Inglés para la InvestigaciónInglés para la Investigación

Pedro P. Sánchez VillalónProfesor de E.O.I. – C.R.

Investigador del grupo C.H.I.C.O. - UCLM

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Technical Writing in English

The English Language: The Language Structure:TriadsWritten Texts and Writing Styles: Classes

Types of Texts and Kinds of Language (Styles) Used.

Technical Writing. Research Articles: AnalysisTextual Organization, Gramatical Structure & Lexical Components.

The Writing Process: From notes to texts (& viceversa) Introduction & Thesis, Body Development, Summary & Conclucion.

Practice: Exercises, Composition & Presentation

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Writing Technical Texts ...

involves:

adapting text to your purpose, by

choosing the right words for the audience,

constructing natural correct sentences connected with logic to negotiate their meaning, presenting attractive ideas in a normalized structure that is easy to follow

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Tipos de textos y de lenguajes

TextosTextosTécnicos:

De InformaciónDe ExposiciónDe Opinión

Literarios y otrosPoéticoNarracionesEnsayos

LenguajesLenguajesIdentificativo-DescriptivoExplicativo-NarrativoArgumentativo-Discursivo

LenguajesLenguajesDescriptivo-líricoDescriptivo-NarrativoArgumentativo-Discursivo

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Factual TextsFactual Objective Informative Texts

prominently identificative, but also explicative. They identify elements, give definitions, list actions, explain relations and guide processes.Examples: Instruction Manuals, Textbooks, Shopping Lists, Technical Specifications, Research Reports (a type of Research Paper), ... Specific Features:

Textual structure: very short sentences in short paragraphs (sections and subsections)

with clear headingswith a numbered dependent sequence.

Grammar structure of sentences: phrases, focusing on nouns, without a finite verb. noun phrases. exposition of processes, nominalized actions. adverbs become adjectives, pronoun objects become possessives, Prepositional phrases as verb and noun modifiers. Verbs in imperative

Lexical quality: specialized terms, generalization nouns limited with adjuncts into precise terms.The nuclear nouns are surrounded by qualifiers, and elements of classification, differentiation and extension. Graphs, pictures and tables.

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Technical Writing

Technical WritingIt is objective and precise information intended to a specific audience and purpose.It deals with technical information.It is accurate and well-documented.It relies on visuals and uses numeric data for measures (quantity and direction).It is grammaticaly correct and stylistically convenient.It make extensive use of definitions. We define by classifying and differenciating within classes. Rules:

Do not define a term with the same term.Do not define a term with a term that needs definition or put it afterwards as an extension, if necessary (considering the audiences shared knowledge).

It is not creative writing or personal writing.

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Technical Writing (II)Technical Writing involves:

definition and descriptiondata and analysisphotographs diagrams and chartsspecialized vocabularyand a common sentence structure:

Extensions can include Comparison and Contrast, Cause and Effect, Exemplification, Process and Etymology

Leo Finkelstein, Jr, Pocket Book of Technical Writing, (2-22)

Qualifier , TERM Class Differentiation Extension

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What is a Research Paper?

Let’s define then what a Research Paper is and the parts that compose them- A Research Paper falls into the category of Technical Writing. They are in their essence, objective and precise texts, intended to comunicate specialized information to a particular audience and with a specific purpose.The purpose of Research is to discover new information by analysing, evaluating and synthesizing the issues you research and the purpose of a Research Paper to take ownership of the newly-found knowledge which will inform and support your opinionsResearch Papers can range:

from Objective Reports, (PB of TW, Chapter 10, p.155 ff)through Explanation of a Process (PB of TW, Chapter 4, p. 43 ff) and Exposition of a Problem (RSCC OWL)to Argumentative Texts (RSCC OWL)

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Let’s define Research Reports and their components.Research Reports range from texts of merely objective information to explanatory texts. Their purpose is to inform, clarify, describe the components of mechanisms or processes. A mechanism is a compound of things assembled to fulfill a function. In a research report we describe the physical attributes of the components of a mechanism and of the way they are assembled. This description can be organized spatially or functionally. (Example: Description of a car)Processes are a compound of events or concepts organized to perform a result. They can be seen as mechanisms at work. To describe them involve technical definition of their components as well as explanations of the actions and their function, organized into steps based on time or logic. (Example: Driving a car can include the description of the car’s operating system: ignition, combustion, movement – or the description of a decision tree when describing intructions for a car driver – a conceptual process). They can form part of a more general Research Paper.

