Writings Techniques (Complete)

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 in

order to communicate ideas clearly, logically and effectively.
To identify the tasks required by the different types of writing and explore
their conventions and criteria;
To provide models that may serve as helpful examples of particular tasks
under discussion;
To raise awareness of the different choices available at any given stage of
the writing process and advise in making them.
Topics
1. Foundations
1.1. Sentences and clauses
1.2. Punctuation and paragraphing
1.3. Style and Voice
2. Issues and Techniques Specific to Different Types of
Writing
2.1. The Essay
2.2. The Research/Academic Article
2.3. Writing from sources: quotation, paraphrase, summary,
prcis and referencing
2.4. The Review
2.5. Reports and Minutes
3. Other Aspects of Writing
3.1. Conference Papers. Powerpoint presentations. Handouts
3.2. Refereeing
3.3. Publishing
Writing Techniques
Bibliography
Bailey, Stephen, Academic Writing: A practical guide for students, London
and 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, London
and 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. Martins
Press, 1991.
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-bubble
will form in the neck. Do not allow the baby to
drink 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 mild
solution 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 and
as 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 with
two 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 watery
humour 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 any
romanticism, 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 important
event, but the epic nature of the book is constantly
undermined: the single most important sentence in
the novel confirms my opening statement in its
grotesque 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 Greek
philosophy 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 two
moments 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 the
imagination, 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 means
of the similarity we perceive between them and other
objects. F. D. Maurice, likewise, pointed to the
inability of a child to make refined distinctions, arising
from the infant state when all men are called father
and all women mother. But the particular genius of the
child and to Coleridge a child possesses genius rather
than talent was the combination of simplicity,
innocence and sensibility which enabled it to penetrate
to the essence of what it observed, without being able to
explain the process in intellectual or rational terms.
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 make
clear 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. (Mike
Read)
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 its
rhythm 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 shade
and 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 was
the 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 a
bit 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 in
that 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 came
up, 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.
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. It
occurred 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 the
country. 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 most
reliable 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 an
actress. 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 a
potentially 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 harden
prematurely, 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.
b.
c.
d.
e.
It was a fine day, the sun was shining.

It was a fine day. The sun was shining.
It was a fine day the sun was shining.
It was a fine day; the sun was shining.
It was a fine day: the sun was shining.
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 I
have 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 in
the argument?
Twelfth Night is 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 and
no 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 happiest
lights, 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 gives
rise 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 of
artificial life.
1.3. Style and Voice

What is redundant in the following examples?
This new innovation
At this moment in time
Whys and wherefores
Unnecessary fripperies
Quite unique
Quite dead
Throughout the whole chapter

The 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-gritty
High 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 all
dimensions 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 the
people 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.
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 GalileanNewtonian-Cartesian approach to knowledge, not least,
to knowledge of man, which, in its tendency to
objectify, 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 at
the 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. It
should 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 been
a 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 bed
Of crimson joy
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
The following passage is an edited extract from The Dailys Telegraphs lead story on
Tuesday, 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 British
Grand 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 block
buster, 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 been
impossible to see the results through impenetrable clouds of dust and smoke.
EFFECT ON WAR AND PEACE
In 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.
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 to
protect 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 of
vocabulary 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 masterly
that 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 use
blaming 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 a
treasured 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 the
nastiest, 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 was a letter after all, tucked into the
outer 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.
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 them
in 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 and
sometimes 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 gain
permission 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 as
refugees, 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 illegally
has 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 would
undoubtedly 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 that
our 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.
11
A. Types of Writing
1. Try to pair off the following instructional verbs with the definitions provided
alongside them:
Account for
Analyse
Comment on
Compare
Contrast
Describe
Discuss
Evaluate
Explain
Identify
List
Outline
Review
Summarize
give reasons; say why rather than just define

write down the information in the right order
item-by-item consideration of the topic, usually presented one under the other
point out difference only and present result in orderly fashion
estimate the value of, looking at positive and negative attributes
elect features according to the question
present arguments for and against the topic in question; you can also give your opinion
explain the cause of
make critical or explanatory notes/observations
state the main features of an argument, omitting all that is only partially relevant
give the main features or general features of a subject, omitting minor details and stressing structure
make a survey of the subject, examining it critically
point out the differences and similarities
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 the
four main types on nonfiction prose are: narration, description, exposition and
argumentation.
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 as
to 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 violent
his 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 physical
clash 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 is
inherited 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 of
the 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 the
middle 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 rests
on 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
12
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 narrative patterns 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 9th, a831, and signed by the then reigning monarch of France, LouisPhilippe. 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 a
capital 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 in
needy 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) and
the 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 research
endowments 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 no
interest 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
13
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 Vasa fired 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 superstructure
ablaze 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 exposition are 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. A
Philadelphia 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 the
eruption 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 as
possible, 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 sapling
crotch 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 until
he 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 gentle
method requires more patience in the early stages, but produces a cheerful, good-tempered elephant
who 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 large
quantities 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)
14
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 be
used 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 of
government 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 their
sphere, 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 less
money 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 selfconscious 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 twelfthcentury 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 in
conformity 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.
15
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 appropriate

means of development
if using an analogy for clarification, do not mistake it for supporting evidence
16
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 no
inclination 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 of
local 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 fallacies are present in the following examples?

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Penal reform is necessary because of prison corruption, which shows the need for prison reform.
If teachers cannot fix the problems in schools they should stay out of the debate altogether.
Why are men more aggressive than women?
This action is wrong because it is immoral.
Art courses should be required in secondary schools because there is no reason that they should not be.
Never trust anyone over thirty.
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.
17
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 evident
in some of its major foreign policies.
Hitlers murder of eight million Jews one more

chapter in the long history of mans inhumanity to
man has given modern West Germany, like
some other nations, a legacy of guilt that is evident
in 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 difference
between 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 future
behind 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 to
fundamentals 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 a
young 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 a
world beyond which can seldom be described
in words: for language, which was invented
to convey the meanings of this world, cannot
readily be fitted to the uses of another.
A young man sees a sunset and, unable to

understand or to express the emotion that it rouses
in 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 to
resist 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 can
describe; for language, which was invented to
convey 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 is
undeniable, 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 was
Siddharth Gautama. On his 35th 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 35th birthday
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 the
secret of enlightenment to all who desire salvation
came the faith we call Buddhism.
18
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 an

answer to the question Who invented
Ireland?.
If God invented whiskey to prevent the Irish from

ruling 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 the
following 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 could
become 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 upon
growth or limits on fulfilment.
c)
It is clear from the examples above that the state is spending far more on highways than it is on
education. 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 are
bound 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 last
effort 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.
19
c.
d.
e.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Never use the passive where you can use the active.
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.
20
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 information
Frame a thesis statement
Analyse the subject
Examine the first major issue
Examine the second major issue
Examine the third major issue
Discuss your findings
Restate your thesis and point beyond it
Interpret 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
Introduction
Examine the problem or question
Discuss its significance
Provide any necessary background information
Introduce experts who have addressed the problem
Provide a thesis sentence addresses the problem from a perspective not yet
advanced by others
Body
Trace issues involved in the problem
Develop a past to present examination
Compare and analyse the details and minor issues
Cite experts who have addressed the same problem
Conclusion
Advance and defend your theory as it grows out of evidence in the body
Offer directives or a plan of action
Suggest additional work and research that is needed
21
c. Model for the Analysis of Creative Works

Introduction
Identify the work
Give a brief summary in one sentence
Provide background information that related to the thesis
Offer 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
Body
Provide an analysis divided according to such elements as imagery, theme,
character development, structure, symbolism, narration, language, etc.
Conclusion
Keep 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
Introduction
In one sentence establish the problem or controversial issue that your paper will
examine
Summarize the issues
Define key terminology
Make concessions on some points of the argument
Use quotations and paraphrases of sources to build the controversial nature of the
subject
Provide background to establish a past/present relationship
Write a thesis to establish your position
Body
Argue in defence on one side
Analyse the issues, both pro and con
Give evidence from the sources, including quotations as appropriate
Conclusion
Expand 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
22
e. Model for a Comparative Study

