Writings Techniques (Complete)

8/9/2019 Writings Techniques (Complete)

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WRITING TECHNIQUES

(Masters Degree in Translation and Interpretation)

Course tutor: dr. Ioana Mohor-Ivan

Objectives

To enable the use of the different tools of language and composition inorder to communicate ideas clearly, logically and effectively.

To identify the tasks required by the different types of writing and exploretheir conventions and criteria;

To provide models that may serve as helpful examples of particular tasksunder discussion;

To raise awareness of the different choices available at any given stage ofthe writing process and advise in making them.

Topics

1. Foundations

1.1. Sentences and clauses1.2. Punctuation and paragraphing1.3. Style and Voice

2. Issues and Techniques Specific to Different Types ofWriting

2.1. The Essay2.2. The Research/Academic Article2.3. Writing from sources: quotation, paraphrase, summary,

prcis and referencing2.4. The Review2.5. Reports and Minutes

3. Other Aspects of Writing

3.1. Conference Papers. Powerpoint presentations. Handouts3.2. Refereeing3.3. Publishing


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Writing Techniques

2

Bibliography

Bailey, Stephen, Academic Writing: A practical guide for students, Londonand New York, Routledge, 2003.

Craswell, Gail, Writing for Academic Success: A postgraduate guide, London,Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2005.

Gehle, Quentin L. and Duncan J. Rollo, Writing Essays: a process approach,New York: St. Martins Press, 1987.

Hartley, James,Academic Writing and Publishing: A practical guide, Londonand New York, Routledge, 2008.

Lester, James D., Writing Research Papers: A complete guide, 9th edition,New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 1999.

Murray, Rowena and Sarah Moore, The Handbook of Academic Writing,

Maidenhead, Open University Press, 2006.Palmer, Richard, Write in Style: A guide to good English, 2nd edition, London

and New York: Routledge, 2002.

Spatt, Brenda, Writing from Sources, 3rd edition, New York: St. MartinsPress, 1991.


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Writing Techniques: Foundations 3

FOUNDATIONS

How do the following samples of writing compare?

1. When feeding the baby with a bottle, it must be

held at a steep angle with the bottom tilted up and

the neck held firmly down, otherwise an air-bubblewill form in the neck. Do not allow the baby todrink all the feed at once, but give it a rest

sometimes so that it can get the wind up. Finally,

when the baby has finished the bottle, place it under

the tap straight away, or allow it to soak in a mildsolution of Milton, to prevent infection. If the baby

does not thrive on fresh milk it should be powdered

or boiled.

How To Dress A Chub For Table

First scale him, and then wash him clean, and then take

out his guts; and to that end make the hole as little andas near to his gills as you may conveniently, and

especially make clean his throat form the grass and

weeds that are usually in it, for of that be not very clean,it will make him to taste very sour; having so done, put

some sweet herbs into his belly, and then tie him withtwo or three splinters to a spit, and roast him, basted

often with vinegar, or rather verjuice and butter, and

with a good store of salt mixed with it.

If he is thus dressed, you will find him a much better

dish of meat than you, or most folk, even the Anglers

themselves do imagine; for this dries up the fluid wateryhumour with which all Chubs do abound.

2. Fielding, having once been a playwrite [sic],moved into novels. In this novel he was not merely

trying to parody Pamela, by Richardson, but his

was make [sic] some clear social comments. To do

this he had to use caricatures and situations, and

this obviously could lead to a certain amount of

disconnection of events.

As the title so bluntly suggests, the novel is

concerned wholly with death. It is void of anyromanticism, and death itself is treated with little

religious significance; it is the finality of death in a

world ruled by nature and the unforgiving gods of

ancient times that we are shown. This, indeed, is a

radical and epic treatment of lifes most importantevent, but the epic nature of the book is constantly

undermined: the single most important sentence in

the novel confirms my opening statement in itsgrotesque simplicity My father used to say that

the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a

long time. The triviality of life: the finality of

death without salvation or damnation.

3. I opened Types of Ethical Theory, and I give you

my honest word this was what hit me:

Of the two antithetic terms in the Greekphilosophy one only was real and self-subsisting;

and that one was Ideal Thought as opposed to that

which it has to penetrate and mould. The other,

corresponding to our Nature, was in itself

phenomenal, unreal, without any permanent

footing, having no predicates that held true for twomoments together; in short, redeemed from

negation only by including indwelling realities

appearing thought.Well, I mean to say, what?

We may grant that distinctions of measure and

discernment of categories are important to the

imaginative poet as well as to the scientist. Just because

he has them, the poet is a philosopher in a sense that a

child can never be. Coleridge recognised this in his

careful analysis of the loosing and binding power of theimagination, as we have seen, and his approval of the

statement of H. S. Reimarus that we have no

conception, not even of single objects, except by meansof the similarity we perceive between them and other

objects. F. D. Maurice, likewise, pointed to the

inability of a child to make refined distinctions, arisingfrom the infant state when all men are called father

and all women mother. But the particular genius of thechild and to Coleridge a child possesses genius rather

than talent was the combination of simplicity,

innocence and sensibility which enabled it to penetrateto the essence of what it observed, without being able to

explain the process in intellectual or rational terms.


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Consider the following howlers and Colemanballs (i.e. written or oral errors where

there is a crucial gap between intention and result.) Can you rewrite them so that to makeclear and uncomical sense? Keep as close as you can to the original idea and wording.

Something Went Wrong In Jet Crash, Expert Says (newspaper headline)

Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim (newspaper headline) We thought this story incredible very convincing. (Lord Asa Briggs)

The Channel Tunnel project seems to be getting off the ground again. (Sir Alistair Burnett)

To win a Gold Medal, youve got to come first. (David Coleman)

Obviously, you do other things as well as dedicating your life 24 hours a day to ballet. (MikeRead)

We are not prepared to stand idly by and be murdered in our beds. (The Reverend Ian Paisley)

If Tchaikovsky were alive today hed be turning in his grave.(Radio 1)

1.1.Bone Structure: Sentences and Clauses

Decide which of the following texts works most effectively on the reader in point of itsrhythm and sentence length/variation:

A. He took out his knife, opened it, and stuck it in the log. Then he pulled up the sack, reached

into it, and brought out one of the trout. Holding him near the tail, hard to hold, alive, in his hand,

he whacked him against the log. The trout quivered, rigid. Nick laid him on the log in the shadeand broke the neck of the other fish in the same way. He laid them side by side on the log. They

were fine trout.

Nick cleaned them, slitting them from the vent on the tip of the jaw. All the insides and the gills

and the tongue came out in one piece. They were both males, long grey-white strips of milt,smooth and clean. All the insides clean and compact, coming out all together. Nick tossed the offal

ashore for the minks to find.

He washed the trout on the stream. When he held them back in the water they looked like live

fish. Their colour was not gone yet . . .

B. When the director in the field sends the executive in theres got to be a professional set-up. We

didnt have one.

I suppose Loman had thought of a dozen angles of attack and obviously the one hed chosen wasthe one he thought was right and he was wrong.

I think youre showing an unreasonable bias towards '

Is that so? I was clearly very fed up. Weve been called in by a panic directive to clear up the

wreck of an operation that went off half-cooked and killed one man and exposed another and by abit of luck I missed a bomb and last night they picked Fyson out of Tunis harbour and itd be nice

to think that when they grilled him he didnt break but the last time I saw him his nerve had gone

so they wouldnt have had any trouble. How safes our base now, Loman? . . .

C. Long before the mile was covered, Arnold was wilting. There was simply no strength left inthat old body which had weathered malnutrition and disease seventy years earlier and had gone on

at a cracking pace ever since. We walked more and more slowly. I was about to suggest that he sit

down while I fetched the car when we heard behind us the drumming engine of a tractor. It cameup, towing behind a flat wagon which had been emptied of its load. We flagged it down. The

driver, a good-natured young fellow, let us scramble up on to the wagon, and sitting on its smooth

boards, dusty with fragments of straw and chaff, we finished our excursion. Arnold looked round

with satisfaction at the landscape, and remarked that this would be a good way of taking a holiday:

touring the British Isles by tractor and trailer.