Research Report

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Audience and Purpose

Audience and Purpose are two basic components of the generation of a Research Paper. Effectiveness will depend on them. A mere interest in publishing articles for our CV may not be enough. There is some kind of necessity in communicating a researcher’s findings and achievements, which is more effective and rewarding. A writer should consider the readers’ knowledge, skill level and specialization. There is a load of shared information and common interests to take into account. Further Readings:

Writing with a Sense of Purpose at webster.commnet.edu

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MLAA Guide for

Writing Research Papers Based onModern Language AssociationDocumentation

CAPITAL COMMUNITY COLLEGEHartford, Connecticut

An Introduction to Research TechniquesA research paper presents the results of your investigations on a selected topic. Based on your own thoughts and the facts and ideas you have gathered from a variety of sources, a research paper is a creation that is uniquely yours. The experience of gathering, interpreting, and documenting information, developing and organizing ideas and conclusions, and communicating them clearly will prove to be an important and satisfying part of your education.There are many approaches to research — an essential part of every business and profession — and many ways to document findings. The library has books which will help you, and most English composition textbooks contain chapters on research techniques and style. It is important to follow consistently and accurately a recommended format that is clear and concise and that has been approved by your teacher.The formatting of citations recommended in this guide is based on Modern Language Association recommendations. This guide may suffice for most learners' needs for most academic purposes, but for advanced research projects it is by no means a substitute for the Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (2002). A Guide similar to this one, but based on the APA style, is also available online. Your best source of advice on all these matters is, of course, your instructor and library professionals.

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Principles of Organization

Principle of Organization*

AssociatedPatterns of Development

Sample Transitions

chronological order

narration, process, examples and illustrations, cause & effect

next; later; the following Tuesday; afterwards; by noon; when she had finally digested the giant burrito; as soon as; in 1998

spatial orderdescription, examples & illustrations

just to the right; a little further on; to the south of Memphis; a few feet behind; directly on the bridge of his nose and a centimeter above his gaping, hairy nostrils; turning left on the pathway

climactic orderexamples & illustrations, description, comparison & contrast, analogy

more importantly; best of all; still worse; a more effective approach; even more expensive; even more painful than passing a kidney stone; the least wasteful; occasionally, frequently, regularly

topical order

classification & division, comparison & contrast, analogy, definition, examples & illustrations

the first element; another key part; a third common principle of organization; Brent also objected to Stella's breath

John Friedlander at webster.commnet.edu*A simplified list. Be sure to recognize that that these principles offer many variations. (Occasionally a writer moves backward in time, using reverse

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The Writing Process Pre-writing: Getting started is the hardest part of the writing process: The writer’s block. Formulate a thesis, locate information and list ideas through brainstorming.

Brainstorming techniques: Freewriting, clustering, and outlining Try to develop your ideas. Extend them into complete sentences, whether simple (integrative), complex (extensive). If you can, state the initial argument as concisely as possible in a sentence or two. Now you have a thesis statement. Your thesis should show the position that you must prove in your argument. Your thesis should reflect the full scope of your argument, but no more. Too broad:

The Catholic Church's influence on the formation of labor unions in the nineteenth century was extremely significant.

Sufficiently focused: Through its use of both the pulpit and the purse, the Catholic Church exerted significant influence on the labor movement in the United States during the final decades of the nineteenth century.

Further reading: Introductions and Thesis Statements, at the Writing Center.

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The Writing Process (Outline)

Organize an outline.

Write your thesis at the top of the paper. Then take your ideas and list them in a logical order.

If you can, develop one-sentence summaries at this point that will serve as topic sentences later. Combine similar ideas. If you see a progression to your ideas, follow it. Develop a hierarchy of your ideas.

While this step constitute a generally accepted approach to writing, there are other ways to go about. Some find outlines to be of no help at all, and instead organize their ideas in a flow chart, on note cards or by clustering.

Develop three or four ideas about a theme, expound upon these ideas, and see where they take you. If these ideas flow well, they will lead you to a thesis.Then you have the option of including the thesis statement at the end rather than in the introduction.

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The Writing Process (Draft - body)Write a draft. Your draft should include an introduction, a body of several well-developed paragraphs arguing your ideas, and a conclusion. Though the form and content of your introduction will depend on the theme, the subject matter, and even your instructor, your introduction should

alert your reader to the question you are answering in your paper explain the importance of the question and your position appeal to the reader's interest conclude (not begin) with your thesis statement.

You may want to identify the sources of evidence in your introduction as well. Above all, make sure your introduction is sharply focused. Papers which begin, "In today's fast-paced world of modern society" or "Throughout the ages of human history" are likely to be vague and boring. This is the Background

See Introductions and Thesis Statements, available online at the Writing Center. In the body of your paper, you must develop the ideas formulated in the outline.

