Lecturer: Miljen Matijašević G10, room 6, Tue 11:30-12:30 Session 4

1. Definitions 2. Academic Style

Simple, academic and extended

Definitions How would you define the following concepts? school dentist elephant library

Definitions structure of a good definition: thing to be defined + verb + general class word + wh-word + particular characteristics An elephant is an animal which lives in Africa and Asia. p. 34 – complete the definitions, ex. 1, 2

Definitions What is wrong with the following definitions? A lecturer is a person who lectures. An examination is when students have to show what they have learned. A dictionary is a book like the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. A degree is given by a university to a student who has passed the appropriate examinations. Ex 35/3 – types of mistakes Make these definitions better!

Definitions What is wrong with the following definitions? A lecturer is a person who gives a talk about a certain subject in order to teach the audience about it. An examination is a process of testing knowledge, usually for the purpose of evaluation. A dictionary is a book containing definitions, synonyms and examples of use of words of a language. A degree is a certificate issued by a university to a student who has passed the appropriate examinations.

Definitions pp – Academic and extended definitions omitting the wh-word (Stage 2, ex. 1) nominalization (Stage 2, ex. 2) using cautious language (Stage 2, ex. 3)

Definitions + Paragraphs TASK: Write a paragraph which will include a definition, classification and exemplification TOPIC: writing TYPES: ideographic and phonetic ideographic: one sign = one idea phonetic: syllabic (one sign = one syllable) alphabetic (one sign = one sound)

Sample answer Writing is the activity of registering ideas on paper or another medium using symbols. Although most people immediately think of writing words and sentences, this is not necessarily so. Writing can be ideographic and phonetic. In ideographic writing, one sign represents one idea, such as ‘going to school’, while in phonetic writing ideas are cut up into pronounceable units, i.e. pieces of language. One sign can represent a syllable, e.g. ‘-tie-’, which we call syllabic writing. Alternatively, it can represent one single sound, such as ‘b’, which is referred to as alphabetic writing. Thus, if we wanted to be precise about our kind of writing, we would refer to it as alphabetic phonetic writing.

Academic Style Characteristics of the academic style full forms of words (no contracted forms) nominalization use of the passive voice and impersonal constructions caution formal negative forms

Full forms of words contracted forms (e.g. can’t, shouldn’t, won’t, isn’t) are not acceptable in the academic style full forms should be used: cannot, should not, will not useful verb: to FAIL to do something – practical for avoiding negatives e.g. Most students do not revise previously studied material before class. – Most students fail to revise...

Nominalization a tendency to describe actions with nouns, rather than verbs and condense the writing Germany invaded Poland in This was the immediate cause of the Second World War breaking out. The recession occurred because too many consumer goods were produced. Crime is increasing rapidly and causing concern. Rewrite these sentences using nominal phrases instead of the underlined verbs.

Nominalization ANSWERS Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 was the immediate cause of the outbreak of the Second World War. The recession occurred because of an over-production of consumer goods. The rapid increase in crime is causing concern.

Passive voice and impersonal constructions Avoid using the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ (to address the reader) I prepared the test-tubes by heating them. I found that most participants were unwilling to quit smoking. You can see the results in Table 1.

Passive voice and impersonal constructions ANSWERS The test-tubes were prepared by heating them. It was found that most participant were unwilling to quit smoking. The results can be seen in Table 1.

Caution – avoiding absolutes Modal verbs: may, might instead of is, are, will be Phrases of caution: appear to (be), seem to (be), tend to (be) Adverbs usually, mostly, predominantly, largely, frequently

Formal negative forms no, little, few instead of not any, not much, not many There wasn’t much evidence of trauma There was little evidence of trauma. There appeared to be little evidence of trauma. The students didn’t report any incidents of the kind. The students reported no such incidents. No such incidents were reported.

Academic Style – Formal or informal? 1. He’ll have to do another five tests before he can stop the experiment. 2. I showed that his arguments did not hold water. 3. I wonder why he put up with those terrible conditions for so long.

Academic Style – Formal or informal? 1. He’ll have to do another five tests before he can stop the experiment. Five more tests will be necessary before the experiment can be concluded. 2. I showed that his arguments did not hold water. It was proved that the arguments provided were without foundation. 3. I wonder why he put up with those terrible conditions for so long. It was unclear why such poor conditions were tolerated for so long.

Rewrite the sentences in a formal style 1. She said it wasn’t good enough. 2. They’ve got to find out how to carry out a survey of old folks’ opinions of little kids. 3. The results were a lot better than I expected. 4. He said: “It’s hell being on your own.”

Rewrite the sentences in a formal style SAMPLE ANSWERS 1. She said it wasn’t good enough. It was said/found to be unsatisfactory. 2. They’ve got to find out how to carry out a survey of old folks’ opinions of little kids. They need to discover how to conduct a survey of elderly people’s opinions of young children. 3. The results were a lot better than I expected. The results appeared to be better than expected. 4. He said: “It’s hell being on your own.” He seemed to find loneliness difficult.

Rewrite the following paragraph Causes of writing errors Research has shown (James) that learners of English find writing the most difficult skill they’ve got to do. There are 3 main types of error that the learner will make. The biggest sort of error leads to misunderstanding or a total breakdown in communication. There are lots of causes of this: the biggest is the use of translation from the mother tongue. By translating word for word the student uses the wrong sentence patterns (grammar) and the wrong words (vocabulary). Another cause is choosing to write too long and complicated sentences with far too many supplementary clauses. The longer the sentence the bigger is the chance of making mistakes and failing to communicate the meaning. Therefore, in the early stages of your writing, you shouldn’t write sentences longer than 3 lines.