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That was the last of my excursions with Arnold. His bed, and then the grave, claimed him in the

first height of summer, the time of year he loved so much, and his life ended among springing

green leaves and clamorous birds. But I remember him jolting along behind the tractor, enjoying

the fun of it, finding zest in that last outing as he found zest in all the others.

I was very proud of Arnold. He was my father.

D. One day Clevinger had stumbled while marching to class; the next day he was formally

charged with breaking ranks while in formation, felonious assault, indiscriminate behaviour,mopery, high treason, provoking, being a smart guy, listening to classical music and so on. In

short, they threw the book at him.

Keeping as close to the original, try recasting the following two passages so that they

acquire proper fluency and clarity:

A. Prohibition was known as The Great Experiment. The experiment was a remarkable one. Itoccurred in the United States of America. It took place in the years 1920-33. The sale and

consumption of alcohol was prohibited throughout those years. But the peoples liking for alcohol

did not disappear. Therefore alcohol was distilled illegally. It was sold in Speakeasies.

Speakeasies were clubs owned by gangsters. Some of those gangsters became enormously

powerful. Al Capone of Chicago was for a time considered to be the most powerful man in thecountry. He was eventually imprisoned for tax evasion. The gangsters control nevertheless

continued. The experiment came to an end in 1933. By this time the damage had been done.

America has had to live with organised crime ever since.

B. Counsel maintained that the accused, if he had, as was alleged by some, though not the mostreliable of the witnesses for the prosecution, taken the articles in question, had been subject to

temporary lapses of memory as a result of shell-shock sustained during the war.

1.2.Joints: punctuation and paragraphing

How would you improve the following samples of inadequate or incorrect punctuation?

A.

Lady X refuses all blandishments to go on the stage or into films. Though her sister, Lady Y, is anactress. Appearing in People of Our Class.

B. It should be noted that plastics can vary considerable in ruggedness they can be heavy or thin,plastic dials and knobs can have a metal sleeve to take the screw or they can be just plastic, the

latter are the more likely to pull of in your hand.

C. Cholesterol, a steroid alcohol found in certain fluids and substances, stored by the body, is apotentially deadly phenomenon, it promotes arteriosclerosis, this precipitates high blood pressure,

which increases the chances of having a heart attack, or angina, or a host of similarly dangerous

conditions, its main carriers are foods we eat regularly, like butter, cheese, milk and salt, let alone

things like cream and rich puddings. If you have too many of these, and I havent yet mentioned

eggs or anything fried, oil and dripping are simply loaded with cholesterol, your arteries hardenprematurely, this makes it more difficult for the blood to flow, obviously enough, they also get

coated and, in general, unhealthy, contaminated and weak, you run a high risk, at the very least, of

premature illness, or incapacity, or even death.

Which of the following punctuation marks are most adequate as a separating device?

a. It was a fine day, the sun was shining.b. It was a fine day. The sun was shining.

c. It was a fine day the sun was shining.

d. It was a fine day; the sun was shining.e. It was a fine day: the sun was shining.


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The following letter can be correctly punctuated in two separate ways, resulting in two

utterly different meanings. Work them out, beginning immediately after Dear John,which is the only structure common to both.

Dear John

I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are

not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you Ihave no feeling whatever when were apart I can be forever happy will you let me be yours Gloria

Re-design the extract below to give it proper flow and a more sensible shape:

Like many other able-bodied people, I had never thought very much about the problems of those

confined to wheelchairs.

But after spending just one morning in a chair, I now realise how difficult even a simple

shopping trip is for the disabled.We borrowed a wheelchair from the Red Cross and set out along Station Road. It might be

thought that I had an easy job just sitting in a chair being pushed around, but I found the ride both

frightening and uncomfortable.

The pavement was very uneven - many slabs were cracked and few were actually aligned with

each other. Shock absorbers should be fitted as standard on all wheelchairs.Added to the problem of bumpy pavements was the fact that Linda, my pusher, took some time

to get used to steering the wheelchair up and down the dips in the pavement. She was, of course,

further hampered by my weight in the chair.Kerbstones were another major difficulty. She almost tipped me out several times before she

learnt how to negotiate them properly.

Because she had to go down the kerb backwards, I experienced a couple of moments of minor

panic, when she had difficulty turning the chair round again in the middle of the road . . .

How would you sub-divide the following passage? Can you detect any inconsistency inthe argument?

Twelfth Nightis justly considered as one of the most delightful of Shakespeares comedies. It is

full of sweetness and pleasantry. It is perhaps too good-natured for comedy. It has little satire andno spleen. It aims at the ridiculous rather than the ludicrous. It makes us laugh at the follies of

mankind, not despise them, and still less bear any ill will towards them. Shakespeares comic

genius resembles the bee rather in its power of extracting sweets from weeds or poisons than in

leaving a sting behind it. He gives the most amusing exaggeration of the prevailing foibles of his

characters, but in a way that they themselves, instead of being offended at, would almost join in

the humour; he rather contrives opportunities for them to show themselves off in the happiestlights, than renders them contemptible in the perverse construction of the wit or malice of others.

There is a certain stage of society in which people become conscious of their peculiarities and

absurdities, affect to disguise what they are, and set up pretensions to what they are not. This givesrise to a corresponding style of comedy, the object of which is to detect the disguises of self love,

and to make reprisals on these preposterous assumptions of vanity, by marking the contrast

between the real and the affected character as severely as possible, and denying to those, who

would impose on us for what they are not, even the merit which they have. This is the comedy ofartificial life.


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1.3.Style and Voice

What is redundant in the following examples?

This new innovation

At this moment in time

Whys and whereforesUnnecessary fripperiesQuite unique

Quite dead

Throughout the whole chapterThe final incident with which the chapter ends

These factors combined together to produce It was no more than a mere passing thought But after a while, however, he realised

He can do no more than just follow blindly

In formal writing try to avoid:

Useless or damaging qualifiers:

incredible We thought this story incredible very convincing.fantastic The Winslow Boy, that fantastic update of the problem play,

brilliant Defoe was a brilliant satirist

definitely Macbeth is definitely a tragic hero

no way/in no way No way is Macbeth not a tragic hero

over the top Shakespeare goes way over the top here sincere A most sincere poem like

Leaden lead-ins:

It is interesting to note that

It may perhaps be said that

It is worthy of note that

We can safely say that From certain points of view

Unnecessary complexity:

The poet succeeds in creating an arresting picture

Mozart manages to convince us

Einstein is trying to put over the point that

. embodies a representation of

the way this is brought to realisation is promotes a general level of satisfaction

Clichs:

Grass roots

Stable relationship

Nitty-grittyHigh profile

In this day and age

Viable alternative

The following passage is some 120 words long. Could it be paraphrased in 40?

In the affluent society, capitalism comes into its own. The two mainsprings of its dynamic the

escalation of commodity production and productive exploitation join and permeate alldimensions of private and public existence. The available material and intellectual resources [the

potential of liberation] have so much overgrown the established institutions that only the

systematic increase in waste, destruction and management keeps the system going. The opposition

which escapes suppression by the police, the courts, the representatives of the people, and thepeople themselves, finds expression in the diffused rebellion among the youth and the

intelligentsia, and in the daily struggle of the persecuted minorities. The armed class struggle is

waged outside: by the wretched of the earth who fight the affluent monster.


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Both texts below address sexual corruption. Which do you consider to work better on its

readers and why?

