Basic guidelines to defend your TFG in English
1. Presenting academic discourse
1.1 Preparing your presentation
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Analyse constraints: e.g. Here at CUD TFG (End-of-Degree Project) presentation
you will only have 15 minutes, check equipment available, etc.
Analyse your audience: What´s the level of knowledge of your audience? Follow
the suggestions of your supervisor TFG (explain specialised terms in simple
language, use diagrams to illustrate complex processes, provide examples to make
the concepts more concrete, etc.).
Structure your talk
Rehearse your talk: You can tape and listen to yourself (reflect on whether
improvements may be needed)
Prepare your notes
Prepare your power point slides
1.2 Presenting
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.
Nervousness: Even most experienced speakers get nervous. Some nervousness is
good because it will cause the speaker to give his/her best performance. However,
excessive nervousness can spoil the talk: rehearse several times before the final
TFG presentation.
Modulating your voice: There are four problems associated with voice: monotone,
speed of delivery, volume and clarity (pronunciation).
Monotone: Monotones are caused by anxiety or when the speaker is reading from
notes. To modulate your voice, you must learn to relax. Moving your upper body
may assist to reduce tensions and help you to breathe normally.
Speed: Anxiety may affect the speed of your talk. Normally the problem is fast
delivery. To ensure that you are not speaking too fast, pause between sentences
(like a full stop). Pausing during a presentation can be an effective device to allow
important points to sink in.
Volume: Try to project your voice to the back of the room. Heaving your head
down or placing your notes in front of your voice may affect your voice projection.
Pronunciation: To minimize problems with pronunciation, learn how to pronounce
key words in your talk.
Gestures: Use gestures to enhance your talk
Eye contact: Try to maintain eye contact with your audience (mainly with the
members of your TFG board)
1.2.1. Structure
Any presentation is structured into different parts, an introduction, a number of messages or
points, which make up the body, and a conclusion. It is important to use signposts (some
examples are included in Sequencing/ordering below). Signposts help the speaker to organize
the presentation and the listener to follow it more easily. Normally there is a signpost at the
beginning and the end of each message or point in the presentation thus connecting them. As the
audience does not know the whole of your delivery, it is really useful and clarifying to use these
signposts to guide them throughout.
(Adapted from Williams, 2008: 17)
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1.3 Language Focus: Some useful phrases for oral presentations
Introduction
*Asking permission to begin: “MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, IF I MAY, …”
Introduce yourself
In this presentation I would like to …….. describe, discuss, talk about
The focus of this presentation is on…
Firstly, I will discuss… Then/secondly…. This will be followed by… Finally I will discuss
Body
Sequencing/ordering
I’d like to begin by (explaining) …
First of all we must consider/bear in mind…
Moving on to the next point/issue/section…
The next issue I would like to mention/focus on is…
That brings me to the next point…
Next I would like to turn to…
Presenting reasons/causes
Therefore/so…
As a result…
Because of this…
For this reason…
This has led to/caused…
Contrasting
But/however
On the other hand
In contrast we can see that…
Comparing
Similarly
In the same way
Likewise
Highlighting
Before moving on, I would like to emphasize once more/again that…
In particular
Addressing this issue is particularly/extremely important
Giving examples
For example/for instance
An example of this is…
To illustrate this is…
A good/clear example of this is…
2
Referring to the slides
This diagram/table shows…
This is a graph/illustration of … showing…
The centre/extreme left hand column/top row shows…
Conclusion
Summarising
To sum up, I would like to say/reiterate/emphasize the main points/arguments again.