Introduction
Establish A
Establish B
Briefly compare the two
Introduce the central issue
Cite source materials on the subjects
Present your thesis
Body (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 B
Compare and contrast A and B / Discuss the central issues / Issue 3: Discuss A and B
Conclusion
Discuss 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 organisation for each section of the research essay
Section of essay: theme generation of
paragraphs
Thematic (content) coherence
1. 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 forward
in this section.
All the themes are related to the main
topic as well as the section topic.
Themes are generated because of the
knowledge (and insight) of the writer.
Section of essay: topic sentences

Structural coherence
1. 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 link
with previous paragraph.
6. Topic sentence captures the
conclusion.
All the topic sentences should relate
(conceptually) to the main topic.
Topic sentences are constructed to
reflect a summarised version of the
theme of the paragraph.
B. managing section and sub-section transitions

Function
Transitional words and phrases
To add
In addition; furthermore; moreover; and; again; equally important;

similarly
Because; for; since; for the same reason
Yet; while; whereas; in contrast; however; on the one hand on
the other hand; conversely; on the contrary; by comparison
Yet; still; nevertheless; in spite of; despite; of course
To prove
To compare and
contrast
To show
exception
To indicate time
To repeat
To emphasise
Immediately; thereafter; soon; finally; then

In brief; as I have noted
Obviously; definitely; extremely; in fact; indeed; in any case;
positively; naturally; surprisingly; undeniably; unquestioningly;
without reservation
To show sequence First; firstly; secondly (etc.); and so forth; next; then; following
this; 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; to
demonstrate; to illustrate; as an example
To summarise or In brief; on the whole; summing up; to conclude; in conclusion; as
conclude
I have shown; hence; therefore; as a result; on the whole;
consequently
To show cause- Because; since; therefore; as a result; consequently; hence; thus;
and-effect
because of; due to; as a result of
relationships
To show
Although; even though; despite the fact that; notwithstanding the
adversative
fact that; nevertheless; in spite of
position
To clarify
In other words; that is
To intensify
On the contrary; as a matter of fact; in fact
23
24
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 and
abstraction. 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
Note that 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 heading
e.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 revealed
e.g. Abstracts, Introductions and Discussions: How far do they differ in
style?
Titles that announce the thesis i.e. indicate the direction of the authors argument
e.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 cinema
Legal Ease and Legalese
25
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 just
their 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 at
work 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 on
the 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 the
debate 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 knowing
human (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 sociocultural
perspective. Finally we propose that the constructive perspective attends to
epistemological structures and processes which the sociological perspective must
place 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 consequences
of 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 to
research: background; aim; method; results; conclusions.
26
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 could
identify. 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 implicit
references 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 metanarrative
that 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 and
images 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 changing
technological and scientific capabilities. Often questioning the effects and the desirability
of their implementation, these works express a profound concern about technologies that
aim 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 made
ever 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 of
utopian 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 the
opposition 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 in
order to restore her former possessions. The paper considers Ireland and its range of
feminine representations in pre-colonial, countercolonial and postcolonial contexts.
27
Focusing on the case of Irish nationalism, that appropriated a long and complex tradition
of feminine representations of the land in order to establish a nationalist identity that
fused woman and nation, it considers W.B. Yeatss Cathleen Ni Houlihan as a formative
text that turned the symbol of Cathleen into a powerful nationalist icon. On the contrary,
a contemporary play like Tom Murphys Bailegangaire attempts to de-mythologize in
order to re-mythologize this feminine trope in response to the contemporary climate
of reassessment of issues related to nation and identity, in which the symbol of Cathleen
has often been found restrictive and troubling.
Keywords: colonial discourse, self/other, gender and representation, myth, Irish drama.
d) Abstract: This paper will propose a re-examination of the 1970s radical politics of
violence as epitomised by the Red Army Fraction in Germany and the Red Brigades in
Italy and the corresponding responses of state violence as an essential archaeology of the
present. Furthermore it will advocate a re-examination of radical theoretical responses to
these dynamics ranging from theorists such as Virilio and Baudrillard, as well as
filmmakers such as Fassbinder as exemplary instances of the immanent critique of these
phenomena. I will be arguing that a re-reading of these texts in relation to terrorist
events of the 1970s can give vital insights into the present-day war on terror, the
political dynamics of which were already being worked out in the 1970s. In particular,
this paper will address how 1970s terrorist groups had complex relations to various
forms of textual and media production and reception. Furthermore, it will show how in
less literary acts of communication these groups were directly anticipating the
development of both network terrorist groups such as Al Queda and directly provoked
and responded to network forms of surveillance and counter-terrorism.
Keywords: violence, political dynamics, (counter-) terrorism, media representation.
Note that: The keywords selected to accompany a research article usually
refer to the following:
Discipline: e.g. cultural studies, linguistics, translation studies,

media studies
Method of approach: e.g. narratology, postcolonial criticism,
semiotics of film, psychoanalysis
Genre/corpus under investigation: e.g. novel, film, drama,
newspaper article
Location: e.g. Europe, England, Romania, Ireland
Topic: e.g. the migrant, identity, masculinity
Round-Up
Assume you were invited to participate in a conference on Identity, Alterity, Hybridity:
modes of approach. Think of a possible research article to fit the theme and provide:
a) a suitable title
b) its abstract (no more than 150 words)
c) between 4 and 6 keywords to accompany it
28
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 to
them, 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 to
produce 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 at
Scribners. 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 is
only 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 blockindented, with quotation marks omitted at both its beginning and end.
29
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 society
to 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 the
mountains 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:
Paraphrasing involves changing a text so that it is quite dissimilar to the source
yet 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 the
sentence structure of the original text.
Free paraphrase: moves away from the words and sentence structure of the
original 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 summary of an excerpt from Machiavellis
The 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 it
is 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
30
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, cannot
observe 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 deviate
from 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 should
seem 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 and
praised 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 not
vulgar are isolated when the many have a rallying point in the prince.
Paraphrase
It 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 very
effective. 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 them
to 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 to
be 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 see
though 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 and
satisfactory; 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.
Summary
According to Machivelli, perpetuating power is a more important goal for a ruler
than achieving personal goodness or integrity. Although he should act virtuously
if 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. The
wise rulers maxim is that the end justifies the means.
31
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
ideas and the words of the source without acknowledging them. Compare the original
with the plagiarized passage, then insert the appropriate quotation marks and underline
the paraphrases.
Source
When writing [Ibsen] was sometimes under the influence of hallucinations, and
was unable to distinguish between reality and the creatures of his imagination.
While working on A Dolls House he was nervous and retiring and lived in a
world alone, which gradually became peopled with his own imaginary characters.
Once he suddenly remarked to his wife: Now I have seen Nora. She came right
up to me and put her hand on my shoulder. How was she dressed? asked his
wife. She had a simple blue cotton dress, he replied without hesitation. . . . So
intimate had Ibsen become with Nora while at work on A Dolls House that when
John Paulsen asked him why she was called Nora, Ibsen replied in a matter-offact tone: She was really called Leonora, you know, but everyone called her
Nora since she was the spoilt child of the family. (p. 26)
Student essay
While Ibsen was still writing A Dolls House, his involvement with the characters
led to his experiencing hallucinations that at times completely incapacitated his
ability to distinguish between reality and the creations of his imagination. He was
nervous, distant, and lived in a secluded world. Gradually this world became
populated with his creations. One day he had the following exchange with his
wife:
32
Ibsen: Now I have seen Nora. She came right up to me and put her hand on my
shoulder.
Wife: How was she dressed?
Ibsen (without hesitation): She had a simple blue dress.
Ibsens involvement with his characters was so deep that when John Paulsen
asked Ibsen why the heroine was named Nora, Ibsen replied in a very nonchalant
tone of voice that originally she was called Leonora, but that everyone called her
Nora, the was one would address the favourite child in the family.
4. Read the following text and compare the summaries. Decide which is best, giving
reasons.
Researchers in France and the United States have recently reported that
baboons are able to think abstractly. It has been known for some time
that chimpanzees are capable of abstract thought, but baboons are a
more distant relation to mankind. In the experiment, scientists trained
two baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals
had to match computer designs which were basically the same but had
superficial differences. The baboons performed better than would be
expected by chance. The researchers describe their study in an article in
the Journal of Experimental Psychology.
a) French and American scientists have shown that baboons have the ability to think in an
abstract way. The animals were taught to use a computer, and then had to select similar
patterns, which they did at a rate better than chance.
b) Baboons are a kind of monkey more distant from man than chimpanzees. Although it
is known that chimpanzees are able to think abstractly, until recently it was not clear if
baboons could do the same. But new research has shown that this is so.
c) According to a recent article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, baboons are
able to think in an abstract way. The article describes how researchers trained two
baboons to use a personal computer and a joystick. The animals did better than would be
expected.
5. Try to summarize the following passages into one sentence each:
a. It is often remarked that science has increasingly removed man from a position
at the centre of the universe. Once upon a time the earth was thought to be at the
centre and the gods were thought to be in close touch with the daily actions of
humans. It was not stupid to imagine the earth was at the centre, because, one
might think, if the earth were moving around the sun, and if you threw a ball
vertically upward, it would seem the ball should come down a few feet away from
you. Nevertheless, slowly, over many centuries, through the work of Copernicus,
Galileo, and many others, we have mostly come to believe that we live on a
33
typical planet orbiting a typical star in a typical galaxy, and indeed that no place
in the universe is special. (Gordon Kane, Are We the Centre of the Universe?)
b. To parents who wish to lead a quiet life, I would say: Tell your children that
they are very naughty much naughtier than most children. Point to the young
people of some acquaintances as models of perfection and impress your own
children with a deep sense of their inferiority. You carry so many more guns than
they do that they cannot fight you. This is called moral influence, and it will
enable you to bounce them as much as you please. They think you know and they
will not have yet caught you lying often enough to suspect that you are not the
unworldly and scrupulously truthful person which you represent yourself to be;
nor yet will they know how great a coward you are, or how soon you will run
away; if they fight you with persistency and judgment. You keep the dice and
throw them both for your children and yourself. Load them then, for you can
easily manage to stop your children from examining them. Tell them how
singularly indulgent you are; insist on the incalculable benefit you conferred on
them, firstly in bringing them into the world at all, but more particularly in
bringing them into it as your children rather than anyone elses. Say that you have
their highest interests at stake whenever you are much upon these highest
interests. Feed them spiritually upon such brimstone and treacle as the late Bishop
of Winchesters Sunday stories. You hold all the trump cards, or if you do not you
can filch them; if you play them with anything like judgment you will find
yourselves heads of happy, united God-fearing families, even as did my old friend
Mr. Pontifex. True, your children will probably find out all about it some day, but
not until too late to be of much service to them or inconvenience to yourself.
(Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh)
Guidelines for summarizing paragraphs:
Find a summarizing sentence within the passage; or