Make sure that in the body each paragraph has one single, unified aspect per paragraph and it is headed by a topic sentence that relates directly to your thesis statement.

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The Writing Process (Conclusion)Use transitions to link ideas among paragraphs. Follow a logical order, Refer to something i it is significant. How does it fit into your argument? Do not let the chronology of your subject dictate the chronology of your paper.

Further Reading: Transitions, at the Writing Center. Be relevant. In the body of your paper, you should explain your ideas in detail, but do not include too many extraneous details. Finally, you will need to draft a conclusion. You may want to remind your reader of your thesis, but then take the opportunity to offer some additional insight into your argument. This can strengthen your argument while leaving your reader with something more to think about. Your conclusion could

address ideas from a fresh perspective pose a question for future study describe possible limitations of your argument refer to a detail in the introduction to bring the argument full-circle offer a provocative, unexpected, or exciting insight or quotation.

Whatever technique you choose to employ, your conclusion should convey to your reader why you think your argument is important, and should not be overstated or dogmatic..

Further Reading: Writing a Conclusion, at the Writing Center.

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The Writing Process (Revision)Now revise. "Revision" literally means "to see again," Print out your draft. If time allows, let it sit overnight and clear it from your mind.. When you read your draft, ask yourself these questions:

In my introduction, did I catch my reader's interest? Did I include all my key ideas in my thesis? In my body, did I clearly organize my paragraphs? Did I include a topic sentence for each paragraph? Did I use transition sentences between paragraphs? Did I provide enough relevant evidence? Did I explain the significance of the quotations I chose? In my conclusion, did I bring my argument to a close? Did I offer a new perspective on my argument? Overall, did I write with clarity and conciseness? Did I avoid grammatical errors? Did I avoid common sentence-level problems?

Further Reading: Sentence Revision, at the Writing Center. Second, ask someone else to look over your draft. You also may summarize the points in a post-draft outline

Further Reading: Revision: From First to Final Draft, at the Writing Center.

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The Writing Process (Final text)Proofreading is the last stage in the writing process,

On a screen. Printing your paper will allow you to see more of your errors. Reading your paper aloud is another good way to spot them. Read over your paper several times; you may find it helpful to look for only one error each time you read through it (i.e., read once for passive voice, once for run-on sentences, and once for misused commas).

A spell-checker or grammar-checker can be helpful, but under no circumstances can these tools be considered adequate substitutes for a human being. Even though your spell-checker thinks that the sentence "Iran down to the towns post office to sea if I cud male a let her" is fine (and it will), it doesn't know you meant to write "I ran down to the town's post office to see if I could mail a letter." Likewise, your grammar-checker will probably not identify all the possible mistakes in sentencesProofreading is the easiest step in the writing process, and it can save you from considerable embarrassment and frustration. Don't skip it!

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Text goal

What do my readers want to know?All texts contain an immediate communicative goal, such as:

Informative: to exert influence on the readers' knowledge; Persuasive: to influence the readers' attitudes and emotions; Motivating: to persuade the readers to take action or adopt a different behaviour.

Almost always texts involve a combination of the above, although one goal tends to be dominant. For example, a motivating text against alcohol use could not exist without also including informative goals. The goal or combination of goals determine the contents of a text: this is the referential aspect of a text.

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El final objetivo del texto se realiza por medio del contenido (mensaje de referencia), por medio de lo que tu público tiene que hacer y pensar (mensaje de apelación), por cómo quieras tratar tu público (mensaje de relación) y por la presentación de ti mismo (mensaje expresivo).El grado y la manera en que estos cuatro aspectos determinan tu objetivo del texto, influirán a su vez las emociones que quieras estimular. ¿Quieres tratar tu público de manera estética (¡columna!) o esa manera no juega ningún papel (informe de investigación), hay que estimular la compasión del público (recolectar dinero), la conmoción (publicidad), el miedo (cambio de comportamiento), la responsbilidad?Determina tu objetivo del texto respondiendo a tales preguntas.

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PresentationsKeeping these elements in mind as you prepare and practice the presentation will reduce the amount of re-working you'll have to do as it evolves, and will result in a more streamlined and effective end product.

1. Rate: The optimal rate for a scientific talk is about 100 words per minute. Any faster and the audience can't absorb the additional information. Use pauses, and repeat critical information.

2. Opening: The opening should catch the interest and attention of the audience immediately, while avoiding trite filler phrases (Thank you for having me . . .) and technical jargon.

3. Transitions: The link between successive elements of the talk should be planned carefully, smooth, and logical. You should make the relation between successive elements clear to the audience.