In short
Before concluding, let me just summarise/go over the main points
Closing and inviting questions
Thank you for your attention/for listening…
If there are any questions, I would be happy to answer them
-Managing with questions:
Answering questions:
-I quite agree, …
Exactly, that's true…
-I disagree completely, that is not how I see it, …
I could not agree more BUT…
-I agree up to a point…
I see your point, …
I suppose you are right but…
Avoiding answering:
-That´s a good questions but It´s complex to answer here/but I´m afraid
we don’t have time to deal with it here, we´ll come back to that later…
-Delaying: Well, let me see; Actually, That´s a very interesting
question… Let me think for a moment…
Dealing with interruptions or
digressions:
If I could just finish, …
As I was saying…
Going back to what I was saying…
1.4. Visual aids
To present results in your presentation visual aids are really useful. Whether they are
Powerpoint slides, flow charts, pie charts, handouts or bar charts, you will have to make them
as graphic and clear as possible so that the audience can follow your point. There are some rules
which can be useful to prepare and use visual aids efficiently.
Do not give too much information in a slide. Clear, concrete and fast messages are much more
efficient than long sentences that make the listener get lost.
There is no rule as to the number of slides to be used, but do not overuse them.
Do not include extra information in the slide. Explain it whereas listeners look at the slide.
There are some other aspects you should take into account when using visual aids.
3
Do not read the information included in the slide and explain it looking at the audience.
Highlight the most significant issues in the visual aid you are using.
As you do with the presentation as a whole, use signposting when you are about to start with a
graph, slide or chart.
Give time enough for the audience to read and interpret whereas you explain the main aspects
of the slide.
When referring to visual aids (apart from the expressions mentioned in Referring to the slides
above) you must use verbs making reference to trends like increase, rise, remain, decrease or
decline.
(Adapted from Hughes and Mallett, 2012: 29, 32)
Also you will sometimes need to use numbers in your presentations, especially when using
visual aids. Very often you do not give an exact figure, but an approximate one. In those cases
you will have to use expressions such as: around, just over/under, more or less, approximately
and roughly.
(Adapted from Williams, 2008: 41)
Make sure you remember how to read figures well. The following examples aim to illustrate
this point:
Currency is written before the number but read afterwards:
e.g.: $7,000 seven thousand dollars
Remember that in English a comma is used where in Spanish a dot is used and viceversa:
e.g.: 7.7 seven point seven; but 8,978 eight thousand nine hundred and seventy eight.
English billions are not Spanish billions:
1,000,000,000 (English) vs. 1,000,000,000,000 (Spanish)
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2. Academic language: general aspects (Herrando et al. 2012)
2.1. Features of formal grammar and style
The following are some recommendations for maintaining a formal academic style.
1. Avoid contractions
Example:
Even if learners could somehow extract the definiteness pattern from the input by relying on purely
statistical learning, they shouldn’t be able to extract the specificity pattern as well. !
Even if learners could somehow extract the definiteness pattern from the input by relying on purely
statistical learning, they should not be able to extract the specificity pattern as well.
2. Use the more appropriate formal negative forms
not … any ! no
not … much ! little
not … many ! few
Examples:
The analysis didn’t yield any new results. ! The analysis yielded no results.
There is not much published research on effectiveness and side effects of Phytoestrogens, therefore their
use should be monitored ! There is little published research on effectiveness and side effects of
Phytoestrogens, therefore their use should be monitored.
This problem doesn’t have many viable solutions. ! This problem has few solutions.
3. Limit the use of “run on” expressions, such as and so forth and etc.
Example:
These mechanisms are related to mechanical loading, minor peripheral nerve damage, deconditioning,
and so on. !
These mechanisms are related to mechanical loading, minor peripheral nerve damage and
deconditioning (among others).
4. Avoid addressing the reader as “you” (except if you are writing a textbook)
Examples:
You can see results in Table 1. ! The results can be seen in Table 1.
5. Limit the number of direct questions
Examples:
How do doctors and nurses in emergency departments accept PCPs (Primary Contact Practitioners) as
part of the team? !
One might wonder how doctors and nurses in emergency departments accept PCPs (Primary Contact
Practitioners) as part of the team.
It concerns us how doctors and nurses in emergency departments accept PCPs (Primary Contact
Practitioners) as part of the team.