Combine elements within the passage into a new summarizing
sentence ;or
Write your own generalization to provide a summarizing sentence.
6. There follows a longer essay written by Bertrand Russell. As you read it, isolate each
important point and note it down in a list. Then write a statement of Russells thesis.
Compare your notes with the summary that follows. Would you describe the latter as:
A compilation of phrases taken from the text;

A collection of topic sentences, one from each paragraph;
A clear, coherent and unified paragraph, expressing the main ideals of the original
in the writers own voice and words.
34
The Social Responsibility of Scientists

Bertrand Russell
Science, ever since it first existed, has had important effects in matters that lie
outside the purview of pure science. Men of science have differed as to their
responsibility for such effects. Some have said that the function of the scientist in
society is to supply knowledge, and that he need not concern himself with the use
to which this knowledge is put. I do not think that this view is tenable, especially
in our age. The scientist is also a citizen; and citizens who have any special skill
have a public duty to see, as far as they can, that their skill is utilized in
accordance with the public interest. Historically, the functions of the scientist in
public life have generally been recognised. The Royal Society was founded by
Charles II as an antidote to fanaticism which had plunged England into a long
period of civil strife. The scientists of that time did not hesitate to speak out on
public issues, such as religious toleration and the folly of prosecutions for
witchcraft. But although science has, in various ways at various times, favoured
what may be called a humanitarian outlook, it has from the first had an intimate
and sinister connection with war. Archimedes sold his skill to the Tyrant of
Syracuse for use against the Romans; Leonardo secured a salary from the Duke of
Milan for his skill in the art of fortification; and Galileo got employment under
the Grand Duke of Tuscany because the could calculate the trajectories of
projectiles. In the French Revolution the scientists who were not guillotined were
set to making new explosives, but Lavoisier was not spared, because he was only
discovering hydrogen which, in those days, was not a weapon of war. There have
been some honourable exceptions to the subservience of scientists to warmongers.
During the Crimean War the British government consulted Faraday as to the
feasibility of attack by poisonous gases. Faraday replied that it was entirely
feasible, but that it was inhuman and he would have nothing to do with it.
Modern democracy and modern methods of publicity have made the
problem of affecting public opinion quite different from what it used to be. The
knowledge that the public possesses on any important issue is derived from vast
and powerful organizations: the press, radio, and, above all, television. The
knowledge that governments possess is more limited. They are too busy to search
out the facts for themselves, and consequently they know only what their
underlings think good for them unless there is such a powerful movement in a
different sense that politicians cannot ignore it. Facts which ought to guide the
decisions of statesmen for instance, as to the possible lethal qualities of fallout
do not acquire their due importance if they remain buried in scientific journals.
They acquire their due importance only when they become known to so many
voters that they affect the course of the elections. In general, there is an opposition
to widespread publicity for such facts. This opposition springs from various
sources, some sinister, some comparatively respectable. At the bottom of the
moral scale there is the financial interest of the various industries connected with
ornaments. Then there are various effects of a somewhat thoughtless patriotism,
which believes in secrecy and in what is called toughness. But perhaps more
important that either of these is the unpleasantness of the facts, which makes the
general public turn aside to pleasanter topics such as divorces and murders. The
35
consequence is that what ought to be known widely throughout the general public
will not be known unless great efforts are made by disinterested persons to see
that the information reaches the minds and hearts of vast numbers of people. I do
not think this work can be successfully accomplished except by the help of men of
science. They, alone, can speak with the authority that is necessary to combat the
misleading statements of those scientists who have permitted themselves to
become merchants of death. If disinterested scientists do not speak out, the others
will succeed in conveying a distorted impression, not only to the public, but also
to the politicians.
It must be admitted that there are obstacles to individual action in our age
which did not exist at earlier times. Galileo could make his own telescope. But
once when I was talking with a very famous astronomer he explained that the
telescope upon which his work depended owed its existence to the benefaction of
enormously rich men, and, if he had not stood well with them, his astronomical
discoveries would have been impossible. More frequently, a scientist only
acquires access to enormously expensive equipment if he stands well with the
government of his country. He knows that if he adopts a rebellious attitude he and
his family are likely to perish along with the rest of civilized mankind. It is a
tragic dilemma, and I do not think that one should censure a man whatever his
decision; but I do think and I think men of science should realize that unless
something rather drastic is done under the leadership or through the inspiration of
some part of scientific world, the human race, like the Gadarene swine, will rush
down a steep place to destruction in blind ignorance of the fate that scientific skill
has prepared for it.
It is impossible in the modern world for a man of science to say with any
honesty, My business is to provide knowledge, and what use is made of the
knowledge is not my responsibility. The knowledge that a man of science
provides may fall into the hands of men or institutions devoted to utterly
unworthy objects. I do not suggest that a man of science, or even a large body of
men of science, can altogether prevent this, but they can diminish the magnitude
of the evil.
There is another direction in which men of science can attempt to provide
leadership. They can suggest and urge in many ways the value of those branches
of science of which the important practical uses are beneficial and not harmful.
Consider what might be done if the money at present spent on armaments were
spent on increasing and distributing the food supply of the world and diminishing
the population pressure. In a few decades, poverty and malnutrition, which now
afflict more than half the population of the globe, could be ended. But at present
almost all the governments of great states consider that it is better to spend money
on killing foreigners than on keeping their own subjects alive. Possibilities of a
hopeful sort in whatever field can best be worked out and stated authoritatively by
men of science; and, since they can do this work better than others, it is part of
their duty to do it.
As the world becomes more technically unified, life in an ivory tower
becomes increasingly impossible. Not only so; the man who stands out against the
powerful organizations which control most of human activity as apt to find
36
himself no longer in the ivory tower, with a wide outlook over a sunny landscape,
but in the dark and subterranean dungeon upon which the ivory tower was
erected. To risk such a habitation demands courage. It will not be necessary to
inhabit the dungeon if there are many who are willing to risk it, for everybody
knows that the modern world depends upon scientists, and, if they are insistent,
they must be listened to. We have it in our power to make a good world; and,
therefore, with whatever labour and risk, we must make it.
Summary
Some scientists, as well as other groups, consider that they need not influence the
way in which their discoveries are used. However, Bertrand Russell believes that
scientists have a social responsibility to make sure that their work if used for, not
against, the benefit of humanity. In modern times, it has been especially difficult
for concerned scientists to speak out because many powerful groups prefer to
limit and distort what the public is told, because government officials are too busy
to be thoroughly informed, because scientists depend on the financial support of
business and government, and because the public itself is reluctant to hear
distasteful news. Nevertheless, scientists have the knowledge and the prestige to
command public attention, and their work is too vital for their voices to be
suppressed. If they act together, they can warn us if their work is likely to be used
for an antisocial purpose and, at least, they can propose less destructive
alternatives.
Guidelines for summarizing longer essays:
Review all the notes on your list , and include in the summary all those
ideas that are essential to the authors development of the thesis;
Eliminate repetitions in your list, even if the author restates the same
points. The summary should be considerably shorter that the source;
Ensure the coherence of the summary, which should make sense as a
paragraph in its own right;
Try to use your own words, maintain your own voice and not imitate or
identify yourself with the author whom you are writing about.
Nevertheless, clarify to your reader when you are summarizing directly
from the text and when you are commenting on, inferring from, or
explaining what is being summarized.
37
7. Compare the following passage from H. Marcuses Essay on Liberation (1969)

