SASS Orientation Talk

On 23 July 2014, students from the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) attended the talk "Understanding Common Errors in English". Held every semester as part of SASS' orientation activities for new students, the purpose of the talk was to help students understand how common errors come about and how they can be avoided.

The speaker, Dr Ludwig Tan, Vice Dean of SASS, began by introducing some basic grammar terms and proceeded to apply them to analysing errors in English grammar. The talk was punctuated by mini quizzes, which allowed students to apply what they had just learnt. Some students took the opportunity to ask burning questions they had about English, such as whether "feedback" could be used as a verb and whether "out" in "voice out" was redundant. Dr Tan explained that, although language is changing all the time, it is always best to "play safe" and stick to more established usages when writing formally, such as when writing assignments.