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6. Place adverbs within the verb phrase
Example:
Then the solution can be discarded.
The solution can then be discarded.
(Adapted from Swales and Feak 2001)
2.2. Formal vs. informal verbs
Formal verbs, usually of a Latin origin in English, tend to be associated with academic
English. Phrasal verbs are considered more informal and therefore more common in either
academic oral discourse or non-academic registers.
§ Exercise 1 Which of the two verbs is more formal and therefore more likely to be used in
academic English?
1. Abdominal hollowing went down/decreased at least 1mmHg.
2. We observed/looked at the incidence of intraoperative PFO (Patent Foreamen Ovale).
3. In one of these studies, evidence was built up /accumulated that showed a greater effect when estrogen
dosage was in the high rather than low therapeutic range.
4. Has the incidence of primary gastric lymphoma increased/gone up?
§ Exercise 2 Choose a verb from the list that increases the formality of the sentence. Note that
you need to add the correct tense to the verb from the list.
conduct
reduce
investigate
create
determine
eliminate
1. The issue of the long-term consequences is a major issue that is looked into here in considerably more
detail than has been done in previous research in this area.
2. The authors made an automated and anatomically valid mask technique.
3. Virus-infected cells can be got rid of by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL).
4. Suppose we make an experiment with three treatment conditions and we plan to run a total of 30
subjects in the experiment.
5.
To
find
out
about
the
accuracy
of
a
diagnostic
test,
we
need
to find proper cross sectional studies of patients clinically suspected of harbouring
the relevant disorder, not a randomised trial.
6. When faced with smokers who refuse to stop smoking, physicians frequently advise their patients to
switch to low-yield brands and to cut down on the number of cigarettes smoked daily.
2.3. Academic phraseology
There are certain words that tend to go together in academic discourse:1
Recent research has focused on …
Increasing demands are placed on…
The contribution X has made to the field of …
This definition implies that Y is concerned with …
These data were analysed to identify issues related to …
Broad categories were used to reduce the potential for …
1
For further academic phraseological units, see http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/
6
These phraseological units can be used to fulfil several communicative purposes in academic
discourse.
§ Exercise 3 Try these:
1. X’s hypothesis is based on the ________________ that …
2. From the foregoing discussion it ________________ that …
3. Both quantitative and ________________ data were used.
4. … to develop an interview schedule for a random ________________ survey of…
5. The structure of the interview and the sampling methods were similar to those ________________ by
…
6. … it is difficult to ________________ conclusions from …
2.4. Referring to other scholars’work
2.4.1. The first sentence in a summary
Most summaries (in oral or written academic discourse) begin with a sentence containing
two elements: the source and the main idea. Note that the verb tends to be used in the present
tense:
In X’s article “....”, __________________ (main idea).
According to X in his/her study “...”__________________ (main idea).
X and X’s paper on ...., __________________ (main idea).
X in his/her book/paper .... states that __________________ (main idea).
claims
argues
maintains
Although, in theory, summaries are supposed to be objective, this is not entirely true. A
wide range of reporting verbs can be used, many of which reveal the speaker(s)’s attitude
toward the source material.
2.4.2. Reporting verbs
Compare the following sentences:
(1) In a recent article Smith et al assume that mental disorders are largely biologically caused
illnesses.
(2) In a recent article Smith et al allege that mental disorders are largely biologically caused
illnesses.
(3) In a recent article X et al discuss that mental disorders are largely biologically caused illnesses.
Whereas the reporting verb in (3) is rather objective, i.e. the authors’ viewpoint is not conveyed,
the reporting verbs in (1) and (2) are rather subjective, letting the hearer/reader know not only
about Smith and his colleagues’ work but also about what the author using this reference
believes about it.
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§ Exercise 4 Some reporting verbs are less objective than others in English. Can you identify
which verbs in the table seem to be objective and which verbs tend to be evaluative?
describe
demonstrate
discuss
state
present
explain
maintain
examine
affirm
reveal
assume
assert
contend
claim
Objective
x
Evaluative
.