(which was referred to before, on page 5) with its prcis. Try to identify the principles
and guidelines that inform the latter type of writing.
Original
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 all dimensions 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 the people 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.
Prcis
Capitalism, the systematic consumer of all resources, dominates affluent society
at every level. Fundamentally wasteful and tyrannical, it enlarges the range and
intensity of its influence, destroying or emasculating most potential rebels,
leaving only the wretched of the earth to fight it.
A prcis is a highly polished summary, which often uses direct

quotation from the original source.
If no word-limits are given, it generally amounts to one-third of the
original text;
It may be used to review a piece of writing or to write a plot
summary
Round-Up
a) Write both a paraphrase and a summary of the fragment from Samuel Butlers The
Way of All Flesh, on page 26. Explain the differences between them.
b) Write a prcis of the excerpt from Bertrand Russells essay, The Social Responsibility
of Scientists. Compare it to the summary provided on page 28.
38
8. Match the following examples of references with their function:

1. Orwell (1940) pointed out that although Charles Dickens
described eating large meals in many of his books, he never
wrote about farming. He explains this contradiction in terms
of Dickens upbringing in London, remote from the
countryside.
2. Orwell clearly highlighted this inconsistency in Dickens: It
is not merely a coincidence that Dickens never writes about
agriculture and writes endlessly about food. He was a
Cockney, and London is the centre of the earth in rather the
same sense that the belly is the centre of the body. (Orwell,
1940: pp. 53-54)
3. As Orwell (1940) noted, Dickens frequently described food
but was uninterested in food production. He considered that
this was because of the writers background: He was a
Cockney, and London is the centre of the earth.(pp.5354)
a) Mixture of
summary and
quotation.
b) Summary of a
writers ideas.
c) Quotation of a
writers words.
9. Which are the differences in the following two referencing styles?

a) Hemingways zest for life extended to women also. His wandering heart seemed
only to be exceeded by an even more appreciative eye.7 Hadley was aware of her
husbands flirtations and of his facility with women.8 Yet, she had no idea that
something was going on between Hemingway and Pauline Pfeiffer, a fashion
editor for Vogue magazine.9 She was also unaware that Hemingway delayed his
return to Schruns from a business trip to New York, in February 1926, so that he
might spend some more time with this new and strange girl.10
7
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (New York: Scribners, 1964), p. 102.

Alice Hunt Sokoloff, Hadley: The First Mrs. Hemingway (New York: Dodd, Mead,
1973), p. 84.
9
Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story (New York: Scribners, 1969), p.
159.
10
Hemingway, op. cit., p. 210. Also Baker, op. cit., p. 165.
8
b) Hemingways zest for life extended to women also. His wandering heart seemed
only to be exceeded by an even more appreciative eye (Hemingway, 1964: 102).
Hadley was aware of her husbands flirtations and of his facility with women
(Sokoloff, 1973: 84). Yet, she had no idea that something was going on between
Hemingway and Pauline Pfeiffer, a fashion editor for Vogue magazine (Baker,
1969: 159). She was also unaware that Hemingway delayed his return to Schruns
from a business trip to New York, in February 1926, so that he might spend some
more time with this new and strange girl. (Hemingway, 1964: 210; Baker,
1969: 165)
39
References
1. Baker, Carlos (1969) Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, New York: Scribners.
2. Hemingway, Ernest (1964) A Moveable Feast, New York: Scribners.
3. Sokoloff, Alice Hunt (1973) Hadley: The First Mrs. Hemingway, New York:
Dodd, Mead.
Note that:
A. Referencing a source involves two separate steps:
indicating in the body of a piece of work that some material is not

entirely original, by providing a short 'identifier' for its source (a
reference in the text)
listing, in a separate section of the work, the full details of the source
(in a list of references).
B. There are two dominant academic referencing styles, and many variations
within each of these:
Consecutively numbered notes (1, 2, 3, etc.) at the foot of the page

(footnotes), or at the end of a document/chapter (endnotes) to provide
source details.
Parenthetical notes, or the Harvard style of in-text referencing.
Footnotes or endnotes can also be used with the Harvard style, but only
to include additional information (such as referring readers to
additional sources or expanding discussion of a point mentioned in the
body of the text). Notes of this type should not clot the text, however, for
such overuse signals a structuring problem.
With the Harvard style omit the authors name with the referencing
details if you have already mentioned the name in the body of your
sentence. For example: Sokoloff argues that Hadley was aware of her
husbands flirtations and of his facility with women (1973: 84)
40
10. What differences can you distinguish among the following examples of
referencing formats?
A complete book.
Jones, P.J. (1980), Introduction to Algorithms, London: Methuen.
Jones, P.J., Smith, R. & Watson, E.P. (eds) (1988), Artificial Intelligence
Reconsidered (2nd edition), New York: Wiley.
A chapter in an edited book.

Hamza, K.A. (1988), "Vision Systems", in Jones, P.J., Smith, R. & Watson, E.P.
(eds), Artificial Intelligence Reconsidered (2nd edition), New York: Wiley, pp.
12-34.
An article in a journal.
Carson, P.R. (1970), "An Approach to Intelligent Planning", Journal of Applied
Artificial Intelligence 38(3), 4-11.
An article from a bound volume of conference proceedings.

Jones, P.J. (1983), "An Attempt to Construct a Knowledge-based Route
Planner", Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Transport
Planning, Budapest: Hungarian Transport Association, pp. 212-58.
An article you have obtained which was read at conference whose

proceedings seem not to have been published.
Jones, P.J., Richards, M., Zhao, C.H. & Reynolds, P.E. (1988), "The Use of
BASIC in AI", paper read to the annual meeting of the Norwegian Association for
Computer Education, August, Oslo, Norway.
A report produced in 'duplicated' form by an academic or research

institution.
Jones, P.J. (1987), "An Algorithm for Distributed Intelligent Route Planning with
a BASIC Implementation", Report #32, Intelligent Transport Laboratories, 38
West Avenue, Forked Springs, California, USA.
An online source.
Coxhead,
P.
2007,
"A
Referencing
Style
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxc/refs/refs.html [accessed 2 Apr 2007].
Guide",
A film or video recording.