How We Know Sex

The whole movement of philosophical anthropology is

opposed to the reductionism implicit in the Galilean-

Newtonian-Cartesian approach to knowledge, not least,to knowledge of man, which, in its tendency toobjectify, has the effect of reducing life in nature, and

man especially, to the status of dead objects. The

difference which is being emphasised now is that

between what Polyani calls attending to looking atthe outside of things and attending from entering

into the experience of the creature observed, by

throwing oneself, by imagination and intuition, into the

inner experience of the manifestation being studied. Itshould be obvious that much of the attention to sex in

our culture is attending to rather than attending from

and so, lacking imagination, it lacks understanding of

the meaning and inwardness of sex. The effect has beena disastrous separation of sex from the personal.

The Sick Rose

Rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm

That flies in the night,In the howling storm

Has found out thy bedOf crimson joy

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

The following passage is an edited extract from The Dailys Telegraphs lead story onTuesday, 7 August, 1945. Which phrases/sentences have the greatest impact on the

readers and which are the least effective? What else should have also been included to

increase its strength?

ALLIES INVENT ATOMIC BOMB: FIRST DROPPED ON JAPAN

2000 TIMES THE BLAST POWER OF RAF 11-TONNER

ENEMY THREATENED WITH RAIN OF RUIN FROM THE AIR

The Allies have made the greatest discovery in history: the way to use atomic energy. The first

atomic bomb has been dropped on Japan. It had:

Over 2000 times the blast power of the largest bomb ever before used, which was the BritishGrand Slam weighing about 11 tons; and more power than 20,000 tons of TNT.

Yet the explosive charge is officially described as exceedingly small. A spokesman at the

Ministry of Aircraft Production said last night that the bomb was one-tenth the size of a blockbuster, yet its effect would be like that of a severe earthquake.

The first atomic bomb, a single one, was dropped on Hiroshima, a town of 12 square miles, on

the Japanese main island of Honshu. Tokyo radio said that the raid was at 8.20 a.m. yesterday,

Japanese time, and that the extent of the damage was being investigated.The official announcement yesterday of the existence of the bomb was made 16 hours after its

first use. Late last night no report had been made on the damage done because it had beenimpossible to see the results through impenetrable clouds of dust and smoke.

EFFECT ON WAR AND PEACEIn a Downing Street statement, Mr. Churchill was quoted as saying: By Gods mercy British and

American science outpaced all German efforts. The possession of these powers by the Germans at

any time might have altered the result of the war and profound anxiety was felt by those who were

informed.


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Mr. Stinison, the United States Secretary of War, said the bomb would prove a tremendous aid

in shortening the war against Japan. It had an explosive power that staggered the imagination.

President Truman described the results as the greatest achievement of organised science in

history. The Allies had spent the sum of 500,000,000 on the greatest scientific gamble in

history and had won.If the Japanese did not now accept the Allies terms, he said, they might expect a rain of ruin

from the air the like of which had never been seen on this earth.

The method of production would be kept secret, while processes were being worked out toprotect the world from the danger of sudden destruction. Congress would be asked to investigate

how atomic power might be used to maintain the future peace.

Round-Up

Identify and correct the errors of spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, choice ofvocabulary and style in the following passage:

Me and my friend were laying around on the floor when the bell rung. It was the postman, who

was in a very stroppy mood, he said that the parcel he was delivering to me was extremely

awkward to handle, and that 2-40 was due to be paid because the sender hadnt handed over

enough money. I was disinterested in his problems, but his manner was so unpleasantly masterlythat I though Id better behave judiciously. Undoubtably hed have been even more unpleasant if

Id stuck to my principals and told him where to get off. After all, he is a public servant and has no

business being so officious, it wasnt my fault that the parcel was so tricky for him and its no useblaming the innocent recipient if the sender has been too mean to pay the correct postage. I

therefore offered him my condonances on having such a pressurised job, paid the access postage

and shut the door on the wicked villain.

When I opened the parcel, I was incredible: it was a priceless diamond that must have cost a

pretty penny. The reason it was so bulky was because it was wrapped in yards and yards of paper tissue paper, newspaper, brown paper, even corrugated cardboard. No wonder the postman had

found such a lot of stationary awkward to carry! My friend was fascinated by the jewel and said I

could proberly retire for life if I sold it to the right buyer. I told her not to be so venial, it was atreasured present and I would never part with it for no one. Then she asked me who it was from? I

scrabbled around in all that paper, looking for a card or a letter, but could find absolutely nothing.I was so upset at not knowing who my benefactor was that I needed an immediate stimulus, and so

I dived for the brandy. I poured out a good measure for both of us, but she complained that my

half was bigger than hers and inferred that I was greedy. I said she was quite unique in being thenastiest, most grasping little rat-bag I had ever come across and that if she had the intelligence

required to find the door, she might like to use it at her earliest convenience. People like that

embarass me: their full of criticism for others but never practice what they preach.

Oh, I eventually found out who sent the diamond. There wasa letter after all, tucked into theouter rapping: it was from a Belgium I met on holiday, whose the most gorgeous man Ive ever

clapped eyes on. Anyone who doesnt fancy him must be off their head: hes the sort of

phenomena that makes me go weak, knees-wise.


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Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing 10

2. ISSUES SPECIFIC TO DIFFERENT TYPES OF WRITING:

2.1. THE ESSAY

1.

Identify the structure and basic elements of the following essay and render themin the form of a diagram:

Illegal Immigrants: A Better Approach

Complaints about illegal immigrants have been increasing in the past few years. Thousands regularly

stream across the southern border of the United States, some fleeing political repression and others

fleeing economic hardship. Our current immigration and visa policies offer some relief for these

immigrants, but these inadequate policies now exist alongside several other unsatisfactory andsometimes illegal solutions.

Current policies for granting visas permit entry to the Unites States for several purposes but do not

address the problems of most illegal immigrants. A limited number of visas for purposes of

immigration are available each year, with most going to persons who have waited for years to gainpermission for entry or to persons who have critically needed professional and technical skills. Other

visas are issued to students who have been accepted into study programs at American universities. Still

other visas are issued to tourists and diplomats. A small number are issued to persons designated

refugees, who are undeniably in danger of political repression and possible imprisonment or death for

their political views. Judging from newspaper reports, however, most illegal aliens do not qualify asrefugees, nor do they have sufficient money or education to qualify for student or tourist visas. Their

suffering and poverty need immediate relief they do not have time to wait in the long queues for

immigrant visas, which can take years rather than a few weeks.In response to the problem of large numbers of illegal immigrants, several unsatisfactory solutions

are at hand or are already being applied. One solution has been the forming of the sanctuary

movement, which involves groups of Americans illegally giving aid and shelter to the immigrants.

Forced repatriation is also being tried, but as the U.S. border patrol rounds up the aliens and sends

them back, they simply return a few days later, and the numbers of those entering the country illegallyhas reached such proportions that the border patrol force is overwhelmed. Another possible solution is

the addition of physical barriers to the border. That solution, however, could result in a national image

that would do more damage than good, and comparisons to the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall wouldundoubtedly appear prominently in world media.

Though no solution will apparently be ideal, it should be possible to develop a new visa system

that would ease the problem. Would-be immigrants who are poor and uneducated and who are clearly

subject to severe economic or political problems could be granted temporary visas and be restricted to

certain agricultural or industrial areas where they could find employment at wages below our national

standards but higher than the standards in their home countries. Perhaps some of the technical jobs thatour manufacturers have exported could return in this way. After a certain period, the immigrants

could be repatriated. The nation would benefit by having a source of less expensive labour, and the

aliens needs for temporary economic or political shelter would be met.


