MASARYK UNIVERSITY Language Centre ACADEMIC WRITING COURSE for PhD students and novice researchers SESSION 2 SESSION 1 SUMMARY Style and micro structure aspects of academic writing. HOME ASSIGNMENT REVIEW a) Title analysis. b) Peer-review analysis. c) Texts of high stylistic quality task comment. 1. SENTENCES 1.1. Analyse the quality of the following sentences from the academic style point of view. a) Since it was, as mentioned, a test, we did not try to achieve the best results, we just wanted to verify the idea of time characteristics. b) Common types of DNA damage that interfere with replication fork progression are chemical modifications (adducts) of DNA bases, which are created by reactive drugs that covalently bind DNA either directly or after being metabolized in the body and are grouped in two categories: monofunctional alkylating agents with one active moiety that modifies single bases and bifunctional alkylating agents that have two reactive sites and crosslink DNA with proteins or, alternatively, crosslink two DNA bases within the same DNA strand (intra-strand crosslinks) or on opposite DNA strands (inter-strand crosslinks), which pose a severe block to replication forks. c) So we focus on that research. d) However, although the effect of the rubber particles on the mechanical properties of copolymer systems was demonstrated over two years ago,^8 little attention was paid to the selection of an appropriate rubber component. e) Not only hardware requirements are becoming more demanding than what can be supplied. f) The databases tend to preselect papers published in English, thus, underrepresenting research published in other languages. (Swales, J., Feake, C.,2009:103) g) Other factors must be considered in order to answer the question as to why nanomechanical properties of the treated samples (cryosectioned and time-varying etched UHMWPE samples) were higher than the untreated samples. (Ho et al. 2003:364) h) Actually, it’s quite a silly proof! i) "Galileo is at the heart of our new industrial policy," EC Vice-President Antonio Tajani said once the separation confirmation had come through. j) Such excellent feedback from the visiting auditor. k) We use the notion of a bidirectional flow (biflow in short) [12] to formally define this basic type of the attack: let b = (start fwd, start rvs, srcIP, dstIP, proto, srcPrt, dstP rt, pkt fwd, pkt rvs, byt fwd, byt rvs) is a biflow, where start fwd is a timestamp when the request starts, start rvs a timestamp when the response starts, srcIP is the source IP address, dstIP the destination IP address, proto used network protocol, srcPrt source TCP/UDP port, dstP rt destination TCP/UDP port, pkt fwd and byt fwd amount of transferred packets and bytes in the forward direction and pkt rvs and byt rvs amount of packets and bytes in the reverse direction. 2. ABSTRACTS 2.1. What are abstracts and why do we write them? 2.2. Abstracts are very common in academic writing, and they have a fairly standard form. Which essential parts should an abstract consist of? 2.3. Watch the following abstract of Grant Barclay and analyse its structure and characteristics: http://www.inholland.nl/INHOLLANDCOM/Studying+at+INHOLLAND/Events/Diverse2008/Papers+abstracts+and+ posters/Papers+abstracts+and+posters.htm 2.4. Read the abstracts and identify their parts. (a) (1) The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in smoked fish in Sokoto, Nigeria. (2) A total of 115 different species of smoked fish from the various retail outlets and market places within the metropolis were analysed for the presence of L. monocytogenes using ISO culture method. (3) Out of the 115 samples analysed, 29 (25%) were positive for L. monocytogenes. (4) Other Listeria species isolated in this study are L. grayi 13 (11%), L. innocua 10 (9%) and L. ivanovi 15 (13%). (5) The remaining 48 (42%) of the sample were negative for Listeria species. (6) The study shows that L. monocytogenes and other Listeria species are common contaminant of smoked fish, and this may pose serious public health implications. (Salihu et al., 2008) (b) (1) Personalized Web applications automatically adapted for different clients and user preferences gain more importance. (2) Still there are barely technologies to compensate the additional effort of creating, maintaining and publishing such Web content. (3) To address this problem, this paper introduces a declarative, component-based approach for adaptive, dynamic Web documents on the basis of XML-technology. (4) Adaptive Web components on different abstraction levels are defined in order to support effective Web page authorising and generation. (5) Hierarchical document components playing a specific semantic role are also defined. (6) The hyperlink view for defining typed links is spanned over all component layers. (7) Beside the reuse of both implementation artefacts and higher level concepts, the model also allows to define /sic./ adaptive behaviour of components in a fine-granular way. (8) As a further benefit the support for ubiquitous collaboration via component annotations is introduced. (9) Finally, the stepwise pipeline-based process of document generation is introduced and performance issues are sketched. (Adapted from: Štěpánek, L., deHaaf, J., Hradilová, A.