Punctuation

The sentence and the full stop

The full stop is the most important punctuation mark. It shows the end of the
sentence. The English language also uses capital letters at the beginning of
sentences.

For example:
The first schools in what is now British Columbia were established by the Hudson's Bay Company in about 1853 on
Vancouver Island. The present public school system originated with the Public School Act of 1872. Education is
free and compulsory for children ages 7 to 15. Schools are funded by the provincial government and local property
taxes. The province's 75 school districts are administered by locally elected boards.

Try this exercise: Exercise 1

^
The comma

The comma is the most important punctuation mark after the full stop. Its main
use is for separating parts of sentences. Commas function in five main ways:

1. Before or after adverbial clauses and groups.

2. Before various connectives to join two independent clauses.

3. To separate some non-defining phrases from the rest of the sentence.

4. To separate words, groups and clauses in a series.

5. To separate adjectives that separately modify the same noun.

1. Before or after adverbial clauses and phrases

For example:
Recently, the number of service enterprises in wealthier free-market economies has grown rapidly.
Subsequently, the aircraft underwent numerous design changes before it was incorporated into the Type 4 jet
aircraft.
To visit his brother, he drove through the night.
After dinner, he walked around the town.
Although it might seem highly unlikely, there are considerable similarities between the male and female body.
Similar feelings influenced middle-class shareholders and directors, too.
When the activity of our kidneys is considered, a bed-time drink does not waken us by filling our bladders during
the night.
Some businesses only seek to earn enough to cover their operating costs, however.
Because stocks are generally negotiable, stockholders have the right to assign or transfer their shares to another
individual.
After the war, the United States Army occupied Japan and ordered the dismantling of Mitsubishi and other Japanese
conglomerates.
If we work at night and sleep during the daytime, we have difficulty in adjusting our habits.
The patient's perception of his environment and his response to it is likely to be grossly reduced, since he might be
unconscious or paralysed, for example.

2. Before various connectives to join two independent clauses

(and, but, or, so nor, for yet)

For example:
What we require is a National Emergency Government, but no two men I meet can agree how this can be formed.
The house badly needed painting, and the roof needed repairing.
Lord Knollys was not particularly pleased with these proposals, nor were other members of the Cabinet.
A loose stretch would wrinkle too easily with successive washes, or might even wrinkle on a damp day.
There was no Canadian Consulate in Paris at that time, so we had to go to the American Consulate for ours.
It was clearly not an all-party government, yet it was something more than a mere Conservative front.
These experiments led to theories about how development was controlled in terms of cell and tissue properties, but it
was very difficult to link these theories with gene action.

3. To separate certain phrases from the rest of the sentence

For example:
Malaria, once a widespread disease, is under control.
Day-to-day television, in its regularity and its availability, seems regulated by repetition and modulated by
acceptable difference.
Mr Clinton, the President, said that he would give his full support to the proposal.
The Conservatives, who had gained more votes than Labour in the 1929 general election, were only the second
largest party.
The chairman, getting to his feet, began to describe his plans.
The opposition parties, however, were unwilling to accept any programme of economies which did not involve a cut
in the standard rate of benefit.
A nap after lunch, on the other hand, will help you to feel less tired on the evening.
In the United States, for example, many people buy and sell goods and services as their primary occupations.
The prestige of the Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, gave it an influence far greater than its mere numbers
would have warranted.
Some of the top clubs, who had never liked the system, were worried about the growing tendency of the very best
professionals to leave the country to play in Italy and elsewhere.

4. To separate words, phrases and clauses in a series

For example:
Many U.S. firms attempt to tap emerging markets by pursuing business in China, India, Latin America, and Russia
and other Eastern European countries.
Life-support machines are no different in principle from medicines, surgery, or other treatment.
A policeman has to be able to work at night, at weekends and on holidays.
The industrial power generator, electronics, and appliance manufacturer Westinghouse Electric Corporation
purchased media production company CBS Inc.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries manufactures a large variety of industrial products and machinery, including
ships, steel products, power plants,transportation systems, printing presses, aircraft, guided missiles, torpedoes, and
air-conditioning and refrigeration systems.

5. To separate adjectives that separately modify the same noun.

For example:
Critics praise the novel's unaffected, unadorned style.
It was conceived of by all those who participated in it as a temporary, emergency government.
He walked with long, slow, steady, deliberate strides.

Common mistakes

A comma cannot separate subject from predicate. The following sentences are

not possible:
*A man of his great abilities, would always be successful.
*The number of service enterprises in wealthier free-market economies, has grown rapidly.
*Only occupants of the deep oceans or the darkest recesses of caves, will escape such rhythmic influences.
*Experience indicates that, these rhythms do not result wholly from our life-style.

A comma cannot be used to join grammatically separate sentences. The

following sentences are not possible:
*London is a very cosmopolitan city, there are people from many culture living there.
*Learning a new language is like learning to swim, it takes a lot of practice.
*Students in Higher Education face many problems, for example, they have to cope with a new culture.

Try this exercise: Exercise 2

^
The apostrophe

The apostrophe has two main functions in English, but only one in academic
writing. It is used mainly to show possession or relationship. It is also used in
informal writing to show contraction or letters left out.
Possession or relationship

The apostrophe precedes the 's' in singular words and plurals that do not end
in 's'. It follows the 's' in plurals that end in 's'. The apostrophe is not used with
the possessive pronouns 'hers', 'yours', 'theirs' and 'its'.

For example:
The province's 75 school districts are administered by locally elected boards.
Modern estimates of England's total population vary between 1 and 3 million.
Two years earlier, The Economist had described gambling, as Britain's second biggest industry.
The annual per capita consumption of sugar, between the Queen's accession and 1860, rose to 54 lb. in 1870-99 and
85 lb. in 1900-10.
Newly married, neatly permed and wearing the very latest in expensive Western wedding garb, they head for
the groom's sleek sports car under a hail of rice.
By then Leonardo's expertise with paint brush and palette, pen and pencil was already well advanced.
In contrast to the all-inclusiveness of other countries' socialised medical services, 40m Americans have no coverage
at all.
The intention of this new alliance is to make the fight against the administration's policy on cryptography a populist
issue and to derail potentially threatening legislation.
Hemp's environmental credentials are indisputable.
The third and main reason is the process of extracting fibre from the plant's stem.
The weather's unpredictability makes this risky - farmers can easily lose their whole crop.

Common mistakes

An apostrophe cannot be used to make plurals. The following - from the

University of Hertfordshire - are not possible:
Try this exercise: Exercise 3

^
Quotation marks

In academic writing, quotation marks are used to show that you are quoting
directly from another author's work. The quotation marks should enclose the
actual words of the author and all bibliographical information must be given.

For example:
Hillocks (1986) similarly reviews dozens of research findings. He writes, " The available research suggests that
teaching by written comment on compositions is generally ineffective" (p. 167).
For example, McCawley stated in 1968, " ... a full account of English syntax requires a fairly full account of
semantics to just as great an extent as the converse is true" (p. 161).
Hatch (1978, p. 104) wonders whether a more accurate portrayal might be that the learner " learns how to do
conversation, how to interact verbally and out of this interaction syntactic structures are developed" .

Note the punctuation before the quotation marks:

When a reporting verb is used to introduce the quotation, a comma is used.

He stated, " The 'placebo effect,' ... disappeared when behaviours were studied in this manner" (Smith, 1982, p.
276), but he did not clarify which behaviours were studied.
When the quotation is integrated into the structure of your sentence, no
punctuation is used.
Richterich and Chancerel (1980, p. 5) maintain that " assessment should be an integral part of the learning
material" .

When the quotation is independent of the structure of the main sentence, a

colon is used.
Miele (1993, p. 276) found the following: " The placebo effect ... disappeared when behaviors were
studied in this manner" .

Holmes & Stubbe (2003) noted the following:

Humour typically constructs participants as equals, emphasising what they have in common and playing
down power differences.

Try this exercise: Exercise 6

^
Colon

Colons are used to add extra information after a clause. This can be divided
into three main categories.
Lists

A colon can introduce a list.

We need three kinds of support: economic, moral and political.
The Labour government found itself under pressure from three directions: from the left wing, from the TUC, and
from Sir Oswald Mosley and his supporters.

Explanations

A colon can be used before an explanation.

We decided not to go on holiday: we had too little money.
It was conceived of by all those who participated in it as a temporary, emergency government, formed for a single
limited purpose: to balance the budget through drastic economies and increases in taxation.
It was something very rarely seen in Britain, or in other democracies: an emergency government.

Quotations
A colon is used before a quotation when the quotation is independent of the
structure of the main sentence.
Miele (1993, p. 276) found the following: " The placebo effect ... disappeared when behaviors were studied in this
manner."

Note

Do not use a colon directly after a verb or a preposition that introduces the list,
explanation or quotation.

Try this exercise: Exercise 7

^
Semi-Colon

Semi-Colons have two main uses in academic writing.

To separate closely-related sentences

A semi-colon can be used to separate two sentences which could be written

as independent sentences but are very closely related in meaning.
A thorough and detailed biography of Arthur Henderson is also badly needed; the recent short studies by F. M.
Leventhal and Chris Wrigley add little in so far as the events of 1931 are concerned.
Clearly, as the concentration of P rises, so will the proportion of enzyme molecules to which P is bound; hence the
rate of conversion of S to A, and thence to P, will fall.

In both cases a full stop would be acceptable. A comma would not.

Complicated Lists

A semi-colon can also be used to separate items in lists, especially if the

items are long and complicated and already contain commas.
Labour was the largest party with 288 MPs; the Conservatives, who had gained more votes than Labour in the 1929
general election, were, nevertheless, only the second largest party with, by 1931, 262 MPs; and the Liberals had
fifty-nine MPs.
Latin literature continued to be copied by Christian aristocrats; classical learning survived in the teaching available,
now in episcopal households rather than public schools; Roman art continued to adorn the walls of churches and the
sides of sarcophagi.

^
Capital letters

Capital letters have two main uses in English: they are used at the beginning
of sentences and for proper names.
At the beginning of a sentence

If football was a business, it was a very peculiar one. Clubs did not compete with one another to attract larger
crowds by reducing their prices. Nor did they make any serious efforts to derive income from a huge fixed asset,
which was used for only a few hours a week.

Proper names

Personal names: John, Ms Smith, Dr Brown, Mr Gates, Elizabeth,

Titles: Mr, Ms, Dr, Colonel, Professor, President, Prime Minister, Judge

Geographical names: Argentinian, Europe, China, Mount Everest, Lake Michigan Skye, Borneo,
London, Bangkok, the River Thames, the Pacific Ocean, the Panama Canal, Baker Street, Cambridge Road, Raffles
Hotel, St George's Hall

Company/Organisation names: Shell, Woolworths, Microsoft, Boots, World Trade Organisation,

World Health Organisation, Federal Trade Commission, British Broadcasting Corporation

University/School names: Oxford University, University of Hertfordshire, Royal College of Music

Religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam

Days, months, festivals - but not seasons: Monday, July, Christmas, summer,

Magazines: Newsweek, Vogue, The Times, New Scientist

Languages: English, Hindi

Nationalities: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, American

Try these exercises: Exercises 4 & 5

Now do this exercise as a summary: Exercise 8

Spelling
It is often suggested that the English spelling system is illogical, irregular and
out of date. It is true that there are some idiosyncratic features of English
spelling - often with historical explanations - but in general, most English
words are spelled quite logically. It is only if an attempt is made to draw a 1:1
correspondence between sound and spelling that these features seem to be
irregular. English spelling is not a direct representation of sounds. Some
features of English spelling are only irregular when attempts are made to
relate letters to sounds. If other factors are considered they are much more
regular. Here are some examples:

The English spelling system is related to grammar.

The words "dog", "cat" and "horse" can all be made plural by adding an "s" -
"dogs", "cats" & "horses". But if the words are spoken, then the plural "s" is
pronounced in different ways - /dɒgz/, /kæts/, /hɔ:sɪz/. The written plural "s" is
pronounced in a different way - /dɒgz/, /kæts/, /hɔ:sɪz/.

Should they therefore be spelled differently?

The written "s" might not tell you how to pronounce the words, but it does give
you important grammatical information. In this case it indicates that the word
is a plural.

Similarly, the words "walk", "show" and "want" can all be put into the past by
adding "ed" - "walked" "showed" & "wanted" but again these words are then
pronounced differently - /wɑ:kt/, /ʃəʊd/, /wɒntɪd/. The written past tense "ed" is
pronounced differently - /wɑ:kt/, /ʃəʊd/, /wɒntɪd/. Once more, the "ed" might
not tell you how to pronounce the words, but it does give you important
grammatical information.

English spelling also gives grammatical information. For example many

abstract nouns are spelled with "tion" - "imagination" and "pronunciation".

The English spelling system is related to meaning.

If we take related words like "medicine" and "medical"- /medsɪn/ and /medɪkl/.
Both of these words have a "c" in them: "medicine" and "medical". However in
one case, the "c" is pronounced /s/ and in the other /k/ - /medsɪn/ and
/medɪkl/.
In English, words that look the same tend to mean the same, even if they are
pronounced differently. Other examples are the "a" in "nation" and "national";
the "i" in "crime" and "criminal"; the "o" in "democrat" and "democracy" etc.

There are also pairs of words like "sign" and "signal", "knowledge" and
"acknowledge", "academic" and "academy", and "bomb" and "bombardier".
Being aware of the relationship can help spelling.

Conversely "there" and "their" have different meanings. "There" and "their" are
homophones - same pronunciation but different meanings and, therefore,
spellings. Other examples are: "pare", "pair" and "pear"; "male" and "mail";
"cue" and "queue"; "ewe" and "you"; "plane" and "plain"; "summery" and
"summary"; "formerly" and "formally" etc. In English words that look different
tend to have different meanings.

Click here for a homophone exercise.

The English spelling system is related to position in the word.

George Bernard Shaw argued that the word /fɪʃ/ could be spelled "ghoti" in
English. /f/ could be spelled "gh" as in "enough"; /ɪ/ could be spelled "o" as in
"women", and /ʃ/ could be spelled "ti" as in "nation". Was he right? No. 'gh' is
only pronounced /f/ at ends of words - "tough" "cough" etc. or after vowels as
in "draught." At the beginning of words "gh" as in "ghost" and "ghetto" can only
be pronounced /g/. "o" is only pronounced /ɪ/ in "women" and "ti" is only
pronounced /ʃ/ with "on" in /ʃn/ as in "nation". It cannot be separated.

Therefore /fɪʃ/ could not be spelled "ghoti". It can also be argued that "fish"
cannot be spelled any other way.

These are a good example of how the spelling of English words is more
closely related to aspects of language other than the pronunciation. It is
related to meaning and grammar. Taking this into account can help with
spelling in English.

However, if you can pronounce a word but do not know how to spell it, when
you have thought about the meaning, click here for some help.

^
Continue to:
 Advice

Pronunciation -> spelling

Common difficulties

Spelling

To spell a word that you can pronounce, the following may be useful: on

(Sound Example Possible spellings

/i:/ see see, we, field, police, tea, key, people, scene, quay, amoeba, busy
ship, savage, women, English, carriage, valley, mountain, village, foreign,
/ɪ/ ship always, coffee, lynch, guilt, sieve, busy, caesarian, chassis, Saturday, exhibit,
forehead, chamois
/e/ bed bed, any, said, bread, says, guest, bury, leopard, leisure, friend
/æ/ bad bad, plaid, laugh, meringue
/ɑ:/ calm calm, father, heart, bazaar, sergeant, far
/ɒ/ pot pot, entree, bureaucracy, John, watch, cough, laurel, honest, knowledge
daughter, ball, board, paw, Paul, four, floor, port, extraordinary, awe, thought,
/ɔ:/ caught
broad, exhaust, exhort, war, bored
/ʊ/ put put, wood, woman, could
boot, do, shoe, group, flew, blue, too, fruit, rude, through, rheumatism,
/u:/ boot
manoeuvre, new , flu, two
/ʌ/ cut cut, some, does, blood, young
/ɜ:/ bird bird, burn, fern, worm, journal, earn, myrtle, err, conoisseur, colonel
about, fountain, physician, bureaucrat, parliament, purpose, luncheon,
dangerous, nation, restaurant, autumn, the, sergeant, cupboard, actor, theatre,
/ə/ about
bigger, surprise, furniture, beggar, soldier, colour, chauffeur, guerrilla,
collegiate
Sound Example Possible spellings
late, pay, great, vein, weigh, straight, they, gauge, gaol, caf�, fianc�e, train,
/eɪ/ late
Gaelic, eh
go, note, sew, soap, soul, know, toe, oh, brooch, plateau, yeoman, mauve, owe,
/əʊ/ go
though, folk, depot
/aɪ/ like like, eye, lie, buy, aye, dye, guide, high, height, aisle, I, my, isle, either, fright,
/ɑʊ/ now now, house, plough, sauerkraut, hour
/ɔɪ/ boy boy, oil, lawyer, buoy
/ɪə/ here here, appear, idea, fierce, beer, souvenir, weir, atmosphere, theory
/ɛə/ there there, hair, bare, bear, their, prayer, scarce, aerial, mayor, heir, they're
/ʊə/ poor poor, cure, tour, cruel, amateur
/eɪə/ player player, weigher
/əʊə/ lower lower, sewer, boa
/aɪə/ fire fire, buyer, dyer, tyre, higher, quiet, lion, giant, fiery, tyrant
/ɑʊə/ tower tower, our, hour, Howard, sauerkraut
/ɔɪə/ employer employer, lawyer, royal
Sound Example Possible spellings
/p/ pen pen, happen, shepherd, hope
/b/ back back, rubber, cube, raspberry
tea, little, Thomas, finished, yacht, ptarmigan, debt, late, cigarette, receipt,
/t/ tea
indict
/d/ day day, ladder, called, could, made, I'd
key, cat, school, biscuit, lock, occur, cheque, lough, talk, lacquer, khaki, quay,
/k/ key
trekked, like, clique, saccharine, chocolate
/g/ go go, egg, ghost, league, guard, blackguard
/ʧ/ chin chin, nature, watch, question, cello, Czech, righteous, niche
/ʤ/ jump jump, edge, soldier, age, exaggerate, gradual, adjust, sandwich, gem, judgment
/f/ few few, coffee, cough, photograph, half, often, life, giraffe, sapphire
/v/ view view, of, Stephen, navvy, give, halves, I've
/θ/ thin thin
/ð/ then then, bathe
soon, city, nice, psychology, science, pass, schism, listen, sword, promise,
/s/ soon
Pat's, once, psalm, aquiesce, finesse, waltz
/z/ zero zero, is, scissors, anxiety, dazzle, lose, John's, seize, business, clothes
she, ocean, sugar, machine, education, tissue, fascism, fuchsia, conscious,
/ʃ/ she
tension, politician, schedule, appreciate, cache
/ʒ/ measure measure, rouge, vision, seizure, usual, equation
/h/ hot hot, whom
mat, lamb, hammer, autumn, calm, drachm, government, same, diaphragm,
/m/ mat
hymn, I'm
in, know, gnaw, sunny, pneumonia, mnemonic, kitten, certain, cotton, fine,
/n/ in
sign, champagne, Wednesday, grandfather, Lincoln
/ŋ/ sung sung, sink, tongue, handkerchief
/l/ led led, ball, battle, pedal, tunnel, pale, gazelle, he'll
/r/ red red, marry, write, rhythm, diarrhoea, more, corps, mortgage, you're
yet, onion, Eurpoe, beauty, use, new, halleluja, strenuous, tortilla, queue,
/j/ yet
vacuum
/w/ wet wet, one, choir, queen, when, suite
/ks/ box box, accept, except, sticks, forks
/gz/ exist exist
/kʃ/ luxury luxury, anxious
/gʒ/ luxurious luxurious

The process of writing

The following procedure is useful when writing an extended essay or

assignment.

  Task Skills Needed Product

1. Read the question or brief and thinking academically Subject.

understand what you are
required to do. Think about
the subject, the purpose and
the audience.

2. Think about what you know brainstorming Diagrams or notes.

about the subject. Write it
down in some way.

3. Go to the library and find library/research skills Reading list.

relevant books or articles.

4. Find the books on your reading skills: skimming and List of materials
reading list - if you have one - scanning studied.
and study them.