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A. Types of Writing

1. Try to pair off the following instructional verbs with the definitions provided

alongside them:

Account for give reasons; say why rather than just define

Analyse write down the information in the right order

Comment on item-by-item consideration of the topic, usually presented one under the other

Compare point out difference only and present result in orderly fashion

Contrast estimate the value of, looking at positive and negative attributes

Describe elect features according to the question

Discuss present arguments for and against the topic in question; you can also give your opinion

Evaluate explain the cause of

Explain make critical or explanatory notes/observations

Identify state the main features of an argument, omitting all that is only partially relevant

List give the main features or general features of a subject, omitting minor details and stressing structure

Outline make a survey of the subject, examining it critically

Review point out the differences and similarities

Summarize separate down into component parts and show how they interrelate with each other

2. Which types of writing are employed in the following passages? Remember that thefour main types on nonfiction prose are: narration, description, exposition andargumentation.

a) Documentary photographers at the turn of the century frequently turned their attention to persuading

society of the necessity of providing for the poor. Typical of them was Jacob Riis. His photographs of

Baxter Street Alley in 1888 shows tenements on either side of the narrow passage, crowding so close asto shut out the daylight. On one side the tenements are brick and on the other wood, but they appear

rickety and squalid. Bags of rags and bones and paper are stacked in the alley. A small child stands

beside the bags, in front of a pile of scrap wood she apparently has gathered for food.

b)

The stronger the personal identification of a top business executive to his football past, the more violenthis antipathy to women managers is apt to be. He will be so convinced business (management-football)

is the apogee of a mans game (great men against great men) that he will feel that women are positively

unqualified to compete against the strongest, most powerful, best-trained men in the world. Such

affectations are managerial daydreams, of course, because the game of business is not a literal physicalclash between male brutes. It is a symbol, a computer model, a paper game, a psychological contest.

Competitive large-scale business does resemble football contests, but the business game is mental

competition its played in the head not the stadium. Not a single technique needed for the game isinherited or inborn the talents, mental agility, abilities, attitudes are learned. Men teach them to each

other but adamantly refuse to teach them to women. Too bad about them; women are smart enough to

teach themselves, and their practice field can be everyday situations confronted on every job.

c) Mrs. OC was somewhat deaf, but otherwise in good health. She lived in an old peoples home. One

night, in January 1979, she dreamed vividly, nostalgically, of her childhood in Ireland, and especially ofthe songs they danced to and sang. When she woke up, the music was still going, very loud and clear. I

must still be dreaming, she thought, but this was not so. She got up, roused and puzzled. It was themiddle of the night. Someone, she assumed, must have left a radio playing. But why was she the only

person to be disturbed by it?

d) Nationalism is an amalgam of two elements; an ideology embroidered about the idea of nationality, and

the political institutionalization of that ideology into the national state. The strength of nationalism restson a consensus of national unity which may stem from race, language, common history and

experiences, religion, territory, or other interests. The national state, reflecting the political and social


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organization of the individuals which comprise it and having coercive power over them, claims, in their

name, sovereignty over the territory in which they live.

3. Identify the narrativepatterns and vocabulary employed in the following essay:

The French Foreign Legion was founded by a Royal Ordinance, written on a small piece of official French

War Office notepaper dated March 9

th

, a831, and signed by the then reigning monarch of France, Louis-Philippe. He had been on the throne for barely eight months when he authorized this measure, which was as

much a product of necessity as of careful planning, although there may be divided views about this.The reasons for forming the French Foreign Legion were probably twofold. In the first place the men of

the disbanded royal bodyguard and the Regiment of Hohenlohe, suddenly turned loose on to the street of acapital seething with unrest, unemployed and perhaps disgruntled at their abrupt dismissal, were a

potentially dangerous element. They were trained to the use of arms, and should they become tools of the

politically ambitious or discontented they would present a distinct menace to the new regime, not yet too

firmly established and sure of itself.

For some time Paris had been swarming with countless other discharged foreign soldiers who had

served in the French army at various times under the Empire and the Republic, many of whom were inneedy circumstances and open to suggestion, whilst others were openly looking for trouble and always

ready to take part in any disturbance. It was clearly both expedient and desirable to remove these dangers as

far away from the capital as possible.Next, the Algerian adventure had begun, and it appeared that this might prove expensive in lives. The

more Frenchmen killed in North Africa, the less popular the government at home would be, so if foreign

cannon folder was available sp much the better. The Algerian landing had been viewed with mixed feelings

in a politically divided France, but there does not seem to have been any marked indication on the part of the

politicians that they were unanimous that the occupation should be abruptly terminated; most were wary and

many apprehensive as to how the Algerian business would turn out.The formation of a foreign legion seemed therefore to be an ideal method of killing these two birds with

one stone. Once the conditions were made clear there does not seem to have been any serious opposition.

Some suggestions for using narration effectively:

Identify the idea or feeling you wish to convey through your narrative

Arrange the narrative events chronologically, selecting the details that will reinforce that idea

or feeling

Include only those other details that you need to make the narrative credible

Determine whether you can gain greater impact by rearranging the chronology, perhaps

placing the most important or interesting episode at the beginning or at the end

Revise to cut irrelevant detail, select the most appropriate detail, and arrive at the most

effective order

4. Identify the dominant impression (i.e. attitude, image, or feeling that the author has about his topic) andthe perspective employed in the following excerpts using description:

a) Oxford has been ruined by the motor industry. The peace which Oxford once knew, and which a great

university city should always have, has been swept ruthlessly away; and no benefactions and researchendowments can make up for the change in character which the city has suffered. At six in the morning

the old courts shake to the roar of buses taking the next shift to Cowley and Pressed Steel; great lorries

with a double deck cargo of cars for export lumber past Magdalen and the University Church. Loads of

motor-engines are hurried hither and thither and the streets are thronged with a population which has nointerest in learning and knows no studies beyond servo-systems and distributors, compression ratios

and camshafts.

b) An earthquake comes like a thief in the night, without warning. It was necessary, therefore, to invent

instruments that neither slumbered nor slept. Some devices were quite simple. One, for instance,consisted of rods of various lengths and thicknesses, which stand up on end like ninepins. When a


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shock came it shook the rigid table upon which these stood. If it were gentle, only the more unstable

rods fell. If it were severe, they all fell. Thus the rods by falling, and by the direction in which they fell,

recorded for the slumbering scientist the strength of a shock that was too weak to waken him and the

direction from which it came.

c) Then the cannons of the anchored warships thundered a salute to which the Vasafired in reply. As she

emerged from her drifting cloud of gun smoke with the water churned to foam beneath her bow, her

flags flying, pennants waving, sails filling in the breeze, and the red and gold of her superstructureablaze with colour, she presented a more majestic spectacle than Stockholmers had ever seen before.

All gun-ports were open and the muzzles peeped wickedly from them.

Some suggestions for developing an effective description:

Determine the purpose of the description

Determine the dominant impression you want to create, and select details that will reinforce

that impression

Draw details from the other senses hearing, smell, taste, and touch in addition to sight

5. What forms of expositionare used in the following passages?

a) Volcanoes, waterfalls, battle scenes, rescues on horseback, amazing transformations all were done

often on the stages of the nineteenth century. But the questions of how and of how well are more

difficult to answer. Certainly the handling of scenic effects was often crude and blundering. APhiladelphia manager famous for his dramatic spectacles almost failed once when a gauze representing

rain fell properly on the stage, but had to be removed by drawing it up again. The sight of rain rising

offended the audiences sense of reality, but, impressed with the other scenery, they chose to be amused

rather than angered. The failure of Vesuvius to erupt on cue, however, totally ruined a lavish production

of The Last Days of Pompeii. The stage manager ordered the curtain down and managed to get theeruption going, but by the time the curtain was reopened the disappointed audience, already leaving the

theatre, saw only the last sputters of the cataclysm.

b) In a wooded country you will not take the time to fool with tent-poles. A stout line run through the

eyelets and along the apex will string it successfully between your two trees. Draw the line as tight aspossible, but do not be too unhappy if, after your best efforts, it still sags a little. That is what your long

crotched stick is for. Stake out your four corners. If you get them in a good rectangle and in such

relation to the apex as to form two isosceles triangles of the ends, your tent will stand smoothly.