(2011): p.172; (Fiala et al. 2003:58) UVT seminar, 1.11.2011) 2.5. Read the abstracts above again and identify words or groups of words in each sentence that determine the sentence function. 2.6. Fill in the table with appropriate abstract characteristics. Abstracts are usually written in tightly worded sentences which prefer ► ………………………………… (verb tenses) ►………………………………… (verb voice) ►………………………………… (verb person) ►…………………………... (number of words) ►………………………. .(length of sentences) ►………………………………… ►………………………………… avoid: ►………………………………… ► ………………………………… ► ………………………………… ► ………………………………… ► ………………………………… ► ………………………………… ► ………………………………… in short: Abstracts eliminate redundancy. (Adapted from: Graetz (1985) in Swales, J.M. (1990): Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings.) 2.6. Read the following abstracts and analyse their quality. ABSTRACT A We describe all commutative minimal clones. ABSTRACT B Geographic indications (GIs) stand at the intersection of three hotly debated issues in international law: international trade, intellectual property and agricultural policy. Akin to a trademark, a GI identifies a good as originating in a particular region, where a given quality of the good is attributable to its place of origin. Well-known GIs include champagne and prosciutto di Parma. Although GIs have a long history, in recent years they have become central to the debate over the expansion of intellectual property rights in the World Trade Organization. We argue that GIs have gained greater political salience and economic value due to major changes in the global economy. Proponents of GIs also raise more diffuse concerns about authenticity, heritage and locality in a rapidly globalizing world. After explaining the origins of the effort to protect GIs in international law, we assess the normative justification for these unusual intellectual property rights. Some GI protection in international law is justifiable. But the existing level of protection afforded by the World Trade Organization – as well as current demands of the European Union for even greater protection – is unjustified. We defend this position through careful consideration of the major theoretical bases for property rights. ABSTRACT C Let α be such that 0 < α < ½. In this note we use the Mittag-Leffler partial fractions expansion for F[α] (θ) = Γ (1- α - θ/π) Γ(α)/ Γ(α- θ/π) Γ(1- α ) to obtain a solution of a Wiener-Hopf integral equation. ABSTRACT D This publication examines how Western publishing houses have entered the Chinese magazine market. Based on the industrial economics approach, the aim is to identify a successful market entry strategy into an emerging media market regarding entry timing, entry mode, entry process, and product choice. Applying a qualitative, exploratory approach, comparative case studies are used as primary research method and the market entries of four Western publishing houses are analyzed. Findings reveal that an early entry with cooperative entry modes and choosing a successful cooperation partner are important factors in the entry strategy. Further, an incremental expansion process and choosing a global brand that has already been successful world-wide facilitates the market entry. Obtaining general experience in internationalization and near-market experience could be identified as crucial issues for entering an emerging media market. (Strube, 2010) ABSTRACT E The article tries to evaluate the Europeanization research agenda from the point of view of a politics-sphere and actor-centered approach. The authors postulate that the concept of Europeanization is lacking in regards to problems of political process and its dominant actors – political parties and interest/pressure groups. The article consists of several parts. First, a critical examination of existing Europeanization conceptualizations is provided. Second, the impact of democratic transition and consolidation upon Europeanization in new member countries of the EU (and in potential candidate states) is examined. Third, ways of necessary adaptation suitable for analyzing politics in terms of Europeanization are suggested and discussed. The article concludes with sections devoted to agenda-setting for research about the Europeanization of political parties and interest groups. The overall tenor of the article is to point out the necessity of integrating Europeanization-related issues, methodological, and research tasks into a broader framework of comparative politics/comparative government; and that the theoretical basis of actor-oriented Europeanization research should be drawn more from this area of political science than it has been in previous research. ABSTRACT F BACKGROUND: Some studies have suggested an association between paternal^ subfertility and hypospadias among their sons, although the^ association has not been systematically investigated. We therefore^ compared male reproductive health among a group of fathers of^ boys with hypospadias and a group of fathers to normal children.^ METHODS: A total of 64 fathers of boys with hypospadias participated;^ 349 partners of pregnant women served as a control group. All^ men delivered a semen sample, had a blood sample drawn, underwent^ a physical examination and completed a questionnaire.