2.4.3. Citations
Read the following three citations. Which is most different? Why? What do you think is
their effect?
(1) Kortebein et al. (2008) claim that the factors that negatively influence physical function include
prolonged bed rest, the use of physical restraints, and lack of encouragement of mobility and selfcare.
(2) According to Kortebein et al. (2008) factors that negatively influence physical function include
prolonged bed rest, the use of physical restraints, and lack of encouragement of mobility and selfcare.
(3) Factors that negatively influence physical function include prolonged bed rest, the use of
physical restraints, and lack of encouragement of mobility and self-care (Kortebein et al., 2008).
(4) Factors that negatively influence physical function include prolonged bed rest, the use of
physical restraints, and lack of encouragement of mobility and self-care [22].
Four different ways of citing someone’s work have been listed above, each of which makes the
authors of the cited work less visible. Whereas in the first two examples a great emphasis is
placed on the originators of the idea, in the last two examples more attention is given to the idea
rather than to who postulated it. Also, note that the idea has been paraphrased rather than quoted
verbatim. This is far more frequent in academic written discourse.
(Adapted from Swales and Feak 2001)
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2.5. Qualifications and commitment
In our statements or claims we need to be cautious. Also, we need to use common linguistic
resources to express this caution.
2.5.1. Probability
There are many ways of expressing probability in academic English. The simplest is the modal
auxiliary. Notice how the claim progressively weakens in these three sentences:
(1) Ultimately, funded research projects will lead to the development and dissemination of evidence
that will allow for the appropriate design of health IT solutions that truly support clinical needs
and fosters better outcomes.
(2) Ultimately, funded research projects may lead to the development and dissemination of evidence
that may allow for the appropriate design of health IT solutions that truly support clinical needs
and fosters better outcomes.
(3) Ultimately, funded research projects might/could lead to the development and dissemination of
evidence that might/could allow for the appropriate design of health IT solutions that truly
support clinical needs and fosters better outcomes.
The following phrases also weaken the strength of the claim and indicate the authors’
degree of commitment to the statement:
+ + + It is certain that …
It is almost certain that…
It is very probable/highly likely that…
It is probable/likely that …
It is possible that …
It is unlikely that …
It is very unlikely /highly improbable that …
— — — + There is a strong possibility /probability/likelihood that ...
— There is a good possibility /probability/ likelihood that …
There is a definite possibility /probability/ likelihood that …
There is a slight possibility /probability/ likelihood that …
There is a remote possibility /probability/ likelihood that …
the diagnosis of
communicating
hydrocephalus is at
present missed in a
number of elderly
dementing patients
2.5.2. Distance
Distance is another way for authors to soften the strength of a claim. Compare these
sentences:
(1) There is a need for specific training of primary practitioners to identify and respond to eating and
weight problems as they develop.
(2) There seems/appears to be a need for specific training of primary practitioners to identify and
respond to eating and weight problems as they develop.
(3) It would seem/appear that there is a need for specific training of primary practitioners to identify
and respond to eating and weight problems as they develop.
In the above examples the authors increasingly distance themselves from the statement being
made. As such, whereas the first sentence denotes strong possibility, probability or conviction,
this is softened in examples (2) and (3).
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An alternative is to distance oneself from the data by showing in some way that it is not
absolutely certain or possible:
On the limited data available,
In the view of some analysts,
According to this preliminary study,
Based on observations,
2.5.3. Generalizations
The basic verb for qualifying (weakening) a generalization is the verb tend. Other linguistic
choices are the use of adverbs, such as generally, usually, commonly, etc. or to qualify the
statement by means of approximators, as in examples (3) and (4) below:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Blood pressure tends to raise during treatment with one of these drugs.
Blood pressure commonly raises during treatment with one of these drugs.
Many reports show that blood pressure raises during treatment with one of these drugs.
