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I was on the subway on Friday when I saw the advertisement displayed above.

For readers without image support, the tagline is as follows:

Today’s engineers are solving tomorrow’s problems. Are you ready to be one of them?

I took a picture of it and uploaded it to Facebook and Twitpic with the caption “Bet all you B.Eng grads feel pretty proud of yourselves now, huh”, for I thought such a gloriously humorous error had to be shared with everyone.

Unfortunately, some people didn’t get it. What’s worse, some of the people who didn’t get it immediately thought I was mocking engineers.

Let’s look at the tagline of the ad once more:

Today’s engineers are solving tomorrow’s problems. Are you ready to be one of them?

Explanation:

• We know the ad producer’s intention was to ask “Are you ready to be one of [the engineers]?”.
• However, “problems” in the first sentence is also a plural noun.
• Because the word “them” could also refer to “problems”, it’s possible for the second sentence to be read as “Are you ready to be one of [the problems]?”.

In that case, the ad becomes somewhat humorous: is this educational institute actually recruiting people to train them to become problems for engineers to solve?

So I’d rate the copywriting as having failed on this count. However, in terms of advertising, there’s no discernible loss.

Based on the comments I received, only one person made it clear that he understood what I was referring to.

However, the ad isn’t targeting people like us i.e. arts/humanities graduates with little inclination toward an education or a career in engineering or the sciences.

The rest of the comments came from people who majored in engineering, math or science subjects and are also working in related industries.

Their concerns were either to joke about how engineers are in fact ‘fighting fires’ instead of preventing them, or to be defensive about the perceived slight.

Nevertheless, since they didn’t spot the error (or perhaps the error is only a concern to people who are interested in linguistics), I guess the ad will still manage to reach out to its target audience.

Post-script: On hindsight, actually, the biggest failure in terms of communication and humour are actually mine alone.

Sigh. In the future, I shall just stick at doing what I do best i.e. re-tweeting what people are saying about The Weight of Silk on Skin.

Post-post-script: I misread a comment!

A math graduate/teacher just texted me to clarify this interpretation he provided:

This is an ad for BSs and BSc, not BEng. The alternate reading [that B.Ss. and B.Sc. graduates are/will be the bane of engineers] actually makes more sense in light of that fact.

So that I don’t need to keep on repeating myself, here are some FAQs about my operation and my answers to them

–

OMG what happened to you???
I went for an operation.

Why did you go for your operation?
Dental reconstruction. I had an under bite previously (perceptible only in some circumstances) so I moved my upper jaw forward and downwards.

This is what an under bite looks like:

What operation was carried out?
Bone grafts were taken from my lower jaw and were fitted into my upper jaw.

Why did you go for your operation during the term break and not during term time?
I didn’t want to miss too many lessons with my students.

Does it hurt?
When I first had the operation, yes. But now, no. In fact, my cheeks and lips are still somewhat numb at times. Something to do with the nerves somewhere.

Are you able to eat?
Yes. I can eat food in liquid form i.e. soups, curries, porridge/oatmeal/congee, etc. And of course, not forgetting our dear friend, Complan… LOL.

So what’s all the stuff in your mouth?
Besides the braces on the upper row of my teeth, I have arch bars around my gums and rubber bands to prevent me from moving my jaws too much.

When will the bands be removed?
Soon. Maybe next week?

When will the braces be removed?
Maybe at the end of the year? Not too sure about this.

After this, then what?
This is part of a larger dental reconstruction process, with the following phases and activities:

Phase 1 – Braces (Mar 2009).
Phase 2 – Reconstruction of upper jaw (Jun 2011).
Phase 3 – Dental implants (tentatively Dec 2011).
Phase 4 – Adamantium.

–

Ask more questions in the comment field below. Or there’s always Formspring.

So I held a contest a few weeks back.

Five people took part in it. Wow – overwhelmed at the overwhelming support. Haha!

Anyway, the answer to the question I asked:

Hill Street, just outside the Central Fire Station.

Where is this place I speak of?

I’ve included a helpful Google Map for your reference (click on this link if you can’t see the embedded image):

View Larger Map

Why did I hold the contest?

I thought it’d be fun to be random, as well as to force all you hamsters to be a bit more aware of Singapore and its landscape.

I also recently visited the Civil Defence Heritage Gallery for a Learning Journey.

One of the things I learnt from the Journey was that Singapore fire-fighters have a unique way of sliding down their firefighter-poles (there is no way of writing this without it sounding like innuendo).

Check it out in this YouTube video (click on this link if you can’t see the embedded video):

Anyway, back to the contest. The winners are: Dexter Lee and Lucas Ho!

As I mentioned, I’d choose the winners arbitrarily, so this time round, I decided to choose the winners based on who responded and who came to visit me while I was recuperating at home.

Their prizes: they each get a copy of Ceriph Issue #3!

I also mentioned I’d give an arbitrarily chosen prize. This time, I thought I’d give them each a copy of the latest issue of Ceriph cos one of my poems has been published in this issue, heh heh.

If you’re free tomorrow (Sat, 18 Jun 2011) and you’re in the Orchard area, do pop by Kinokuniya around 4pm cos Ceriph Issue #3 will be launched then.

There’ll be readings and stuff; I’ll be there but I won’t be reading because I’m still quite unintelligible at times.

Nevertheless, do say hi if you’re there.

In any case, keep your eye out for the next contest – we’ll be guessing my new weight after being on a liquid diet for the last fortnight.

Just kidding (about the contest, not the diet or the weight loss).

(via)

When I first saw this picture, I thought it was a rendered 3D image. Upon closer inspection, though, I realised it was a very well-taken photograph.

Anyway, do you know where the bus has stopped? Leave a message in the comments with your answer.

Incentive: I will arbitrarily choose a winner from the correct answers and award said winner an arbitrary prize.

Today, before you open the newspaper, turn on the radio or switch on the television, I’d like you to take the time to plough through these two articles:

1. Critical Discourse Analysis
2. Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis

If you are of the TL;DR ilk, here is a quick primer:

• What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)?
  From the first article, CDA is a way of looking at things to “stud[y] the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context”.
• Why is a knowledge of CDA necessary?
  Unbeknownst to many, language IS power. He or she who controls the words, controls the minds of they who read what is written, watch what is shown or hear what is said.

  CDA is thus necessary “to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality”.

• What are some examples of an application of CDA?
  • Looking at how pictures are used in, say, a newspaper. Are some pictures of certain people unflattering to them? Why is this so? Was there a larger intention in portraying them as such?
  • Comparing how words are used to describe people e.g. when comparing three people of the same standing, Person X is called “fresh-faced”, Person Y is called “innocent”, while Person Z is called “naive”. All three words are synonyms. However, has Person X been given a more positive image? Why?
  • Assessing coverage, or the quantity of information reporting done on a particular topic or subject. Is one topic or subject given more ‘air-time’ than another? Why?

For those of you who have the time, you may want to, say, practice analysing and evaluating information from articles, reports, etc. that have been published – in print or otherwise – over the last one week or so.

With this knowledge, I hope you are more equipped to deal with any new information that might come your way, today or in the future.