Therefore, be an artist and do it right. Once the four corners are well placed, the rest follows naturally.Occasionally in the North Country it will be found that the soil is too thin, over the rocks, to grip the

tent-pegs. In that case drive them at a sharp angle as deep as they will go, and then lay a large flat stone

across the slant of them. Thus anchored, you will ride out a gale. Finally, wedge your long saplingcrotch under the line outside the tent, of course to tighten it. Your shelter is up. If you are a

woodsman, ten or fifteen minutes has sufficed to accomplish all this.

c) Two main techniques have been used for training elephants, which we may call respectively the tough

and the gentle. The former method simply consists of setting an elephant to work and beating him untilhe does what is expected of him. Apart from any moral considerations this is a stupid method of

training, for it produces a resentful animal who at a later stage may well turn man-killer. The gentlemethod requires more patience in the early stages, but produces a cheerful, good-tempered elephantwho will give many years of loyal service.

d) We think of males as large and powerful, females as smaller and weaker, but the opposite pattern

prevails throughout nature males are generally smaller than females, and for good reason, humans and

most other mammals notwithstanding. Sperm is small and cheap, easily manufactured in largequantities by little creatures. A sperm cell is little more than a nucleus of naked DNA with a delivery

system. Eggs, on the other hand, must be larger, for they provide the cytoplast (all the rest of the cell)


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with mitochondria (or energy factories), chloroplasts (for photosynthesizers), and all other parts that a

zygote needs to begin the process of embryonic growth. In addition, eggs generally supply the initial

nutriment, or food for the developing embryo. Finally, females usually perform the tasks of primary

care, either retaining the eggs within their bodies for a time or guarding them after they are laid. For all

these reasons, females are larger than males in most species of animals.

e) If a nation is essentially disunited, it is left to the government to hold it together. This increases the

expense of government, and reduces correspondingly the amount of economic resources that could beused for developing the country. Where the cost of government is high, resources for development are

correspondingly low. This may be illustrated by comparing the position of a nation with that of a

private business enterprise. An enterprise has to incur certain costs and expenses in order to stay in

business. For our purposes, we are concerned only with one kind of cost the cost of managing and

administering the business. Such administrative overhead in a business is analogous to the cost ofgovernment in a nation. The administrative overhead of a business is low to the extent that everyone

working in the business can be trusted to behave in a way that best promotes the interests of the firm. If

they can each be trusted to take such responsibilities, and to exercise such initiative as falls within theirsphere, then administrative overhead will be low. It will be low because it will be necessary to have

only one man looking after each job, without having another man to check upon what he is doing, keep

him in a line, and report on him to someone else. But if no one can be trusted to act in a loyal and

responsible manner towards his job, then the business will require armies of administrators, checkers,

and foremen, and administration overhead will rise correspondingly; and the business will have lessmoney to distribute as dividends or invest directly in its future progress and development.

f) There are three main stages to Yeatss development as a poet. The first phase, when he was associated

both with the Aesthetic movement of the 1890s and the Celtic Twilight, is characterised by a self-conscious Romanticism. The poetry is sometimes based on Irish myth and folklore and has a mystical,

dream-like quality to it. The second main phase of Yeatss poetic career was dominated by his

commitment to Irish nationalism, and it was Irish nationalism which first sent Yeats in search of a

consistently simpler, popular and more accessible style. As Yeats became more and more involved in

public nationalist issues, so his poetry became more public and concerned with issues of the modern

Irish state. In the final phase of his career, Yeats reconciles elements from both his earlier periods,fusing them into a mature lyricism. The poetry is less public and more personal. He develops his

theories of contraries and of the progression that can result from reconciling them. The later poems

explore contrasts between physical and spiritual dimensions to life, between sensuality and rationality,between turbulence and calm.

g) Gothic was originally a term of abuse hurled at the architecture of the Middle Ages by a pupil of

Michelangelo whose object was to advance the interests of the new style (now known as

Renaissance) at the expense of the old. The style he wrongly termed Gothic actually began in twelfth-century France and flourished over much of Europe, especially the north, for the following four

centuries. It is now used to describe a splendid, soaring style typified by the pointed arches and rose

windows of cathedrals, and found repeated in miniature on much of the furniture that has survived.

h) Rising air, like air flowing toward a low, moves spirally in a counterclockwise manner, thereby causing

extremely low pressure in the centre of the rising column. The lower the pressure, the stronger the

winds, the greater the gyratory action in the updraft and the more intense the low pressure becomes.

The lowering pressure cools the air rapidly to below the dew point; as a result, a cloud develops inconformity with this chimney of low pressure; hence, the characteristic funnel-shaped cloud . . . . The

very low pressure causes buildings to explode when the funnel cloud reaches the ground, and the

terrific velocities of the wind perhaps as great as 500 miles per hour usually prostrate every standing

object in the tornadoes path.


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Tasks required by different types of exposition:

Exemplification:

give your readers enough evidence to convince them of the reasonableness of your

general observation or main idea

use specific details

Process analysis:

present steps in a clear order, indicating when a particular order is essential

to make the process simple to follow, organize the many small steps involved in the

process into a few main steps

define any technical terminology that may be unfamiliar to your audience

Comparison/Contrast:

identify points of comparison (the similarities)

identify points of contrast (the differences)

determine the points you wish to emphasize

choose an order of discussion (treat all of topic A, then all of topic B, or use

alternating treatments of A and B)

arrange the material to highlight the most significant similarities or differences at the

beginning or at the end of your discussion

Analogy:

decide on the impression you wish to give your audience about your subject

think of another subject that lends itself to a comparison with your subject

find areas of likeness between the two subjects

draw the comparison between the subjects

Classification:

determine the group of items to be classified

choose the classification basis most useful to your audience

verify if the categories of the classification system are mutually exclusive verify if all items in the group can fit into the classification

Definition:

whether you use narration, analogy, or any other means of development in

conjunction with definition, you must at some point state term, class, and differentia

see that your definition is sufficiently elaborate, that the term you are defining is

clearly distinguished from other terms in the same class

Cause and effect:

verify if the cause and effect relationship indeed exists

identify the cause as contributing or sufficient

provide supporting evidence by using narration, description, or another appropriatemeans of development

if using an analogy for clarification, do not mistake it for supporting evidence


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6. Read the following essay and identify the principles and techniques of its argument:

I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between the nations, and that if

only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have noinclination to meet on the battle field. Even if one didnt know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympic

Games, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from

general principles.Nearly all the sports practised nowadays are competitive. You play to win, and the game has little

meaning unless you do your utmost to win. On the village green, where you pick up sides and no feeling oflocal patriotism is involved, it is possible to play simply for the fun and exercise: but as soon as the question

of prestige arises, as soon as you feel that you and some larger unit will be disgraced it you lose, the most

savage combative instincts are aroused. Anyone who has played even in a school football match knows this.At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. But the significant thing is not the behaviour of the

players but the attitude of the spectators: and, behind the spectators, of the nations who work themselves into

furies over these absurd contests, and seriously believe at any rate for short periods that running,

jumping and kicking a ball are tests of national virtue.

Principles and techniques of argumentation:

Using generalisations formed through inductive reasoning: Using authority for support

Using positive, not negative, support

Using specific evidence

Using cause and effect

Considering the alternatives

Arguing objectively

7. What logical fallaciesare present in the following examples?

a) Penal reform is necessary because of prison corruption, which shows the need for prison reform.

b) If teachers cannot fix the problems in schools they should stay out of the debate altogether.c) Why are men more aggressive than women?

d)

This action is wrong because it is immoral.e) Art courses should be required in secondary schools because there is no reason that they should not be.

f) Never trust anyone over thirty.g) Thirty Xerox photocopiers gave clear reproductions when tested. This thirty-first one, therefore, will

make clear reproductions.

h) As more women have joined the work force, juvenile crime has increased. If mothers would stay home

where they belong, the crime rate would drop.


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B. Introductions and conclusions

1. How do the following essay introductions compare? Which of each pair do you

consider to be more effective?

a) Hitlers murder of eight million Jews has

given West Germany a legacy of guilt evidentin some of its major foreign policies.

