Interpersonal conflict

According to Donna Bellafiore, people often act in three ways in facing conflict, namely, avoid or deny the existence of conflict;getting mad and blaming the other person; using power and influence to win at the other’s expense.  I think I am the one who always avoid conflict. In my point of view, or as common to many Chinese people, sticking in a conflict is the last thing wanted, and if possible, avoid it or keep away from it.  I may unconsciously avoid or deny the existence of conflict. I even thought about giving up the assignment for writing a conflict. (Ok, I think i shall stop explaining for myself.)

The conflict I am going to describe was from one of my best friends in high school. I think I will use the fake name Jack for him. As many of us may experience before or hear about that situation where parents place such great expectation on the children that they may create a whole list of dos and do nots for them and watch them closely. Jack’s situation may be even worse as his father is the officer of a work camp, where people break the law but not so serious to be sent to jail. Due to the occupational disease, his father would treat him as one of the reeducation people in the work camp and there is almost no private and free time. Worse still, his father seems to have a timetable for him to do all kinds of activities whether he wants or not. For example, I was once a time visiting him in the winter vocation, and his father would get us up at exactly 7am and announce the tasks for today, things like finish reading a certain chapter of a book;  practicing calligraphy; reading newspapers and watching training videos, etc. I was so shocked that I was not able to offer any better suggestions since I was told that his father enjoys the absolute power in the work camp as well as in his family. There is no place for negotiating.  Under that condition, my friend always breaks the rules and gets beaten. Do you still remember the last time you parents beat you? I forgot already. But it should be more than 10 years ago.  What should you do if you are Jack?

Application Letter for IBN

In the requirement from IBN, the application letter should include the following information:  here IBN stands for Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.  and the letter is sent by email, thus no address information is given.

Write a short essay on what you understand by scientific research and which area of research (those offered by IBN) you are most interested in and why.

19 Lower Kent ridge Road RidgeView Residence BLK C 206
Singapore
(+65) 8285 7124
u0705239@nus.edu.sg

March 20, 2008

To whom it  may concern:

I am writing to apply for a internship position at Biosensors and Biodevices part under your youth research project(YRP). I came to know this internship by the talk given by IBN in the Bioengineering week organized by our bioengineering club and i was one of the organizer.

In explain the scientific research, especially in biological science, I always thought as a student that would be related to test-tubes and pipettes to deal with those cells. Coming to the university brought me a step closer to it but still my research was limited to “expected results”, those lab sessions are to carry out for certain fixed result, if not, then to do the error analysis. I have always wanted to work in a real research environment. In my opinion, scientific research, one has to understand the theory behind, if there is no theory to referring to, we have to develop a hypothesis and later investigate the hypothesis with the designed experiments and proper data processing. In addition, many of the events are not sequential but have to be carried out simultaneously during the process. Although you might be an expert in one area, but you have to continue to develop your understanding and knowledge along the way as today in a world where everything is undergoing integration, knowledge in one area is redundant. Among the four research areas offered by IBN, I’m very interested in the development of Biosensors and Biodevices. During my second year, I have done a similar project, where my group designed a device to measure blood pressure non-invasively in order to monitor the change of blood pressure in real time conveniently and cheaply. Furthermore, I take a module in bio-imaging this semester, and I have realized my interest in biosensors and biodevices. I understand the importance of these devices especially in clinical applications and advancement in quick detection of diseases. I would like to broaden my knowledge further by knowing and working in the field hands on.

I would like to talk with your further on my passion and experiences in research related to biosensors and biodevices.  I am available to meet with you at a time that's convenient to you.Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tang Wenlue