Engleski jezik struke 3 Sreda, 07.03.2018.

What is listening for gist? What is academic writing? What is the video about? What are the main points? Take notes as you listen.

What is academic writing? - academic topic on an academic level Readers Text Register Spelling

Note-taking The listener has to decide: Step 1 – what is being said Step 2 – what it means Step 3 – whether it is important and whether to note it down Step 4 – how to write it in note form

Note-taking techniques Rule 1: Be selective – decide what’s important How would notes taken by a first-year undergraduate and postgraduate student differ? Rule 2: Be brief – use abbreviations and symbols e.g. i.e. etc. + = w/ w/o Rule 3: Be clear – show the relationship between the speaker’s points Linear notes and mind maps (spider notes, web notes)

Task 1 Coming to Edinburgh? First viewing – make notes on the main points. Second viewing – watch students again and add to or correct your notes. Compare your notes for form and content.

Strategies for efficient listening - six general “macrostrategies” for successful listening: INTERNAL Predicting Monitoring Inference Evaluating INTERACTIVE Responding Clarifying

Strategies for efficient listening - internal Predicting Thinking about the possible content of the lecture before you listen. Use two types of information – background and context. Monitoring Noticing problems as you listen and identifying areas of uncertainty. Inference Making hypotheses when you aren’t sure of something, e.g. the meaning of an unfamiliar word or expression Evaluating Assessing how well you have understood the lecture.

Strategies for efficient listening - interactive Responding Giving your own opinion on the ideas presented by the lecturer. Clarifying Preparing questions that you can ask the lecturer to get a clearer understanding.

Task 2 As you watch and listen, take notes using any method you like. How your "working memory" makes sense of the world Predicting - How much do you know about “working memory”? - How relevant do you expect the content of the talk to be to the task of listening and note-taking? - Do you think it might offer advice that could be helpful to you in your academic studies?

Practice - Compare notes with another student: content – do you agree on what the main points are, and form - what method did you use? Predicting - How accurate were your predictions? Monitoring - Were you aware of any difficulties as you listened? Inferring - Did you have to guess what the speaker said / meant at any stage? Did you understand why the audience laughed? Evaluating - How much (%) would you say you understood? How does that compare with listening to your subject lectures – better / worse / the same?

Task 3 Aligning Strategy and Sales 1. Listen to the lecture and take notes. 2. Answer the questions. 5-10 minutes 3. Listen again – answer the questions as you listen. 4. Check answers.

Now, going back to academic writing What does it take to be a good writer? Can we learn good writing?

(academic) writing Writing is hard. And it’s hard work. - reading - revision - editing When you’re writing, you want your reader to care. There is no point in writing if nobody reads it.

(academic) writing The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what. These are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to the education and rank. William Zinsser, On Writing Well

What not to do - verbs move sentences along, nouns slow them down - vague words - use of unnecessary jargon and acronyms - passive voice - subject and main verb shouldn’t be too far apart

Cut the clutter! This paper provides a review of the basic tenants of cancer biology study design, using as examples studies that illustrate the methodologic challenges or that demonstrates successful solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological research. This paper reviews cancer biology study design, using examples that illustrate specific challenges and solutions.

Example 1 The main aim of this paper is to emphasize one of the possible measures in the process of solving the economic and financial problems in Serbia and to accelerate the EU accession in the light of enhancing its competitiveness. As the main source of data, we have used the Global Competitiveness Report as a basis in our research on actual and previous values of the global index and sub-indexes of competitiveness in Serbia. By detailed analysis of twelve key pillars of competitiveness we will define the actual competitive position of Serbia and note its change compared to the previous years.

Example 2 It also clarifies the basic alternatives and criteria which were taken into serious consideration while making the best choice of software.

Example 3 Project management has been widely discussed in the project management literature.