Hitlers murder of eight million Jews one more

chapter in the long history of mans inhumanity toman has given modern West Germany, like

some other nations, a legacy of guilt that is evidentin some of its major foreign policies.

b) Practically since the beginning of time the

generation gap has constantly opposed the

young and the older people. But the two

groups are alike, because the only differencebetween an old man and a young man is that

the young man has a glorious future before

him and the old one has a splendid futurebehind him.

People are always talking about the problem of

youth. If there is one which I take leave to

doubt then it is older people who create it, not

the young themselves. Let us get down tofundamentals and agree that the young are after all

human beings people just like their elders. There

is only one difference between an old man and ayoung one: the young man has a glorious future

before him and the old one has a splendid future

behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.

c) Nature, like great art, is likely to induce an

intense aesthetic experience, to suggest aworld beyond which can seldom be described

in words: for language, which was invented

to convey the meanings of this world, cannotreadily be fitted to the uses of another.

A young man sees a sunset and, unable to

understand or to express the emotion that it rousesin him, concludes that is must be the gateway to a

world that lies beyond. It is difficult for any of us

in moments of intense aesthetic experience toresist the suggestion that we are catching a

glimpse from a different realm of existence,

different and, because the experience is intensely

moving, in some way greater than we candescribe; for language, which was invented toconvey the meanings of this world, cannot readily

be fitted to the uses of another. That all great art

has this power of suggesting a world beyond isundeniable, but in some moods Nature shares it.

d) According to the Wordsworth Encyclopedia,

Buddhism is one of the great world

religions, which originated in India about 500

BC. The founder of Buddhism wasSiddharth Gautama. On his 35

th birthday,

after a night of transcending revelations, he

awakened Buddha, the Enlightened One,and he set out for himself the mission to

impart the secret of enlightenment to all who

desire salvation.

Let my skin wither, my hands grow numb, my

bones dissolve; until I have attained understanding

I will not rise from here. Dusk had come , and the

resolute prince the day was his 35thbirthday

sat down cross-legged and began to meditate

through the watches of the night. And when he

finally rose, there arose with him a new religion.For he was Siddharth Gautama and the

understanding he attained in a night of

transcending revelations made him Buddha,

awakened the Enlightened One. Out of the

mission he then set for himself to impart thesecret of enlightenment to all who desire salvation

came the faith we call Buddhism.


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e) Alcohol consumption is the cause of many

car accidents.

Fully half the fatal automobile accidents in

England involve a drunk driver, according to the

State Division of Motor Vehicles.

f) The purpose of this paper is to provide ananswer to the question Who invented

Ireland?.

If God invented whiskey to prevent the Irish fromruling the world, then who invented Ireland?

Suggestions for developing an introduction:

Open with the thesis statement

Open with a broad statement

Open with a scene-setter

Open with a quotation

Open with an anecdote

Open with a statistic or fact

2. The most commonly employed means of concluding essays are: the summary, the prediction, the

question, the recommendation (s), the quotation. Which of these methods are made use of in thefollowing excerpts?

a) The children of Dolphu and Wangri are learning that the sabu snow leopard is worth more to them

alive than as a pelt for barter. As they come of age and take their places in village concerns, they couldbecome the most effective guardians of their national treasure, keeping the scow leopards of the Langu

a safe distance from the edge of extinction.

b) Trust, then, open trust has nothing to do with expecting or doing specific, predetermined things in

marriage, but rather with sharing the knowledge of your immediate desires and needs with your mate,

living for now and not for yesterday or tomorrow, living not the life that somebody else has laid out for

you in terms of role expectations, living instead for your own self through share communication and

growth with your mates self. Trust then is freedom to assume responsibility for your own self first and

then to share that human self in love with your partner in a marriage that places no restrictions upongrowth or limits on fulfilment.

c) It is clear from the examples above that the state is spending far more on highways than it is oneducation. Most residents will be glad to have efficient road systems for getting to and from work as

well as for easy access to recreation areas. However, if current spending trends continue, the question

that voters will have to answer is, Do I want to be on the same highway with functionally illiterate

drivers?

d) We cannot produce responsible persons until we help them uncover the IM NOT OK - YOURE OK

position which underlies the complicated and destructive games they play. Once we understand

position and games, freedom of response begins to emerge as a real possibility. As long as people arebound by the past, they are not free to respond to the needs and aspirations of others in the present; and

to say that we are free, says Will Durant, is merely to mean that we know what we are doing.

e) Afterwards one can choose not simply accept the phrases that will best cover the meaning, and then

switch round and decide what impressions ones words are likely to make on another person. This lasteffort of the mind cuts out all stale or mixed images, all prefabricated phrases, needless repetitions, and

humbug and vagueness generally. But one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase,

and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most

cases:a. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech, which you are used to seeing in print.

b. Never use a long word where a short one will do.


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c. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

d. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

e. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday

English equivalent.

f. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone

who has grown used to writing in the style now fashionable.

D. Round-Up

1. Select a 2,000-word essay you have already written and revise it in accordance to the

guide-lines of essay writing. Present both versions and a short list of personal comments on

any changes you have made to the original.


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2.2. The Research/Academic Article

1. Compare the following paradigms most likely to govern the structure of different

types of research article and consider what writing techniques are most suited to each

of them:

a. General All-Purpose Model

Identify the subject

Explain the problem

Provide background informationFrame a thesis statement

Analyse the subject

Examine the first major issue

Examine the second major issue

Examine the third major issueDiscuss your findings

Restate your thesis and point beyond itInterpret the findings

Provide answers, solutions, a final opinion

*remember that to the introduction you can add quotation, an anecdote, a definition,

comments from your source materials; within the body you can compare, analyse,

give evidence, trace historical events, etc.; in the conclusion you can make a

prediction, summarize your findings, etc.

b.

Model for Advancing your Ideas and Theories

IntroductionExamine the problem or questionDiscuss its significance

Provide any necessary background information

Introduce experts who have addressed the problemProvide a thesis sentence addresses the problem from a perspective not yet

advanced by others

BodyTrace issues involved in the problem

Develop a past to present examinationCompare and analyse the details and minor issues

Cite experts who have addressed the same problem

ConclusionAdvance and defend your theory as it grows out of evidence in the body

Offer directives or a plan of actionSuggest additional work and research that is needed


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c. Model for the Analysis of Creative Works

IntroductionIdentify the work

Give a brief summary in one sentence

Provide background information that related to the thesisOffer biographical facts about the author that relate to the specific issues

Use quotations and paraphrases of authorities that establish the scholarly traditions

Write a thesis sentence that establishes your particular views of the literary work or any other art form

BodyProvide an analysis divided according to such elements as imagery, theme,

character development, structure, symbolism, narration, language, etc.

ConclusionKeep a fundamental focus on the author of the work, not just the elements of

analysis as explained in the body

Offer a conclusion that explores the contributions of the writer in concord with

your thesis sentence

d. Model for Argument and Persuasion Papers

IntroductionIn one sentence establish the problem or controversial issue that your paper willexamine

Summarize the issues

Define key terminologyMake concessions on some points of the argument

Use quotations and paraphrases of sources to build the controversial nature of thesubject

Provide background to establish a past/present relationship

Write a thesis to establish your position

BodyArgue in defence on one side

Analyse the issues, both pro and con

Give evidence from the sources, including quotations as appropriate

ConclusionExpand your thesis into a conclusion that makes clear your poison which should be

one that grows logically from your analysis and discussion of the issues


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e. Model for a Comparative Study

IntroductionEstablish A

Establish B

Briefly compare the twoIntroduce the central issue

Cite source materials on the subjects

Present your thesisBody(choose one)

Examine A / Compare A and B / Issue 1: Discuss A and B

Examine B / Contrast A and B / Issue 2: Discuss A and BCompare and contrast A and B / Discuss the central issues / Issue 3: Discuss A and B

ConclusionDiscuss the significant issues

Write a conclusion that ranks one over the other, or

Write a conclusion that rates the respective wisdom of each side

Note: Coherence in content and structure is achieved through:

A. paragraph organisationfor each section of the research essay

Section of essay: theme generation of

paragraphs

Section of essay: topic sentences

Thematic (content) coherence1. Introduction (generalspecific)

2. Theme taken from paragraph 1.

3. Theme taken from paragraph 2.4. Theme generated because of

development of paragraph 3.5. Theme generated because of

conclusion of paragraph 4.6. Theme is the conclusion drawn at

the end of the argument put forwardin this section.

