2012-10-02
Overview
Academic Writing II
SEMINAR I:
– Textual level
– Quoting
SEMINAR II:
–Paragraphs revisited
–Vocabulary
–Grammar
–Spelling
–Punctuation
English Language Support
Open Seminar
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What is academic writing?
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Two major kinds of writing
Writing in an academic setting
By scholars for scholars, e.g. research articles
Logically structured
Objective
Combines theory and empirical data
Analytic and critical
Develops a central problem area
Draws conclusions
Argues in relation to what others have said/written
Includes references
Formal in style
• Writer-oriented
Audience:
self
Purpose:
personal, exploration of
ideas
Language:
informal
Forms:
journals, notes, rough
drafts
(after Dysthe et al. 2002:19-20)
• Reader-oriented
Audience:
others
Purpose:
communication between
individuals
Language:
formal
Forms:
essays, papers, theses,
business letters
(Björk & Räisänen 2003:16-19)
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The paragraph
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Example of a Deductive Paragraph
A paragraph is a thought unit with a topic sentence.
Hurricanes, which are also called cyclones, exert
tremendous power. These violent storms are often a
hundred miles in diameter, and their winds can reach
velocities of seventy-five miles per hour or more.
Furthermore, the strong winds and heavy rainfall that
accompany them can completely destroy a small town in a
couple of hours. The energy that is released by a hurricane
in one day exceeds the total energy consumed by
humankind throughout the world in one year.
One idea and its supporting arguments = one paragraph.
(Oshima & Hogue 1999)
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Paragraph I: Illustration
Paragraph II: Description
“On November 27, 1922, when archeologist Howard Carter
unsealed the door to the ancient Egyptian tomb of King Tut, he
stared in amazement at the fantastic objects heaped all around
him.”
“Great athletes do not reach the top by talent alone but by
pushing themselves to the limit and beyond.”
(Fawcett 2007:71)
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(Fawcett 2007:91)
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Paragraph III: Process
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Paragraph IV: Classification
“Careful preparation before an interview is the key to getting
the job done.”
“Gym-goers can be classified according to their priorities at
the gym as sweaty fanatics, fashionites, busybodies, or fit
normals.”
(Fawcett 2007:100)
(Fawcett 2007:139)
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Paragraph V: Cause and effect
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Paragraph VI: Persuasion
“What killed the dinosaurs – and 70 percent of life on earth –
65 million years ago? According to recent research, this
massive destruction had three causes.”
“Passengers should refuse to ride in any vehicle driven by
someone who has been drinking.”
(Fawcett 2007:158)
(Fawcett 2007:148)
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Vocabulary: formal in style
Grammar check
Informal
Formal
about
approximately
• Articles
often
frequently
• Unexpected prepositions
big
main, major, significant
get better
improve
• Clause types
• Countable vs. uncountable nouns
take part in
participate
• Quantifiers
get
receive
• Parallelism in coordinated sentences
also
furthermore, in addition
can’t
cannot
• Concord
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Subject – verb agreement, cont.
Subject – verb agreement (concord)
On the other hand, the claims that the department has never
violated the rules related to this distinction makes/make me
suspicious.
• Singular subject requires singular verb:
– My son plays the violin.
The head in the noun phrase decides whether it is
singular or plural:
• Plural subject requires plural verb:
– My sons play the violin.
– [The change in male attitudes] is most obvious in the
industry.
– [The changes in male attitude] are most obvious in the
industry.
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Subject – verb agreement, cont.
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Articles proper nouns
• Collective nouns are treated either as singular or plural depending
on the notion of the noun in BrE, and normally as singular in AmE
Normally: no article
John
Gothenburg
The audience were enjoying the concert. (= a collection of individuals)
The audience was enjoying the concert. (= an undivided unit)
Article?
Countries
Mountain ranges
Oceans, seas and rivers
Large organizations
Newspapers
Magazines
The audience was enormous. (= an undivided unit)
Cf. The audience were enormous. (= an audience of enormous people)
• Coordinated subject = always plural
Tom and Alice are now ready.
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Unexpected Prepositions
Countable and uncountable nouns
They are doing research ___elections.
 research on/research into
The value has increased ___more than 20%.
 increased by
Countable
Uncountable
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book
books
a book
two books
Is this opinion representative ___all workers?
 representative of
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Countable and uncountable nouns, cont:
Quantifiers
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A
One
A few
Many
A great many
A lot of
Some
Any
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Avoid faulty parallelism!
*The students learned a lot from writing several drafts of
the paper and to read their final version aloud to the rest
of the class.
Little
Less
Much
A great amount of
A great deal of
A lot of
Some
Any
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The children learned a lot from writing several drafts of
the paper and reading their final version aloud to the rest
of the class.
Clauses joined by and, but and or require the same grammatical construction!
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The sentence
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Revision skills (word order)
• A complete sentence includes:
– a subject
– a finite verb (i.e. a verb expressing tense, number and person)
and it makes sense on its own (i.e. it is an independent clause)
He laboriously dragged the large
crate up the stairs
Charles left the room without a
word
Labouriously, he dragged the
large crate up the stairs
Without a word, Charles left the
room
(Fawcett 2007:299)
They live in London.