5. Make notes on these books reading in detail Notes.

and articles.
selecting & note-taking
Record full details of the
materials you use. paraphrasing/summarising

6. Organise your piece of work. planning Plan.

organisation

7. Type or write your first draft. writing from notes First draft.
 synthesis

writing paragraphs

typing/word-processing

8. Discuss your first draft speaking skills List of

informally with friends, other revisions/changes.
members of your class and listening skills
your lecturer if possible.
discussion skills

9. Revise your first draft, use of dictionaries & Second draft.

bearing in mind any reference books
comments that were made in
your discussions. writing introduction &
conclusion
Go back to 2. if necessary
quoting/writing a list of
Produce your second draft. references

10. Proofread your draft. checking for spelling Writing with

mistakes changes marked.
 
checking punctuation and
grammar

checking vocabulary use

checking style

checking organisation,
references etc.

checking for plagiarism

11. Produce a final typed typing/word-processing Final pice of work.

version.
writing title/contents page

12. Check everything. final check Hand in.

^
Task - 1

1. Read the question or brief and decide what kind of writing you should be
doing (See Genres in Academic Writing) and what the essay should be on.
SeeUnderstanding the question

^
Task - 2

1. It is most unlikely that you will find the information you need about your
topic in just one specific section of the library. Think as widely as you can
about possible subject areas that may be relevant to your topic. Use various
methods such as drawing diagrams, writing lists or fast writing to
record everything you know.
Task - 3

1. Go to the library and find relevant books or articles - See 

2. Encyclopaedias can give you an initial idea of the important aspects of a

subject.

Find out where they are kept and note down their class numbers.

Look up some of the areas or topics that you wrote down in Task 1. Make
notes on the information if it is useful. Remember to record the name, date
and publisher of the encyclopaedia and the numbers of the pages you are
using.

3. Use the library computer catalogue to find useful material for your topic.

Choose the:

Search the Catalogue option on the main menu.

Use the:

Keyword option on the Search the Catalogue menu and identify the names

and class numbers of the sections of the library that might hold useful material
for your topic.
Write down some subject area names and their class numbers.

Record the bibliographical details of the books and their class numbers in the
following order:

Edition
Author Date Title Place of Publication Publisher Class Number
(if not 1st)

4. Using information obtained from part 3, as well as information you already

have, search now in the:

Author or Title search option on the Search the Catalogue menu of the

terminal for the details and class numbers of some relevant books.

Record the bibliographical details of the books and their class numbers in the
following order:

Edition
Author Date Title Place of Publication Publisher Class Number
(if not 1st)

5. If you need more information from the library, use the:

Advanced search option on the Search the Catalogue menu of the terminal

for the details and class numbers of some relevant books.

Record the bibliographical details of the books and their class numbers in the
following order:

Edition
Author Date Title Place of Publication Publisher Class Number
(if not 1st)

6. If you need more specialised information, choose option:

Links to Remote Resources on the main menu.

7. Bibliographies give details of books and articles, usually on particular

subjects. They are usually located on the ground floor of the library.

Find the bibliographies relevant to your topic. Note any useful information.

Remember to record the bibliographical details of the books and their class
numbers in the following order:
 Edition
Author Date Title Place of Publication Publisher Class Number
(if not 1st)

and note the call number.

Remember to record the bibliographical details of articles in the following

order:

Author Date Title Journal Title Volume Page Numbers

8. If you need even more specialised information, you might want to look at
the information available on CD-ROMs, or on various on-line databases.

9. Go and search in the different sections of the library you identified under 3,
4, 5, 6 and 7 as useful.

Remember to ask the librarians for help if you need it or any information
relating to materials, systems etc.

10. Produce a reading list and a title.

References

Glendinning & Holmstr�m (1992, units 10 & 11).

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 31-84, pp. 175-192).

Heaton & Dunmore (1992,unit 4).

Smith & Smith (1988, pp. 36-51).

Wallace (1980, pp. 114-129)

Waters & Waters (1995,unit 4)

^
Task - 4

1. Go to the library with your reading list.

2. Find some of the books and articles you identified.

3. Every student has the same problem: how to get through the vast amount
of reading given for each course. There is not enough time to read everything
line by line. You need to be able to read efficiently. The way you read
something will depend on your purpose. You need to read quickly to find
relevant sections, then read carefully when you have found what you want.

Look at the books and articles. Use the index, the preface, the blurb
(publisher's comments on the cover), the table of contents and glance through
a book rapidly in order to identify the relevant sections. Look at the chapter
titles. If the chapter seems useful, look at the headings and sub-headings.
Quickly survey any useful chapters by reading the first few lines of each
paragraph or by reading the first and last paragraphs.

4. When you think you have identified relevant sections, skim through them,
read the conclusion perhaps, to be sure they are relevant - see Reading skills
for academic study.

5. Make a list of the materials you have studied. Mark the useful ones.
References

Barnes (1992, ch. 5).

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 96-104).

Heaton & Dunmore (1992,unit 11)

Northedge (1990, pp. 20-38).

Rowntree (1976, chs. 3 & 5).

Smith & Smith (1988, unit 4).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, unit 1).

Wallace (1980, unit 2)

Waters & Waters (1995, unit 6)

^
Task - 5
1. When you think you have identified relevant sections, skim through them,
read the conclusion perhaps, to be sure they are relevant. Then read the
relevant sections carefully and make notes on them.

2. Make notes on these books and articles. Use your own words. Do not copy
unless you think you will want to quote word for word. You will need to
paraphrase and summarise what you read - see Reporting: Paraphrase,
summary & synthesis. Record full bibliographical details of the materials you
use.

3. Produce your notes. Remember to record full bibliographical details of the

books and articles you have read.
References

Braine & May (1996, pp. 119-138)

Glendinning & Holmstr�m (1992).

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 105-110, 118-126).

Heaton & Dunmore (1992, units 5 & 10)

Northedge (1990, pp. 40-50).

Rowntree (1976, ch. 7).

Smith & Smith (1988, unit 5).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, unit 2).

Wallace (1980, unit 3)

Waters & Waters (1995, unit 5)

^
Task - 6

1. Look at your notes.

2. Decide on the purpose of your paper. Is it to inform, to explain, to compare,
to describe something, to describe a process, to explain the reasons, to
enumerate the causes, to compare/contrast, to discuss, to defend (a point of
view), to contest (a point of view), etc. or a combination?

3. Organise your notes into sections; organise sections into subsections. The
organisation of your paper will depend on your communicative purpose as in
2.

4. Order your information.

5. Plan your paper. The main text should consist of three main parts:

1. Introduction

a. Comment on subject of essay

b. Which aspects will you deal with?

2. Main body

a. Develop your line of argument through three or four main ideas.

b. Support your main ideas with examples and illustrations from experience or
other authors.

3. Conclusion

a. Summary of main ideas.

b. Answer to question or comment on topic of essay indicating wider

implications for or future trends.

See Organising the essay for more information on essay organisation.

References

Barnes (1992, pp. 79-82).

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 126-141).

Northedge (1990, pp. 156-165).

Oshima & Hogue (1991, chap. 8)

Oshima & Hogue (1997, unit 6)

Rowntree (1976, pp. 69-72).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, unit 3).

Waters & Waters (1995, unit 8)

^
Task - 7

1. Start with your plan.

2. Combine your notes into sentences and paragraphs. see Writing

paragraphs.

3. Use your own words except when you are quoting.

Sometimes it may be desirable to quote the author's words exactly. If you do

so, keep the quotation as brief as possible and quote only when you have a
good reason. The idea of an essay is for you to say something for yourself
using the ideas of the subject, for you to present ideas you have learned in
your own way. You should be on working with other people's ideas, rather
than reproducing their words. Your paper should be a synthesis of information
from sources, expressed in your own words, not a collection of quotations.
Any quote you use should not do your job for you, but should add something
to the point you are making. The quote should support your point, by quoting
evidence or giving examples or illustrating, or by adding the weight of an
authority.

For more information on using sources, see Citing sources.

4. Type out your first draft using the word processor. Start with the main body.
Do not worry at this stage if you cannot find the exact word or phrase that you
need. Concentrate on getting your ideas down on paper rather than spending
time thinking whether or not you can express your ideas in a better way.

5. Print out your paper using double spacing.

6. Produce your first draft.
References

Barnes (1992, pp. 72-74).

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 141-170).

Hamp-Lyons & Heasley (1987).

Heaton & Dunmore (1992, units 9 & 13)

Jordan (1992).

Northedge (1990, chs. 5 & 6).

Oshima & Hogue (1991, parts 1 & 2)

Oshima & Hogue (1997, units 4 & 5)

Smith & Smith (1988, unit 6).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, units 3 & 4).

Wallace (1980, pp. 131-155)

Waters & Waters (1995, pp. 100 - 102)

Williams (1982, pp. 16-17, 24, 28-29, 40-41, 50-51, 53, 62-63, 65, 74-75, 77,
88-89).

^
Task - 8

1. Start with your first draft.

2. Discuss your first draft with others in your group.

Consider the following questions:

Type of writing
What kind of writing is this text supposed to be?

Does it conform to the conventions usually expected of its type?

Purpose and ideas

Is the writer's purpose clear?

Do we understand the main ideas?

Structure of text

Is it easy to follow the development of ideas?

Would it help to rearrange the sequence of ideas?

Do the relations between the text need to be changed?

Do the connections between the ideas need to be made clearer?

Are the ideas grouped in a suitable way?

Is the text segmented into appropriate paragraphs?

Should any of the paragraphs be joined together?

Should any of the paragraphs be broken down into smaller units?

Have you written a clear introduction and conclusion?

Language

Have you used an appropriate level of formality?

Is your language too complex, or too simple?

References

Have you acknowledged all sources?

Response as readers

Does the opening make us want to read on?

Do we feel satisfied with the ending?

Are there any points that are not necessary?

Are there any points that we don't understand?

Are there any points on which we would like more information?

3. Produce a list of changes to be made.

4. Go back to the library for more information if you need to.

References

Barnes (1992, pp. 87-89).

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 168-172).

Jordan (1992, appendices 1-8).

Northedge (1990, pp. 170-171).

Rowntree (1976, pp. 74-75).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, pp. 114-116).

Waters & Waters (1995, unit 9)

Williams (1982, pp. 100-104).

^
Task - 9

1. Start with your first draft and the list of changes.

2. Revise your first draft, bearing in mind any comments that were made in 7.

3. Produce a second draft.

4. Check your spelling using a dictionary and spellchecker.

5. Check your grammar and punctuation using a grammar book.

  check your verbs:
 correct tense, subject/verb agreement, verb in every sentence
 check your word order
 check your articles
 check your prepositions
 check your linking words
 check your punctuation

6. Check your acknowledgement of sources used.

7. Produce a reference list.

For more information on bibliographies, see Writing a reference list.

8. Produce your second draft

References

Barnes (1992, pp. 74-79).

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 22-28, 148-156, 160-166).

Jordan (1992, appendix 9).

Northedge (1990, pp. 172-173, 188-194).

Smith & Smith (1988, unit 7).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, unit 4).

Wallace (1980, unit 7)

Waters & Waters (1995, pp. 49-53, 111-116)

Williams (1982, pp. 86-87. 96-97, 105-109).

^
Task - 10

1. Start with your 2nd draft.

2. Proofread your draft.

3. Check your organisation. Your work should have the following sections:

Preliminaries Title page

  Table of Contents
Main text Introduction
  Main body
  Conclusion
End matter References

4. Check for mistakes: spelling, punctuation, grammar.

See Spelling and Punctuation.

5. Check your style. See Features of academic writing.

6. Check your references. See Avoiding plagiarism.

References

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 196-222).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, pp. 100-102).

^
Task - 11

1. Type or write your final version.

2. Write your title/contents page - check departmental requirements

3. Print out a good quality copy. Bind it well. Keep a copy for yourself.
References

Hamp-Lyons & Courter (1984, pp. 196-222).

Trzeciak & McKay (1994, pp. 98-99).

Wallace (1980, pp. 156-157)

^
Task - 12

1. Check everything. See Check list.

2. Hand in your final work on time

Understanding the question

Introduction

Much of your writing will be prompted by an assignment, essay or exam

question. Students often do worse than they should in examinations or when
writing assignments in English in the UK, not because their writing skills are
weak or because their knowledge of the subject matter is insufficient, but
because they have not fully understood what they have been asked to do. To
score high marks in an examination or an assignmnet, it is important to fully
understand what a question or brief means and how it should be answered.

In order to understand the question it is useful to analyse the questions and to

search for certain components. The following technique is very useful
(Swales, 1982).

^
The components of a question

Most assignment titles or examination questions contain the following

components:

1. Subject matter or topic. What, in the most general terms, is the

question about?
2. Aspect or focus. This is the angle or point of view on the subject
matter. What aspect of the subject matter is the question about?
 3. Instruction or comment. This refers to the instruction word or phrase.
These instructions tell the student exactly what to do.

Some titles also contain the following components:

4. Restriction or expansion of the subject matter. This is the detailed

limitation of the topic. What, in specific terms, is the question about?
5. Viewpoint. This refers to the requirement, in the question, that the
writer writes from a point of view dictated by the setter of the question.

^
Analysing the title

To analyse the title, it is useful to follow the following steps:

1. Identify the topic.
2. If the topic has a restriction or expansion, identify it.
3. Search for the aspect. This is the angle or point of view on the subject
matter. Often, the aspect is a phrase ending in 'of', e.g. 'the
importance of', 'the contribution of'. Be sure you are clear about how
the aspect relates to the subject matter. It can be an example of it, a
stage in its sequence, the cause or effect, one of the solutions to it as
a problem etc.
4. Identify the instruction (which often comes at the beginning) and
decide what it means and what it requires you to do.
5. Check whether there is a viewpoint and if so, if it the same as your
own.

^
^
The vocabulary of questions

Here is a list of the most common assignment instruction key-words with an

explanation for each.

Note: The explanations given for these words can be a rough guide only. You
must always go by the total meaning of the title or question. Read the
question carefully: do not jump to conclusions about what is required on the
basis of these words only.

Account for
 requires an answer that gives the reasons for the subject of the
question.
Analyse
requires an answer that takes apart an idea, concept or
statement in order to consider all the factors it consists of.
Answers of this type should be very methodical and logically
organised.
Compare
requires an answer that sets items side by side and shows their
similarities and differences. A balanced (fair, objective) answer
is expected.
Consider
requires an answer in which the students describe and give their
thoughts on the subject.
Contrast
requires an answer that points out only the differences between
two items.
Criticise
requires an answer that points out mistakes or weaknesses, and
that also indicates any favourable aspects of the subject of the
question. It requires a balanced answer.
Define
requires an answer that explains the precise meaning of a
concep. A definition answer will include a definition, probably
expanded.
Describe
requires an answer that says what something is like, how it
works and so on.
Discuss
requires an answer that explains an item or concept, and then
gives details about it with supportive information, examples,
points for and against, and explanations for the facts put
forward. It is important to give both sides of an argument and
come to a conclusion.
Elucidate
requires an answer that explains what something means, makes
it clear (lucid).
Evaluate/Assess
require an answer that decides and explains how great, valuable
or important something is. The judgement should be backed by
a discussion of the evidence or reasoning involved.
Explain
requires an answer that offers a rather detailed and exact
explanation of an idea or principle, or a set of reasons for a
situation or attitude.
Explore
requires an answer that examines the subject thoroughly and
considers it from a variety of viewpoints.
Illustrate
requires an answer that consists mainly of examples to
demonstrate or prove the subject of the question. It is often
added to another instruction.
Justify
requires an answer that gives only the reasons for a position or
argument. Answer the main objections likely to be made of
them. Note, however, that the proposition to be argued may be a
negative one (e.g. Justify the abolition of the death penalty.)
Prove/Disprove
both of these require answers that demonstrate the logical
arguments and/or evidence connected with a proposition prove
requires the 'pro' points, and disprove requires the 'contra'
points.
State
requires an answer that expresses the relevant points briefly
and clearly without lengthy discussion or minor details.
Summarise/Outline
require an answer that contains a summary of all the available
information about a subject, i.e. only the main points and not the
details should be included. Questions of this type often require
short answers.
Trace
is found most frequently in historical questions (but not only in
History courses); it requires the statement and brief description
in logical or chronological order of the stages (steps) in the
development of e.g. a theory, a person's life, a process, etc.
To what extent is X true?
requires an answer that discusses and explains in what ways X
is true and in what ways X is not true.

Sometimes you may find several different instruction words combined innto
one composite question. For example:
Define financial accounting. Compare and contrast the Anglo-American and Continental approaches to financial
accounting. Explain the role that the invididual accountants play in each approach.

Some other important words used in questions.

concept
an important idea
concise
short, brief
in the context of
referring to, inside the subject of
criteria
what standards you would expect; what questions you would
expect to be answered
deduction
the conclusion or generalisation you come to after looking
carefully at all the facts
factor(s)
the circumstances bringing about a result
function
what something does its purpose or activities
implications
results that are not obvious, long term, suggested results
limitations
explain where something is not useful or not relevant
with/by reference to
make sure you write about the following subject
in relation to
only a certain part of the first topic is needed
role
what part something plays, how it works, especially in co-
operation with others
scope
the area where something acts or has influence
significance
meaning and importance
valid/validity
is there evidence and are there facts to prove the statement?

^
Examples of questions

1.Account for the large-scale immigration into Malaya in the late 19th Century.
2.Analyse the changes in US policy towards China during the 1970s.
3.Assess the contribution of Asoka to the spread of Buddhism in India.
4.Explain the concept of 'role'. Of what use is the concept to a practising manager?
5.Compare and contrast cellulose and lignin decomposition in soil.
6.List the criteria you would apply to the presentation of government expenditure policy.
7.Critically discuss economies and diseconomies of scale.
8.What deductions can be made after studying the cell exhibited at C?
9.Evaluate the contribution of political parties to the development of public policy in the United States and
Canada.
10. To what extent does the British public participate in the political process?
11. What factors determine the elasticity of demand curves?
12. Describe the histology and functional importance of striated muscle.
13. Illustrate your answer by typical temperature profiles.
14. Discuss the implications of the Milgram and Zimbardo experiments for understanding people's behaviour
in situations involving authority.
15. Discuss the use of behaviour therapy in clinical psychology and comment on its limitations.
16. Illustrate the diversity of anaerobic bacteria by reference to either practical importance or mechanism of
energy generation.
17. Outline the requirements as to 'locus standi' in relation to injunctives and declaratives.
18. Discuss the role of international capital movements in a world payments system.
19. Define Administrative Law indicating its general scope and function.
20. Consider the significance of the year 1848 for the Hapsburg Empire.
21. Summarise the main requirements of the law in respect of the employer-employee relationship.
22. 'They are often at a disadvantage in dealing with industry at a technical level.' How valid is this criticism
of British Civil Servants?
23. To what extent is an understanding of the various approaches to industrial relations useful in allowing us
to make better sense of the changing nature of the employment relationship?
24. Discuss the extent to which Human Resource Management and its associated individualism has led to a
demise in collectivism and the role of trade unions.
25. Discuss the respective influences of states and markets in the contemporary world economy
characterised by globalisation.
26. Analyse the process of transition from a command economy to a market economy, drawing upon the
many recent examples.

^
Planning the answer

In planning the answer, the instruction decides the text-type (discussion,

explanation, etc.); the topic (with its restriction or expansion if there is one)
determines the overall range of the subject matter but the aspect determines
the particular content; viewpoint dictates which arguments, for or against, to
use. The interaction betweeninstruction and aspect will lead to decisions
about the organisation of the essay. 
See Organising the answer for more information on essay organisation.
^
Exercise

Analyse the example questions above.

1. Identify the topic.
2. If the topic has a restriction or expansion, identify it.
3. Search for the aspect.
4. Identify the instruction.
5. Check whether there is a viewpoint.

Press this if you want to check your answers:

^ Organising your writing

Introduction

Most of the writing that you do will be several paragraphs long written about
one topic. The aim of the piece of writing should be deduced strictly from the
wording of the title or question, and needs to be defined at the beginning. The
idea of a piece of academic writing is for you to say something for yourself
using the ideas of the subject, for you to present ideas you have learned in
your own way. The emphasis should be on working with other people’s ideas,
rather than reproducing their words. The ideas and people that you refer to
need to made explicit by a system of referencing main sections:

Preliminaries Title page

Introduction

Main text Main body

Conclusion

End matter References

^
The writing

English academic writing is linear:

- it starts at the beginning and finishes at the end, with every part contributing
to the main line of argument, without digressions or repetition. Writers are
responsible for making their line of argument clear and presenting it in an
orderly fashion so that the reader can follow. Each of the paragraphs
discusses one major point and each paragraph should lead directly to the
next. The paragraphs are tied together with an introduction and a conclusion.

Organisation

See: Academic writing: Genres in academic writing for more details on

organising your writing.

1. Essays
2. Reports
3. Case Studies
4. Research proposals
5. Book reviews
6. Brief research reports
7. Literature reviews
8. Reflective writing
9. Introductions
10. Research methods
11. Research results
12. Research discussions
13. Writing conclusions
14. Research abstracts
Exercise

Plan answers for some of the questions in Understanding the question:

Examples of questions.

Writing paragraphs

Introduction

Academic writing is divided into paragraphs. If your writing is one continuous

piece of text, it will be very difficult for any reader to follow your argument.
Therefore your written work needs paragraphs.

Written work is divided into paragraphs in a meaningful way. A paragraph is a

group of sentences that develop one topic or idea. The topic of one paragraph
should follow logically from the topic of the last paragraph and should lead on
to the topic of the next paragraph. The paragraphs have different functions,
but all develop an idea - that is, they add information, explanation, examples
and illustrations to the central theme or idea until the theme is fully developed.