Most reports show that blood pressure raises during treatment with one of these drugs.
2.5.4. Weak verbs
Finally, claims can be reduced in strength by choosing a weaker verb.
(1) Breakdown of a single mechanism of self-tolerance causes the development of various
autoinmune diseases.
(2) Breakdown of a single mechanism of self-tolerance contributes to the development of various
autoinmune diseases.
(3) Our data suggest that severe disease and mortality in the current outbreak is concentrated in relatively healthy adolescents and adults between the ages of 10 and 60 years. (4) Our data determines that severe disease and mortality in the current outbreak is concentrated in relatively healthy adolescents and adults between the ages of 10 and 60 years, § Exercise 5 Underline the verb making the weaker claim.
1. Our data suggest/show that it is effective in preventing suicide for some.
2. It is the aim of this paper to measure the frequency of incidentally discovered PFO closure during
cardiothoracic surgery and determine/shed light into its perioperative and long-term impact.
3. Together, these findings highlight/point at the efficacy of inpatient care as a life preserving measure.
4. Our data indicate/establish that the rate of intraoperative PFO diagnosis remained fairly constant
during the study period.
5. A review and meta-analysis of data published between 1966 and 2006 also supports/validates our
finding of an increased risk of ovarian cancer associated with both ET (Estrogen Therapy) and EPT
(estrogen plus progestin therapy).
6. Semenova (1997) argued/claimed that this method, called as “dynamic proprioceptive correction,”
would reduce pathological synergies, improve normal muscular synergies, and apply loads to antigravity
musculatures.
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2.5.5. Combined qualifications
Of course, several types of qualification can be combined in order to make statements of a
varied strength and modulating the degree of authors’ commitment.
(Adapted from Swales and Feak 2001)
Exercise 6 Produce a few statements which combine qualifications. Do not underline the words
used to qualify its strength. Let your partner read your statements and underline those words.
Do the same with his/her statements.
e.g. It seems that foot type may not be a factor in the development of TA related overuse injuries.
In the PSE model, patients with low PSE are more likely to avoid painful tasks or give up on tasks when
faced with the possibility of pain (Levin et al 1996; Ayre and Tyson 2001).
2.6. Evaluative language
It may be the case that authors describe a source by means of evaluative adjectives. Any of
the adjectives listed below in exercise 7 could, for example, be placed at the beginning of a
closing evaluation paragraph.
In this _______________ study Jones and Wang…
Exercise 7 Rate the adjectives as follows:
++ = very positive
+ = positive
o = neutral, uncertain or ambiguous
- = negative
- - = very negative
__ unusual
__ small
__ useful
__ careful
__ simple
__ exploratory
__ limited
__ restricted
__ significant
__ traditional
__ remarkable
__ competent
__ ambitious
__ important
__ innovative
__ impressive
__ complex
__ preliminary
__ modest
__ flawed
__ interesting
__ elegant
__ small scale
__ large scale
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Evaluation in academic discourse can be further encoded by means of verbs and adverbs. In
research article writing and oral academic presentations positive evaluation tends to refer to the
authors’ own research and findings (and only rarely to the work of others), whereas negative
evaluation of previous research is characteristic of certain sections, such as the introduction, and
of particular communicative purposes, such as the establishment of a research space. On some
occasions, some slightly negative evaluative language may be used in relation to the authors’
own research, for instance, at the end of the paper when stating the limitations of their study.
Exercise 8 Here are some negative evaluative verbs. Decide how negative they are. Work with a
partner. Use the key below.
Definitely or strongly negative (NN)
Neutral or slightly negative (N)
However, previous research in this field has _______________________________.