^ RESULTS: Fathers of boys with hypospadias had a significantly lower median^ sperm concentration (54.1 x 10^6/ml) (P = 0.004) and total sperm^ count (222.0 x 10^6) (P = 0.009) than the controls (81.2 and^ 326.0 x 10^6/ml). In addition, the fathers of boys with hypospadias^ more often reported to have had disorders in the urogenital^ system (hypospadias, cryptorchidism and testicular cancer) (11/64)^ (P < 0.001) than the control group (16/349). No significant^ differences in waiting time to pregnancy was observed, however,^ 15% of fathers to boys with hypospadias had received fertility^treatment.^ CONCLUSIONS: Fathers of boys with hypospadias not only have an increased^ frequency of hypospadias, but also decreased semen quality.^ Most likely fathers and sons share the same susceptibility genes^for reproductive dysfunction, but additional impact of environmental^ factors cannot be excluded.^ ABSTRACT G The paper will attempt to find out by way of a survey and assessment of how the half-tone process (a technique used in printing to reproduce the full range of tones in a photograph or other illustration) was used in popular journals by women photographers such as Margaret Steel, Joyce Monroe, Cecilia Beeley, Jane Allen-Banks, Ida Heloc, and Mable Star, among others. The paper tries to explain how the photographers had to master and understand the way in which the process affected a disintegration and lightening of tonal areas of the photograph when printed, and how they had to, then, consider this when developing the photograph print prior to processing. The paper may apply Feminist theory and see weather in fact women were better able to adjust to the demands of the new technology than men or not. I will use a great many high-resolution images of half-tone prints to make my points clearer. (Sources: A) Kearnes, K.A., Szendrei,A.(1999): The Classification ofCommuztative Minimal Clones, Discussiones Methematicae, Algebra and Stochastic Methods 19, p.147; B) Plasmacytoid dendritic cells employ multiple cell adhesion molecules sequentially to interact with high endothelial venule cells – molecular basis of their trafficking to lymph nodes,Takahiro Matsutani^*, Toshiyuki Tanaka, Kazuo Tohya, Kazuhiro Otani, Myoung Ho Jang, Eiji Umemoto, Kanako Taniguchi, Haruko Hayasaka, Koichi Ueda and Masayuki Miyasaka ,http://intimm.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/9/1031; C) McGregor, M.(1997): On a Generalised Wiener-Hopf Integral Equation, Archivum mathematicum (Brno) 33, 273; D)http://www.ejil.org/journal/Vol18/No2/art5.htmlKal Raustiala And Stephen R. Munzer; E) Petr Fiala, Vít Hloušek, Markéta Pitrová, Pavel Pšeja, Petr Suchý: Evropeizace politických stran a zájmových skupin: základní problémy a směry analýzyAbstract: The Europeanization of Political Parties and Pressure Groups: Basic Problems and Directions of Analysis (Pol.čas.2006/1) http://www.iips.cz/index.php?show=001022001004; Harvey, J. Writing a Conference Paper, a lecture at Research Writing Pprogramme, Grygenog, 1st May 2008) C. Asklund, N. Jørgensen, N.E. Skakkebæk and T.K. Jensen: Increased frequency of reproductive health problems among fathers of boys with hypospadias; http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/22/10/2639 2.7. Suggest changes that will reduce the length of this abstract (208 words) to the requested maximum of 200 words: Given the demand for interventions that may prevent the development of persistent musculoskeletal pain problems, we investigated the effects of a cognitive-behavioural program in a group of non-patients with neck or back pain symptoms. Two hundred and fifty-three people selected from a population study were invited to participate. These people had experienced four or more episodes of relatively intense spinal pain during the past year but had not been out of work more than 30 days. Participants were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-behavioural group intervention or a treatment as a usual comparison group. The experimental group received a standardized six-session program, provided by a trained therapist according to a manual. A significant overall analysis at the 1-year follow-up showed that the cognitive-behavioural group produced better results on 26 of the 33 outcome variables. Group comparison indicated that the cognitive-behavioural group, relative to the comparison group, had significantly better results with regard to fear-avoidance beliefs, number of pain-free days, as well as the key variable of sick leave. Participation in the cognitive behavioural group reduced the risk for long-term sick leave during the follow-up by threefold. Thus, despite the strong natural recovery rate for back pain, the cognitive-behavioural intervention produced a significant preventive effect with regard to disability. (Linton & Ryberg 2000) 2.8. Think of any academic text/talk you have written/given, or you are expected to write/give and write its abstract (max.250 words). 3. PARAGRAPHS 3.1. What is a paragraph? 3.2. Watch the paragraph song and note down as many aspects of academic paragraph writing as possible. 