English for Academic Purposes Lecturer: Miljen Matijašević e-mail: miljen.matijasevic@gmail.com G10, soba 6, Tue 11:30-12:30 Session 2

Today’s session Essay comments Academic Style

Feedback on the Essays Common mistakes

Opening essays 8 essays – very good to impressive good, correct English use of academic style features 29 essays – good, expected level some use of academic style features improvements necessary 3 essays – a lot of improvement necessary more serious grammatical errors

What’s wrong with these sentences? Smartphones are very usefull because they give us an easy access to many needed informations. In conclusion, smartphones drastically changed our lifestyle and communication. When some mention a „smartphone” first thing that I can think of is fast and available information. Lot of information are false and misleading so don’t trust everything thats online. In that sense, it is a big time saver.

What’s wrong with these sentences? Smartphones are very usefull because they give us an easy access to many needed informations. In conclusion, smartphones drastically changed our lifestyle and communication. When some mention a „smartphone” first thing that I can think of is fast and available information. Lot of information are false and misleading so don’t trust everything thats online. In that sense, it is a big time saver.

What’s wrong with these sentences? Smartphones are very usefull because they give us an easy access to many needed informations. Smartphones are very useful because they provide easy access to useful information. In conclusion, smartphones drastically changed our lifestyle and communication. In conclusion, smartphones have drastically changed our lifestyle and communication.

What’s wrong with these sentences? When some mention a „smartphone” first thing that I can think of is fast and available information. Smartphones are usually/typically associated with quick access to information. Lot of information are false and misleading so don’t trust everything thats online. Much of the information found online is false and misleading so it should not be trusted. In that sense, it is a big time saver. In that sense, it can save its user a lot of time.

Common mistakes Inappropriate choice of words (style or register) pros and cons, stuff, kids, etc. Advantages and disadvantages, arguments in favour / against, benefits and drawbacks, etc. stuff – things, activities, interests, etc. Present Perfect vs. Past Simple Smartphones HAVE changed our lives. undefined time of action result of the action felt or visible in the present

Commonly misused words INFORMATION it is an uncountable noun and must be used as such e.g. a lot of information, various types of information, different pieces of information similar problem with words: RESEARCH and STUDY research (U) – Substantial research has been done… study (C) – Numerous studies have shown….

Commonly misused words No matter / regardless No matter how much they earn Regardless of their income Avoiding marked words Poor people; rich parents Financially disadvantaged, low economic status; well-off, wealthy, affluent

Common problems Enumerating arguments Presenting opposing arguments First, second, third, etc. - informal Firstly, secondly, thirdly, etc. – formal (better!) Firstly, then, in addition, also, etc. Presenting opposing arguments On one side – on the other side (WRONG!) On the one hand – on the other hand / - On the other hand, conversely (not on the contrary!!), however, etc.

Other common mistakes Countable and uncountable nouns (less!) WILL vs. WOULD WILL for future facts or predictions Unemployment will continue to rise in the following period. WOULD for hypothetical situations, such as free higher education for all Students would not have to work in order to pay for tuition. There would be less stress for students. Countable and uncountable nouns (less!) Less + uncountable noun (less money) Fewer + countable noun (fewer problems) Use of modal verbs Modals MAY and MIGHT remove the necessity of using the word ‘maybe’ If high education were free, some students maybe would enrol only to avoid working. If high education were free, some students might enrol only to avoid working.

Practice

Make these sentences better There’s a lot of people who wanted to study something and be high educated but they couldn’t because they couldn’t afford it, so in that way free higher education for all would be good. Arguments that go in favour are more higher educated people which could led to higher life standards and less poor people.

Make these sentences better There’s a lot of people who wanted to study something and be high educated but they couldn’t because they couldn’t afford it, so in that way free higher education for all would be good. Many people cannot afford higher education. For this reason, free higher education for all would be a good idea. Arguments that go in favour are more higher educated people which could led to higher life standards and less poor people. An argument in favour might be that having more people with university education/a university degree could/might ensure a higher standard and decrease poverty.

Make these sentences better Everything you wanna know you can google and find out in a couple of minutes. I think the biggest disadvantage of having smartphone is that kids don't play anymore on playgrounds.