___ a. disregarded x.
___ b. failed to consider x
___ c. ignored x.
___ d. been limited to x.
___ e. misinterpreted x.
___ f. neglected to consider x.
___ g. overestimated x.
___ h. overlooked x.
___ i. been restricted to x.
___ j. suffered from x.
___ k. underestimated x.
2.7. Personality vs. impersonality
The choice of (im)personal subjects in academic English is an important one as it
contributes to the (in)visibility of the authors and their consequent likely self-promotion. The
following options are arranged in order from the most personal (and, therefore, more visible in
terms of authors’ voice) to less personal (and, therefore, less visible).
1. Use of first person pronouns and possessive adjectives
(1) We conducted a randomized trial to compare the surgical mask with the N95 respirator in health
care workers. We hypothesized that the surgical mask, which is less expensive and more widely
available than the N95 respirator, offers similar protection to the N95 respirator among health
care workers at highest risk for exposure to influenza.
(2) We cannot ensure, however, that full studies were performed in every case (although our
sampling suggests that they were), nor can we be assured that PFO detection was rigorously
pursued in every case (ie, by using bubble contrast studies or provocative Valsalva maneuvers).
Furthermore, we are unaware of what medications our patients were taking before or after
surgery.
2. Passive constructions
(3) A random sample of 100 reports was extracted from the data, and lethality scored independently
by another researcher using the same scoring rules. Agreement between raters was evaluated
using the intra class correlation coefficient (ICC). The two sets of scores were strongly
correlated (ICC = .93, df = 84, p = <0.001), indicating the reliability of the adjusted scale.
(4) Patients who presented with red flags such as unexplained weight loss, disabling or progressing
focal neurological deficit, infection and severe night pain were excluded. Participants were also
excluded if the injury resulted from significant trauma […]. Finally, participants were excluded
12
if they were admitted to hospital directly from presentation to the emergency department. These
inclusion/ exclusion criteria were designed to include semi-urgent and non-urgent cases,
classified as Categories 4 and 5 in the Australasian Triage Scale, although some peripheral
musculoskeletal cases requiring urgent analgesia were included [7].
3. Impersonal active constructions
3.a. the nouns paper, study, research
(5) This study has a number of strengths. It represents the largest series of patients with severe 2009
influenza A(H1N1) infection yet described, and includes both adults and children from
geographically and racially diverse settings across Canada, which improves the generalizability
of our results to other regions
(6) In conclusion, this study with six focus groups provided new insights into the beliefs about
physical function in hospitalized older adults and the barriers and facilitators perceived by
nursing staff. […]. This study identified key components to include in the design of such a
model.
3.b. nominalisations of the type findings, analysis, results, hypotheses:
(7) This finding showed the importance of intensive therapeutic programmes and identifying that
improvement of GMF might not be the result of natural and spontaneous recovery in children.
(Adapted from Lorés-Sanz 2008)
§ Exercise 9 In the following fragment the authors show a high degree of visibility. Try to make
them less visible by using other more impersonal constructions.
We had complete follow-up until diagnosis of cancer, bilateral oophorectomy, emigration, death, or end
of study. Our large number of outcomes permitted us to perform detailed subanalyses of separate
hormone formulations, regimens, routes of administration, progestin types, different estrogen dosages, as
well as different durations of HT. We consider the validity of our outcome to be high, because the Cancer
Register has both a high level of completeness and correctness of diagnosis.10-12 We used the Pathology
Register for case finding from 2002 until 2005.
13
§ Exercise 10 In the following fragment authors show a high degree of invisibility. Try to make
them more visible by using other more personal constructions.
Intraclass Correlation Co-efficients (ICCs) were used to establish the level of intra-rater and inter-rater
agreement when using the SAMP test. The test was found to have consistently excellent reliability in both
an asymptomatic and a symptomatic population. […].This study found near perfect correlations indicating
that the SAMP test can be used consistently by different operators (inter-rater reliability) and that it
behaves consistently when used by a single operator over time (intra-rater). […]. It is thought that the
excellent level of reliability of the SAMP test is due the simplicity of the procedure.