3.3. Look at the paragraph features and discuss what they mean: ► cohesion ► development ►direct structure ► length Topic sentence (expressing the “problem”) Expansion of point Evidence/ support Closing sentence (e.g. solution) The emphasis of the criminal justice system has until recently been on the battle between the offender/defendant and the state/prosecutor and not the actual harm experienced by the victim. In Fact victims have had minimal participation in the criminal justice process; their role being primarily to provide information to the state prosecutor with no involvement in prosecution and sentencing. McShane and Williams (1992, p. 260) contend that “victim neglect is not simply a result of indifference, it is a logical extension of a legal system which defines crime as an offence against the state”. They argue that this neglect can be remedied by training of personnel within the criminal justice system and through victim support services. (Adapted from Alison Brown, 2007) 3.4. Watch the “Writing Structured Paragraphs” lecture presented by Ken Cage (Massey University) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w183qB0KDFg and discuss the TEE(C) rule. 3.5. Topic sentence: Choose the best among the four topic sentences for each paragraph below. A) 1. There are two broad theories concerning what triggers a human’s inevitable decline to death. 2. Some scientists believe that human contains an “internal time clock” which forces them eventually to die. 3. We all must die some day. 4. My biology professor gave an interesting lecture Thursday. A) …………… The first is the wear-and-tear hypothesis that suggests the body eventually succumbs to the environmental insults of life. The second is the notion that we have an internal clock which is genetically programmed to run down. Supporters of the wear-and-tear theory maintain that the very practice of breathing causes us to age because inhaled oxygen produces toxic by-products. Advocates of the internal clock theory believe that individual cells are told to stop dividing and thus eventually to die by, for example, hormones produced by the brain or by their own genes. B) 1. Soldiers need discipline. 2. We commonly look on the discipline of war as vastly more rigid than any discipline necessary in time of peace, but this is an error. 3. Although soldiers are not always disciplined, they serve an important social function in wartime. 4. In times of peace, soldiers often convert easily from wartime pursuits to the discipline necessary successfully to complete in even the most competitive marketplace. B) ……………The strictest military discipline imaginable is still looser than that prevailing in the average assembly-line. The soldier, at worst, is still able to exercise the highest conceivable functions of freedom -- that is, he or she is permitted to steal and to kill. No discipline prevailing in peace gives him or her anything remotely resembling this. The soldier is, in war, in the position of a free adult; in peace he or she is almost always in the position of a child. In war all things are excused by success, even violations of discipline. In peace, speaking generally, success is inconceivable except as a function of discipline. C) 1) The supervisor-supervisee relationship may not be properly understood. 2) Supervisees expect their tutors to fulfil a wide range of different roles. 3) There are more agents involved in the supervision of students´ research. 4) The role of the supervisor is essentially positive in nature. C) .......... They are there to stimulate students, to keep them on the straight and narrow, and to provide encouragement during difficult periods when they may face various challenges. Their role is not lead their supervisees but to advance their own thinking by challenging their ideas, suggesting other avenues of enquiry or argument, and provoking them into thinking about things in alternative ways. Supervisors can also be a valuable repository of information and well positioned to direct students to relevant literature as well as potentially helpful professional connections – both individual and institutional. (Adapted from: from Blank,D.: "The Eternal Quest"; Mencken, H.L.: " Reflections on War" in: http://ww wuottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/rvtopic.html; Murray, Beglar, 2009:20 ) 3.6. Read the topic sentences below and predict the content of the paragraph. a) There is an essential difference between a fact in science and a fact in humanities. b) The paper is organized as follows. 3.7. Closing sentence: Choose the best among the three closing sentences for the paragraphs below. A) When it comes to the arts, there is a clear case for subsidy. The arts have nothing to do with making money. They exist in order to express certain essential truths about human beings by means of new kinds of poetry, music, painting, and so on. However, these new kinds of art may not be popular, and thus there may be little support by the general public for them, and so artists cannot rely on selling their work to provide them with an income. In fact, history shows that many artists have not been properly appreciated while they were alive. For example, Mozart, whose works are so popular nowadays, lived close to poverty for most of his life. Possible closing sentences: 1. Thus, in order to ensure^ their survival, it is essential for the arts to be subsidised. 