Try these exercises: Exercise 1 & Exercise 2

^
Continue to:
 Topic

Flow

Signalling

Writing paragraphs

Topic sentences

This main idea of each paragraph is usually expressed somewhere in the

paragraph by one sentence (the main or topic sentence). This sentence is
usually found at the beginning of the paragraph, but can come at the end or
even in the middle of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph generally
expands the theme contained in the main sentence, and each idea round the
main theme is supported by information and evidence (in the form of
illustrations and examples), and by argument.
Examples

The population as a whole was unevenly distributed. The north was particularly thinly settled and the east densely
populated, but even in counties like Warwickshire where there were substantial populations, some woodland areas
were sparsely peopled. There was already relatively dense settlement in the prime arable areas of the country like
Norfolk, Suffolk and Leicestershire. Modern estimates of England's total population, extrapolated from Domesday
patterns, vary between 1 and 3 million.

(Asa Briggs, (1983). A social history of England, p. 58)

Atoms of all elements consist of a central nucleus surrounded by a "cloud" containing one or more electrons. The
electrons can be thought of as occupying a series of well-defined shells. The behaviour of a particular element
depends largely on the number of electrons in its outermost shells. Other factors, such as the total number of electron
shells, also play a part in determining behaviour but it is the dominance of the outer electron configuration that
underlies the periodic law and justifies the grouping of the elements into groups or families.

(The sciences: Michael Beazley Encyclopaedias (1980), p. 118)

In general, Victorian families were big. In 1851 their average size was 4.7, roughly the same as it had been in the
seventeenth century, but the 1½ million couples who married during the 1860s, which the historian G. M. Young
described as the best decade in English history to have been brought up in, raised the figure to 6.2. Only one out of
eight families had one or two children, while one in six had ten or more, so that the counsel 'little children should be
seen and not heard' was prudent rather than simply authoritarian advice.

(Asa Briggs, (1983). A social history of England, p. 244)

The spoken word (whether conversation or oratory or the coy mixture of the two which is now familiar to us on
television) is a very different thing from the written word. What is effective or allowable or desirable in the one may
be quite the reverse in the other, and the extempore speaker cannot correct himself by revision as the writer can and
should. It is therefore not fair to take a report of a speech or of an oral statement and criticise it as if it were a piece
of considered writing.

(Ernest Gowers, (1973) The complete plain words, p. 26)

Identifying topic sentences

Look at the structure of the following paragraph.

Education

This is a period when education faces many disturbing circumstances originating outside itself. Budgets have been
drastically cut throughout the country affecting every type of education. Enrolments are dropping rapidly, because
the children of the post-World War II "baby boom" have now completed their schooling, and we are feeling the full
effect of the falling birth rate. So there are fewer opportunities for new teachers, and the average age of teachers is
increasing.

(Carl Rogers, (1969), Freedom to learn, p. 11.)

Exercise 3, Exercise 4, Exercise 5, Exercise 6 & Exercise 7

Writing paragraphs

Flow of information in paragraphs

In order for a paragraph to be easy to read, the information in it must flow

easily from one sentence to the next. To do this it is important to structure
your information clearly and signal exactly what you want to say by the use of
signalling words.
Information structure.

Most sentences in English have two parts a theme (or topic) and

a rheme (or comment) (McCarthy, 1991, p. 55). The theme is what you are
writing about - it is shared information and it has been introduced to your
reader. The rheme is what you are saying about the theme - it is new
information, what you want to tell your reader.

Look at the following sentences:

1. The M1 goes from London to Leeds.
2. The motorway from London to Leeds is called the M1.

The theme in sentence 1 is "the M1". The reader has been introduced to the M1
but does not know where it goes and therefore needs to be told. In sentence
2, thetheme is "the motorway from London to Leeds". The reader knows there is a
motorway from London to Leeds but does not know what it is called.

In English the theme usually comes at the beginning of the sentence and

the rheme at the end. The decision about which part of the sentence to make
the theme and which part to make the rheme depends on the information that
needs to be communicated. This depends on the sentences that come before.

Look at the following short paragraphs:

3. I was born in Glasgow. Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland.
4. I was born in Glasgow. The largest city in Scotland is Glasgow.

All the sentences are grammatically correct but in example 4, the information
to be communicated, the rheme - the largest city in Scotland, is at the
beginning of the sentence. Example 3 is preferred in English.

There are two basic choices in organising information texts:

1. The rheme of one sentence becomes the theme of the next sentence.

Example

The complete electrical behaviour of any valve or transistor can be described by stating the interrelation of the
currents and the voltages between all the electrodes. These relationships can conveniently be displayed graphically,
and the various curves are known as the 'characteristics' of the device. In principle, all the characteristics should be
available to the designer proposing to use the device in a circuit.
(W. P. Jolly, (1972). Electronics, p. 61)

2. The theme of one sentence is the same as the theme of the next sentence.

Example
Anthropology is the study of humankind, especially of Homo sapiens, the biological species to which we human
beings belong. It is the study of how our species evolved from more primitive organisms; it is also the study of how
our species developed a mode of communication known as language and a mode of social life known as culture. It is
the study of how culture evolved and diversified. And finally, it is the study of how culture, people, and nature
interact wherever human beings are found.

(Marvin Harris, (1975), Culture, people nature, p. 1)

A mixture of the two is also possible.

Exercise 8 & Exercise 9

Writing paragraphs

Signalling

It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how
various parts of the paragraph are connected. These connections can be
made explicit by the use of different signalling words.

For example, if you want to tell your reader that your line of argument is going
to change, make it clear.
The Bristol 167 was to be Britain's great new advance on American types such as the Lockheed Constellation and
Douglas DC-6, which did not have the range to fly the Atlantic non-stop. It was also to be the largest aircraft ever
built in Britain. However, even by the end of the war, the design had run into serious difficulties.

If you think that one sentence gives reasons for something in another
sentence, make it explicit.
While an earlier generation of writers had noted this feature of the period, it was not until the recent work of
Cairncross that the significance of this outflow was realized. Partly this was because the current account deficit
appears much smaller in current (1980s) data than it was thought to be by contemporaries.

If you think two ideas are almost the same, say so.
Marx referred throughout his work to other systems than the capitalist system, especially those which he knew
from the history of Europe to have preceded capitalism; systems such as feudalism, where the relation of
production was characterized by the personal relation of the feudal lord and his serf and a relation of
subordination which came from the lord's control of the land. Similarly, Marx was interested in slavery and in the
classical Indian and Chinese social systems, or in those systems where the ties of local community are all
important.

If you intend your sentence to give extra information, make it clear.

He is born into a family, he marries into a family, and he becomes the husband and father of his own family. In
addition, he has a definite place of origin and more relatives than he knows what to do with, and he receives a
rudimentary education at the Canadian Mission School.

If you are giving examples, do it explicitly.

This has sometimes led to disputes between religious and secular clergy, between orders and bishops. For
example, in the Northern context, the previous bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Philbin, refused for most of his
period of leadership in Belfast to have Jesuits visiting or residing in his diocese.

Signalling words

1. Time/order

at first, eventually, finally, first, firstly, in the end, in the first place, in the second place, lastly, later, next,
second, secondly, to begin with

2. Comparison/similar ideas

in comparison, in the same way, similarly

3. Contrast/opposite ideas

but, despite, in spite of, even so, however, in contrast, in spite of this, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the
other hand, still, whereas, yet

4. Cause and effect

accordingly, as a consequence, as a result, because, because of this, consequently, for this reason, hence, in
consequence, in order to, owing to this, since, so, so that, therefore, thus
5. Examples

for example, for instance, such as, thus, as follows

6 Generalisation

as a rule, for the most part, generally, in general, normally, on the whole, in most cases, usually

7. Stating the obvious

after all, as one might expect, clearly, it goes without saying, naturally, obviously, of course, surely

8. Attitude

admittedly, certainly, fortunately, luckily, oddly enough, strangely enough, undoubtedly, unfortunately

9. Summary/conclusion

finally, in brief, in conclusion, in short, overall, so, then, to conclude, to sum up

10. Explanation/equivalence

in other words, namely, or rather, that is to say, this means, to be more precise, to put it another way

11. Addition

apart from this, as well as, besides, furthermore, in addition, moreover, nor, not only...but also, too, what is
more

12. Condition

in that case, then

13. Support

actually, as a matter of fact, in fact, indeed

14. Contradiction

actually, as a matter of fact, in fact

15. Emphasis

chiefly, especially, in detail, in particular, mainly, notably, particularly

^
Examples
1. Time/order
At first

At first the freemen of both town and country had an organization and a type of property which still
retained something of the communal as well as something of the private, but in the town a radical
transformation was taking place.

Eventually

Eventually the group did manage to buy some land in a village not far from London, but the project had to
be abandoned when the villagers zoned their land against agricultural use.

Finally

Finally, there have been numerous women altogether outside the profession, who were reformers dedicated
to creating alternatives.

First

First I went to see the editor of the Dispatch.

Firstly

There are two reasons.Firstly I have no evidence whatever that the original document has been destroyed.

In the end

In the end, several firms undertook penicillin production on a massive scale, but hardly any ever came to
Florey himself for the clinical trials which he was desperate to extend.

In the first place/in the second place

If we try to analyse the conception of possession, we find two elements. In the first place, it involves some
actual power of control over the thing possessed. In the second place, it involves some intention to maintain
that control on the part of the possessor.

Lastly

Lastly, we may notice that even a wrongful possession, if continued for a certain length of time, matures
into what may be, for practical purposes, indistinguishable from ownership.

Later

Later she went up to the office.

Next
 Next, I'd like to show you some pictures.

Second

And second, this kind of policy does not help to create jobs.

Secondly

He was first of all an absolute idiot, and secondly he was pretty dishonest.

To begin with

To begin with, the ratio between attackers and defenders was roughly the same.

2. Comparison
In comparison

The vast majority of social encounters are, in comparison, mild and muted affairs.

In the same way

Every baby's face is different from every other's. In the same way, every baby's pattern of development is
different from every other's.

Similarly

You should notify any change of address to the Bonds and Stock Office. Similarly, savings certificates
should be re-registered with the Post Office.

3. Contrast
But

In 1950 oil supplied only about 10% of our total energy consumption; but now it's up to about 40% and still
rising.

Despite

Despite the difference in their ages they were close friends.

Even so

This could lead you up some blind alleys. Even so, there is no real cause for concern.

However
 The more I talked the more silent Eliot became. However, I left thinking that I had created quite an
impression.

In spite of this

My father always had poor health. In spite of this, he was always cheerful.

Nevertheless

He had not slept that night. Nevertheless, he led the rally with his usual vigour.

On the contrary

I have never been an enemy of monarchy. On the contrary, I consider monarchies essential for the well-
being of new nations.

On the other hand

John had great difficulties playing cricket. But on the other hand, he was an awfully good rugby player.

Still

He's treated you badly. Still he's your brother and you should help him.

Yet

Everything around him was blown to pieces, yet the minister escaped without a scratch.

4. Cause/effect
Accordingly

She complained of stiffness in her joints. Accordingly she was admitted to hospital for further tests.

As a consequence

The red cross has not been allowed to inspect the camps, and as a consequence little is known about them.

The Cold War has ended. As a consequence the two major world powers have been able to reduce their
arms budgets dramatically.

As a result

Many roads are flooded. As a result there are long delays.

Because
 Because these were the only films we'd seen of these people, we got the impression that they did nothing
else but dance to classical music.

Because of this

The cost of running the club has increased. Because of this, we must ask our members to contribute more
each week.

Consequently

Japan has a massive trade surplus with the rest of the world. Consequently it can afford to give more money
to the Third World.

For this reason

The traffic was very heavy. For this reason he was late.

Hence

The computer has become smaller and cheaper and hence more available to a greater number of people.

In consequence

The fastest these animals can run is about 65 kph and in consequence their hunting methods have to be very
efficient indeed.

In order that

They are learning English in order that they can study a particular subject.

In order to

He had to hurry in order to reach the next place on this schedule.

Owing to this

The rain was terrible. Owing to this, the match was cancelled.

So

He speaks very little English, so I talked to him through an interpreter.

So that

You take some of the honey and replace it with sugar so that the bees have something to eat.
Therefore

I'm not a member of the Church of England myself. Therefore it would be rather impertinent of me to
express an opinion.

Thus

If I am to accept certain limitations on my freedom, I must be assured that others are accepting the same
restraints. Thus, an incomes policy has to be controlled if it is to be effective.

5. Example
For example

Many countries are threatened by earthquakes. For example, Mexico and Japan have large ones this
century.

For instance

Not all prices have increased so dramatically. Compare, for instance, the price of oil in 1980 and the price
now.

Such as

There are many reasons why the invasion failed, such as the lack of proper food and the shortage of
ammunition.

Thus

Plants as well as stones can be charms. The Guyana Indians have many plant charms, each one helping to
catch a certain kind of animal. The leaves of the plant usually look like the animal it is supposed to help to
catch. Thus the charm for catching deer has a leaf which looks like deer horns.

6. Generalisation
As a rule

As a general rule, the less important tan executive is, the more status-conscious he is likely to be.

For the most part

The New Guinea forest is, for the most part, dark and wet.

In general

The industrial processes, in general, are based on man-made processes.

Normally
 Meetings are normally held three or four times a year.

On the whole

One or two were all right but on the whole I used to hate going to lectures.

Usually

She usually found it easy to go to sleep at night.

7. Stating the obvious

As one might expect

There are, as one might expect, several other methods for carrying out the research.

After all

They did not expect heavy losses in the air. After all they had superb aircraft.

Clearly

Clearly, there is no point in continuing this investigation until we have more evidence.

It goes without saying

It goes without saying that I am grateful for all your help.

Naturally

Naturally, publishers are hesitant about committing large sums of money to such a risky project.

Obviously

Obviously, I don't need to say how important this project is.

Of course

There is of course an element of truth in this argument.

Surely

In defining an ideology, the claims which seek to legitimate political and social authority are surely as
important as the notion of authority itself.
8. Attitude
Admittedly

Admittedly, economists often disagree among each other.

Certainly

Ellie was certainly a student at the university but I'm not sure about her brother.

Fortunately

Fortunately such occurrences are fairly rare.

Luckily

Luckily, Saturday was a fine day.

Oddly enough

Oddly enough, it was through him that I met Carson.

Strangely enough

It has, strangely enough, only recently been discovered.

Undoubtedly

Undoubtedly, many families are victims of bad housing.

Unfortunately

He couldn't wait to tell Judy. Unfortunately, she had already left for work.

9. Summary/conclusion
Finally

Let's come finally to the question of pensions.

In brief

In brief then, do you two want to join me?

In conclusion

In conclusion, let me suggest a number of practical applications.

In short

In short, the report says more money should be spent on education.

Overall

Overall, imports account for half our stock.

So

So if a woman did leave the home, she was only supposed to concern herself with matters pertaining to
domestic life.

Then

The importance of education, then, has been infinitely greater than in previous centuries.

To conclude

To conclude, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make this conference
possible.

To sum up

To sum up, we cannot hope for greater success unless we identify our needs clearly.

10. Explanation/equivalence
In other words

In other words, although the act of donating blood would increase the chances of the donor dying, this
increase was small compared with the increase in the recipient's chances of surviving.

Namely

He could not do any thing more than what he had promised - namely, to look after Charlotte's estate.

... three famous physicists, namely, Simon, Kurte and Mendelsohn.

Or rather

The account here offered is meant as a beginning of an answer to that question. Or rather it contributes by
setting the question in a certain way.

That is to say

The Romans left Britain in 410 AD - that is to say England was a Roman dependency for nearly 500 years.
This means

With syphilis and gonorrhoea, the ages are also recorded, and this means that an accurate map of disease
prevalence can be drawn and any trends or changes can be recognized very quickly.

To be more precise

These reforms of Justinian in AD 529 proclaim that they are "imposing a single nature" on trusts and
legacies or, to be more precise, imposing it on legatees and trust beneficiaries.

To put it another way

He was being held there against his will. To put it another way, he was a prisoner.

11. Addition
Also

Sugar is bad for your teeth. It can also contribute to heart disease.

Apart from this

Eccleshall and Honderich find common cause in a desire to establish the ideological nature of Conservative
thought, but apart from this their approaches to the study of Conservativism are very different.

As well as

Marx and Engels, as well as many of their contemporaries, believed that pastoralism predated agriculture.

Besides

Besides being good test cases, Locke obviously finds these ideas intrinsically interesting too.

Furthermore

Computer chess games are still a bit expensive, but they are getting cheaper all the time. Furthermore their
chess-playing strength is rising.

In addition

Our survey will produce the essential statistics. In addition, it will provide information about people's
shopping habits.

Moreover

The drug has powerful side-effects. Moreover, it can be addictive.

Nor

I could not afford to eat in restaurants. Nor could anyone I knew.

I couldn't understand a word they said, nor could they understand me.

Not only...but also

Meissner was not only commander of the army but also a close friend of the President.

Too

Evans was not only our doctor. He was a friend too.

What is more

What is more, more machines will mean fewer jobs.

12. Condition
In that case

Of course the experiment may fail and in that case we will have to start again.

Then

Sometimes the computer system breaks down. Then you'll have to work on paper.

13. Support
As a matter of fact

The company is doing very well. As a matter of fact, we have doubled our sales budget.

In fact

The winter of 1940 was extremely bad. In fact most people say it was the worst winter of their lives.

Indeed

This act has failed to bring women's earnings up to the same level. Indeed the gulf is widening.

They continue to work throughout their short life. Indeed it is overwork which eventually kills them.

14. Contradiction
Actually
 There are many stories which describe wolves as dangerous, blood thirsty animals, but actually they prefer
to avoid human beings.

In fact

I thought he could speak the language fluently. In fact, that wasn't the case at all.

15. Emphasis
Chiefly

How quickly you recover from an operation chiefly depends on your general state of health.

The experiment was not a success, chiefly because the machine tools were of poor quality.

Especially

They don't trust anyone, especially people in our position.

I'm not attracted to Sociology, especially the way it's taught here.

In detail

The implications of this theory are examined in detail in chapter 12.

In particular

In particular, he was criticised for pursuing a policy of conciliation and reform.

Mainly

The political group will have more power, mainly because of their large numbers.

Notably

Some people, notably his business associates, had learned to ignore his moods.

The organisation had many enemies, most notably among feminists.

Particularly

Many animal sources of protein are also good sources of iron. Particularly useful are liver, kidney, heart,
beef, sardines, pilchards (red fish generally), and shellfish, including mussels and cockles.

Exercise 10, Exercise 11 & Exercise 12

^

Writing paragraphs

Signalling

It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how
various parts of the paragraph are connected. These connections can be
made explicit by the use of different signalling words.

For example, if you want to tell your reader that your line of argument is going
to change, make it clear.
The Bristol 167 was to be Britain's great new advance on American types such as the Lockheed Constellation and
Douglas DC-6, which did not have the range to fly the Atlantic non-stop. It was also to be the largest aircraft ever
built in Britain. However, even by the end of the war, the design had run into serious difficulties.

If you think that one sentence gives reasons for something in another
sentence, make it explicit.
While an earlier generation of writers had noted this feature of the period, it was not until the recent work of
Cairncross that the significance of this outflow was realized. Partly this was because the current account deficit
appears much smaller in current (1980s) data than it was thought to be by contemporaries.

If you think two ideas are almost the same, say so.
Marx referred throughout his work to other systems than the capitalist system, especially those which he knew
from the history of Europe to have preceded capitalism; systems such as feudalism, where the relation of
production was characterized by the personal relation of the feudal lord and his serf and a relation of
subordination which came from the lord's control of the land. Similarly, Marx was interested in slavery and in the
classical Indian and Chinese social systems, or in those systems where the ties of local community are all
important.

If you intend your sentence to give extra information, make it clear.

He is born into a family, he marries into a family, and he becomes the husband and father of his own family. In
addition, he has a definite place of origin and more relatives than he knows what to do with, and he receives a
rudimentary education at the Canadian Mission School.

If you are giving examples, do it explicitly.

This has sometimes led to disputes between religious and secular clergy, between orders and bishops. For
example, in the Northern context, the previous bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Philbin, refused for most of his
period of leadership in Belfast to have Jesuits visiting or residing in his diocese.