4. Conclusion: Summarize the main concepts you've discussed, and how your work relates to issues you've raised. Aim to help your audience achieve high retention of this final information. Signal that the summary is beginning ("In summary, ..."), but don't begin the summary too soon or else the audience will start to leave before you finish!

5. Length: Don't run over! Ever! Shorten your talk by removing details, concepts, and information, not by eliminating words. If it becomes absolutely essential to supply details, supplement your presentation with a handout. Make about 10% more handouts than you think you'll need. Always leave time for a few questions at the end of the talk. Remember that there is no point in giving a presentation if the audience isn't listening. You should make a big effort to help them be interested in what you have to say. It therefore is appropriate to use techniques to retain audience interest, provided these techniques don't detract from the content or professionalism of the talk

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THE MAYFIELD HANDBOOKTable of Contents 1. PLANNING AND PRODUCING DOCUMENTS Characteristics of effective technical communication / Document purpose / Problem statement / Audience / Organization / Forecasting / Drafting a technical document / Revising for organization / Revising for content / Editing for grammar and style / Reviewing a document / Collaborative writing / Legal and ethical issues / Document design / Document checklist / 2. DOCUMENT TYPES / Memoranda / Meeting documents Literature review / Reports / Letters / Acceptance letters / Proposals / Press releases / Task oriented / Thesis / Oral reports / Electronic documents / Résumés / Notes and notebooks / 3. ELEMENTS OF TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS Sections and subsections / Headings and subheadings / Front matter / Body / Back matter / 4. GRAPHS AND FIGURES Reasons for using graphics / Common graphics / General guidelines for graphics / 5. PARAGRAPHS Paragraph unity / Paragraph development 6. SENTENCES Avoiding stacked modifiers / Avoiding wordiness / Overloaded sentences / Sentence fragments / Comma splice / Fused sentences / Run-on sentences / Agreement / Lack of parallelism / Choppy sentences / Misplaced modifiers / Dangling modifiers / Double negatives / Faulty comparisons / Inappropriate shifts / Sequence of tenses / 7. WORDS Abstract and general language / Vague language / Ornate language / Technical terms / Biased language /

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THE MAYFIELD HANDBOOK II8. PUNCTUATION Periods / Commas / Colon / Semicolon / Question marks / Exclamation points / Apostrophe / Quotation marks / Hyphens / Dashes / Parentheses / Brackets / 9. MECHANICS Capitalization / Italics / Abbreviations / Acronyms / Numbers / Enumerating / Symbols / Equations / Spelling / 10. DOCUMENTATION General principles / Using and citing sources and avoiding plagiarism / Specific styles-sample references / American Psychological Association / Chicago Manual of Style / Council of Biology Editors Style / Modern Languages Association / Committee on Engineering Society Editors / 11. PARTS OF SPEECH Nouns / Pronouns / Verbs / Adjectives / Participial adjectives / Adverbs / Prepositions / Conjunctions / Articles / 12. PARTS OF SENTENCES Subjects / Predicates / Objects / Modifiers / Phrases / Clauses / Dependent clauses / 13. SENTENCE TYPES AND WORD ORDER Sentence types / Basic clause types / Word order / Ordering of phrases and clauses / 14. USAGE GLOSSARY (Chapter 14 is an alphabetically organized reference handbook of grammatical rules, conventions, and other important topics for writers.) 15. WRITER’S RESOURCES Style guides Dictionaries Informational resources Library card catalogues

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A General Writing Guideline

1. Find an idea or topic. 2. Formulate a thesis - narrow the topic. 3. Generate details - facts, examples, and support. 4. Outline if it seems helpful. 5. Write your first draft. 6. Let things rest for a day or two. 7. Revise - look at the paper from the reader's point of view; reorganize and add explanations where

neccessary. 8. Let things rest again. 9. Revise again. 10. Type the final draft. 11. Proofread at least three times - once aloud, once for any errors you habitually make, and once

backwards. LEO: Literacy Education Online

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Sentence Parts and Word Functions

Parts of speechSentences

Clauses, Rules for Comma Use, Abbreviations, Subject-Verb Agreement, and Articles and Determiners.Phrases: types (prepositional phrases, gerunds, appositives, etc)

ParagraphsSentence Variety, Sentence-Combining Skills, Coherence and Transitions, Paragraph Development

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Steps for Getting Started

Explore the subject to find a topic, Consider the process you'll useThink about possible topics

Locate relevant information, Info Search - browse, read, relaxRelate your prior experience and learning

Analyze the issues Jot down your questions and ideas about possible topicsBrainstorm, alone and with others

Organize your arguments.