The Dead Poets Society (motion picture) 1992, Fox Studios, Los Angeles,
Producer Peter Weir.
Je vous trouve trs beau (2006). Dir. Isabelle Mergault. France.
A Current Affair (video recording) 18 January 2003, Australian Consolidated
Press, Sydney, Director, Megan James.
41
Note that:
1. The reference list is arranged in alphabetical order according to the authors
family name. (Do not use numbers, letters or bullet points to begin each entry.)
2. Any reference that starts with a number (e.g. 7:30 Report) precedes the
alphabetical listing and is listed numerically.
3. Where there is more than one author of a publication, maintain the order of
their names as they appear on the title page of the publication, even if they are not
in alphabetical order on the title page.
4. If a reference has no author, list it alphabetically according to the sponsoring
body, for example, CSIRO or Education Queensland.
5. If there is no author or sponsoring body, list alphabetically according to the
title. The whole title of the resource must appear, but when listing alphabetically,
ignore words such as, The, A, An at the beginning of the references title.
6. If there are two or more references by the same author, then list them in order
of publication date with the oldest work first.
7. If references by the same author have been published in the same year, then list
them alphabetically according to the title and add the letter a after the first date,
and b after the second date, and so on, (e.g. 1993a, 1993b, 1993c).
42
2.5. The Review

1. Consider the purpose and style of writing suited to the following scenarios:
a) You have been invited to review a book, play, television programme or film for a
magazine or journal.
b) As part of course assessment you have been asked to critically review some book
or article.
2. Read the following review on the 1999 performance of Brian Friels play
Translations. Try to identify:
passages and phrases where the reviewer summarizes the performance;

include and identify quotation and paraphrase;
passages and phrases where the reviewer interprets (or provides
additional background for) the ideas and themes of the program;
passages and phrases where he evaluates the performance.
Are there any passages that do not fall into one of these three categories? What is their
function in the review?
New York Theatre Review
January 18, 1999
Translations
BY HEDY WEISS--THEATER CRITIC
Highly recommended
From his earliest play, "Philadelphia, Here I Come!," to the widely seen "Dancing
at Lughnasa," the work of master Irish dramatist Brian Friel has revealed two
great obsessions. One is the crisis of exile, whether it is literal or spiritual. The
other is the soul-warping effects of radical social upheaval and cultural change.
Nowhere are these obsessions explored with more passion or complexity
than in "Translations," first produced in 1980 and now receiving a vibrantly acted,
richly intelligent, admirably unsentimental revival by the Seanachai Theatre
Company.
Set in 1833--about 150 years before Graham Reid's "Remembrance," the
other fine Irish play that opened at the Theatre Building this weekend-"Translations" goes a long way in explaining the ferocious battle that has
consumed the English and the Irish for centuries. And it does so in an
extraordinarily searching, poetic, intimate way, with all the ambiguity and
complexities of human nature in full play. At a time when matters of culture,
identity and autonomy have become crucial--whether in the form of disputes over
bilingual education in American schools, or the fierce ethnic warfare now raging
in the former Yugoslavia-- "Translations" goes to the psychic root of the matter
rather than dwelling overtly on politics. In Bally Beg, a Gaelic-speaking farming
43
village in County Donegal where the English have come to exert their control and
impose their culture, change is already in the air. New schools, where everything
is taught in English, are being opened. Those reluctant to go along will be left
behind. Those who try to bridge the cultures will be punished."I know I will be
outside the tribe even if I learn the language,'' says Lieutenant Yolland (the
effortlessly dashing Coby Goss), a young Englishman sent to Bally Beg with his
Irish-bred colleague, Owen (a fresh, insightful portrayal
by Andrew J. Turner), to change the names of the streets and neighborhoods into
"the King's English." Yolland is a naive and romantic border-crosser; he falls in
love with Ireland and with a particular Irish girl, Maire (the radiant, effusive Janet
A. Carr). The consequences are tragic. As Friel well knows, many things are lost
in translation, some irrevocably. He also understands that to hold onto the past
can be self-destructive. "To remember everything is a form of madness,'' says
Jimmy Jack (a spirited performance by Gary Houston), the local literary scholar
fluent in Latin, Greek and Gaelic. As Maire, who dreams of going to America,
pragmatically sees it, "The old language is a barrier to progress."
David Cromer's expert casting and astute, high-energy direction serve the
play well, as do the actors' authentic accents. But Cromer might have found a
clearer way to establish the work's tricky linguistic device; although we hear
everything in English, we realize some of the characters are speaking Gaelic.
There are superb performances by Kevin Fox as Manus, the young
crippled teacher who suffers an agony of displacement and thwarted love; by
Karen Tarjan as Sarah, the woman who silently loves him, and by John Dunleavy
as Hugh, his literature- and drink-sodden father. Ann Noble and Brian Baker are
buoyant, sassy locals, and as Capt. Lancey, Lawrence Garner is the quintessential
English colonialist who demands submission at any price.
Joey Wade's set--full of curves and hills, with an earth floor and a thick,
whitewashed mud wall as backdrop--splendidly captures the Irish countryside,
with Charles W. Jolls' lighting creating elemental effects and Thomas K. Kieffer's
costumes a study in aged muslin and linen. Only the blood is unseen.
Note that:
Reviews of books, films, plays, television programs generally serve a

dual purpose: they explain what the work is about (summary and
interpretation) and they assess its value for an audience
(evaluation)
It is therefore important to distinguish between interpretation (which

does not explicitly pass judgment on the worth of a work) and
evaluation (which contains the reviewers opinion of the work as
well as the standards which, according to the reviewer, the work
should meet).
44
3. Read the following critical reviews and compare their structure to the approach
suggested below.
Structuring a Review
Begin with an initial identification of the book (author, title, date of
publication and other details that seem important). Indicate the major
aspects of the book you will be discussing in you review you focus in
terms of its strengths and weaknesses;
Provide a brief summary of the range, contents and argument(s) of the
book;
In the core of the review offer a critical analysis of the aspects you
have selected to focus on. Substantiate it by drawing on the book itself
as evidence, and other scholarly sources if this is appropriate;
In the conclusion, provide a summary evaluation of the overall
contribution made by the book, to the subject area, to your
understanding of the topic and to scholarship
Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction
by Jonathan Culler
(Oxford Paperbacks, New edition, 2000, 152 p., 24)
This introductory guide comes from a new series by Oxford University Press.
They are written by specialists, aimed at the common reader, and offer an
introduction to the main cultural and philosophical ideas which have shaped the
western world.
Jonathan Culler avoids the common approach of explaining the various
schools of literary criticism by choosing instead a set of topics and showing what
various literary theories have to say about them. There's a certain amount of
sleight of hand. In explaining 'theory' in its modern sense he doesn't acknowledge
the profound difference between this loose use of the term and a scientific theory,
which can be proven or disproven.
Nor does he acknowledge the sort of special pleading and self justification
which is passed off as 'philosophy' in the work of someone such as Michel
Foucault. But he does have a persuasive way of explaining some of these difficult
ideas in terms which the common reader can understand.
The topics he chooses turn out to be very fundamental questions such as
'What is literature?' - that is, are there any essential differences between a literary
and a non-literary text. These are questions to which common sense supplies rapid
answers, but when Theory is applied, unforeseen complexities arise.
In fact when he looks more closely at the nature, purpose, and the
conventions of literature, he claims that one of the purposes of Theory is to
expose the shortcomings of common sense.
45
There's an interesting chapter on language and linguistic approaches to

literary theory where he discusses Saussure and Chomsky, the differences
between poetics and hermeneutics, and reader-response criticism. Any one of
these approaches is now the basis for a whole school of literary theory.
When he gets to genre criticism there's a useful explanation of lyric, epic,
and drama - though it's not quite clear why he separates narrative (stories and
novels) into a chapter of its own.
However, when it does come, his explanation of narrative theory is
excellent. His account of plot, point of view, focalisation, and narrative reliability
will help anyone who wants to get to grips with the analysis of fiction.
He ends with brief notes explaining the various school of literary theory
which have emerged in the recent past - from New Criticism, through
Structuralism, Marxism, and Deconstruction, to the latest fashions of PostColonialism and Queer Theory.
In one sense the book's title is slightly misleading. It should be Modern
Literary Theory. But this is a very interesting and attractive format - a small,
pocket-sized book, stylishly designed, with illustrations, endnotes, suggestions for
further reading, and an index.
Roy Johnson 2005
Note that:
An analytic or critical review of a book or article is not primarily a