Signalling words

1. Time/order

at first, eventually, finally, first, firstly, in the end, in the first place, in the second place, lastly, later, next,
second, secondly, to begin with

2. Comparison/similar ideas

in comparison, in the same way, similarly

3. Contrast/opposite ideas

but, despite, in spite of, even so, however, in contrast, in spite of this, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the
other hand, still, whereas, yet

4. Cause and effect

accordingly, as a consequence, as a result, because, because of this, consequently, for this reason, hence, in
consequence, in order to, owing to this, since, so, so that, therefore, thus

5. Examples

for example, for instance, such as, thus, as follows

6 Generalisation

as a rule, for the most part, generally, in general, normally, on the whole, in most cases, usually

7. Stating the obvious

after all, as one might expect, clearly, it goes without saying, naturally, obviously, of course, surely

8. Attitude

admittedly, certainly, fortunately, luckily, oddly enough, strangely enough, undoubtedly, unfortunately

9. Summary/conclusion

finally, in brief, in conclusion, in short, overall, so, then, to conclude, to sum up

10. Explanation/equivalence

in other words, namely, or rather, that is to say, this means, to be more precise, to put it another way
11. Addition

apart from this, as well as, besides, furthermore, in addition, moreover, nor, not only...but also, too, what is
more

12. Condition

in that case, then

13. Support

actually, as a matter of fact, in fact, indeed

14. Contradiction

actually, as a matter of fact, in fact

15. Emphasis

chiefly, especially, in detail, in particular, mainly, notably, particularly

^
Examples

1. Time/order
At first

At first the freemen of both town and country had an organization and a type of property which still
retained something of the communal as well as something of the private, but in the town a radical
transformation was taking place.

Eventually

Eventually the group did manage to buy some land in a village not far from London, but the project had to
be abandoned when the villagers zoned their land against agricultural use.

Finally

Finally, there have been numerous women altogether outside the profession, who were reformers dedicated
to creating alternatives.

First

First I went to see the editor of the Dispatch.

Firstly
 There are two reasons.Firstly I have no evidence whatever that the original document has been destroyed.

In the end

In the end, several firms undertook penicillin production on a massive scale, but hardly any ever came to
Florey himself for the clinical trials which he was desperate to extend.

In the first place/in the second place

If we try to analyse the conception of possession, we find two elements. In the first place, it involves some
actual power of control over the thing possessed. In the second place, it involves some intention to maintain
that control on the part of the possessor.

Lastly

Lastly, we may notice that even a wrongful possession, if continued for a certain length of time, matures
into what may be, for practical purposes, indistinguishable from ownership.

Later

Later she went up to the office.

Next

Next, I'd like to show you some pictures.

Second

And second, this kind of policy does not help to create jobs.

Secondly

He was first of all an absolute idiot, and secondly he was pretty dishonest.

To begin with

To begin with, the ratio between attackers and defenders was roughly the same.

2. Comparison
In comparison

The vast majority of social encounters are, in comparison, mild and muted affairs.

In the same way

 Every baby's face is different from every other's. In the same way, every baby's pattern of development is
different from every other's.

Similarly

You should notify any change of address to the Bonds and Stock Office. Similarly, savings certificates
should be re-registered with the Post Office.

3. Contrast
But

In 1950 oil supplied only about 10% of our total energy consumption; but now it's up to about 40% and still
rising.

Despite

Despite the difference in their ages they were close friends.

Even so

This could lead you up some blind alleys. Even so, there is no real cause for concern.

However

The more I talked the more silent Eliot became. However, I left thinking that I had created quite an
impression.

In spite of this

My father always had poor health. In spite of this, he was always cheerful.

Nevertheless

He had not slept that night. Nevertheless, he led the rally with his usual vigour.

On the contrary

I have never been an enemy of monarchy. On the contrary, I consider monarchies essential for the well-
being of new nations.

On the other hand

John had great difficulties playing cricket. But on the other hand, he was an awfully good rugby player.

Still
 He's treated you badly. Still he's your brother and you should help him.

Yet

Everything around him was blown to pieces, yet the minister escaped without a scratch.

4. Cause/effect
Accordingly

She complained of stiffness in her joints. Accordingly she was admitted to hospital for further tests.

As a consequence

The red cross has not been allowed to inspect the camps, and as a consequence little is known about them.

The Cold War has ended. As a consequence the two major world powers have been able to reduce their
arms budgets dramatically.

As a result

Many roads are flooded. As a result there are long delays.

Because

Because these were the only films we'd seen of these people, we got the impression that they did nothing
else but dance to classical music.

Because of this

The cost of running the club has increased. Because of this, we must ask our members to contribute more
each week.

Consequently

Japan has a massive trade surplus with the rest of the world. Consequently it can afford to give more money
to the Third World.

For this reason

The traffic was very heavy. For this reason he was late.

Hence

The computer has become smaller and cheaper and hence more available to a greater number of people.

In consequence
 The fastest these animals can run is about 65 kph and in consequence their hunting methods have to be very
efficient indeed.

In order that

They are learning English in order that they can study a particular subject.

In order to

He had to hurry in order to reach the next place on this schedule.

Owing to this

The rain was terrible. Owing to this, the match was cancelled.

So

He speaks very little English, so I talked to him through an interpreter.

So that

You take some of the honey and replace it with sugar so that the bees have something to eat.

Therefore

I'm not a member of the Church of England myself. Therefore it would be rather impertinent of me to
express an opinion.

Thus

If I am to accept certain limitations on my freedom, I must be assured that others are accepting the same
restraints. Thus, an incomes policy has to be controlled if it is to be effective.

5. Example
For example

Many countries are threatened by earthquakes. For example, Mexico and Japan have large ones this
century.

For instance

Not all prices have increased so dramatically. Compare, for instance, the price of oil in 1980 and the price
now.

Such as
 There are many reasons why the invasion failed, such as the lack of proper food and the shortage of
ammunition.

Thus

Plants as well as stones can be charms. The Guyana Indians have many plant charms, each one helping to
catch a certain kind of animal. The leaves of the plant usually look like the animal it is supposed to help to
catch. Thus the charm for catching deer has a leaf which looks like deer horns.

6. Generalisation
As a rule

As a general rule, the less important tan executive is, the more status-conscious he is likely to be.

For the most part

The New Guinea forest is, for the most part, dark and wet.

In general

The industrial processes, in general, are based on man-made processes.

Normally

Meetings are normally held three or four times a year.

On the whole

One or two were all right but on the whole I used to hate going to lectures.

Usually

She usually found it easy to go to sleep at night.

7. Stating the obvious

As one might expect

There are, as one might expect, several other methods for carrying out the research.

After all

They did not expect heavy losses in the air. After all they had superb aircraft.

Clearly

Clearly, there is no point in continuing this investigation until we have more evidence.

It goes without saying

It goes without saying that I am grateful for all your help.

Naturally

Naturally, publishers are hesitant about committing large sums of money to such a risky project.

Obviously

Obviously, I don't need to say how important this project is.

Of course

There is of course an element of truth in this argument.

Surely

In defining an ideology, the claims which seek to legitimate political and social authority are surely as
important as the notion of authority itself.

8. Attitude
Admittedly

Admittedly, economists often disagree among each other.

Certainly

Ellie was certainly a student at the university but I'm not sure about her brother.

Fortunately

Fortunately such occurrences are fairly rare.

Luckily

Luckily, Saturday was a fine day.

Oddly enough

Oddly enough, it was through him that I met Carson.

Strangely enough

It has, strangely enough, only recently been discovered.

Undoubtedly

Undoubtedly, many families are victims of bad housing.

Unfortunately

He couldn't wait to tell Judy. Unfortunately, she had already left for work.

9. Summary/conclusion
Finally

Let's come finally to the question of pensions.

In brief

In brief then, do you two want to join me?

In conclusion

In conclusion, let me suggest a number of practical applications.

In short

In short, the report says more money should be spent on education.

Overall

Overall, imports account for half our stock.

So

So if a woman did leave the home, she was only supposed to concern herself with matters pertaining to
domestic life.

Then

The importance of education, then, has been infinitely greater than in previous centuries.

To conclude

To conclude, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make this conference
possible.

To sum up
 To sum up, we cannot hope for greater success unless we identify our needs clearly.

10. Explanation/equivalence
In other words

In other words, although the act of donating blood would increase the chances of the donor dying, this
increase was small compared with the increase in the recipient's chances of surviving.

Namely

He could not do any thing more than what he had promised - namely, to look after Charlotte's estate.

... three famous physicists, namely, Simon, Kurte and Mendelsohn.

Or rather

The account here offered is meant as a beginning of an answer to that question. Or rather it contributes by
setting the question in a certain way.

That is to say

The Romans left Britain in 410 AD - that is to say England was a Roman dependency for nearly 500 years.

This means

With syphilis and gonorrhoea, the ages are also recorded, and this means that an accurate map of disease
prevalence can be drawn and any trends or changes can be recognized very quickly.

To be more precise

These reforms of Justinian in AD 529 proclaim that they are "imposing a single nature" on trusts and
legacies or, to be more precise, imposing it on legatees and trust beneficiaries.

To put it another way

He was being held there against his will. To put it another way, he was a prisoner.

11. Addition
Also

Sugar is bad for your teeth. It can also contribute to heart disease.

Apart from this

Eccleshall and Honderich find common cause in a desire to establish the ideological nature of Conservative
thought, but apart from this their approaches to the study of Conservativism are very different.
As well as

Marx and Engels, as well as many of their contemporaries, believed that pastoralism predated agriculture.

Besides

Besides being good test cases, Locke obviously finds these ideas intrinsically interesting too.

Furthermore

Computer chess games are still a bit expensive, but they are getting cheaper all the time. Furthermore their
chess-playing strength is rising.

In addition

Our survey will produce the essential statistics. In addition, it will provide information about people's
shopping habits.

Moreover

The drug has powerful side-effects. Moreover, it can be addictive.

Nor

I could not afford to eat in restaurants. Nor could anyone I knew.

I couldn't understand a word they said, nor could they understand me.

Not only...but also

Meissner was not only commander of the army but also a close friend of the President.

Too

Evans was not only our doctor. He was a friend too.

What is more

What is more, more machines will mean fewer jobs.

12. Condition
In that case

Of course the experiment may fail and in that case we will have to start again.
Then

Sometimes the computer system breaks down. Then you'll have to work on paper.

13. Support
As a matter of fact

The company is doing very well. As a matter of fact, we have doubled our sales budget.

In fact

The winter of 1940 was extremely bad. In fact most people say it was the worst winter of their lives.

Indeed

This act has failed to bring women's earnings up to the same level. Indeed the gulf is widening.

They continue to work throughout their short life. Indeed it is overwork which eventually kills them.

14. Contradiction
Actually

There are many stories which describe wolves as dangerous, blood thirsty animals, but actually they prefer
to avoid human beings.

In fact

I thought he could speak the language fluently. In fact, that wasn't the case at all.

15. Emphasis
Chiefly

How quickly you recover from an operation chiefly depends on your general state of health.

The experiment was not a success, chiefly because the machine tools were of poor quality.

Especially

They don't trust anyone, especially people in our position.

I'm not attracted to Sociology, especially the way it's taught here.

In detail

The implications of this theory are examined in detail in chapter 12.

In particular

In particular, he was criticised for pursuing a policy of conciliation and reform.

Mainly

The political group will have more power, mainly because of their large numbers.

Notably

Some people, notably his business associates, had learned to ignore his moods.

The organisation had many enemies, most notably among feminists.

Particularly

Many animal sources of protein are also good sources of iron. Particularly useful are liver, kidney, heart,
beef, sardines, pilchards (red fish generally), and shellfish, including mussels and cockles.

Exercise 10, Exercise 11 & Exercise 12

Writing paragraphs

Cohesion

It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how
various parts of the paragraph are connected. These connections can be
made explicit grammatically and lexically by the use of different reference
words.  Every text has a structure. It is not just a random collection of
sentences. The parts that make up the text are related in a meaningful way to
each other.  In order to make these relationships in the text clear, it is
necessary to show how the sentences are related. Words like "it", "this",
"that", "here", "there" etc. refer to other parts of the text. You need to
understand how to use these connections or links.

There are four main types of links used in academic texts: reference, ellipsis
and substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion (Halliday and Hasan, 1976).
Reference
Certain items of language in English have the property of reference. That is,
they do not have meaning themselves, but they refer to something else for
their meaning.
The scientific study of memory began in the early 1870s when a German philosopher, Hermann Ebbinghaus, came
up with the revolutionary idea that memory could be studied experimentally. In doing so he broke away from a
2000-year-old tradition that firmly assigned the study of memory to the philosopher rather than to the
scientist. He argued that the philosophers had come up with a wide range of possible interpretations of memory but
had produced no way of deciding which amongst these theories offered the best explanation of memory. He aimed
to collect objective experimental evidence of the way in which memory worked in the hope that this would
allow him to choose between the various theories.

In this text "he" and "him" refers to "Hermann Ebbinghaus". In order to create
such a text, you need to us these words correctly in the text.

Similarly,
These theories all stem from some underlying assumptions about people. To a large extent unproven, they tend to
represent the dominant mood or climate of opinion at that time. Schein has classified them as follows, and it is
interesting to note that the categories follow each other in a sort of historical procession, starting from the time of the
industrial revolution.

Other words used in this way are "he", " him", "it", "this", "that", "these",
"those", "here", "there" etc.
Substitution and ellipsis

Substitution is the replacement of one item by another and ellipsis is the

omission of the item. If writers wish to avoid repeating a word, they can use
substitution or ellipsis.
The scientific study of memory began in the early 1870s when a German philosopher, Hermann Ebbinghaus, came
up with the revolutionary idea that memory could be studied experimentally. In doing so he broke away from a
2000-year-old tradition that firmly assigned the study of memory to the philosopher rather than to the scientist. He
argued that the philosophers had come up with a wide range of possible interpretations of memory but had produced
no way of deciding which amongst these theories offered the best explanation of memory. He aimed to collect
objective experimental evidence of the way in which memory worked in the hope that this would allow him to
choose between the various theories.

Here, "so" means "studying memory experimentally". The writer has

substituted "studying memory experimentally" with "so". Other words that can
be used are "one", "ones", "do", "so", "not".

Ellipsis is substitution by zero.

Some of the water which falls as rain flows on the surface as streams. Another part is evaporated. The
remainder sinks into the ground and is known as ground water.
"Another part" means "Another part of the water" and "The remainder" means
"The remainder of the water".

Similarly,
The 74 species of African antelope share certain basic features: all are exclusively vegetarian and bear one large and
precocious calf each year.

Conjunction

Conjunction shows meaningful relationships between clauses. It shows how

what follows is connected to what has gone before.
The whole Cabinet agreed that there should be a cut in the amount that the unemployed were receiving; where they
disagreed was in whether this should include a cut in the standard rate of benefit. The opposition parties, however,
were unwilling to accept any programme of economies which did not involve a cut in the standard rate of benefit.

The word "however" shows that this statement is opposite to the ideas that
have come before. Other words used are "for example", "as a consequence of
this", "firstly", " furthermore", "in spite of this", etc.
Lexical cohesion

This is a way of achieving a cohesive effect by the use of particular

vocabulary items. You can refer to the same idea by using the same or
different words.
Patients who repeatedly take overdoses pose considerable management difficulties. The problem-orientated
approach is not usually effective with such patients. When a patient seems to be developing a pattern of chronic
repeats, it is recommended that all staff engaged in his or her care meet to reconstruct each attempt in order to
determine whether there appears to be a motive common to each act.
This first example illustrates an impulsive overdose taken by a woman who had experienced a recent loss and had
been unable to discuss her problems with her family. During the relatively short treatment, the therapist helped the
patient to begin discussing her feelings with her family.
Francis Bacon was born in London in 1561 and died there in 1626. His father was Sir Nicholas, Lord Keeper of the
Great Seal of Elizabeth I; his mother Anne Cooke, a well-educated and pious Calvinist, daughter of Sir Anthony
Cooke. His contemporary biographer, William Rawley, remarked that, with such parents, Bacon had a flying start:
he had "whatsoever nature or breeding could put into him".

For cohesion to occur, it is not necessary for each word to refer to exactly the
same item or even be grammatically equivalent. All the words related to "debt"
contribute to the cohesion.
In each of these cases the basic problem is the same: a will has been made, and in it a debtor is left a legacy
of liberatio from what he owes the testator. The question is, if he has subsequently borrowed more from the testator,
up to what point he has been released from his debts. It is best to begin with the second case. Here there is a
straightforward legacy to the debtor of a sum of money and also of the amount of his debt to the testator. This is
followed by a clause in which there is a general damnatio and also a general trust that the legacies in the will be
paid. The debtorgoes on to borrow more money, and the question is whether that is taken to be included in the
legacy too. The response is that since the words relate to the past, later debts are not included.

Other commonly used are "repetition", "synonyms" and "near synonyms",

"collocations", "super/sub-ordinate relationships" (e.g. fruit/apple, animal/cat)
etc.
Anaphoric nouns

Another useful way to show the connection between the ideas in a paragraph
is what Gill Francis calls anaphoric nouns. Look at the following text:
Moulds do not usually grow fast, and conditions had to be found in which large quantities of Penicillium
notatum could be produced as quickly as they were wanted. The solution to this problem was helped by N. G.
Heatley, a young biochemist also from Hopkins's laboratory in Cambridge, who had been prevented by the outbreak
of war from going to work in the Carlsberg laboratories in Copenhagen.

The phrase "this problem" summarises the text in the first sentence and thus
provides the connection between the two sentences.
Reports of original work, headed often by the names of many joint authors, became too full of jargon to be
understood even by trained scientists who were not working in the particular field. This situation persists today,
though strong movements towards interdisciplinary research help to avoid total fragmentation of scientific
understanding.

Again, the phrase "This situation" summarises the first sentence.

This led many later Greek thinkers to regard musical theory as a branch of mathematics (together with geometry,
arithmetic, and astronomy it constituted what eventually came to be called the quadrivium). This view, however,
was not universally accepted, the most influential of those who rejected it being Aristoxenus of Tarentum (fourth
century BC).

Again "This view" summarises the information in the first sentence, the view
(opinion) that music was a branch of mathematics.
Genetics deals with how genes are passed on from parents to their offspring. A great deal is known about the
mechanisms governing this process.

The phrase "this process" summarises the first  sentence.

The phrase:

This
noun
These

is very useful in showing the connection between sentences and therefore in

making sure that the paragraph flows. Other nouns typically used in this way
are: "account, advice, answer, argument, assertion, assumption, claim,
comment, conclusion, criticism, description, difficultly, discussion, distinction,
emphasis, estimate, example, explanation, fall, finding, idea, improvement,
increase, observation, proof, proposal, reference, rejection, report, rise,
situation, suggestion, view, warning".

Reporting - paraphrase, summary & synthesis

One of the most important aspects of academic writing is making use of the
ideas of other people. This is important as you need to show that you have
understood the materials and that you can use their ideas and findings in your
own way. In fact, this is an essential skill for every student. Spack (1988, p.
42) has pointed out that the most important skill a student can engage in is
"the complex activity to write from other texts", which is "a major part of their
academic experience." It is very important when you do this to make sure you
use your own words, unless you are quoting. You must make it clear when the
words or ideas that you are using are your own and when they are taken from
another writer. You must not use another person's words or ideas as if they
were your own: this is Plagiarism and plagiarism is regarded as a very serious
offence.

The object of academic writing is for you to say something for yourself using
the ideas of the subject, for you to present ideas you have learned in your own
way. You can do this by reporting the works of others in your own words. You
can either paraphrase if you want to keep the length the same, summarise if
you want to make the text shorter or synthesise if you need to use information
from several sources. In all cases you need to acknowledge other people's
work.

^
Continue to:

Paraphrase

Summary
 Synthesis

Reporting - paraphrase, summary & synthesis

Paraphrase

Paraphrasing is writing the ideas of another person in your own words.

Paraphrasing is useful when you are using the work of others to support your
own view. SeeRhetorical functions in academic writing: Providing support

When paraphrasing, you need to change the words and the structure but keep
the meaning the same. Please remember, though, that even when you
paraphrase someone's work, you must acknowledge it. See Citation.

Look at this example:

Source
It has long been known that Cairo is the most
populous city on earth, but no-one knew exactly how
populous it was until last month.

Paraphrase
Although Cairo has been the world's most heavily
populated city for many years, the precise population
was not known until four weeks ago.

The following stages may be useful:

1. Read and understand the text.

2. Make a list of the main ideas.
a. Find the important ideas - the important words/phrases. In some
way mark them - write them down, underline or highlight them.
b. Find alternative words/synonyms for these words/phrases - do
not change specialised vocabulary and common words.
3. Change the structure of the text.
a. Identify the meaning relationships between the words/ideas -
e.g. cause/effect, generalisation, contrast. Look at Paragraphs:
Signalling for more information.
b. Express these relationships in a different way.
 c. Change the grammar of the text: change nouns to verbs,
adjectives to adverbs, etc., break up long sentences, combine
short sentences.
4. Rewrite the main ideas in complete sentences. Combine your notes
into a piece of continuous writing.
5. Check your work.
a. Make sure the meaning is the same.
b. Make sure the length is the same.
c. Make sure the style is your own.
d. Remember to acknowledge other people's work.

1. Read and understand the text. See Reading: Strategies for help here.

2. Find the important ideas, write down the important words/phrases and find
alternative words, or synonyms. Keep specialised vocabulary and common
words.