*Although they live in London.
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Revision skills, cont. (conjunction)
Revision skills cont. (relative clause)
• Carrots grow in cold climates
• The nurse entered
• The nurse quickly closed the door
• They are high in vitamin C
The nurse entered and quickly closed the door.
Carrots, which are high in vitamin C, grow in cold climates.
(Fawcett 2007:302)
(Fawcett 2007:313)
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Revision skills cont. (-ed clause)
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• He peered through the microscope
• He discovered a squiggly creature
Peering through the microscope, he discovered
a squiggly creature.
Trapped in a dead-end job, Judith decided to enroll in
the local community college.
(Fawcett 2007:307)
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(Fawcett 2007:304)
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Subject – verb agreement, cont.
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Revision skills, cont. (apposition)
• Finite and non-finite clauses generally count as
singular:
How you get there is no concern of mine.
To treat them as hostages is criminal.
Smoking cigarettes is dangerous to your health.
• Carlos is the new wrestling champion.
• He is a native of Argentina
Carlos, a native or Argentina, is the new wrestling
champion.
• Prepositional phrases and adverbs functioning as
subject also count as singular:
In the evenings is best for me.
Slowly does it.
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Revision skills cont. (-ing clause)
• Judith is trapped in a dead-end job
• Judith decided to enroll at the local community college
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Punctuation
American versus British English
• The comma is used:
– To separate words in a list
Our company owns facilities in Norway, Denmark and
Sweden.
Be consistent in terms of spelling:
AmE
favor
center
catalog
program
traveled
analyze
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BrE
favour
centre
catalogue
programme
travelled
analyse
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– To separate phrases or clauses
Who is the manager, and where can I reach her?
– Before and after adverbs
The manager, however, had no part in it.
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Punctuation, cont.
As seen, some sentences can be either non-restrictive or restrictive:
The comma is also used:
What is the difference in meaning between:
Before (and after) non-restrictive (non-defining) subordinate
clauses:
He has moved to the office, which was renovated in the 1990s.
The children, who came late, were given candy.
All the children were given candy. All the children also happened
to come late.
NOT before (and after) restrictive (defining) subordinate clauses:
He has moved to the office which was renovated in the 1990s.
and:
The children who came late were given candy.
Only some children were given candy, more specifically those
who came late.
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Jahlmar
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Punctuation, cont.
Run-ons and comma splices
• Semicolon is used
– To separate two main clauses without conjunction:
• *My mother is a dentist she flosses every day.
• *My mother is a dentist, she flosses every day.
The cost was too high; the purchase had to be canceled.
• My mother is a dentist and she flosses every day.
• Apostrophe is used
– To indicate the genitive ’s’:
The company’s cars are blue and white.
The managers’ meeting took all day.
King James’s crown / King James’ crown
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Rambling sentences
Sentence fragments
• A rambling sentence contains many clauses, which are
often connected by conjunctions like “and”, “or” and “so”.
• A sentence fragment is an unfinished sentence. A
common form is a dependent, or subordinated, clause
Although the blue whale has been protected for over 30
years and its numbers are increasing, especially in the
North Pacific, where whale hunting has been banned, it is
still at risk of extinction as its habitat is being polluted by
waste from oil tankers and its main food, the plankton, is
being killed off by harmful rays from the sun, which can
penetrate the earth's atmosphere because there is a huge
hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.
Having in mind the necessity and significance of changes
from one side, potential problems they might provoke from
the other, and constant demand for low cost. It is very hard
to approach the quality issues in a good and systematic
way.
[Having in mind the necessity and significance of changes
from one side, potential problems they might provoke from
the other, and constant demand for low cost,] it is very
hard to approach the quality issues in a good and
systematic way.
Note: rambling sentences are not grammatically
incorrect. However, they tend to wear your reader
down and often become difficult to follow.
Example taken from http://esl.fis.edu/learners/advice/syntax.htm
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Academic writing seminar I & II: Works mentioned
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Bailey, S. 2006. Academic Writing. A Handbook for International Students, 2nd
ed. New York: Routledge.
Björk, L. & C. Räisänen. 2003. Academic Writing. A University Writing
Course, 3rd ed. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Dysthe, O., F. Hertzberg & T. Løkensgard Hoel. 2002. Skriva för att lära:
skriva i högre utbildning. Lund : Studentlitteratur.
Fawcett, S. 2007. Evergreen. A Guide to Writing with Readings, 8th ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
MacMillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, 2nd ed. 2007. Oxford:
MacMillan.
Mesthrie, R., Swann, A., Deumert & W. L. Leap. 2000. Introducing
Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Oshima A. & A. Hogue. 1999. Writing Academic English, 3rd ed. River, NJ:
Pearson Education.
Aitchinson, J. 2007. The Word Weavers. Cambridge: Cambridge University
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Press.
THANK YOU!
http://www.utbildning.gu.se/student/sprakhandledning
http://www.utbildning.gu.se/education/languagesupport/
[email protected]
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