All the themes are related to the maintopic as well as the section topic.

Themes are generated because of theknowledge (and insight) of the writer.

Structural coherence1. Introduction: topic sentence of this

paragraph captures theme of

section.2, 3, 4 & 5. Topic sentence captures

theme of the paragraph.Connectors are used to linkwith previous paragraph.

6. Topic sentence captures theconclusion.

All the topic sentences should relate(conceptually) to the main topic.

Topic sentences are constructed toreflect a summarised version of thetheme of the paragraph.


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B. managing section and sub-section transitions

Function Transitional words and phrases

To add In addition; furthermore; moreover; and; again; equally important;

similarly

To prove Because; for; since; for the same reasonTo compare and

contrast

Yet; while; whereas; in contrast; however; on the one hand on

the other hand; conversely; on the contrary; by comparison

To showexception

Yet; still; nevertheless; in spite of; despite; of course

To indicate time Immediately; thereafter; soon; finally; then

To repeat In brief; as I have noted

To emphasise Obviously; definitely; extremely; in fact; indeed; in any case;

positively; naturally; surprisingly; undeniably; unquestioningly;

without reservation

To show sequence First;fi

rstly; secondly (etc.); and so forth; next; then; followingthis; at this time; at this point; after; before; previously;consequently; simultaneously

To give example For instance; for example; in another case; take the case of; todemonstrate; to illustrate; as an example

To summarise or

conclude

In brief; on the whole; summing up; to conclude; in conclusion; as

I have shown; hence; therefore; as a result; on the whole;

consequently

To show cause-and-effect

relationships

Because; since; therefore; as a result; consequently; hence; thus;because of; due to; as a result of

To showadversativeposition

Although; even though; despite the fact that; notwithstanding thefact that; nevertheless; in spite of

To clarify In other words; that is

To intensify On the contrary; as a matter of fact; in fact


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2. All articles begin with a title. Most include an abstract. Several include key words.

All three of these features describe an articles content in varying degrees of detail andabstraction. The title is designed to stimulate the readers interest. The abstract

summarises the content. The half-dozen or so key words, sometimes called descriptors,

together with the title and the abstract, facilitate computer-based search and retrieval.

A. Consider what strategies are employed in writing the following titles:

The Gothic: Genesis and Circulation of a Literary Genre

Gothic Madness in Three Women Writers

Celtic Myth in W. B. Yeatss At the Hawks Well

Black Dialect in John Agards Poetry: A Language Study

Celtic Myth in Yeatss Deirdre and Friels Faith Healer

Notethat titles should attract, inform and be accurate. Hence:

Long titles are standard in scholarly writing; They provide a clear concept about the contents of the research

essay by using specific words of identification.

Devise titles to match the following types:

Titles that announce the general subject

e.g. On writing scientific articles in English

Titles that particularise a specific theme following a general headinge.g. Pre-writing: The relation between thinking and feeling

Titles that indicate the controlling question

e.g.Is Academic Writing Masculine?

Titles that indicate that the answer to a question will be revealede.g.Abstracts, Introductions and Discussions: How far do they differ instyle?

Titles that announce the thesis i.e. indicate the direction of the authors argumente.g. The Lost Art of Conversation

Titles that emphasise the methodology used in the research

e.g.Romanian Migrantscapes in Contemporary Filmic Texts: An Imagological Approach

Titles that suggest guidelines and/or comparisons

e.g. Seven Types of Ambiguity

Titles that bid for attention by using startling openings, alliteration, puns, humour,

literary and cultural references, etc.

e.g. And they lived happily ever after: romance and contemporary cinemaLegal Ease and Legalese


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B. What structural differences can you establish between the two abstracts provided

below?

a) There is something of a controversy taking place over how best to theorise human

learning. In this article we join the debate over the relationships between sociocultural

and constructive perspectives on learning. These two perspectives differ in not justtheir conceptions of knowledge (epistemological assumptions) but also in their

assumptions about the known world and the knowing human (ontological

assumptions). We articulate in this article six themes of a nondualist ontology seen atwork in the sociocultural perspective, and suggest a reconciliation of the two. We

propose that learning involves becoming a member of a community, constructing

knowledge of various levels of expertise as a participant, but also taking a stand onthe culture of ones community in an effort to take up and overcome the estrangement

and division that are consequences of participation. Learning entails transformation of

both the person and the social world. We explore the implications of this view for

thinking about schooling and for the conduct of educational research.

b) An interesting debate is currently taking place among proponents of different ways

of thinking about human learning. In this article we focus on that portion of thedebate that addresses sociological and constructive perspectives on learning. These

two perspectives differ in not just their conceptions of knowledge (epistemological

assumptions) but also in their assumptions about the known world and the knowinghuman (ontological assumptions). We wish to try and reconcile these two different

approaches first by examining the ontological assumptions of them both. We then

consider six key themes of a nondualist ontology seen at work in the socioculturalperspective. Finally we propose that the constructive perspective attends to

epistemological structures and processes which the sociological perspective mustplace in a broader historical and cultural context. We conclude that learning involves

becoming a member of a community, constructing knowledge of various levels of

expertise as a participant, and taking a stand on the culture of ones community in an

effort to take up and overcome the estrangement and division that are consequencesof participation. Learning entails transformation of both the personal and the social

world. We explore the implications of this view for thinking about schooling and the

conduct of educational research.

Note that:

Abstracts have to summarise a research article sometimes in as few as 150

words. Basically they should inform about the following issues related toresearch:background;aim;method;results;conclusions.


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C. What selection criteria were employed in deciding upon each set of keywords that

accompany the abstracts provided below?

a) Abstract: This study argues that a key factor in Barack Obamas ability to mobilise

support for his successful 2008 presidential campaign was his use of multicultural

intertextual references in a hybrid discourse with which different ethnic audiences couldidentify. Obamas rhetoric drew on two discursive traditions in particular: that of

Abraham Lincoln and the Founding Fathers on the one hand, and that of Martin Luther

King and the Civil Rights movement on the other. By combining explicit and implicitreferences to both traditions in his speeches, and by interweaving the white myth of an

America founded in freedom and equality with the black narrative of a journey towards

freedom and equality, Obama was able to persuasively present a unifying metanarrativethat embodied an inclusive rewriting of the American story and the American Dream,

offering Americans a common future that connected with their various pasts. In addition

to examining Obamas Yes We Can and victory speeches, the study illustrates how he

created a dialogical relationship with diverse audiences by referring to examples of the

many YouTube videos some themselves hybrid creations which combined music andimages with samples from his speeches that he inspired during the course of his

campaign.

Keywords: Obama; hybridity; identity/identification; intertextuality; interdiscursivity;

rhetoric.

b)Abstract: The visions of post-human future that are developed in science fiction about

biological engineering express anxieties central to a society shaped by rapidly changingtechnological and scientific capabilities. Often questioning the effects and the desirability

of their implementation, these works express a profound concern about technologies thataim to perfect the body and control evolution. While the mad scientists who appear in

prior-WW II science fiction seem to anticipate the real-life horror Nazi doctor Josef

Mengele (the Death Angel of Auschwitz), who epitomized murderous scientific

fanaticism, the latters dark spirit inhabits various writings and films that have been madeever since. Science fiction incorporates Mengele to remind us of the reality of scientific

perfection mania, conferring real-world weight upon the fictional doctor who uses

technology to torture, maim, or destroy humans as experimental subjects in the name ofutopian goals.