Examples:
a.Paul Ekman from the University of California has conducted a long series of experiments on how
nonverbal behaviour may reveal real inner states.
Paul Ekman who works at the University of California has performed a sequence of investigations on the
way nonverbal behaviour may disclose real internal conditions.
b.There are reckoned to be over 4,000 plant species used by forest dwellers as food and medicine alone. 
There are calculated to be more than 4,000 plant species utilised by forest inhabitants just as foodstuffs
and drugs.
c.Memory is the capacity for storing and retrieving information.
Memory is the facility for keeping and recovering data.
d.Research and publications are accumulating in each of the four fields of anthropology at an exponential
rate. 
Studies and books are gathering in all of the four areas of anthropology at a very fast speed.
e.It is worth looking at one or two aspects of the way a mother behaves towards her baby.
It is useful to observe several features of how a mother acts when she is with her small child.

Note: This is not enough by itself. You also need to change the words and the
structure of the text.

3a/b. Identify the meaning relationships in the text and express them in a
different way.

Examples:
a.Many invertebrates, on the other hand, such as snails and worms and crustacea, have a spiral pattern of
cleavage. 
In contrast, many invertebrates, such as snails and worms and crustacea, have a spiral pattern of
cleavage.
 b.Similarly, the muscles will not grow in length unless they are attached to tendons and bones so that as the
bones lengthen, they are stretched. 
Likewise, if the muscles are not attached to tendons and bones so that as the bones lengthen, they are
stretched, they will not grow in length.
c.Besides being a theory about the basis and origin of knowledge and the contents of our minds in general,
empiricism is also sometimes a methodology. 
Not only is empiricism a theory about the basis and origin of knowledge and the contents of our minds in
general, it also sometimes a methodology.
d.As opposed to this, Locke is often supposed to be saying that, in addition to properties, things have a
"substratum" which "supports" their properties. 
Locke is often supposed to be saying, on the other hand, that, in addition to properties, things have a
"substratum" which "supports" their properties.
e.Consequently in a sense one may speak of the Common Law as unwritten law in contrast with Statute Law,
which is written law. 
In a sense, therefore, one may speak of the Common Law as unwritten law in contrast with Statute Law,
which is written law.

Note: This is not enough by itself. You also need to change the structure of
the text.

3b/c. Change the grammar of the text:

For example:

i. change nouns to verbs

a. This rewriting of history was not so much a matter of a new start. 
This rewriting of history was not so much a matter of starting again.
b. Here he lives with the labourers in one of the barrack rooms, and out of his small earnings makes a
start at having a house built. 
Here he lives with the labourers in one of the barrack rooms, and out of his small earnings starts
to have a house built.
ii. change verbs to nouns
a. The Normans invaded in 1066. 
The Norman invasion took place in 1066.
b. The bomb exploded and caused many casualties.
The explosion caused many casualties.
iii. change adverbs to adjectives
a. He wrote frequently. 
He wrote on frequent occasions.
b. Politically, it was a bad decision. 
From a political point of view, it was a bad decision.
iv. change active verbs to passive
a. We can relate a study of this kind to texts in other media too 
A study of this kind can be related to texts in other media too.
b. In this treatment the teacher can use a variety of techniques to elicit the language learners already
know. 
In this treatment a variety of techniques is used to elicit the language learners already know.
v. break up sentences
a. Given the extent to which deforestation increased markedly in the four southern states during 1987
and 1988, it is heartening news that during the early part of the 1989 dry season the burning
seemed to have been curtailed somewhat, due to a combination of policy changes, better
controls on burning, and most important of all an exceptionally wet "dry" season. 
 Deforestation increased markedly in the four southern states during 1987 and 1988. On account
of this, it is heartening news that during the early part of the 1989 dry season the burning
seemed to have been curtailed somewhat. The reason for this is a combination of policy
changes, better controls on burning, and most important of all an exceptionally wet "dry"
season.
b. In 1851 the average family size was 4.7, roughly the same as it had been in the seventeenth
century, but the 1� million couples who married during the 1860s, which the historian G. M.
Young described as the best decade in English history to have been brought up in, raised the
figure to 6.2.
In 1851 the average family size was 4.7, roughly the same as it had been in the seventeenth
century. However, the 1� million couples who married during the 1860s, which the historian
G. M. Young described as the best decade in English history to have been brought up in, raised
the figure to 6.2.
vi. combine sentences
a. Tropical forests are defined here as evergreen or partly evergreen forests. They grow in areas
receiving not less than 100 mm of precipitation in any month for two out of three years. The
mean annual temperature is 24-plus degrees Celsius. The area is essentially frost-free. 
Tropical forests are defined here as evergreen or partly evergreen forests, in areas receiving not
less than 100 mm of precipitation in any month for two out of three years, with mean annual
temperature of 24-plus degrees Celsius, and essentially frost-free.
b. The third National Government followed upon the resignation of the Liberal ministers and of the
free trader, Snowden. This happened in September 1932. After this it became little more than a
Conservative government. A few ex-Labour and Liberal politicians were added. They all owed
their seats to an electoral pact with the Conservatives.
The third National Government followed upon the resignation of the Liberal ministers and of
the free trader, Snowden, in September 1932, after which it became little more than a
Conservative government, with the addition of a few ex-Labour and Liberal politicians, all
owing their seats to an electoral pact with the Conservatives.

Note: This is not enough by itself. You also need to change the words and the
structure of the text.

Reporting - paraphrase, summary & synthesis

Summary

A summary is a shortened version of a text. It contains the main points in the

text and is written in your own words. It is a mixture of reducing a long text to
a short text and selecting relevant information. Summarising is useful when
you are using the work of others to support your own view. See Rhetorical
functions in academic writing: Providing support
A good summary shows that you have understood the text. Please remember,
though, that even when you summarise someone's work, you must
acknowledge it. SeeCitation.

Look at this example:

Source
The amphibia, which is the animal class to which our
frogs and toads belong, were the first animals to
crawl from the sea and inhabit the earth.

Summary
The first animals to leave the sea and live on dry land
were the amphibia.

The phrase "which is the animal class to which our frogs and toads belong" is
an example, not a main point, and can be deleted. The rest of the text is
rewritten in your own words.

Try this exercise.

The following stages may be useful:

1. Read and understand the text carefully.

2. Think about the purpose of the text.
a. Ask what the author's purpose is in writing the text?
b. What is your purpose in writing your summary?
c. Are you summarising to support your poins?
d. Or are you summarising so you can criticise the work before you
introduce your main points?
3. Select the relevant information. This depends on your purpose.
4. Find the main ideas - what is important.
a. They may be found in topic sentences.
b. Distinguish between main and subsidiary information.
c. Delete most details and examples, unimportant information,
anecdotes, examples, illustrations, data etc.
d. Find alternative words/synonyms for these words/phrases - do
not change specialised vocabulary and common words.
5. Change the structure of the text.
a. Identify the meaning relationships between the words/ideas -
e.g. cause/effect, generalisation, contrast. Look at Paragraphs:
 Signalling for more information. Express these relationships in a
different way.
b. Change the grammar of the text: rearrange words and
sentences. Change nouns to verbs, adjectives to adverbs, etc.,
break up long sentences, combine short sentences.
c. Simplify the text. Reduce complex sentences to simple
sentences, simple sentences to phrases, phrases to single
words.
6. Rewrite the main ideas in complete sentences. Combine your notes
into a piece of continuous writing. Use conjunctions and adverbs such
as 'therefore', 'however', 'although', 'since', to show the connections
between the ideas.
7. Check your work.
a. Make sure your purpose is clear.
b. Make sure the meaning is the same.
c. Make sure the style is your own.
d. Remember to acknowledge other people's work.

4b/c. Distinguish between main and subsidiary information. Delete most

details and examples, unimportant information, anecdotes, examples,
illustrations, data etc. Simplify the text. Reduce complex sentences to simple
sentences, simple sentences to phrases, phrases to single words.

Examples:
a.People whose professional activity lies in the field of politics are not, on the whole, conspicuous for their
respect for factual accuracy.
Politicians often lie.
b.Failure to assimilate an adequate quantity of solid food over an extended period of time is absolutely
certain to lead, in due course, to a fatal conclusion.
Lack of food causes death.
c.The climatic conditions prevailing in the British Isles show a pattern of alternating and unpredictable
periods of dry and wet weather, accompanied by a similarly irregular cycle of temperature changes.
British weather is changeable.
d.It is undeniable that the large majority of non-native learners of English experience a number of problems
in attempting to master the phonetic patterns of the language.
Many learners find English pronunciation difficult.
e.Tea, whether of the China or Indian variety, is well known to be high on the list of those beverages which
are most frequently drunk by the inhabitants of the British Isles.
The British drink a large amount of tea.
f. It is not uncommon to encounter sentences which, though they contain a great number of words and are
constructed in a highly complex way, none the less turn out on inspection to convey very little meaning
of any kind.
Some long and complicated sentences mean very little.
g.One of the most noticeable phenomena in any big city, such as London or Paris, is the steadily increasing
number of petrol-driven vehicles, some in private ownership, others belonging to the public transport
 system, which congest the roads and render rapid movement more difficult year by year.
Big cities have growing traffic problems.

Example 1: Volcanic Islands

Exercise 1: Progress in Samoa

Reporting - paraphrase, summary & synthesis

Synthesis

A synthesis is a combination, usually a shortened version, of several texts

made into one. It contains the important points in the text and is written in your
own words.

To make a synthesis you need to find suitable sources, and then to select the
relevant parts in those sources. You will then use your paraphrase and
summary skills to write the information in your own words. The information
from all the sources has to fit together into one continuous text. Please
remember, though, that when you synthesise work from different people, you
must acknowledge it. See Citation.

The following stages may be useful:

1. Find texts that are suitable for your assignment.

2. Read and understand the texts.
3. Find the relevant ideas in the texts. Mark them in some way - write
them down, take notes, underline them or highlight them.
4. Make sure you identify the meaning relationships between the
words/ideas - use colours or numbers.
5. Read what you have marked very carefully.
6. Organise the information you have. You could give all similar ideas in
different texts the same number or letter or colour.
7. Transfer all the information on to one piece of paper. Write down all
simiar information together.
8. Paraphrase and summarise as necessary.
9. Check your notes with your original texts for accuracy and relevance.
10. Combine your notes into one continuous text.
 11. Check your work.
a. Make sure your purpose is clear
b. Make sure the language is correct
c. Make sure the style is your own
d. Remember to acknowledge other people's work

Example 1: Protecting Rainforests

Genres in academic writing

Introduction

Students are asked to write many different kinds of texts. Depending on your
subject, these could be essays, laboratory reports, case-studies, book
reviews, reflective diaries, posters, research proposals, and so on and are
normally referred to as genres. These different genres, though, can be
constructed from a small range of different text types.

If, for example, you are asked to write an essay to answer the following
question:

Discuss possible solutions to the problem of international credit control

You could answer it in the following way:

1. Define credit control, say what it is and give an example;

2. Explain why international credit control is a problem in business today,
support your explanation by evidence from your reading;
3. Describe some possible solutions to the problem of credit control in an
international context, again support your suggestions with evidence
from your reading;
4. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of each of the possible
solutions;
5. Decide which solution you would prefer and give reasons.

So in order to answer the question you need to be able to write texts to do the
following:
  Define
 Give an example
 Explain why
 Support your explanation with evidence
 Describe a solution
 Describe advantages and disadvantages
 Choose
 Explain why

I have called these various text types Rhetorical Functions: see Functions.

Here, we will pull together these different functional text types to show how
the larger genres (or part genres) you are expected to write can be
constructed from these shorter functional texts.

1. Essays
2. Reports
3. Case Studies
4. Research proposals
5. Book reviews
6. Brief research reports
7. Literature reviews
8. Reflective writing
9. Introductions
10. Research methods
11. Research results
12. Research discussions
13. Writing conclusions
14. Research abstracts

Genres in academic writing: Essays

Introduction

Almost all students will at some time be expected to write an essay, or some
other kind of argument, e.g. a review or discussion section, in a longer piece
of writing. In English, an essay is a piece of argumentative writing several
paragraphs long written about one topic, usually based on your reading. The
aim of the essay should be deduced strictly from the wording of the title or
question (See Academic Writing: Understanding the Question), and needs to
be defined at the beginning. The purpose of an essay is for you to say
something for yourself using the ideas of the subject, for you to present ideas
you have learned in your own way. The emphasis should be on working with
other people's ideas, rather than reproducing their words, but your own voice
should show clearly. The ideas and people that you refer to need to made
explicit by a system of referencing.

According to Linda Flower (1990, p. v), "students are reading to create

a text of their own, trying to integrate information from sources with ideas of
their own, and attempting to do so under the guidance of a purpose."

Organisation

Your essay should have the following sections:

1. Preliminaries Title page

Introduction
2. Main text Main body
Conclusion

3. End matter References

^
1. Preliminaries

Before you start the main part of your essay or assignment, there should be a
title page. The title page should contain information to enable your lecturer
and departmental office or other reader to identify exactly what the piece of
work is. It should include your name and course; the title of the assignment
and any references; the lecturer it is for etc. Check with your department for
clear information.

^
2. Main text

English essays are linear:

- they start at the beginning and finish at the end, with every part contributing
to the main line of argument, without digressions or repetition. Writers are
responsible for making their line of argument clear and presenting it in an
orderly fashion so that the reader can follow. Each paragraph discusses one
major point and each paragraph should lead directly to the next. The
paragraphs are tied together with an introduction and a conclusion.

The main text of the essay has three main parts:

I. An introduction
II. A main body
III. A conclusion
I. The introduction.

The introduction consists of two parts:

a. It should include a few general statements about the subject to

provide a background to your essay and to attract the reader's
attention. It should try to explain why you are writing the essay. It
may include a definition of terms in the context of the essay, etc.
b. It should also include a statement of the specific subdivisions of
the topic and/or indication of how the topic is going to be tackled
in order to specifically address the question.

It should introduce the central idea or the main purpose of the writing.
II. The main body.

The main body consists of one or more paragraphs of ideas and

arguments. Each paragraph develops a subdivision of the topic. The
paragraphs of the essay contain the main ideas and arguments of the
 essay together with illustrations or examples. The paragraphs are linked
in order to connect the ideas. The purpose of the essay must be made
clear and the reader must be able to follow its development.
III. The conclusion.

The conclusion includes the writer's final points.

a. It should recall the issues raised in the introduction and draw

together the points made in the main body
b. and explain the overall significance of the conclusions. What
general points can be drawn from the essay as a whole?

It should clearly signal to the reader that the essay is finished and leave
a clear impression that the purpose of the essay has been achieved.

^
PRELIMINARIES

I. INTRODUCTION

  General Statement  
Organisation Statement

II. MAIN BODY

  A. Introductory Sentence  
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
...
Concluding Sentence

  B. Introductory Sentence  
Point 1
Point 2
 Point 3
...
Concluding Sentence

  C. Introductory Sentence  
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
...
Concluding Sentence

III. CONCLUSION

  Recall issues in introduction;   

draw together main points;
final comment.

END MATTER

^
3. End Matter

At the end of the essay, there should be a list of references. This should give
full information about the materials that you have used in the assignment.
SeeWriting a list of references for more information on the reference list.
Ways of organising essays.

Essays are organised differently according to their purpose. Essays can be

divided into the following main types.
1. The descriptive essay

a. Description of object or place

b. Describing a sequence of events.

c. Describing a process

d. Describing and explaining

2. The argument essay

a. The balanced view

b. The persuasive essay

c. The to what extent essay.

3. Compare and contrast essays

a. The contrast essay

b. The compare essay

c. The compare and contrast essays

1. The descriptive essay

a. Description of object or place

Describe essays require you to state the appearance of something, or to state

the major characteristics of it. Note the word state i.e. you are not asked to
comment on the subject or to give your personal point of view on it. Questions
are often introduced by:
Describe ....
Narrate...
Tell....

Plan:

Introduction

major aspects of the subject.

description of aspect A

↓
 description of aspect B

etc.

Conclusion

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Describing objects, locations & directions

b. Describing a sequence of events.

Describing a sequence of events is simply telling a story.

State clearly when events happened or how one event caused another.
Questions may be introduced by:
Give an account of...
Trace...
Examine developments in...

Intoduction

First situation

then A happened

then B happened

etc.

Final situation

↓
 Conclusion

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Reporting & narrating

c. Describing a process

This is like telling a story but here the connections between the facts must be
clearly shown and explained. Group the events into steps or stages.

Examples of such questions are :

Explain/What is the connection between...
Describe the procedures by which...

Definition of process

Main equipment/Main steps

Step One

leads to

Step Two

leads to

Step Three

Conclusion

Summary of process

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Describing processes & developments

d. Describing and explaining

Some of the words and phrases which introduce this type of description are:
Explain the causes/reasons....
Account for....
Analyse the causes....
Comment on (the reasons for)....
Show that....
Show why...
Examine the effect of....
Suggest reasons for....
Why did...?
What are the implications of...?
Discuss the causes of....
Discuss the reasons for....

When we are asked to describe or explain causes, factors, functions or

results, the examiner wants us to group our facts. Similar causes are put
together, for instance the economic causes of a situation. There are basically
two main ways to organise this type of essay.

The question is "Describe the causes of A. Illustrate your answer by specific

examples."

i.

Introduction to causes of A

Cause 1 + example

Effects 1

Cause 2 with example

Effects 2

Cause 3 with examples

Effects 3
 ↓

Cause 4 with example

Effects 4

etc.

Conclusion

ii.

Introduction to causes of A

Causes + examples

Transition

Effects

Conclusion

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Expressing reasons and explanations /

cause and effect
2. The argument essay

There are two main methods of presenting an argument, and in general the
one you choose will depend on exactly how the essay title is worded.
a. The balanced view

If the essay title begins with something like:

Give the arguments for and against....
Assess the importance of....
Examine the arguments for and against....
What are the advantages and disadvantages of...?
Evaluate....
Critically examine the statement that....
To what extent is...true?

or even just the word

Discuss....

then it is clear that a balanced essay is required. That is to say you should
present both sides of an argument, without necessarily committing yourself to
any points of view, which should always be based on evidence, until the final
paragraph.

At its simplest your essay plan will be as follows:

Introduce the argument to the reader.

e.g. why it is particularly relevant topic nowadays 

or refer directly to some comments that have been voiced on it recently.

Reasons against the argument

Reasons in favour of the argument

After summarising the two sides, 

state your own point of view, 
and explain why you think as you do

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Arguing and discussing; - Expressing

degrees of certainty; - Generalising; - Comparing and contrasting: similarities
and differences; - Giving examples
b. The persuasive essay

This second type of argumentative essay involves stating your own point of
view immediately, and trying to convince the reader by reasoned argument
that you are right. Perhaps the essay title will begin with something like:
Give your views on....
What do you think about...?
Do you agree that...?
Consider whether....

Or perhaps the title itself will be so controversial that everyone will hold a
definite opinion in one direction or another.

The form of the essay will be, in outline, as follows:

Introduce the topic briefly in general terms,

and then state your own opinion.

Explain what you plan to prove in the essay.

Reasons against the argument.

Dispose briefly of the main objections to your case.

Reasons for your argument

the arguments to support your own view,

with evidence and examples.

Conclusion - Do not repeat your point of view again.

End your essay with something memorable

e.g. a quotation or a direct question.

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Arguing and discussing; - Expressing
degrees of certainty; - Generalising; - Comparing and contrasting: similarities
and differences; - Giving examples
c. The to what extent essay

In this type of essay the examiner is giving you a statement. It is obviously

true but truth is never 100%. You must decide how true it is? Are there some
areas where you disagree with the statement. If so, describe how far you
agree, and your points of agreement and disagreement. Words used in the
question are:
To what extent ....
How true ....
How far do you agree....

A possible answer structure is:

Introduction to problem

Aspect 1 - true

Aspect 1 - false

Aspect 2 - true

Aspect 2 - false

Aspect 3 - true

Aspect 3 - false

etc
 ↓

Conclusion

a ‘subtraction’ sum

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Arguing and discussing; - Expressing

degrees of certainty; - Generalising; - Comparing and contrasting: similarities
and differences; - Giving examples
3. Compare and contrast essays.

a The Contrast essay

Contrast or distinguish between questions usually present you with two or

more terms, instruments, concepts or procedures that are closely connected,
and sometimes confused. The purpose of the essay is to explain the
differences between them. The question may be of the form:
Contrast ....
Distinguish between ...
What is the difference between....
What are the differences between....
How are ... and ... different?

A suitable answer structure would be:

Introduction to differences between A and B

Contrast A & B in terms of first difference

Contrast A & B in terms of second difference

Contrast A & B in terms of third difference

etc

↓
 Conclusion

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Comparing and contrasting: similarities

and differences; - Defining; - Generalising; - Giving examples
b. The Compare essay

Compare questions usually present you with two or more terms, instruments,

concepts or procedures that are closely connected, and sometimes confused.
The purpose of the essay is to explain the similarities between them. Words
used are:
Compare ....
What features do ... and ... have in common?
What are the similarities between....
How are ... and ... similar?