summary; rather, it comments on and evaluates the work in the light
of specific issues and theoretical concerns in a given domain.
The literature review puts together a set of such commentaries to map
out the current range of positions on a topic; then the writer can
define his or her own position in the rest of the paper.
46
4. There follow two samples of student critical reviews. Which are their strengths and
minuses?
Manualul traducatorului
Leon Levitchi, ed. a 2-a, Bucuresti, Teora, 2000
The topic of the book is translation as science. It is a guide for all those
who want to study the way a translations is made or can be made following an
academic support. The readers who are interested or can be interested in reading
such a book are students at a Faculty of Letters or at a Master Course in foreign
languages but also teachers or translators interested in studying more the field of
translation.
The book is written by an author which [sic] is highly recommended for
those who attend the high school and want to follow the courses of a faculty.
The theoretical approach is very well organized and it also has many
examples to prove the sustainability of the ideas expressed by the author, which
represent the conclusions drew after a deep study of this field, the author being a
researcher who gives many sources of study.
This book represents an important guide, well organized and structured
which managed to create me a clear image of what translation is.
The paper is a secondary material because analyses the field of translation
giving some useful advice and tracing the most important steps for a translation. It
also organize [sic] the study of the field in some big chapters:
I.
DENOTAIA
II.
ACCENTUAREA
III.
MODALITATEA
IV.
CONOTAIA
V.
COERENA
VI.
STILUL
VII. MARGINALIA
Every chapter has sub-chapters and sub-sub-chapters so the reader can
find out what is a chapter about from the very beginning. What is more interesting
is the fact that every chapter contains at the end a recommended bibliography
which is merely made up especially for that chapter.
I consider this book being representative for the field of translations
together with Didactica traducerii written by Elena Croitoru and Andrei Bantas,
English Through Transaltions (coord. Elena Croitoru), Basics of Translation
Studies by Cay Dollerup, Traducerea sensurilor by Eugene A. Nida and The
Cultural Turn in Translation Studies by Rodica Dimitriu.
47
Aspects of testing English for specific purposes

by Agnes G. Havril
(in Translation studies: Retrospective and perspective views. Galati. 16-17 June
2006, conference proceedings, Galati: The Lower Danube University Foundation,
2006)
The article Aspects of testing English for specific purposes written by
Agnes G. Havril, assistant professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, was
printed in 2006 as a result of the Conference on Translation Studies held by the
English Department of the Lower Danube University of Galati between 16 and 17
June 2006.
The aim of this article is to introduce different theories of ESP testing policies
and present the latest research on the model of specific purpose language ability.
As there is a big demand for ESP learning and ESP testing worldwide, the
test developers and the language examination centres have to realize the
differences between ESP and general EFL testing, and have to be familiar with
the current results of ESP researches both in theory and in practice.
From the point of view of structure, this article is divided into five parts, each of
them focusing on an important aspect of ESP testing.
The explosion of the second industrial and scientific revolution in this century
has caused English to become the lingua franca of the international community.
English language became a natural link within multi-cultural, multi-lingual
societies and a vehicle for international communication. As a result of the above
mentioned social, economic, technological and scientific changes, teaching and
testing ESP have been improving all over the world.
ESP testing is largely addressed to adult learners who require English
language competence to improve their education or to perform a social or working
role.
After presenting us a short history of ESP and the development of several
ESP testing theories, the author gives us a precise definition of specific purpose
testing as communicative language testing. In the same time, the characteristics of
communicative general language and communicative ESP testing are compared
and contrasted in order to be better understood.
Although much could be written by the origins of ESP, in the first part of the
article entitled A short history of ESP, Agnes G. Havril focuses only on the
three reasons common to the emergence of all ESP (as presented by Hutchinson
and Waters in 1987):
(1) the demands of a Brave New World, (2) a revolution in linguistics,
and (3) a focus on the language learner.
Besides that, she mentions the great importance of two historical periods in
the development of ESP, because both of them brought something new and
reviving in this field. For example, the end of the Second World War brought an
enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific, technical and economic
activity on an international scale. And second, the Oil Crisis of the early 1970s
lead to the development in finances and knowledge of the oil rich countries.
Consequently, the language of this knowledge was English.
48
All these changes in society determined people to start learning English for
Specific Purposes, therefore, a new approach to English language emerged.
Revolutionary pioneers in linguistics began to focus on the ways in which
language is used in real life communications. They also pointed to the significant
discovery that spoken and written English vary. ESP teaching and learning has
been strongly influenced by contemporary emergence of the communicative
approach to language teaching, which focused on:
- effective and socially appropriate communication(not only grammatical
patterns)
- learners needs and interests in course content (not only a set of linguistic
criteria)
- meaning (not only form and correctness)
Agnes G. Havril states that all these aspects are important because ESP
focuses on real language use outside the classroom and learner-centered
approach to language teaching is vital. At the same time, the author guides us in
a concise journey through the evolution of ESP, for a better understanding of the
strong connection between ESP and the needs and evolution of the society.
In the second part of the article, entitled Assessing English for special
purposes, one of the main concerns of the authors research is to show that ESP
testing can be distinguished from general English as a foreign Language (EFL)
testing, and also, how communicative language ability can be assessed. This part
is divided into two sections.
The first, deals with EFL and ESP tests focusing on the fact that experts agree
that ESP testing is a special form of communicative language testing. Starting
from the idea that ESP tests differ from general language tests in two basic ways
(ESP tests reflect specific language use more than general tests do, and nonlinguistic background knowledge plays a more significant role in ESP tests), the
author provides us with a very clear and useful table on their distinctive features.
This table is taken from West (1998).
Further on, under the title Theories of ESP and ESP testing, we are
presented few of the basic principles of some of the most important theories on
ESP testing, starting with Hutchinson and Waters (1978), Dudley-Evans and St.
John (1998) and ending with Douglas (2000).
In the subsection Models of communicative language competence we are
introduced into language proficiency theories. We are presented some contrastive
models of language ability like Lados 1961 which made the distinction
between language components and skills components, but did not say how they
were interrelated in the concept of language proficiency.
On the other hand, Chomsky in his model (1965), made the distinction
between the notions of competence and performance. Also, in contrast to
Chomskys model we have the one proposed by Hymes (1972)which is based on
the fact that a crucial factor of this knowledge, is appropriate language use.
The author also mentions Weir, who gives a precise definition of
communicative tests in his book Communicative language testing (1990).
This article may prove to be quite useful for people who are interested in
understanding ESP in connection with all the factors that influence it, and in
49
testing its efficiency. In order to cover al these aspects of ESP and ESP testing
(including history, evolution, theories) Agnes G. Havril consulted many different
sources, with the purpose of contrasting them and providing the reader with a
concise material.
Round-Up
Choose an article or book you read as part of the bibliography required by one of the core
courses included in your Degrees syllabus. Write a critical review of it by attending to
the following set of questions:
1. What is the specific topic of the book or article? What overall purpose
does it seem to have? For what readership is it written? (The preface,
acknowledgements, bibliography and index can be helpful in answering
these questions. Don't overlook facts about the author's background and
the circumstances of the book's creation and publication.)
2. Does the author state an explicit thesis? Does he or she noticeably have an
axe to grind? What are the theoretical assumptions? Are they discussed
explicitly? (Again, look for statements in the preface, etc. and follow them
up in the rest of the work.)
3. What exactly does the work contribute to the overall topic of your course?
What general problems and concepts in your discipline and course does it
engage with?
4. What kinds of material does the work present (e.g. primary documents or
secondary material, literary analysis, personal observation, quantitative
data, biographical or historical accounts)?
5. How is this material used to demonstrate and argue the thesis? (As well as
indicating the overall structure of the work, your review could quote or
summarize specific passages to show the characteristics of the author's
presentation, including writing style and tone.)
6. Are there alternative ways of arguing from the same material? Does the
author show awareness of them? In what respects does the author agree or
disagree?
7. What theoretical issues and topics for further discussion does the work
raise?
8. What are your own reactions and considered opinions regarding the work?
50
A checklist for book reviewers (from Hartley 2006)
Make sure that your review contains:

An early paragraph saying what the book is about, and putting
it in context
Information about the intended audience
A critique of the argument/content of the book
Any supporting academic references
Remarks on the strengths and limitations of the book
A note on the format, length and price (or value for money)
A note (if appropriate) on how well the text is supported by
tables/diagrams/illustrations
If the following details are not supplied for you, please make sure that
your review contains:
Accurate details of the authors/editors names and initials
Title of the publication
Edition
Date of publication
Publisher and place of publication
ISBN number
Format (hardback, paperback or soft cover)
Number of pages
Price
51
5. Read the following literature review on the subject of Language and Gender. Try to
work out:
the comparison the writer establishes in the review
the sequence to his review (why that sequence?)
what the writer's own perspective is.
Pay attention to:
the use the writer makes of each of the sources he refers to
how, in his language particularly, he avoids a "black and white",
right/wrong type of judgement of the positions he reviews.
With the general growth of feminist work in many academic fields, it is hardly
surprising that the relationship between language and gender has attracted
considerable attention in recent years. In an attempt to go beyond "folklinguistic"
assumptions about how men and women use language (the assumption that
women are "talkative", for example), studies have focused on anything from
different syntactical, phonological or lexical uses of language to aspects of
conversation analysis, such as topic nomination and control, interruptions and
other interactional features. While some research has focused only on the
description of differences, other work has sought to show how linguistic
differences both reflect and reproduce social difference. Accordingly, Coates
(1988) suggests that research on language and gender can be divided into studies
that focus on dominance and those that focus on difference.
Much of the earlier work emphasized dominance. Lakoff's (1975)
pioneering work suggested that women's speech typically displayed a range of
features, such as tag questions, which marked it as inferior and weak. Thus, she
argued that the type of subordinate speech learned by a young girl "will later be
an excuse others use to keep her in a demeaning position, to refuse to treat her
seriously as a human being" (1975, p.5). While there are clearly some problems
with Lakoff's work - her analysis was not based on empirical research, for
example, and the automatic equation of subordinate with `weak' is problematic the emphasis on dominance has understandably remained at the Centre of much of
this work. Research has shown how men nominated topics more, interrupted more
often, held the floor for longer, and so on (see, for example, Zimmerman and
West, 1975). The chief focus of this approach, then, has been to show how
patterns of interaction between men and women reflect the dominant position of
men in society.
Some studies, however, have taken a different approach by looking not so
much at power in mixed-sex interactions as at how same-sex groups produce
certain types of interaction. In a typical study of this type, Maltz and Borker
(1982) developed lists of what they described as men's and women's features of
language. They argued that these norms of interaction were acquired in same-sex
groups rather than mixed-sex groups and that the issue is therefore one of (sub)cultural miscommunication rather than social inequality. Much of this research
has focused on comparisons between, for example, the competitive conversational
style of men and the cooperative conversational style of women.
52
While some of the more popular work of this type, such as Tannen (1987),
lacks a critical dimension, the emphasis on difference has nevertheless been
valuable in fostering research into gender subgroup interactions and in
emphasizing the need to see women's language use not only as subordinate but
also as a significant subcultural domain.
Although Coates' (1988) distinction is clearly a useful one, it also seems
evident that these two approaches are by no means mutually exclusive. While it is
important on the one hand, therefore, not to operate with a simplistic version of
power and to consider language and gender only in mixed-group dynamics, it is
also important not to treat women's linguistic behaviour as if it existed outside
social relations of power. As Cameron, McAlinden and O'Leary (1988) ask, "Can
it be coincidence that men are aggressive and hierarchically-organized
conversationalists, whereas women are expected to provide conversational
support?" (p.80). Clearly, there is scope here for a great deal more research that
is based on empirical data of men's and women's speech;
operates with a complex understanding of power and gender relationships
(so that women's silence, for example, can be seen both as a site of
oppression and as a site of possible resistance);
looks specifically at the contexts of language use, rather than assuming
broad gendered differences;
involves more work by men on language and gender, since attempts to
understand male uses of language in terms of difference have been few
(thus running the danger of constructing men's speech as the norm and
women's speech as different);
aims not only to describe and explain but also to change language and
social relationships.
References
Cameron, D., F. McAlinden and K. O'Leary (1988). "Lakoff in context: the social
and linguisticfunction of tag questions." In J. Coates and D. Cameron (op. cit.),
pp. 74-93.
Coates, J. and D. Cameron (Eds.) (1988) Women in their speech communities.
Harlow: Longman.
Coates, J. (1988). Chapter 6: "Introduction." In J. Coates and D. Cameron (op.
cit.), pp. 63-73.
Lakoff, R. (1975) Language and Woman's Place. New York: Harper and
RowMaltz, D.N. and R.A.
Borker (1982). "A cultural approach to male-female miscommunication."In J.
Gumperz (Ed.), Language and social identity. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P.
Tannen, D. (1987). That's not what I meant. London: Dent.
Zimmerman, D. & C. West (1975) "Sex roles, interruptions and silences in
conversation" In B. Thorne & N. Henley (Eds.) Language and sex: difference and
dominance. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House.
53
Note that:
A literature review is an account of what has been published on a topic by

accredited scholars and researchers.
It is often part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis.
It is not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of
summaries.
Its purpose is to convey to the reader what knowledge and ideas have been
established on a topic, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
As a piece of writing, the literature review must be defined by a guiding
concept (e.g. the research objective of or the problem or issue
discussed/argumented in an essay, report, thesis)
Round-up
Write a literature review of key texts included as part of the bibliography required by one
of the core courses in your Degrees syllabus.
A typical approach might be to:
start with a general topic, whether chosen or assigned
do a preliminary (perhaps guided) literature search to narrow down your topic
try to identify points of difference between your selected sources, to get some
comparative dimension to the review - differences in either perspective, point
of emphasis, conclusion, etc.
Further suggestions for organising the writing:
start by presenting, as the conclusion to your Introduction, your intention to
address a range of perspectives or areas of emphasis ;
in your Lit. Review section, sequence these in some logical progression
(earliest to most recent, etc.), a paragraph (or more) for each - remember to
change paragraphs with changes of topic
with each new work or theory, try to describe or define the theory before
attempting to evaluate or criticise it; readers need to know what it is you're
evaluating
try NOT to begin paragraphs with references. Start paragraphs with a more
general introductory main idea
54
2.5. Reports and Minutes

1. Read the following document on Writing Reports (retrieved from
http:/www.ecf.toronto.edu/ writing) and consider how the format may be applied/adapted
to tasks specific to your own field of instruction:
Business and industry, as well as university, often demand reports. They may be
proposals, progress reports, trip reports, completion reports, investigation reports,
feasibility studies, or evaluation reports. As the names indicate, these reports are
diverse in focus and aim, and differ in structure. However, one goal of all reports
is the same: to communicate to an audience. Your audience for an academic
report is already very well informed, so that they will not usually read it in order
to extract knowledge; instead, they will look for evidence that you understand the
material and ideas your report presents. Your document, then, should not only
convey information clearly and coherently (such as numbers, facts or equations),
but should also, where appropriate, detail the logical processes you relied upon
(such as interpretation, analysis, or evaluation).
Typical Components
1. Title Page
The essential information here is your name, the title of the project, and the date.
Be aware of any other information your instructor requires. The title of a report
can be a statement of the subject. An effective title is informative but reasonably
short. Ornamental or misleading titles may annoy readers.
2. Abstract or Summary
This section states the report in miniature. It summarizes the whole report in one,
concise paragraph of about 100-200 words. It might be useful to think in terms of
writing one sentence to summarize each of the traditional report divisions:
objective, method, discussion, conclusions. Emphasize the objective (which states
the problem) and the analysis of the results (including recommendations). Avoid
the temptation to copy a whole paragraph from elsewhere in your report and make
it do double duty. Since the abstract condenses and emphasizes the most
important elements of the whole report, you cannot write it until after you have
completed the report. Remember, the abstract should be a precise and specific
summary -- give details. A technical document is not a mystery novel -- give your
conclusion right away. Support it later.
This report considers three energy sources and recommends the best one. (Too
general)
This report compares nuclear plants, fossil fuels, and solar generators, in order to
determine which energy source will best meet the nation's needs. The criteria for
comparison were the economic, social, and environmental effects of each
alternative. The study concludes that nuclear energy is the best of these options,
55
because North America is not self-sufficient in fossil fuels, and solar power is
currently too unreliable for industrial use. Although nuclear plants are potentially
very dangerous, nuclear energy is still the best short-term solution. (Specific &
detailed)
3.Introduction
3.1. Whereas the abstract summarizes the whole report, the introduction of
identifies the subject, the purpose (or objective), and the plan of development of
the report. The subject is the "what", the purpose is the "why", and the plan is the
"how." Together these acquaint the reader with the problem you are setting out to
solve.
3.2. State the subject and purpose as clearly and concisely as possible, usually in
one sentence called the thesis or purpose statement:
This report describes the design of a full-scale prototype shrimp trawl that would
permit a test of the commercial feasibility of electric trawling during daylight.
3.3. Use the introduction to provide the reader with any background information
which the reader will need before you can launch into the body of your paper.
You may have to define the terms used in stating the subject and provide
background such as theory or history of the subject. For example, the purpose
statement quoted above might warrant some explanation of daylight trawling or
even of the commercial shrimp industry. Avoid the tendency to use the
introduction merely to fill space with sweeping statements that are unrelated to
the specific purpose of your report ("Throughout the ages, human beings have
looked up at the stars and wondered about [your topic here].").
4. Background
If the introduction requires a large amount of supporting information, such as a
review of literature or a description of a process, then the background material
should form its own section. This section may include a review of previous
research, or formulas the reader needs to understand the problem. In an academic
report, it is also the point where you can show your comprehension of the
problem.
5. Discussion
5.1. This section is the most important part of your report. It takes many forms
and may have subheadings of its own. Its basic components are methods, findings
(or results), and evaluation (or analysis). In a progress report, the methods and
findings may dominate; a final report should emphasize evaluation. Most
academic assignments should also focus on your evaluation of the subject.
5.2. Before you begin writing, ask the journalist's questions: who? when? where?
what? why? how? The last three in particular will help you focus analysis.
Beyond asking these simple questions, you also need to make decisions such as:
How do you interpret the data? What is the significance of your findings?
56
6. Conclusion
What knowledge comes out of the report? As you draw a conclusion, you need to
explain it in terms of the preceding discussion. Some repetition of the most
important ideas you presented there is expected, but you should avoid copying.
7. Recommendations
What actions does the report call for? The recommendations should be clearly
connected to the results of the rest of the report. You may need to make those
connections explicit at this point--your reader should not have to guess at what
you mean. This section may also include plans for how further research should
proceed. In professional writing, this section often comes immediately after the
introduction.
8. Attachments
8.1. These will include references and may include appendices. Any research that
you refer to in the report must also appear in a list of references at the end of the
work so that an interested reader can follow up your work.
8.2. Appendices may include raw data, calculations, graphs, and other quantitative
materials that were part of the research, but would be distracting to the report
itself. Refer to each appendix at the appropriate point (or points) in your report. In
industry, a company profile and profile of the professionals involved in a project
might also appear as appendices.
2. Read the following examples of minutes. What characterizes them in point of format
and style of writing?
A.
Smith and Jenkins Inc.
46 meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee to be held
on Friday 15 May at 11.30 a.m. at Head Office
th
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Apologies for absence.