Keywords: science fiction, biological engineering, writing and film.

c) Abstract: Based upon a binary model of thought predicated upon the basic opposition

established between self and other, the colonial discourse has often recast it as theopposition between the male colonizer and the female territory of the colonized, which

has thus to be penetrated and subdued. In response to this colonial feminization, the

colonized have attempted to produce a reverse discourse of hypermasculinity, in which

the land becomes a feminine entity requiring her sons or lovers to fight the oppressors inorder to restore her former possessions. The paper considers Ireland and its range of

feminine representations in pre-colonial, countercolonial and postcolonial contexts.


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2.3. Writing from sources:quotation, paraphrase, summary, prcis and referencing

1. The following examples make use of quotation. Correct any errors occurring in them:

a)

Beggars should be abolished, said Friedrich Nietzsche. It annoys one to give tothem, and it annoys one not to give to them.

b) According to Dr. Johnson; a man is in general better pleased when he has a good

dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek.c) In his biography of Gary Cooper: David Zinman says Cooper thought he was

successful Because I look like the guy down the street. According to Zinman,

He told many interviewers, Im just an ordinary Joe who became a movie star.d) In his biography of George Bernard Shaw, H. Pearson writes about A strange

lady giving an address in Zurich who wrote him a proposal thus: You have the

greatest brain in the world, and I have the most beautiful body; so we ought toproduce the most perfect child. Shaw asked: What if the child inherits my

body and your brains?e) Although he worked hard as hell all winter, Fitzgerald had difficulty finishing

The Great Gatsby. On 10 April, 1924, he wrote to Maxwell Perkins, his editor atScribners. While I have every hope & plan of finishing my novel in June

even (if) it takes me 10 times that long I cannot let it go unless it has the very best

Im capable of in it or even as I feel sometimes better than Im capable of. It isonly in the last four months that Ive realized how much Ive well, almost

deteriorated What Im trying to say is just that at last, or at least for the

first time in years, Im doing the best I can.

Note that:

Quotation is a the most basic way to support ideas in a research essay; The apparatus for quotation is twofold, requiring the insertion of

quotation marks for the cited passage and the insertion of a citation

containing the sources name;

Quotation may be separated from or integrated with your writing. If

separated, a comma or colon and quotation marks separate citation and

quotation; the first letter of the quotation is capitalized. If integrated, no

punctuation (but quotation marks) separates citation and quotation; the

first letter of the quotation is not capitalized;.

Some useful introductory verbs for citation are: argues, establishes,

emphasizes, finds, points out, notes, suggests, adds, explains, believes,

continues, declares, observes, proposes, concludes, disagrees, insists,maintains, states, compares;

An extended quotation (running more than four typewritten lines) should

be isolated (i.e. treated as a self-contained paragraph) and block-

indented, with quotation marks omitted at both its beginning and end.


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2. Read the text below and then decide which is the best paraphrase, (a) or (b).

Ancient Egypt collapsed in about 2180 BC. Studies conducted of the

mud from the River Nile showed that at this time the mountainous

regions which feed the Nile suffered from a prolonged drought. This

would have had a devastating effect on the ability of Egyptian societyto feed itself.

a) The sudden ending of Egyptian civilisation over 4,000 years ago was probably caused

by changes in the weather in the region to the south. Without the regular river flooding

there would not have been enough food.

b) Research into deposits of the Egyptian Nile indicate that a long dry period in themountains at the rivers source may have led to a lack of water for irrigation around

2180BC, which was when the collapse of Egyptian society began.

Now compare the original text above with its paraphrases and exemplify some of the

techniques used in paraphrasing under the headings below:

a) changing vocabulary: ______________________________

b) changing word-class: ______________________________

c) changing word-order: ______________________________

Note that:

Paraphrasinginvolves changing a text so that it is quite dissimilar to the sourceyet retains all the meaning. Effective paraphrasing is vital in academic writing to

avoid the risk of plagiarism.It may take two forms:

Literal paraphrase: a word-for-word substitution, staying close to thesentence structure of the original text.

Free paraphrase: moves away from the words and sentence structure of theoriginal text and presents ideas in the paraphrasers own style and idiom; it

can summarise repetitious parts of the original, but it will present ideas in

much the same order.

3. Consider the following paraphrase and summaryof an excerpt from MachiavellisThe Prince. What differences can you establish between them?

Original Version

It is not, therefore, necessary for a prince to have [good faith and integrity], but itis very necessary to seem to have them. I would even be bold to say that to

possess them and always to observe them is dangerous, but to appear to possess

them is useful. Thus it is well to seem merciful, faithful, humane, sincere,

religious, and also to be so; but you must have the mind so disposed that when it


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is needful to be otherwise you may be able to change to the opposite qualities.

And it must be understood that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannotobserve all those things which are considered good in men, being often obliged, in

order to maintain the state, to act against faith, against clarity, against humanity,

and against religion. And therefore, he must have a mind disposed to adapt itself

according to the wind, and as the variations of fortune dictate, and not deviatefrom what is good, if possible, but be able to do evil if constrained.

A prince must take great care that nothing goes out of his mouth which is

not full of the above-mentioned five qualities, and to see and hear him, he shouldseem to be all mercy, faith, integrity, humanity, and religion Everyone sees

what you appear to be, few feel what you are, and those few will not dare to

oppose themselves to the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them;and in the actions of men, and especially of princes, from which there is no

appeal, the end justifies the means. Let a prince therefore aim at conquering and

maintaining the state, and the means will always be judged honourable andpraised by every one, for the vulgar are always taken by appearances and the issue

of the event; and the world consists only of the vulgar, and the few who are notvulgar are isolated when the many have a rallying point in the prince.

ParaphraseIt is more important for a ruler to give the impression of goodness than to be

good. In fact, real goodness can be a liability, but the pretence is always veryeffective. It is all very well to be virtuous, but it is vital to be able to shift in the

other direction whenever circumstances require it. After all, rulers, and especially

recently elevated ones, have a duty to perform which may absolutely require themto act against the dictates of faith and compassion and kindness. One must act as

circumstances require and, while its good to be virtuous if you can, its better tobe bad if you must.

In public, however, the ruler should appear to be entirely virtuous, and if

his pretence is successful with the majority of people, then those who do seethough the act will be outnumbered and impotent, especially since the ruler has

the authority of government on his side. In the case of rulers, even more than for

most men, the end justifies the means. If the ruler is able to assume power and

administer it successfully, his methods will always be judged proper andsatisfactory; for the common people will accept the pretence of virtue and the

reality of success, and the astute will find no one is listening to their warnings.

SummaryAccording to Machivelli, perpetuating power is a more important goal for a ruler

than achieving personal goodness or integrity. Although he should act virtuouslyif he can, and always appear to do so, it is more important for him to adapt

quickly to changing circumstances. The masses will be so swayed by his

pretended virtue and by his success that any opposition will be ineffective. Thewise rulers maxim is that the end justifies the means.


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Note that:

A paraphrase is the point-by-point recapitulation of another persons

ideas, expressed in your own words.

It is used to present ideas or evidence taken from a source whenever

there is no special reason for using a direct quotation. It must be accurate, complete, written in your own voice, and it must

make sense by itself.

A summary is the selection and condensation of ideas or information

taken from a source.

It should make sense as an independent, coherent piece of writing, and

it should be complete in the sense that it provides a fair representation

of the work and its parts.

Unlike paraphrase, a summary includes only the main ideas from the

source, and it changes their order when necessary.

Round-up

Here is an excerpt from P.F.D. Tennants book on Ibsens Dramatic Technique

(Macmillan, 1978) followed by a passage from a student essay that makes use of the

i

Documents

Writings Techniques (Complete)