A suitable answer structure would be:

Introduction to similarities between A and B

Compare A & B

in terms of first similarity

Compare A & B

in terms of second similarity

Compare A & B

in terms of third similarity

etc.

↓
 Conclusion

See: Academic Writing: Functions - Comparing and contrasting: similarities

and differences; - Defining; - Generalising; - Giving examples
c. The compare and contrast essay

Compare and contrast essays require you to indicate areas in which the
things to be compared are similar and different.
Compare and contrast....

There are two main ways to answer such questions:

i.

Introduction to differences and similarities between A and B

Difference 1

Difference 2

Difference 3

etc.

Transition

Similarity 1

Similarity 2
 ↓

Similarity 3

etc.

Conclusion

ii.

Introduction to differences and similarities between A and B

Aspect 1 - similarities

Aspect 1 - differences

Aspect 2 - similarities

Aspect 2 - differences

Aspect 3 - similarities

Aspect 3 - differences

etc

Conclusion
See: Academic Writing: Functions - Comparing and contrasting: similarities
and differences; - Defining; - Generalising; - Giving examples

^
Exercise

Plan answers for some of the questions in Understanding the question:

Examples of questions.

^
Back to Introduction

Genres in academic writing: Reports

Many students, particularly science and business students, will at some time
be expected to write a report.

Example

Your report should have the following sections:

Title page
1. Preliminaries Abstract
Contents

Introduction 
Methodology 
2. Main text Findings/Results 
Discussion 
Conclusion

References
3. End matter
Appendices

^
1. Preliminaries
Before you start the main part of your report, there should be a title page. The
title page should contain information to enable your lecturer and departmental
office to identify exactly what the piece of work is. It should include your name
and course; the title of the assignment and any references; the lecturer it is for
etc. Check with your department for clear information. A report should also
normally include an abstract and a contents page. The abstract should give
some background information, clearly state the principal purpose of the report,
give some information about the methodology used, state the most important
results and the conclusion. See: Writing an abstract. The contents page will
give page numbers for the main sections.
2. The main text

The main body consists of several paragraphs of ideas, data and argument.
Each section develops a subdivision of the report purpose. The introduction
gives background knowledge that supports the reason for writing the report
and an organisation statement. The methodology section gives details of how
the information in the report was obtained. Findings and results give the data
that has been collected, while the discussion argues that the results lead to
the clearly expressed conclusion. The sections are linked in order to connect
the ideas. The purpose of the report must be made clear and the reader must
be able to follow its development.

I. Introduction
II. Methodology
III. Findings/Results
IV. Discussion
V. Conclusion

I. The introduction.

The introduction consists of three parts:

a. It should include a short review of the literature to provide a

background to your report and to attract the reader's attention. It
may include a definition of terms in the context of the report, etc.
b. It should try to explain why you are writing the report. You need
to establish a gap in current knowledge.
c. It should also include a statement of the specific subdivisions of
the topic and/or indication of how the topic is going to be tackled
in order to specifically address the question.
 It should introduce the central idea or the main purpose of the writing.
See: Writing Introductions
II. Methodology.

The methodology section gives details of how the information in the

report was obtained. It may give details of the materials and
procedures used. In any kind of experimental report, details of the
people involved will need to be included. See: Writing Research
Methods
III. Findings/Results.

The findings and results give the data that has been collected. This
may be shown in the form of tables, graphs or diagrams. In all cases,
reference must be made to the location of the information, the main
details of the data and any comments on this. See: Writing Research
Results
IV. Discussion.

The main purpose of the discussion is to show that the results lead
clearly to the conclusion being drawn. This may include any limitations
that might cause problems with any claims being made as well as any
possible explanations for these results. See: Writing Research
Discussions
V. The conclusion.

The conclusion includes the writer's final points.

a. It should recall the issues raised in the introduction and draw

together the points made in the results and discussion
b. and come to a clear conclusion.

It should clearly signal to the reader that the report is finished and
leave a clear impression that the purpose of the report has been
achieved. See: Writing Conclusions

^
PRELIMINARIES
 ↓

I. INTRODUCTION

  Background  
Identification of Gap
Organisation Statement

II. METHODOLOGY

  Introductory Sentence - Overview  

Procedures
Materials
...
Concluding Sentence

III. FINDINGS/RESULTS

  Introductory Sentence  
Locating Results
Findings
Comment
...
Concluding Sentence

IV. DISCUSSION

  Introductory Sentence - Overview  

Review of Findings
Possible Explanations
Limitations
...
Concluding Sentence

V. CONCLUSION

  Recall Issues in Introduction - Report Purpose;  

Draw Together Main Points;
Final Comment - Clear Conclusion.
 ↓

END MATTER

^
3. End Matter

At the end of the report, there should be a list of references. This should give
full information about the materials that you have used in the report.
See Writing a list of references for more information on the reference list. The
appendices may contain full details of data collected.

^
Back to Introduction

Genres in academic writing: Research proposals

At undergraduate level, you may be asked to write a research proposal before

a major piece of writing such as an end of year project or a final year
dissertation. The purpose of the proposal is to show how you intend to tackle
the study and whether or not you have thought through the practicalities. Your
lecturer will want to see that you have planned your research carefully in order
for you to succeed.

It will probably include the following:

 Preliminary title. What is the topic? What exactly is the research

question?
 What exactly do you hope to show? What is the purpose of your
work? Describe your research problem.
 Why the research is important? An argument as to why that problem
is important, what problems still need to be solved.
 What do you already know about this topic? The proposal should
begin by giving the background to the subject area in which the
research is situated. It will describe the important theoretical and
practical issues it plans to address. This should be supported by some
 reference to recent literature. It should finish by indicating a problem
that your research will solve.
 How will the research be conducted? A description of the proposed
research methodology. A time line or Gantt chart may be required.
 What resources will be needed? What resource implications are there
for the prposed research with regard to materials, equipment, libary
recources etc?
 How will the finding be useful?  A description of how the research
findings will be used and/or communicated to others.
 A preliminary reading list. This gives some idea of the reading you
have already done. is also required.

The typical stages involve in a research proposal would be the following:

Title

Brief description of research proposal

↓
Purpose

Describe in detail what you what to find out

↓
Justification

Present an argument to justify your research.

Explain why it is important

↓
Literature review

Report any previous research

Give examples of previous research

Evaluate any previous research

Identify any gaps

Describe how you intend to fill the gaps

↓
Method
 Describe your proposed research methodology

Describe your time frame

Describe how you intend to do this in the time available

Describe you resources

Describe how you intend to do your research with the

available resources.
↓
Dissemination

Describe how the findings will be used

Evaluate this use

Describe how the research findings will be

disseminated.
↓
Reading list

List the books and articles you might find useful

↓
End matter

Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Taking a stance

Introduction

In higher education, you need to be able to write critically. As well as giving

the facts, you need to be able to make use of these facts to come to general
conclusions. These conclusions need to be justified and supported by
evidence. You also need to be aware of other points of view that exist and this
must be dealt with.

Read the following sentence:

Previous studies (Jones, 1997; Smith, 2006) have indicated that the intensity of physiotherapy provision may affect
some patient outcomes including reduced mortality following a stroke.

In academic writing, it is often necessary to make it clear to your reader what

opinion you hold or what your position is with regard to a certain issue. This is
often called your "voice" or your "position" or your "claim". It may be based on
other people's research (eg, Smith & Jones), but the conclusion you have
come to is your own.

As a student, it is not enough to simply describe a situation or recall the facts,

you need to take a stance or position yourself in relation to the situation or the
facts. This is particularly important in assessment when you have to answer a
question.  Of course, you need to know and reproduce the information, but
you also need to use the information to give an answer to the question, to give
YOUR answer to the question.

In the sentence above, the words "indicate", "may" and "some" show the writers
position towards the previous studies. Instead of "indicated", the words
"shown",proved" or "suggested" could have been used. The word "may" might have
been replaced by "could", "will" or nothing. "Some" was chosen, where "many", "few"
or "most" were also possible.

Expressing your voice

You can show your position with respect to a particular issue by:

 Showing how confident - or not - you are with regard to your position.
 Being explicit about the relationships you are discussing.
 Indicating the strength of your claim.
Showing confidence

It was clearly proposed not as a permanent arrangement, but as a temporary measure of co-operation between

different individual.

This latter point was perhaps the greatest concern for Britain's aviation planners as the war went on.

You can be cautious through the use of hedges such as "perhaps", "maybe", "could",
"might".

You can be confident through the use of boosters such as "definitely", "will",
"must", "cannot".
See: Expressing degrees of certainty
Being explicit about relationships

You can show your position towards the relationships in the text.

If you think two ideas are almost the same, be explicit about it

Marx referred throughout his work to other systems than the capitalist system, especially those which he knew from
the history of Europe to have preceded capitalism; systems such as feudalism, where the relation of production was
characterized by the personal relation of the feudal lord and his serf and a relation of subordination which came from
the lord's control of the land. Similarly, Marx was interested in slavery and in the classical Indian and Chinese social
systems, or in those systems where the ties of local community are all important.

If you intend your sentence to give extra information, make it clear.

He is born into a family, he marries into a family, and he becomes the husband and father of his own family. In
addition, he has a definite place of origin and more relatives than he knows what to do with, and he receives a
rudimentary education at the Canadian Mission School.

See: Writing paragraphs: signalling

Indicating the strength of your claim.

You can show your position with regard to the points of view or the evidence
that you have presented.

Research suggests that we have at least four types of memory.

or:

Research shows that we have at least four types of memory.

See: Citing sources

Here are some other words and phrases that you can use to show your
position:

1 Introductory verbs e.g. seem, indicate, suggest

2 Thinking verbs e.g. believe, assume, suggest
3 Reporting verbs e.g. claim, find, confirm, assert
3 Evaluative adjectives e.g. important, misguided, wrong, misguided, inaccurate, incorrect
4 Evaluative adverbs e.g. accurately, unsatisfactorily
5 Adverbs of frequency e.g. often, sometimes
6 Modal verbs e.g. will, may, might, could
7 Modal adverbs e.g. certainly, definitely
8 Modal adjectives e.g. certain, definite
9 Modal nouns e.g. assumption, possibility
10 Signalling words e.g. furthermore, similarly

Example

Read the following example from the field of Physiotherapy and identify words
that show the author's position:

Patellofemoral disorders are amongst the most common clinical conditions encountered in the sporting and general
population. Patellofemoral pain is usually described as diffuse, peripatellar, anterior knee pain. Symptoms are
typically aggravated by activities such as ascending or descending stairs, squatting, kneeling, running and prolonged
sitting.

A wide variety of disorders may fall under the umbrella term of patellofemoral pain. As a result, a thorough
systematic evaluation of the patient’s lower extremity alignment, patellar mobility and alignment, muscle flexibility,
strength, co-ordination, soft tissue and articular pain is important in determining the possible causes of patellofemoral
pain and prescribing an optimal rehabilitation programme. Management of patellofemoral pain syndrome often
includes reduction of pain and inflammation through cryotherapy, heat therapy, massage therapy, muscle flexibility
and strength training (especially quadriceps), patellar taping, bracing, orthotics, correction of abnormal biomechanics
or other causative factors, acupuncture and surgery.

(From: The effect of medial patellar taping on pain, strength and neuromuscular
recruitment in subjects with and without patellofemoral pain. By Janet H. L. Keet, Janine
Gray, Yolande Harley, & Mike I. Lambert. Physiotherapy, 93 (2007) 45–52. )

Examples are:

Patellofemoral disorders are amongst the most common clinical conditions encountered in the sporting and general
population. Patellofemoral pain isusually described as diffuse, peripatellar, anterior knee pain.
Symptoms are typically aggravated by activities such as ascending or descending stairs, squatting, kneeling, running
and prolonged sitting.

A wide variety of disorders may fall under the umbrella term of patellofemoral pain. As a result, a thorough
systematic evaluation of the patient’s lower extremity alignment, patellar mobility and alignment, muscle flexibility,
strength, co-ordination, soft tissue and articular pain is important in determining thepossible causes of patellofemoral
pain and prescribing an optimal rehabilitation programme. Management of patellofemoral pain
syndrome often includes reduction of pain and inflammation through cryotherapy, heat therapy, massage therapy,
muscle flexibility and strength training (especially quadriceps), patellar taping, bracing, orthotics, correction of
abnormal biomechanics or other causative factors, acupuncture and surgery.
Exercise

Try this exercise: 

Exercise 1

^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Defining

In academic writing, it is often necessary to define your terms.

Examples
Lava is the name applied to the liquid rock material, or magma, when it reaches the surface, as well as to the solid
rock formed by consolidation due to cooling. The temperature of lava as it comes to the surface may exceed 2000°F,
for copper wire with a melting point of 2200°F was melted in the lava from Vesuvius, and at Kilauea a temperature
of 2300°F. has been observed.
This earth of ours by Victor T Allen, p. 3

In this case, the term "lava" is being defined.

The sediment deposited by a stream is called alluvium.

This earth of ours by Victor T Allen, p. 97.

In this example, "alluvium" is being defined.

Diseases and symptoms

A disease is normally defined as an abnormal condition of the body that has a specific cause and characteristic
outward 'signs' and symptoms. Technically speaking, a 'sign' is considered to be an indication of a disease that is
noticed by the doctor but not by the patient, while a symptom is something felt or perceived by the patient himself -
but this distinction is often blurred in ordinary conversation.

In this example, definitions of "disease", "symptom" and "sign" are defined.

Most metals are malleable; they can be hammered into flat sheets; nonmetals lack this quality. Some metals are also
ductile; they can be drawn out into thin wires; nonmetals are not usually ductile.

Inquiry into earth and space science, by William J Jacobson, p 104-105.

The definition is not explicit in this case, but the words "malleable" and
"ductile" are defined.

Language

X is ...
X is called ...
X is known as ...
X may be defined as ...
X is a type of Y that/which ... 
A type of Y which ... is X

^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Narrating and reporting

Examples

Read the following texts:

Example 1

The Evolution of Sound Recording

The history of recording sound stretches back to 1857 when Leon Scott, intent on obtaining a picture of what sound
waves looked like, devised a method for recording the vibrations in the air. His device, later patented as the
Phonoautograph, used a large parabolic horn to channel incoming sound waves to a membrane covering the narrow
end of the horn. A bristle attached to the membrane by a lever traced a path in a revolving cylinder coated with lamp-
black. As the membrane vibrated in response to sound waves, the bristle etched a pattern in the lamp-black that
corresponded to the frequency of the sound. Although this was useful for gaining a view of what different sound
waves looked like, the device could only record incoming waves - there was no provision for playing back the sound
wave traces.

After studying the Phonoautograph, Thomas Edison modified the basic design in 1877 so that it would be capable of
playing back sounds. While the sound quality was rather pitiful, the fact that this feat could actually be accomplished
encouraged others to continue development. Edison’s device utilized a grooved metal cylinder encased in tinfoil. A
horn concentrated the sound waves when someone spoke into it. At the apex of the horn, a thin membrane attached to
a needle transmitted the vibrations - the resulting waves were scored into the tinfoil as the needle moved up and
down, creating a path of varying depth. The cylinder in this device was rotated by means of a hand crank. Once the
sound was recorded, the needle was returned to the beginning of the groove. Turning the hand crank caused the
vibrations captured in tinfoil to travel from the needle to the diaphragm and a crude replica of the human voice
emerged from the horn.

Alexander Graham Bell took this invention a step further by replacing the foil-covered cylinder with one coated with
wax. The needle cut a pattern that varied in depth onto the wax surface. For recording, Bell relied on a very sharp
stylus and firm membrane. During playback, he switched to a dull stylus and a looser membrane so as not to destroy
the original impressions. To reuse the cylinder, the wax could be shaved and smoothed. For the first time, sound
recording could be accomplished on removable and reusable media. The process was further improved with the
addition of an electric motor to replace the hand crank, so that recording and playback took place at uniform speeds.
Recorded cylinders were then metal-plated to create a mould so that a number of copies of the original could be
produced.

The technology spawned a mini-industry. Phonograph parlours sprang up around the country in the late 1800s where
amazed visitors paid a nickel to hear voices muttering from these primitive playback devices.

The recording cylinder was replaced by a disc in 1888 when Emile Berliner devised a variation of this basic recording
technique. Berliner’s gramophone used a stylus travelling within a spiral groove on a flat disc. Sound waves caused
the stylus to cut a pattern side to side within the groove. The pattern on the disc could then be reproduced using a
metal mould and hundreds of recorded discs could be manufactured inexpensively from each mould. The disc itself
was fashioned of metal covered with wax. After the stylus cut the pattern, removing the wax from its path, acid was
used to etch the resulting waveform into the metal subsurface.

While the sound quality wasn’t up to par with that of the cylinders, the recording method was better suited to mass
production. By the year 1910, discs and spring-wound players were being sold all over the world featuring recordings
by some of the most popular singers of that era. Development of the vacuum tube amplifier in 1912 by Lee de Forest
spurred efforts to combine the phonograph and gramophone with amplified playback, a process which took several
more years.

During the same period that Edison, Bell, and Berliner were working on their sound recording devices, others were
working on developing methods of magnetic recording of sound waves. The pattern of sound waves, instead of being
imprinted on a disc or cylinder, is translated into a series of magnetic domains that can be stored on a variety of
media. The first patent for such a device was claimed by Oberlin Smith in 1888. Later, a man by the name of Poulson
created a magnetic sound recorder that used steel tape as the recording medium. He exhibited his invention at the
Paris Exhibition in 1900, calling his device a Telegraphone.

The radio broadcast industry was very interested in equipment that could store sound and immediately play it back,
since it enabled them to repeat some broadcast material - such as newscasts - whenever required. The tape could also
be easily erased and reused - another major benefit. Work by DeStille in 1924 resulted in the Blattnerphone, which
impressed the British Broadcasting Company enough to draw them into the development process. The Marconi
Wireless Telegraph Company also jumped into the development effort, using steel-based magnetic tape that was
initially biased to saturation. Rudimentary magnetic recorders were produced, although the early versions required
literally miles of steel tape to accommodate 20 or 30 minutes of recorded sound.

Cumbersome steel-based tapes gave way to plastic-based magnetic tape. The magnetic oxides coating plastic-based
tape can be formulated differently to change their recording and sound-storage properties. Undesirable characteristics
such as print-through (the tendency of magnetic signals to leach through one layer of tape and affect adjacent layers)
can be minimized through a choice of magnetic oxide.

Magnetic methods of recording are still widely used in cassette recorders and reel-to-reel decks, and improvements in
electronics, recording media, magnetic recording heads, and noise-reduction techniques have maintained the viability
of this recording method. However this method of recording is subject to certain limitations that have been largely
overcome by digital recording techniques. Signal-to-noise ratios of recorded sounds, among other factors, have been
greatly improved by digital storage methods.

After many years of development, digital recording gear has largely surpassed analogue, reel-to-reel, and magnetic
tape recorders. Digital recording machines - such as the DAT, ADAT, RDAT, recordable mini-disc, portable studios
with removable hard disk drive storage, and home computers have changed our perception of “high-fidelity” audio to
startlingly clearer levels. In the digital realm, the signal-to-noise ratio is greatly improved over analogue equipment,
meaning the dynamic representation of the music is greatly improved. The familiar hiss and tape noise common to
analogue recording is conspicuously absent in digital recordings. This particular improvement in recording
techniques ensures that the softest passages in a recorded musical work or speech will be as free of noise as the
loudest levels of recorded audio. The recordist has a greater dynamic range to work with when using digital recording
techniques, and fewer processing “tricks” are required to guarantee an effective sound recording.

(From: Internet audio sourcebook, by Lee Purcell & Jordan Hemphill, Wiley, 1997)

Example 2

The 1979 study was conducted to test the validity of the strong version of the critical period hypothesis. It was felt
that a comprehensive study of foreign language learning ability required hard data upon which to confirm or reject
the strong version. Lacking precise statements about what aspects of phonology the hypothesis involved, we included
both competence and productive performance in our informants’ task, believing that if we could locate persons who
had learned a second language as adults and who could consistently pass as native speakers of that language under
rigorous test conditions, we would have ample grounds upon which to reject the strong form of the hypothesis.

Seven non-native informants along with three native-speaking controls were tape-recorded reading a carefully-
prepared corpus in French. The non-native informants were selected for the study on the basis of their ability to pass
as native speakers of French in casual conversation situations. These conversations took place in the presence of three
French-speaking persons who were thoroughly familiar with the goals of the research. The French corpus included
numerous sounds and sound sequences known to be especially difficult for English-speaking students. The ten tape-
recorded passages were placed in five random order blocks and re-recorded onto cassettes for scrutiny by native-
speaking judges. These judges included 85 French Canadians whose dominant language was French, approximately
half of whom were students at the University of Ottawa. They were directed to listen carefully to each passage, and,
the second time around, to assess each speaker as: 1) Francophone du Canada; 2) Francophone dun autre pays, 3)
Non-francophone. Five of the seven non-native informants were consistently evaluated by our native-speaking judges
as francophone. Their scores closely approximated those obtained by our native-speaking controls.