Approval of the Minutes of 45th Meeting held on 19 February
Matters Arising from the Minutes of 45th Meeting.
Budget forecast. Paper to be tabled.
Departmental reports and requests for funding:
a) Accounts Dept.
b) Sales Dept.
c) Transport Dept.
d) Administration Dept.
Chairmans Report.
Annual staff outing.
8
9
57
Any other business.

Date for next meeting.
JS/PR
2.5.90
B.
Extracts from the Minutes
1
2
3
Apologies were received from D. Brown and H. Chilcott.

The minutes of the 45th Meeting were agreed as a true record and signed by
the Chairman.
[44.3.1] Salary Increases. R. Thomas (Transport) wished to know whether
his Departments request for a 90% annual increase had yet been approved.
The Financial Director, P. Jenkins, reported through the Chair that this
oversight had been dealt with and that the increased figures were reflected
in the paper to be tabled at Point 4 on the Agenda.
Budget Forecast
The Financial Director tabled a paper detailing the current state of business
and giving outline forecasts for the coming year. He pointed out that in
view of the drip in sales figures, it would not be possible to pay an
increased dividend to shareholders in this quarter
Assignments Writing Techniques

1. Round-Up (Foundations, p. 9)
Identify and correct the errors of spelling, grammar, punctuation, paragraph-design,
usage, choice of vocabulary 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 masterly
that 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 use
blaming 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 a
treasured 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 the
nastiest, 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 was a letter after all, tucked into the
outer 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.
2. Round-Up (The Essay, p. 19)

Select a 2,000-word essay you have already written and revise it in accordance to the guidelines of essay writing. Present both versions and a short list of personal comments on any
changes you have made to the original.
3. Round-Up (The Research article, p. 32)
Assume you were invited to participate in a conference on Identity, Alterity, Hybridity:
modes of approach. Think of a possible research article to fit the theme and provide:
a) a suitable title
b) its abstract (no more than 150 words)
c) between 4 and 6 keywords to accompany it
4. Round-Up (paraphrase, summary and prcis, p. 29)

a) Write both a paraphrase and a summary of the fragment from Samuel Butlers The
Way of All Flesh, on page 26. Explain the differences between them.
b) Write a prcis of the excerpt from Bertrand Russells essay, The Social Responsibility
of Scientists. Compare it to the summary provided on page 28.
5. Round-Up (critical review, pp. 38-39)
Choose an article or book you read as part of the bibliography required by one of the core
courses included in your Degrees syllabus. Write a critical review of it by attending to
the following set of questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What is the specific topic of the book or article? What overall purpose does it seem to
have? For what readership is it written? (The preface, acknowledgements, bibliography
and index can be helpful in answering these questions. Don't overlook facts about the
author's background and the circumstances of the book's creation and publication.)
Does the author state an explicit thesis? Does he or she noticeably have an axe to grind?
What are the theoretical assumptions? Are they discussed explicitly? (Again, look for
statements in the preface, etc. and follow them up in the rest of the work.)
What exactly does the work contribute to the overall topic of your course? What general
problems and concepts in your discipline and course does it engage with?
What kinds of material does the work present (e.g. primary documents or secondary
material, literary analysis, personal observation, quantitative data, biographical or
historical accounts)?
How is this material used to demonstrate and argue the thesis? (As well as indicating the
overall structure of the work, your review could quote or summarize specific passages to
show the characteristics of the author's presentation, including writing style and tone.)
Are there alternative ways of arguing from the same material? Does the author show
awareness of them? In what respects does the author agree or disagree?
What theoretical issues and topics for further discussion does the work raise?
What are your own reactions and considered opinions regarding the work?
6. Round-up (literature review, p. 42)

Write a literature review of key texts included as part of the bibliography required by one
of the core courses in your Degrees syllabus.
A typical approach might be to:
start with a general topic, whether chosen or assigned
do a preliminary (perhaps guided) literature search to narrow down your topic
try to identify points of difference between your selected sources, to get some
comparative dimension to the review - differences in either perspective, point of
emphasis, conclusion, etc.

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WRITING TECHNIQUES

(Masters Degree in Translation and Interpretation)

To enable the use of the different tools of language and composition in

Writing Techniques: Foundations

How do the following samples of writing compare?

How To Dress A Chub For Table

2. Fielding, having once been a playwrite [sic],

As the title so bluntly suggests, the novel is

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

We may grant that distinctions of measure and

Writing Techniques: Foundations

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

1.1. Bone Structure: Sentences and Clauses

Writing Techniques: Foundations

1.2. Joints: punctuation and paragraphing

It was a fine day, the sun was shining.

Writing Techniques: Foundations

Writing Techniques: Foundations

1.3. Style and Voice

Throughout the whole chapter

In formal writing try to avoid:

Useless or damaging qualifiers:

Writing Techniques: Foundations

The Sick Rose

Writing Techniques: Foundations

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

2. ISSUES SPECIFIC TO DIFFERENT TYPES OF WRITING:

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

give reasons; say why rather than just define

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

Determine the purpose of the description

5. What forms of exposition are used in the following passages?

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

Tasks required by different types of exposition:

use specific details

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

define any technical terminology that may be unfamiliar to your audience

identify points of comparison (the similarities)

identify points of contrast (the differences)

determine the points you wish to emphasize

find areas of likeness between the two subjects

draw the comparison between the subjects

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

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

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 appropriate

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

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

Using generalisations formed through inductive reasoning:

7. What logical fallacies are present in the following examples?

Writing Techniques: Issues Specific to Different Types of Writing

B. Introductions and conclusions

Hitlers murder of eight million Jews has

Hitlers murder of eight million Jews one more

b) Practically since the beginning of time the

People are always talking about the problem of

Nature, like great art, is likely to induce an

A young man sees a sunset and, unable to

d) According to the Wordsworth Encyclopedia,