2. If he had been subsidised, Mozart would not have been so poor. 3. When the arts have to make money, they are no longer fulfilling their true purpose, but instead become a branch of commerce. B) It is misleading to think that the natural must be good, or that it must be unavoidable. Everything that happens is natural, and much that happens is avoidable. Not all human biological adaptations are good. Man’s bellicosity was noted long before Darwin, and it may involve biological adaptations. Warfare might even have been a prime force in the exploration of proto-human intelligence: for small human beings to hunt big game in a group take intelligence, but not enough might be enough: the game do not get smarter as the hunters do. In war, over the millennia, both you and your enemy will become as smart as each other: he is of your species. Military and diplomatic guile both could become objects of a genetic arm race. .......... 1) This is why warfare is in the centre of studies that seek to identify what type of adaptation features may lead to violent behaviour. 2) Still, if men are adapted, given certain cues, to killing, looting, destruction and rapine, it should not be assumed such things are good. 3) However, when people interact, and each is equipped to select others as models for adaptation, the emergent social effects on the notion of good can be remarkable. 4) Thus, natural phenomena would be too simplistic even in the context of Darwinist theories. (Adapted from: Waters,M., Waters,A.: 1995, p.110.;Goodin, Petit, 2001: 603) 3.8. Read the sentences below and decide whether they are closing or simply final sentences of a paragraph. a) When these specific lipids are the target of mass spectrometric analysis, they present a considerable challenge because of their trace concentrations, the presence of isomeric forms, and the chromatographic separation techniques that are required. b) A great many people do not want to publish; they simply want to communicate with each other. c) Thus, to consider the thermal treatment the most significant controlling agent would be too simplistic even in the context of synthetic routes in general. 3.9. Development: Decide what the function of each sentence (e.g. topic sentence, development of the main idea, evidence, support or example, or closing sentence) is in the paragraph below. (1) As a medium for social life, an existing time constrains the choices of individuals and groups. (2) If other people use certain sequences as major points of reference in their own lives, a person wanting to enter those lives must take the sequences into account, or even adopt them as reference points. (3) G. William Skinner showed, for example, that in China the market schedules of adjacent centres dovetailed in a way that permitted merchants to make the rounds over regular cycles. (4) Market areas thus delineated became effective units for marriage, social mobility, and regional politics as well (Skinner, 1964; 1985). (5) In Europe before the metric system, measures of cultivated land area usually referred either to the amount of seed it required or the amount of time it took to plough; thus, people made the organization of time, space, property, and labour intersect (Kula, 1986; Ruiz, 1992). (6) In company towns, schools, military bases, monasteries, and other loci ordered by a single dominant time, activities such as gossip, flirtation, drinking, personal care, and fighting unintentionally but almost inevitably take their own sequences from those of the dominant time; they take place in the interstices offered by that time. (7) In all these regards and more, established times constrain social action. (Tilly, 1994: 3) 3.10. Cohesion within paragraphs Text cohesion is the way the writing holds together, to make sense. Each sentence should relate to the other sentences in the paragraph. What cohesive devices that assist in creating text cohesion can you think of? (Adapted from Alison Brown, 2007) 3.11. Look at the two following paragraphs and decide which of them has a better overall plan. Support your opinion with evidence. A) The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people’s bodies by making mummies of them. Mummies several thousand years old have been discovered nearly intact. The skin, hair, teeth, finger- and toenails, and facial features of the mummies were evident. It is possible to diagnose the diseases they suffered in life such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies. The process was remarkably effective. Sometimes apparent were the fatal afflictions of the dead people: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head, and polio killed a child king. Mummification consisted of removing the internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages. B) The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people’s bodies by making mummies of them. The process of mummification consisted of removing the internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages. It was a remarkably effective practice. Indeed, mummies several thousand years old have been discovered nearly intact. Their skin, hair, teeth, fingers and toenails, and facial features of the mummies are still evident. Their diseases in life, such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies, are still diagnosable. Even their fatal afflictions are still apparent: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head: a child king died from polio. (Adapted from: Alison