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3. References
ARGILL, M. and P. O’CONNOR, (2009). Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategies and
Steps. Chichester, UK / Hoboken, USA: Wiley-Blackwell
EMMERSON, P. (2004), Email English, Oxford, Macmillan.
FLOWERDEW, J. and T. DUDLEY-EVANS (2002), «Genre analysis of editorial letters to
international journal contributors», Applied Linguistics 23 (4), pp. 463-489.
HUGHES, J. and ANDREW MALLETT. (2012). Successful presentations. For professionals
who use English at work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
HYLAND, K. (2000), Disciplinary Discourses. Social Interactions in Academic Writing.
London: Longman.
HERRANDO-RODRIGO, I., P MUR-DUEÑAS and R. LORÉS-SANZ (2012), Academic
writing for Health Science, Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza.
LORÉS-SANZ, R. (2008), «Genres in contrast: The exploration of writers’ visibility in research
articles and research article abstracts», in S. Burgess and P. Martín Martín (eds.), English
as an Additional Language in Research Publication and Communication. Berlin: Peter
Lang, pp.105-122.
SWALES, J. (1990), Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press.
SWALES, J. (1996), «Occluded genres in the academy: the case of the submission letter», in E.
Ventola and A. Mauranen. (eds.), Academic Writing: Intercultural and Textual Issues.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 45-58.
SWALES, J. (2004), Research genres: Explorations and Applications, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press.
SWALES, J. and C. FEAK (2001), English in Today’s Research World: A Writing Guide,
Michigan, University of Michigan Press.
SWALES, J. and C. FEAK (2004), Academic Writing for Graduate Students: A Course for
Non-Native Speakers of English, Michigan, University of Michigan Press.
WATSON, J. and H.C. FRANCIS (1953), «A structure for deoxyribos nucleic acid?» Nature,
171, pp. 737-738.
WILLIAMS E. J. (2008), Presentations in English. Find your voice as a presenter. Oxford:
Macmillan.
www.lms.unimelb.edu.au/login (Presenting Academic Discourse) University of Melbourne
4. Key to exercises (Herrando et al. 2012)
Exercise 1
1.decreased; 2.observed; 3.accumulated; 4.has increased
Exercise 2
1.investigated; 2.created; 3.eliminated; 4.conduct; 5.determine; 6.reduce
Exercise 3
1.assumption/belief/idea; 2.follows/ensues; 3.qualitative; 4.sample/sampling; 5.used/utilized/applied;
6.draw
Exercise 4
It should be noted that there are degrees in the objectivity and subjectivity encoded by reporting verbs.
They could be placed on a cline from more objective to more evaluative verbs.
Objective reporting verbs: discuss, present, explain, examine
Evaluative reporting verbs: demonstrate, maintain, affirm, reveal, assume, assert, contend, claim.
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Exercise 5
1.suggest; 2.shed light into; 3.point at; 4.indicate; 5.support; 6.argued
Exercise 9
A possible suggested answer. Other options are possible:
A complete follow-up was obtained / achieved / made until diagnosis of cancer, bilateral oophorectomy,
emigration, death, or end of study. The large number of outcomes (reached / obtained) allowed for
detailed subanalyses of separate hormone formulations, regimens, routes of administration, progestin
types, different estrogen dosages, as well as different durations of HT. The validity of the outcome is
considered high, because the Cancer Register has both a high level of completeness and correctness of
diagnosis.10-12 The Pathology Register was used for case finding from 2002 until 2005.
Exercise 10
A possible suggested answer. Other options are possible:
We used Intraclass Correlation Co-efficients (ICCs) to establish the level of intra-rater and inter-rater
agreement when using the SAMP test. We found that the test had consistently excellent reliability in both
an asymptomatic and a symptomatic population. […].Our study found near perfect correlations indicating
that the SAMP test can be used consistently by different operators (inter-rater reliability) and that it
behaves consistently when used by a single operator over time (intra-rater). […]. We believe that the
excellent level of reliability of the SAMP test is due the simplicity of the procedure.
16