Example 3

Drama in language teaching.

Plays have been employed to teach skill in language only since the Middle Ages.

In Greece and Rome performing on stage was beneath the dignity of the class whose children could afford to go to
school and a social ban remained on this activity until the tenth century, when a German abbess, Hroswitha,
composed Latin plays for her novices. The expressed aim was to replace the plays of Plautus and Terence, then
considered too saucy for use in the cloister. Owing to the now usual way of acting out the Bible stories in mystery
plays, stage work was not an unusual recreation among clerics. Latin plays, written in the classical manner, were
often played in the monasteries by the troupes of monks who staged the mystery plays in the churchyard.

Taking their cue from these mystery plays, the Jesuits developed another approach. Many of their plays were in a
classical style, but the characters were abstractions drawn from grammar and literary criticism. The plays were meant
both to drill pupils in speaking Latin and Greek and to teach formal grammar. it is not unlikely that the characters
were modelled on the personifications of the De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii of Martianus Capella, which was still
known during the Renaissance. This type of allegory had been a favourite device among medieval poets, and
Martianus Capelia had had many medieval imitators in vernacular languages.

One of the last sets of this type of play was the dramatized version of the Ianua linguarum, published in 1664. The
adaptation was made by D. Sebastianus Macer for the use of the school of Patakina, at which he had taught, and
which was regarded, even by the master himself, as a model school. Though the book followed all the allegorical
conventions of the Jesuit play, there were several important differences. First, the Cornenius plays were in prose,
while the others had been in verse. Second. the exact classical format was not followed, the plays being of varying
length and shape. But as the taste for allegory waned, so too did interest in this sort of play.

Classical drama formed an integral part of the Renaissance classics curriculum. In England several who founded
grammar schools specified that a classical play should be performed every year; and on the continent, where
Catholics were teaching in Protestant schools and vice versa, the religious climate excluded contemporary religious
plays, so the classical repertoire was used exclusively. But medieval scruple hung on grimly, even into the eighteenth
century.

In England especially, the custom of an annual performance of a classical play was still vigorously flourishing at the
end of the nineteenth century, school editions being prepared with staging in mind. Owing to the activities of the
great German classicists, the basic texts were now solidly established, but for school use they were carefully
expurgated, a difficult task considering the exigencies of meter. Many editors normalized the preclassical spelling and
even added stage directions. The place of such presentations was strengthened by the advent of the Direct Method,
and they spread to the teaching of modern languages. Though it was considered most desirable to use plays written
for native audiences, this means of instilling confidence was made available to younger pupils by providing them
with plays in simplified language and style. As far as modern plays were concerned, teachers were inclined to choose
those which reflected the culture of the country.

In modern schools and universities the modern-language play came to be a special show put on for the delectation of
students’ parents and staff wives, but it also had the serious purpose of having pupils exercise their oral skills under
some difficulty. In Russia, some schools encouraged the pupils to run puppet theatres in the foreign language, a
natural outcome of the general interest in this art form.

Example 4

In early 1982 telephone interviews were conducted with a statewide probability sample of 2,083 registered voters in a
major southwestern state. The interviews were conducted for a state agency and addressed various voting-related
attitudes and opinions.

Within this context, a split ballot (experimental) design was employed whereby approximately each quarter of the
sample was asked age utilizing a different question format. Three open-end and one closed-end question formats were
investigated:

 How old are you?

 What is your age?
 In what year were you born?
 Are you 18-24 years of age, 25-34. 35-49, 50- 64, 65 or older?

Each question format was drawn from previous research and was selected to be illustrative of one approach to asking
age. The particular question format used when asking an individual study participant his or her age was randomly
determined prior to the interview. Interviewers made no determination as to what age question format was employed
for a specific study participant.
All interviews were conducted from a centralized, supervised interviewing location and began with an interviewer
asking to speak to a prespecified individual. The interviewer then introduced himself/herself and stated who was
conducting the study and asked for the potential study participant’s cooperation. The questionnaire consisted of 20
questions, of which the age question was number 15.

Actual age data were available from the state agency for 1,324 of the individuals interviewed. Therefore, following
the completion of an interview it was possible to compare an individual’s reported age with his or her actual age. This
in turn permitted inferences as to which question format produced the most accurate age data as well as which format
resulted in the lowest refusal rate or nonresponse rate.

Language

Past tense is common.

Chronological order is also common, but when we are writing about past
events, it is necessary to be explicit about the order in which things happened.
To make the order clear, we mention dates and time, and we also use various
links and connectives.
Time

In 1942, ...

During the 20th century, ...

Yesterday, ...

Twenty five years ago, ...

Sequence

before

Before he was offered a job as a lecturer, he had finished his research.

Before this, …

For the previous X years, …

Prior to this, …

Previously, …

X years previously, …

Before…
… before which …

… prior to which …

after

When
As soon as he had finished his research, he was offered a job as a lecturer.
After

On finishing his research,

After finishing his research,
he was offered a job as a lecturer.
Having finished his research,
On finishing his research,

For the following X years, …

X years later, …

After …

Following this, …

When …

Subsequently, …

Soon/Shortly/Immediately afterwards, …

… following which …

… after which …

while

While he was doing his research,

When
doing his research, he made an important discovery.
While
During his research,

During this period, …

Throughout this period, …

… during which…

… throughout which…
^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Writing descriptions

Examples

Read the following descriptions:

An octopus appears to be just a huge head with eight long, fearful arms. Its head is soft and rubberlike. Its eyes stick
out on stalks so that it can see in all directions. Its mouth is on the underside of its body and has powerful jaws shaped
like a beak. The long arms, or tentacles, have double rows of suckers. These can fasten onto objects with such suction
that they cannot be pulled off.

The liver is the largest organ in the body. It weighs a little more than three pounds in an adult. It is wedge-shaped and
is situated under the diaphragm, mostly on the left side of the body, where it is protected by the lower ribs. Somewhat
like an intricate chemical factory, the liver takes the particles of glucose (which come from digested starches and
sugars) and changes them into another kind of carbohydrate called glycogen , which it then stores. When the body
needs sugar, the liver turns the glycogen into glucose again and sends it to the body tissues through the bloodstream.

The Leclanché cell consists of a leakproof jacket containing a porous pot in which there is a paste of manganese
dioxide and carbon granules surrounding a carbon rod . The top can be sealed with pitch. A zinc rod stands in a
solution of ammonium chloride, and is connected to the carbon rod via a circuit and a light bulb . The zinc dissolves
in the solution, setting up an electromotive force. The ammonium ions migrate to the carbon anode and form
ammonia (which dissolves in the water), and hydrogen ions. Torch dry batteries and use wet paste cells of the
Leclanché type.

A 12-volt car battery has six two-volt cells connected in series. The cells have anodes of brown lead oxide and
cathodes of porous grey lead immersed in sulphuric acid. An electric current flows if the electrodes are connected
through a conductor. When the battery supplies current the sulphuric acid converts the anode to lead sulphate, thus
reducing the strength of the acid. This process is reversed during recharging. Each cell of the battery is made of
several anodes and cathodes separated by porous insulators. The cells are housed in a hard rubber case and the
various cells are interconnected with lead bars.

Language

Position, weight, structure, colour, composition, size, shape, function

Position
 adjacent to
alongside
below
beyond
facing (diagonally) 
parallel to
underneath
opposite
in the middle of
on the right of
on the left of
near B
A is close to
touching
behind
in front of
under
on top of
above
below
level with
diagonally above
vertically below
between
B and C.
equidistant from

Structure

nailed
screwed
fixed
fastened
is linked to Y by Z
welded
tied
connected
attached
consists of
X contains Y and Z
includes
held in place
secured
by
supported
suspended
is Y
joined to
mounted
placed on
pivoted
Colour

dark
green.
light
blue.
X is pale
red.
bright
yellow.
dull

Composition

metal.
steel.
alluminium.
an alloy of A and B.
cloth.
X is made of
silk.
china.
wood.
plastic.
glass.

Size and weight

long
X is 6 cm high
wide

length
height
6 cm
X is in width
diameter
6 Kg weight

length
height
6 cm
The width of X is
diameter
weight 6 Kg.

length
width
X has a height of 6 cm.
diameter
weight 6 Kg.
X weighs 10 Kg

Shape

square
round
rectangular
triangular
semi-circular
conical
X is in shape
spherical
hexagonal
octagonal
oval
circular
irregular

square
circle
rectangle
X is is shaped like a triangle
semi-circle
hexagon
octagon

cubical
cylindrical
pyramidal
spherical
X is in shape
tubular
spiral
hemispherical
conical

bulbous
tapering
in shape.
concave
convex

X is diamond-shaped
kidney-shaped
U-shaped .
star-shaped
bell-shaped
dome-shaped
 mushroom-shaped
X-shaped
crescent-shaped
egg-shaped
pear-shaped
Y-shaped

Function

function
purpose thermometer measure the temperature.
The of the is to
aim tripod hold the beaker.
objective

thermometer measuring the temperature.

The is used for
tripod holding the beaker,

Properties

X is light
tough
soft
elastic
malleable
flexible
soluble
a good conductor of electricity/heat
corrosion resistant
combustible
transparent
smooth
heavy
brittle
hard
plastic
ductile
rigid
insoluble
 a bad conductor of electricity/heat
not corrosion resistant
non-combustible
opaque
rough

^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical Functions in Academic Writing: Classifying /

categorising

When we classify, we arrange members of a group. For example, if we take

the following list:
Physics, Chemistry, Biology, French, German, Spanish.

It is quite clear that we have two different types of word. We have science
subjects and languages. So it is simple to divide the list into two:

Physics, Chemistry, Biology, AND French, German, Spanish

When we are classifying, we often need to say what our classification is and
how we are making it.

Examples

Read the following text.

Lavas may he divided into two contrasting types, acid and basic. Acid or siliceous lavas have a high silica content,
about 70 to 75 per cent, and are stiff or viscous. They move slowly over the surface and solidify close to the vent.
Basic lavas have a silica content of about 50 per cent. Dark colored and fluid, they flow more easily at lower
temperatures and reach a greater distance from the crater than do acid lavas.

This earth of ours, p. 3 .

 What is the text classifying? Lavas.

  How many types are there? 2
 What are the two types? Acid and basic.
 How do we make the distinction? The amount of silica present.

Look at these examples:

ROCKS

Scientists group rocks into three main types: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.

IGNEOUS rocks are produced by white-hot material deep inside the earth which rises towards the surface as a molten
mass called magma. If the magma stops before on it reaches the surface, it cools and forms rocks such as granite.
If the magma erupts, it forms a red-hot stream called lava. When the lava cools it becomes rock. One of the most
common lava rocks is called basalt. Igneous rock is used in the formation of the other two main types of rocks -
sedimentary and metamorphic.

SEDIMENTARY rock is formed by small particles or sediments such as sand, mud, dead sea animals and
weathered rock. These are deposited in layers and become solid rock over millions of years as they are squeezed by
the weight of other deposits above them.

The word metamorphosis means 'change'. Rocks which have been changed by heat and pressure are called
METAMORPHIC rocks. They are formed deep inside the earth. Slate for example is formed from compressed mud
or clay. Marble is another type of metamorphic rock. It is produced from limestone which has undergone change
through heat and pressure,

The chemical elements in the earth's crust are classified in two major groups - metals and nonmetals. Elements are
classified as metallic or nonmetallic, according to their physical and chemical properties. Metals, for example, are
usually good conductors of heat and electricity; nonmetals usually are not. Most metals are malleable; they can be
hammered into flat sheets; nonmetals lack this quality. Some metals are also ductile; they can be drawn out into thin
wires; nonmetals are not usually ductile. Metals usually have luster, and are able to reflect light. They also have a
high density. Nonmetals usually do not exhibit these properties. A few elements, such as arsenic and antimony,
exhibit both metallic and nonmetallic properties and are sometimes referred to as metalloids.

Inquiry into earth and space science, by William J Jacobson, p 104-105.

Types of food and their function

Before going further into the question of energy supply and demand, and its relationship to food, the major
constituents of man's diet must be listed. These are: carbohydrates, the major energy-supplying foods; proteins,
body building materials; fats, energy-rich food stores; vitamins, vital components of cell chemistry; mineral salts,
raw materials of all metabolism; water, an obvious and essential compound required for internal cell pressure, the
basic medium of cell chemistry and major constituent of blood and hence the transport system; and roughage, the
mass of food, mainly composed of plant cellulose, that gives the solid bulk to food and thus enables the gut muscles
to grip it and move it along by peristalsis.

Biology by J. M. Hard, p. 14
Exercise

Try this exercise: Exercise 1

Language

The tables below show some of the most common language used in texts
which have classification as their purpose.

types : acidic and basic.

There are
kinds . These are acidic and basic.
classes
two of lava
categories
The sorts are acidic and basic.
varieties

categories
consists of classes
. These are acidic and basic.
Lava comprises two kinds
: acidic and basic.
can be divided into types
varieties

classes
kinds
Acidic and basic are types of lava.
categories
varieties

according to
Lava may be classified on the basis of  amount of silica present.
depending on

^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Giving examples

In academic writing it is common to make generalisations. It is often useful to

support these generalisations with examples.
Examples

Look at the way examples are given in the following texts.

The quiet outpouring of lava is characteristic of basaltic lavas with about 50 per cent silica. The Hawaiian
volcanoes are typical examples. On the island of Hawaii, Mauna Loa rises 13, 675 feet above sea level and 20 miles
away is Kilauea 4,000 feet high.

Though the authorities do not seem to have been aware of the scale and significance of capital flows within the
sterling area, they were aware that the exchange controls in that area were not all that London hoped. For example, a
major recipient of capital from the UK in this period, Australia, had notoriously "leaky" controls.

Morgan was not interested in the terms for themselves but in the principles which they seemed to reveal when they
were put together. For example, he would have been interested in the fact that the English word "uncle" can be used
in speaking both of one's mother's brother and one's father's brother while in Swedish, for instance, two different
words are used.

Understanding this religious social consciousness requires some grasp of the traditional Catholic teaching on the
natural order and the good society, and how the nation is to respect the divine order established by God. An example
of this can be taken from the recent contraception controversy which began in the 1960s.

What socialism there has been among the catholic _ nationalist tradition has always tended to be allied to
republicanism, especially in the period 1913 to 1930 (Rumpf and Hepburn 1977: 13). The trade union movement
was a case in point.

This was the situation which Morgan described for the Iroquois when several tribes get together, not any more on the
basis of kinship or marriage, but on the basis of confederacy. This was exemplified by the league of the Iroquois
which Morgan had studied in detail.

A key experiment shows this. A hole is made in the shell and a small cube of cells is carefully cut out from the
posterior margin containing the polarizing region and grafted into the anterior margin of the limb bud of another
embryo.

The explanation behind that paradox is once again the problem of the two uses of anthropology in their work. The
rhetorical use they made of anthropologists' ideas as a source for a criticism of the society of their time, especially as
a criticism of the way institutions such as the family, marriage, and the status of women were seen as unchangeable
and eternally fixed, is one which seems totally justified to present-day anthropologists.
Language
shown
This
is exemplified by ...
...
illustrated

For example,
...
For instance,

shows
A key experiment exemplifies this. ...
illustrates

This is shown by the following examples,

The following are examples of this: ...
The following is a case in point:

 ... is a case in point.

... institutions such as the family ...

^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Writing critically

Introduction

It is important to be able to write decriptively. You need to be able to define,

describe, categorise and narrate. However, it is not enough for work in higher
education. In the words of Nash (1990, p. 10),

The student who gives only the facts, with no assessment or interpretation,
gets poor marks.
Therefore, as well as writing descriptively, you need to be able to write
critically. As well as giving the facts, you need to be able to make use of these
facts to come to general conclusions. These conclusions need to be justified
and supported by evidence. You also need to be aware of other points of view
that exist and this must be dealt with. So you need to describe other people's
points of view and compare and contrast them with your own, stating their
advantages and disadvantages. In this way you can analyse and evaluate
your work and others and come to a balanced conclusion.

Bloom's Taxonomy

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom of the University of Chicago developed a

classification of levels of intellectual behaviour which is considered important
in learning. Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the
simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly
more complex and abstract levels, to the highest level which is classified as
evaluation. Most university level writing needs to involve writing at this high
level.

The six categories are listed below. The categories can be thought of as
degrees of difficulty. That is, the first one must be mastered before the next
one can take place (Bloom, 1956, pp. 201-207).

Category Key Words Associated Questions Typical Question

Instructions
Evaluation: e.g. appraises, Do you agree with advise
Makes judgements compares, the actions/outcomes assess
about the value of concludes, contrasts, ...? estimate
ideas or materials for criticises, critiques, evaluate
a given purpose in a defends, describes, What is your opinion judge
given context.  discriminates, rate
Presents and evaluates, explains, of ...? recommend
defends opinions by interprets, justifies,
making judgments relates, summarises, How would you
about information, supports. prove/disprove ...?
validity of ideas or
quality of work based Evaluate the
on a set of criteria. outcome....
Compares and
discriminates
between ideas.
Recognises
subjectivity.
Synthesis: e.g. categorises, What changes would arrange
Puts parts together to combines, compiles, you make to compose
form a whole, with composes, creates, solve ...? construct
emphasis on creating devises, designs, create
a new meaning or explains, generates, What would happen if design
structure. modifies, organises, ...?
formulate
Combines plans, rearranges,
information together reconstructs, relates, Can you elaborate on manage
in a different way by reorganises, revises, the reason ...? organise
putting elements rewrites, plan
together in a new summarises, tells, prepare
pattern or proposing writes. set up
alternative solutions.
Generalises from
facts.
Analysis: e.g. analyses, breaks What are the parts or analyse
Examines and breaks down, compares, features of ...? calculate
information into parts contrasts, diagrams, categorise
by identifying motives deconstructs, How is _______ compare
or causes; making differentiates, related to ...? contrast
inferences and discriminates,
criticise
finding evidence to distinguishes, Can you show
support identifies, illustrates, connection debate
generalisations. infers, outlines, between ...? differentiate
Includes analysis of relates, selects, discuss
elements, separates. How would you distinguish
relationships and compare/contrast ...? examine
organisational experiment
principles. inspect
Recognises hidden
question
meanings. 
Distinguishes relate
between facts and solve
inferences. test

Application: e.g. applies, How would you apply

Uses a concept in a changes, computes, use ...? demonstrate
new situation. constructs, dramatise
Applies what was demonstrates, What examples can employ
learned in the discovers, you find to ...? illustrate
classroom into novel manipulates, interpret
situations. modifies, operates, Can you relate this operate
Applies general ideas predicts, prepares, information to the practice
to concrete produces, relates, present situation? schedule
situations. shows, solves, uses. sketch
Applies what is use
discussed in one
paper to another
paper.
Predicts probable
effects.
Solves problems by
applying acquired
knowledge, facts,
techniques and rules
in a different way.
Comprehension: e.g. comprehends, How would you classify
Demonstrates converts, defends, classify the type describe
understanding of distinguishes, of ...? distinguish
facts and ideas by estimates, explains, explain
organising, extends, generalises, What was the text express
comparing, gives examples, about? identify
translating, infers, interprets, illustrate
interpreting, giving paraphrases, Can you summarise locate
descriptions and predicts, rewrites, the author's point of recognise
stating main ideas. summarises, view? report
States a problem in translates. restate
own words. review
Knows what is being tell
communicated and translate
can make use of
materials or ideas
without necessarily
relating it to other
materials or seeing
further implications.
It includes:
translation of verbal
material into symbolic
statements;
interpretation of data;
extrapolation - trends
and tendencies.
Knowledge: e.g. defines, What is ...? define
Recalls data or describes, identifies, list
information. knows, labels, lists, How is ...? name
Shows knowledge of matches, names, recall
previously learned outlines, quotes, Where is ...? record
material by recalling recalls, recognises,
relate
facts, terms, basic reproduces, selects, When did _______
concepts and shows,  states. happen? repeat
answers. state
Has knowledge of underline
specific facts &
terminology;
knowledge of ways
and means -
conventions, trends
and sequences,
classifications and
categories, criteria,
methodology;
knowledge of
universals and
abstractions -
principles &
generalisations,
theories and
structure.

Writing critically means writing at the highest levels. Therefore, in most

academic writing it is important to analyse and evaluate. Simple description is
usually not enough (Woodward-Kron, 2002).

This means making connections between theory and practice, drawing links
between theories, as well as evaluating theories and research. It means giving
your opinions (positive and negative) on the work of others and your own
opinions based on what you have learned. Critical evaluation requires you to
evaluate arguments, weigh evidence and develop a set of standards on which
to base your evaluation. 