Make these sentences better Everything you wanna know you can google and find out in a couple of minutes. Information can be found quickly and at any moment/whenever the user wishes. I think the biggest disadvantage of having smartphone is that kids don't play anymore on playgrounds. One of the biggest disadvantages of the smartphone is that children tend to spend significantly less time playing with other children/on playgrounds.

Academic Style

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

Nominalization a tendency to describe actions with nouns, rather than verbs and condense the writing Germany invaded Poland in 1939, which was the immediate cause of the Second World War breaking out. The German invasion of Poland in 1939 was the immediate cause of the outbreak of the Second World War.

Nominalization Rewrite these sentences using nominal phrases instead of the underlined verbs. A lot of people use smartphones to look up words. This is why the sale of dictionaries has gone down substantially. The recession occurred because too many consumer goods were produced. Crime is increasing rapidly and causing concern.

Nominalization A lot of people use smartphones to look up words. This is why the sale of dictionaries has gone down substantially. The widespread use of smartphones for looking up words has resulted in a substantial decrease in the sale of dictionaries. The recession occurred because too many consumer goods were produced. The recession occurred because of an over-production of consumer goods. Crime is increasing rapidly and causing concern. The rapid increase in crime is causing concern.

Impersonal constructions Avoid using the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’ (to address the reader) I found that most participants were unwilling to quit smoking. Most participants were found to be unwilling to quit smoking. You can see the results in Table 1. The results can be seen in Table 1.

Passive voice and impersonal constructions Rewrite these sentences using impersonal structures We can’t be sure that the information we find is true. Today people can’t imagine life without smartphones. Since the smartphone is a multi-purpose gadget, I’ll start by pointing out the pros.

Passive voice and impersonal constructions We can’t be sure that the information we find is true. It is impossible to be certain that the information is true. Today people can’t imagine life without smartphones. Life can hardly be imagined without smartphones. Since the smartphone is a multi-purpose gadget, I’ll start by pointing out the pros. Considering that the smartphone is a multi-purpose device, its advantages will be presented first.

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

Caution – avoiding absolutes Smartphones cause eyesight problems. Smartphones may cause eyesight problems. Smartphones are said to cause eyesight problems. Kids spend too much time playing on smartphones. Children tend to spend too much time on their smartphones. There is no visible damage. There appears to be no visible damage. An argument we hear all the time is that it kills social life. A frequently heard argument is that it has a negative impact on social life.

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 alternatively, negative verbs should be avoided altogether

Full forms of words useful verb: to FAIL to do something – practical for avoiding negatives Most students do n0t revise previously studied material before class. Most students fail to revise...

Full forms of words use of adverbs with a negative meaning We can’t consider the smartphone our enemy The smartphone can hardly be considered an enemy. You won’t hear a lot of students complaining about using technology in class. Complaints from students about the use of technology in class are rarely heard.

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.

Exercises

Rewrite the sentences in a formal style He’ll have to do another five tests before he can stop the experiment. I showed that his arguments did not hold water. By using a smartphone we can be pretty sure our message will be delivered to the intended person.

Rewrite the sentences in a formal style 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 I showed that his arguments did not hold water. It was proved that the provided arguments were unfounded. The provided arguments were proved to be unfounded. By using a smartphone we can be pretty sure our message will be delivered to the intended person. The smartphone ensures the delivery of messages to the intended persons.

Rewrite the sentences in a formal style On the plus side, smartphone is a good tool for communication with people that aren’t near you. Moreover, the smartphone can be used for a lot of stuff like data storage. Also another con is that even though people are connected virtually in real life they are often forgeting how to communicate face to face, especially younger generations that are used to communicating by sending messages.

Rewrite the sentences in a formal style On the plus side, smartphone is a good tool for communication with people that aren’t near you. On the positive side, the smartphone is a practical tool for distance communication Moreover, the smartphone can be used for a lot of stuff like data storage. Moreover, the smartphone has a range of uses, such as data storage.

Rewrite the sentences in a formal style Also another con is that even though people are connected virtually in real life they are often forgeting how to communicate face to face, especially younger generations that are used to communicating by sending messages. Another negative effect of the smartphone is the tendency to lose face-to-face communication skills, despite the fact that people are better connected overall. This particularly pertains to the younger generations, who tend to communicate by messaging.

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.