Brown, 2007; Fowler, Aaron & Anderson: 2001, pp. 81-2) 3.12. Read the following five paragraphs and decide which are appropriate for academic writing and which are not? Discuss why. 1. The course through elementary school can vary considerably from child to child, and overall problems can range from mild and easily managed to severe and intractable, depending upon factors such as the child's intelligence level, appropriateness of management at school and parenting at home, temperamental style of the child, and the presence or absence of complicating factors such as hyperactivity/attentional problems, anxiety, learning problems, etc. 2. One of the most difficult parts of the detection is minimizing the influences in time characteristics caused by a network. Packet inter-arrival times always change as they go through the network and they are never the same. Thus we have to find techniques of how to compute and reduce the inadvisable variability. Another difficult part represents the number of situations which can occur during the communication, e.g. established connection, dictionary attacks, file transfer or tunnelling other protocols, etc. These two points cause the biggest problems and we have to deal with them. 3. The goals and objectives of a dissertation are quite different from the goals and objectives of a journal article. Dissertations are like memoirs – they contain a great deal of “process” information in addition to the research “content.” The process information allows the dissertation committee to see all the roads one investigated when selecting and defining the research problem, all the plans one considered before selecting the final methodology, and many other details that would be considered extraneous in a journal article. Dissertations are lengthy for the same reason that legal trials often are lengthy – the writer is providing reams of evidence, i.e., meticulously building a case to back up the ultimate conclusions that are offered. Such laborious justification regarding what was or was not done, or considered, in a research project – leaving no conceptual stone unturned – is not expected nor appropriate to journal manuscripts. 4. Hegel has been immensely influential, not least for bequeathing the dialectic and the division of history into a few great epochs to Marx. He was the son of a tax official in Stuttgart. While at the theological seminary at Tubingen, he became interested in the works of Rousseau and Kant. His Lectures on the Philosophy of History outline the developmental pattern of world history. He was worried by class divisions but did not see them as unbridgeable. 5. Salman Rushdie's essay 'Commonwealth literature does not exist', written in 1983, articulates a stage in the literary emergence and development of the (once - but no longer?) colonised, leading from the critical denigration and self-doubt of the term 'colonial literature'; through 'Commonwealth literature'; to the concept of 'post-colonial literature', which still acknowledges the colonial past as a defining presence; to the current precarious discovery of 'new literatures in English', in which the shift to the plural celebrates diversity. There have been no references to Commonwealth literatures, nor even to post-colonial literatures. (Adapted from: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/academicwriting/30.html, Pollard,R. Q. Jr. :From Dissertation to Journal Article: A Useful Method for Planning and Writing Any Manuscript http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijmh/vol2n2/writing.xml, UVT seminar 1.11.2011) 3.13. A Paragraph Development Principles Example: Development by Comparing / Contrasting PROCESS: ►DECIDE: compare them (emphasise the similarities) contrast them (emphasise the differences) ► If you write a paragraph emphasizing the similarities between two subjects, you must also discuss at least one difference, and vice versa. ► The opening sentence of comparison/contrast often states that the two subjects are similar/different enough to be compared/contrasted. ► DECIDE: BLOCK FORMAT individual items being compared or contrasted in a complex way, listing all the points for one item or element of comparison or contrast, and then listing all the points for the other item or element of comparison or contrast) SEPARATING FORMAT each point with examples from both items or elements being compared or contrasted ► The summary sentence in a comparison/contrast paragraph either presents a conclusion based on the information given or restates the purpose of comparison and contrast. PHRASES COMPARING X is like Y X is similar to Y X is comparable to Y X is as … as Y X resembles Y in many ways X parallels Y in some ways X is not quite as… as Y. X is not exactly® entirely® quite the same as / like Y. CONTRASTING X is unlike Y X is different from Y X differs from Y to some extent in that… Unlike X, Y is ….. In contrast to X, Y is …. Compared to X, Y is … (In comparison to X, Y is ….) X and Y are different / dissimilar in every way / respect. X is totally® completely® entirely® quite different from Y. X is exactly® precisely® very much® (quite) a lot ® rather® somewhat® a little ® slightly® scarcely® hardly® only just® not at all like Y. X is exactly® precisely® just® virtually® practically® more or less® almost® nearly® about