the Schengen Treaty but only a few really know what it is about. It is the same with the states that signed the treaty and are therefore members of the Schengen Area. When I think about the EU member states I am not exactly sure which ones are in the Schengen Area. That is why I am interested in finding out more about the Schengen Treaty and its members.

The EU youth conference

A friend told me about this topic and I instantly thought that it is really interesting and that I would like to know more about it. I have heard about it before but I never concerned myself with it. That is why I choose it as one of my topics. The idea of teenagers between the age of 15 and 28 who are attending at a meeting once a year and discussing serious issues about the youth in the EU really appeals to me. I think it would be fascinating to get deeper into this topic.

EU Nobel Peace Prize

In 2012 the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This was a sensation within the EU countries. But what were the reasons that the EU was honored with it? It goes without saying that the EU plays an important role for the long period of peace but why exactly is the EU that important? I am sure that a lot of research would be necessary to really understand what the EU achieved to earn the Nobel Peace Prize but it would certainly pay off.