the same as Y. (Adapted from: Malovičová, I. et al.:2005 English For Academic Purposes, CJV MU) 3.14. Analyse the comparing/contrasting paragraphs below according to the principles in the task 3.13. A) Although the interpretation of traffic signals may seem highly standardized, close observation reveals regional variations across this country, distinguishing the East Coast from Central Canada and the West as surely as dominant dialects or political inclinations. In Montreal, a flashing red traffic light instructs drivers to careen even more wildly through intersections heavily populated with pedestrians and oncoming vehicles. In startling contrast, an amber light in Calgary warns drivers to scream to a halt on the off chance that there might be a pedestrian within 500 meters who might consider crossing at some unspecified time within the current day. In my home town in New Brunswick, finally, traffic lights (along with painted lines and posted speed limits) do not apply to tractors, all terrain vehicles, or pickup trucks, which together account for most vehicles on the road. In fact, were any observant Canadian dropped from an alien space vessel at an unspecified intersection anywhere in this vast land, he or she could almost certainly orient him-or-herself according to the surrounding traffic patterns. (http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/parunif.html) B) Although individual authors have individual styles and may deviate from writing conventions of a particular language culture, it is possible to outline certain different tendencies in both the organization and the lexical and grammatical structures of texts written in English and in Czech. These tendencies suggest that Anglophone and Czech writers have different priorities and focus on different aspects of writing. The main focus of Anglophone authors is to make the reader understand a certain theory or problem. Authors try to present their ideas as clearly as possible and in a way which requires least effort on the part of the reader. They organize their text carefully, and select lexical and grammatical means that allow a smooth comprehension of the relationships between phenomena described in the text. Anglophone authors assume responsibility for the readers’ comprehension of the presented material; their texts are primarily oriented towards the reader. The main focus of most Czech authors, in contrast, is to present a certain theory or problem in all its complexity. They therefore often employ complex syntactic structures capable of covering as many details of the theory as possible. Czech authors anticipate potential queries and try to answer them in advance or to present their findings through less assertive, ‘modalized’ formulations, suggesting that a different interpretation of the phenomenon in question is possible. Smooth comprehension of the text is not the writer’s main priority. Authors pay less attention to organizing their texts in a logical way and sometimes obscure their message by excessive lexical variation. The responsibility for decoding the message is assigned to the reader. Czech academic texts are primarily oriented towards the topic. (Adapted from: Chamonikolasová, J.:http://www.phil.muni.cz/stylistika/studie/comparing.doc) 4. COHERENCE AMONG PARAGRAPHS 4.1. Divide the following text into paragraphs. (Remember that each paragraph should develop a particular theme.) What is the difference between an expert and a novice writer? Researchers Bereiter and Scardamalia have spent the last thirty years exploring what makes an expert writer. They have examined how school-children and academic writers go about the process. One of the interesting findings is that expert writers undertake the writing process differently from the novice writers (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1987). Novice writers adopt a linear approach to their writing and tend to take each of the writing process elements in turn. The reason they do this is because they are not at the stage of managing and controlling more than one element at a time. Consequently, they gather information for an essay without giving thought to how they are going to use the information at a later stage in the writing process. On the other hand, expert writers keep a mental map of the finished product or essay in mind while they are gathering information and during the drafting process. Consequently, they keep moving backwards and forwards through the various elements of the process which they accomplish with ease and skill. Thus, if anyone wishes to become an expert writer, it is vital to take firm control of the different elements. To improve results, it is essential to begin considering whether they are good time managers. Most students have to write assignments within tight deadlines – either self-imposed or externally imposed by tutors. Therefore, they need to be effective and efficient in their control of the whole process. (Source: Price, Maier, 2007: p.282 v Štěpánek, deHaaff, Hradilová:Academic English: Akademická angličtina, 2011, p170) 4.2. What devices that assist in creating text coherence can you think of? 5. Home Assignment 5.1. Write a structured peer-review to your colleague’s writing. 5.2. Write an abstract or a piece of text in a paragraph length.