When writing critically, you need to:

  Analyse and categorise theories and research
 Evaluate theories and research
 Compare and contrast theories and research
 Select from theories and research
 Synthesise from theories and research
 Make logical connections between theory and practice
 Give opinions (positive and negative)
 Provide evidence for these opinions
 Indicate gaps in theories and research
 Weigh evidence and come to conclusions
NB: Some subjects accept stronger criticism than others - find out about your own subject.

Example

Read the following example: Example 1.

Exercise

Try this exercise: Exercise 1

Further details

As well as writing descriptively, you need to be able to write critically; you

need to be able to make use of these facts to come to general conclusions.
These conclusions need to be justified and supported by evidence. You also
need to be aware of other points of view that exist and these must be dealt
with. So you need to describe other people's points of view and compare and
contrast them with your own, stating their advantages and disadvantages. In
this way you can analyse and evaluate your work and others and come to a
balanced conclusion. The following may be useful:
 Reading critically

It is important to read critically. Critical reading requires you to evaluate the

arguments in the text. You need to distinguish fact from opinion, and look at
arguments given for and against the various claims.

See: Reading critically
 Reporting
One of the most important aspects of academic writing is making use of the
ideas of other people. This is important as you need to show that you have
understood the materials and that you can use their ideas and findings in your
own way.

See: Reporting
 Arguing and discussing

You need to be able to make use of facts to come to general conclusions. You
need to argue and discuss.

See: Arguing and discussing

 Evaluating other points of view

You need to be aware that other points of view exists and deal with this.

See: Evaluating other points of view

 Comparing & Contrasting

When you are working with other people's ideas, you will compare and
contrast the different ideas and your own, discussing advantages and
diasadvantage.

See: Comparing and contrasting

 Synthesising

You will need to summarise other people's ideas, combine them and come to
conclusions.

See: Reporting - paraphrase, summary & synthesis: Synthesis

 Generalising

In most cases, the conclusions you ccome to and the points of view you hold
will be qualified and generalisations will be made.

See: Generalising
 Expressing degree of certainty
You may also have different degrees of certainty about your claims.

See: Expressing degree of certainty

 Providing support

You need to provide evidence to support your points of view and conclusions.

See: Providing support
 Supporting an argument: Illustrating and exemplifying ideas

You can use examples to support your conclusions.

See: Giving examples
 Giving reasons and explanations

And you will always give reasons and explanations for your claims and points
of view.

See: Reasons and explanations

 Working with different voices

You need to recognise and work with other people's points of view. Within all
these opinions, you need to make yours clear.

See: Working with different voices

 Taking a stance

You need to make sure that your point of view shows through clearly.

See: Taking a stance
 Drawing conclusions

At various stages during your writing, you will need to sum up your argument
and come to a conclusion.

See: Drawing conclusions
^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Arguing and discussing

Introduction

An essential part of critical writing is arguing and discussing.

In academic writing, arguing and discussing is often part of a larger piece of

writing. In arguing and discussing, you are expected to present two or more
points of view and discuss the positive and negative aspects of each case. On
the basis of your discussion, you can then choose one point of view and
persuade your readers that you are correct. This means giving your opinions
(positive and negative) on the work of others and your own opinions based on
what you have read and learned. You need to evaluate arguments, weigh
evidence and develop a set of standards on which to base your conclusion.

As always in academic writing, all your opinions must be supported - you

should produce your evidence and explain why this evidence supports your
point of view. It is important to distinguish between your claim (proposition,
thesis) - your point of view, what you believe; your evidence (support or grounds) -
the facts, data and examples that support your point of view - and your
reasons (warrant or argument) - why you believe what you do, how the evidence
you have provided leads to the claim your are making. (See Toulmin, 1958).

There are two main methods of presenting an argument, and in general the
one you choose will depend on exactly your task (See Understanding the
question andOrganising the answer for more information).

Presenting an argument

a. The balanced view

In this case you present both sides of an argument, without necessarily

committing yourself to any opinions, which should always be based on
evidence, until the final paragraph.

At its simplest your plan for writing will be as follows:

 Introduce the argument to the reader.

e.g. why it is a particularly relevant topic nowadays 

or refer directly to some comments that have been voiced on it recently.

Reasons against the argument

State the position, the evidence and the reasons.

Reasons in favour of the argument.

State the position, the evidence and the reasons.

After summarising the two sides, 

state your own point of view, 
and explain why you think as you do.

b. The persuasive view

This second type of argumentative writing involves stating your own point of
view immediately, and then trying to convince the reader by reasoned
argument that you are right. The form of the piece of writing will be, in outline,
as follows:

Introduce the topic briefly in general terms,

and then state your own point of view.

Explain what you plan to prove in the essay.

Reasons against the argument.

Dispose briefly of the main objections to your case. Provide evidence and your reasons.
 Reasons for your argument

the arguments to support your own view,

with evidence, reasons and examples.

Conclusion - Do not repeat your opinion again.

End your essay with something memorable

e.g. a quotation or a direct question.

Example

Read the following examples: Example 1, Example 2.

Exercise

Try this exercise: Exercise 1

Language

Presenting own point of view

There are many reasons why …

important
remember
true
It is to bear in mind that …
necessary
point out
essential

The first thing we have

to consider is …
First of all, I would like

The first thing to be considered is

It is a fact
There is no doubt that …
I believe

The first reason why … is …

First of all, …

The second reason why … is …

Secondly, …

The most important …

In addition, …

Furthermore, …

What is more, …

Besides, …

Another reason is …

A further point is …

Further details

 Evaluating other points of view

You will also need to present and evaluate other people's points of view.

See: Evaluating other points of view

 Providing support

You need to provide evidence to support your points of view and conclusions.

See: Providing support
 Illustrating and exemplifying ideas

You can use examples to support your conclusions.

See: Giving examples
 Giving reasons and explanations

And you will always give reasons and explanations for your claims and points
of view.

See: Cause & effect

  Working with different voices

As you recognise and work with other people's points of view. Within all these
opinions, you need to make yours clear.

See: Working with different voices

 Synthesising

You will need to summarise other people's ideas, combine them and come to
conclusions.

See: Reporting - paraphrase, summary & synthesis

 Taking a stance

You need to make sure that your point of view shows through clearly.

See: Taking a stance
 Comparing & contrasting

You will compare and contrast differenet ideas and your own, discussing
advantages and diasadvantage.

See: Comparing and contrasting

 Generalising

In all cases, points of view may be qualified and generalisations may be

made.

See: Generalising
 Expressing degree of certainty

You may also have different degrees of certainty about your claims.

See: Expressing degree of certainty

 Drawing conclusions

At various stages during your argument, you will need to sum up and come to
a conclusion.
See: Drawing conclusions

  ^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Arguing and discussing

Introduction

An essential part of critical writing is arguing and discussing.

In academic writing, arguing and discussing is often part of a larger piece of

writing. In arguing and discussing, you are expected to present two or more
points of view and discuss the positive and negative aspects of each case. On
the basis of your discussion, you can then choose one point of view and
persuade your readers that you are correct. This means giving your opinions
(positive and negative) on the work of others and your own opinions based on
what you have read and learned. You need to evaluate arguments, weigh
evidence and develop a set of standards on which to base your conclusion.

As always in academic writing, all your opinions must be supported - you

should produce your evidence and explain why this evidence supports your
point of view. It is important to distinguish between your claim (proposition,
thesis) - your point of view, what you believe; your evidence (support or grounds) -
the facts, data and examples that support your point of view - and your
reasons (warrant or argument) - why you believe what you do, how the evidence
you have provided leads to the claim your are making. (See Toulmin, 1958).

There are two main methods of presenting an argument, and in general the
one you choose will depend on exactly your task (See Understanding the
question andOrganising the answer for more information).

Presenting an argument

a. The balanced view

In this case you present both sides of an argument, without necessarily
committing yourself to any opinions, which should always be based on
evidence, until the final paragraph.

At its simplest your plan for writing will be as follows:

Introduce the argument to the reader.

e.g. why it is a particularly relevant topic nowadays 

or refer directly to some comments that have been voiced on it recently.

Reasons against the argument

State the position, the evidence and the reasons.

Reasons in favour of the argument.

State the position, the evidence and the reasons.

After summarising the two sides, 

state your own point of view, 
and explain why you think as you do.

b. The persuasive view

This second type of argumentative writing involves stating your own point of
view immediately, and then trying to convince the reader by reasoned
argument that you are right. The form of the piece of writing will be, in outline,
as follows:

Introduce the topic briefly in general terms,

and then state your own point of view.

Explain what you plan to prove in the essay.

 Reasons against the argument.

Dispose briefly of the main objections to your case. Provide evidence and your reasons.

Reasons for your argument

the arguments to support your own view,

with evidence, reasons and examples.

Conclusion - Do not repeat your opinion again.

End your essay with something memorable

e.g. a quotation or a direct question.

Example

Read the following examples: Example 1, Example 2.

Exercise

Try this exercise: Exercise 1

Language

Presenting own point of view

There are many reasons why …

important
remember
true
It is to bear in mind that …
necessary
point out
essential

The first thing we have

to consider is …
First of all, I would like

The first thing to be considered is

It is a fact
There is no doubt that …
I believe

The first reason why … is …

First of all, …

The second reason why … is …

Secondly, …

The most important …

In addition, …

Furthermore, …

What is more, …

Besides, …

Another reason is …

A further point is …

Further details

 Evaluating other points of view

You will also need to present and evaluate other people's points of view.

See: Evaluating other points of view

 Providing support

You need to provide evidence to support your points of view and conclusions.

See: Providing support
 Illustrating and exemplifying ideas

You can use examples to support your conclusions.

See: Giving examples
  Giving reasons and explanations

And you will always give reasons and explanations for your claims and points
of view.

See: Cause & effect

 Working with different voices

As you recognise and work with other people's points of view. Within all these
opinions, you need to make yours clear.

See: Working with different voices

 Synthesising

You will need to summarise other people's ideas, combine them and come to
conclusions.

See: Reporting - paraphrase, summary & synthesis

 Taking a stance

You need to make sure that your point of view shows through clearly.

See: Taking a stance
 Comparing & contrasting

You will compare and contrast differenet ideas and your own, discussing
advantages and diasadvantage.

See: Comparing and contrasting

 Generalising

In all cases, points of view may be qualified and generalisations may be

made.

See: Generalising
 Expressing degree of certainty

You may also have different degrees of certainty about your claims.
See: Expressing degree of certainty
 Drawing conclusions

At various stages during your argument, you will need to sum up and come to
a conclusion.

See: Drawing conclusions

  ^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Generalising

Introduction

One important aspect of critical writing is making general claims from specific
examples. This is something that you learn in higher education.

These general claims need to be supported with evidence. A common

organisational principle in academic writing is the general-specific pattern. This
patterns involves a general statement supported by specific examples or
details.
Example

Look at the following examples involving generalisations. In some cases the

generalisations are supported by details or examples.:

It believed that the USA wanted a round-the-world air route with access to all countries including the Soviet Union,
China, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as the British Commonwealth and Empire.

Marx and Engels followed their contemporaries in believing that the history of mankind usually went through the
same sequence of technological improvement. The sequence, by and large, went like this: first gathering of plants and
small animals, second fishing, third hunting, fourth pottery, fifth pastoralism, sixth agriculture, seventh
metalworking.
Throughout most of known human existence the processes, materials and tools of production were available to
individuals involved in both utilitarian and expressive work. Since the Renaissance, however, the exponential growth
and sophistication of technology has made it impossible for the majority of artists to gain access to many potential
tools for expression.

Covert operations are different from espionage in that their main purpose is to influence a foreign situation without
the source of the influence becoming known. Such operations may take the form of secretly financing, advising, or
otherwise helping a group which is trying to overthrow an unfriendly foreign government. They may take the form of
secret money subsidies or other assistance to a foreign political party or to a particular faction of a foreign labour
movement, or student organization, or similar groups. They may take the form of psychological warfare - for
example, the publication of an underground newspaper or the operation of a clandestine radio station which,
according to the circumstances, may report the truth or spread unfounded rumours calculated to destroy morale or to
mislead. They may take the form of an outright bribe of a foreign official to make a certain decision. They may take
the form of infiltrating one or more secret agents into positions of power in a foreign government or any important
foreign political, economic, or social group.

Pat Holt, United States policy and foreign affairs. Allyn & Bacon, 1972.

Language

Plural nouns are often used for broad generalisions ("Covert operations are").
It is often possible to be more specific about the generalisation that is being
made by the use of:

Percentage Quantity Frequency Certainty Verbs

100% all/every/each always certain(ly) will

most definite(ly) is/are
a majority (of) undoubtedly must
many/much usual(ly) clearly have to
normal(ly) presumably
general(ly) probably/probable should
as a rule likely ought to
some on the whole
a number (of)
several often conceivably can
frequent(ly) possibly/possible could
a minority (of) sometimes perhaps may
a few/a little occasional(ly) maybe might
few/little rare(ly) uncertain
seldom unlikely
hardly ever could not
scarcely ever will not
0% cannot
no/none/not any never is/are not

Some of the probability qualifications can he further qualified, e.g.

 fairly certain
very likely
quite
is probable
rather
possible
almost likely
It that ....
quite unlikely

seems unlikely
appears
certain

Sometimes generalisations may be introduced or qualified in the following

way:

the (vast) majority

of
a large number
In most cases, ....
some
a few
(+ other "quantity" words)

Supporting generalisations

These general claims need to be supported with evidence.

More information:
 Providing support

You need to provide evidence to support your points of view and conclusions.

See: Providing support
 Supporting an argument: Illustrating and exemplifying ideas

You can use examples to support your conclusions.

See: Giving examples

^
Back to Introduction
 Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Expressing degrees of certainty

Introduction

It is important when you are writing critically to show how sure you are about
something. In other words, you need to show the degree of certainty. Bear in
mind, though, that academic writing is usually cautious, to some extent.

Examples

Look at the following examples:

It is not known, and will probably never be known, when he began writing poetry. The answer almost certainly lay in
the sack of papers that Susan Owen, on her son's strict instructions, burnt at his death.

Less finished, but more intimate, is a passage from a fragmentary "Ballad of a Morose Afternoon", written most
probably some time after he had left Dunsden.

The other way in which the economic aspects of military expenditure were presented was in the form of the public
expenditure costs. However, this wasdefinitely secondary to the manpower approach.

Water color was, possibly because of the time it took, less popular than tempera.

Her success undoubtedly inspired younger women, and she openly encouraged those in her office.

There were, broadly, two interrelated reasons for this, the first relating to Britain's economic and Imperial difficulties,
the second to the internal dissension in all three parties, a symptom perhaps of the need for a realignment of political
parties.

Some of the claims are very strong:

It is not known ...

this was definitely secondary ...

Her success undoubtedly inspired younger women ...

Some are much more cautious:

It will probably never be known.
... possibly because of the time it took

... a symptom perhaps of the need for a realignment

Language
  Verbs Degree of certainty
certain(ly)
is (not)
complete definite(ly)
will (not)
clear(ly)
must (not)
undoubtedly
strong can/cannot probably (not)
should (not) presumably (not)
partial could (not) likely/unlikely

less strong may (not) possibly (not)

might (not) perhaps (not)
is said that ...
It appears that ... 
impersonal (i.e. no commitment) seems that ...
X reports that ...
There is evidence to suggest that ...

^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Reasons and

explanations

Introduction

When you are writing critically, it is important to explain why something is the
case. You need to give reasons and explanations for any claims you make.

Take the following sentence:

The death rate from cancer is increasing.

We might want to ask why this is happening. We want the cause of this. The
reason, or the cause, is that:
People are smoking more.
The death rate from cancer is increasing is the effect.

People are smoking more is the cause.

Example

Read the following text and observe the cause and effect relationships.

There are several factors to be taken into account when studying why some plants become weak or die. One reason
is lack of water. Dryness in the soil causes the leaves to wilt, and may give rise to the death of the plant. On the
other hand, too much water may result in the leaves drooping, or becoming yellow. While sunshine is necessary for
plants, if it is too strong, the soil may be baked and the roots killed. However, if there is no light, the leaves will
become pale and the stems thin. Consequently the plant may die.

 Lack of water   dryness in the soil   leaves wilt   death of plant.

 Too much water   leaves droop or become yellow   death of plant.
 Too strong sun   baked soil   roots killed   death of plant.
 Lack of light   pale leaves & thin stems   death of plant.

More examples:

War, meantime, had broken out between the United States and Mexico. The main cause was a long standing
dispute over where the southern boundary of Texas belonged. Americans were saying it lay along the Rio Grande,
and the Mexicans were insisting that it belonged along the Nueces River.

Henry Graff, The free and the brave. Rand McNally, 1968.

While this is not the place to discuss the pros and cons of American policy in Southeast Asia, Americans should not
have been surprised by Martin Luther King's stand. In opposing what he considered to be an imperialistic adventure
and a war of colonial oppression, King was acting in the great tradition of Negro leaders throughout American
history. Frederick Douglass, it will be recalled, had denounced the American war against Mexico; his son had
ridiculed and protested the American war against Spain. And to a man of Dr. King's historical scholarship, the
dangers to the struggle for Negro rights of continued American participation in the Vietnam conflict seemed clear.

First of all, no matter what the proclaimed intentions of the American government might be, American soldiers
were fighting against a colored people as they had in the Philippines from 1898 to 1901; and that could only
aggravate anti-Negro feeling domestically. Secondly, Negro troops who provided more than eleven percent of the
American combat forces in Vietnam and suffered eighteen percent of the casualties might well ask themselves the
same question that Private William Simms found unanswerable during the Philippine campaign. In the third place,
militarism had always been the arch-enemy of tolerance and progress. After each of America's wars, there had been
a reaction of more or less severe hysteria against all progressive movements, including the struggle for Negro
equality. And finally (as Dr. King reminded his critics), he had received a Nobel Prize for peace, he was a citizen of
the world as well as an American Negro, and he felt himself responsible to work for peace everywhere. From the
viewpoint of history, it would seem that Dr. King had no need to apologize at all for his new position.

Robert Goldson, The negro revolution, Macmillan, 1968.

The following text gives three reasons why DNA is unique:

DNA is unique in three respects. First, it is a very large molecule, having a certain outward uniformity of size, rigidity
and shape. Despite this uniformity, however, it has infinite internal variety. Its varied nature gives it the complexity
required for information-carrying purposes. One can, indeed, think of the molecule as if it had a chemical alphabet
somehow grouped into words which the cell can understand and to which it can respond.

The second characteristic of DNA is its capacity to make copies of itself almost endlessly, and with remarkable
exactness. The biologist or chemist would say that such a molecule can replicate, or make a carbon copy of itself,
time and again with a very small margin of error.

The third characteristic is its ability to transmit information to other parts of the cell. Depending upon the
information transmitted, the behavior of the cell reflects this direction. As we shall see, other molecules play the
role of messenger, so that DNA exercises its control of the cell in an indirect manner.

William McElroy & Carl Swanson (Eds.), Foundations of biology. Prentice-Hall, 1968.

Exercise

Try this exercise: Exercise 1

Language

This relationship can be expressed in many ways:

1. Simply

Emphasising cause.

because
The death rate from cancer is increasing people are smoking more.
owing to the fact that

Emphasising effect.

As people are smoking more, the death rate from cancer is increasing.
Because
Since

Therefore,
So,
Thus,
Hence,
People are smoking more. Consequently, 
Because of this,
For this reason, the death rate from cancer is increasing.
As a consequence,
As a result,

as a result of which
People are smoking more, as a consequence of which
with the result that

2. With some grammatical changes.

Emphasising cause.

is due to
The fact that the death rate from cancer is increasing  people smoking more.
may be due to

The reason for is that

the death rate from cancer increasing people are smoking more.
One cause of could be that

one effect of
one result of
is one consequence of
may be caused by
An increase in the death rate from cancer due to people smoking more.
because of

results from
arises from

Emphasising effect.
Owing to people smoking more, the death rate from cancer is increasing.

effect of is that the death rate from cancer is increasing.

One
result of people smoking more
The
consequence of is to increase the death rate from cancer.

results in
leads to
produces
People smoking more causes an increase in the death rate from cancer.
is the cause of
gives rise to
brings about

resulting in
leading to
(so)
producing
People smoke more, (thus) an increase in the death rate from cancer.
causing
(thereby)
giving rise to
bringing about

If people smoke more the death rate from cancer will increase.

Exercise

Try this exercise: Exercise 2

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Working with different

voices
Introduction

In academic writing, it is often necessary to make it clear to your reader what

opinion you hold or what your position is with regard to a certain issue. This is
often called your "voice" or your "position" or your "claim". Your position may
be based on other people's research (eg, Smith & Jones), but the conclusion
you have come to is your own.

As a student, it is not enough to simply describe a situation or recall the facts,

you need to take a stance or position yourself in relation to the situation or the
facts. This is particularly important in assessment when you have to answer a
question. Of course, you need to know and reproduce the information, but you
also need to use the information to give an answer to the question, to give
YOUR answer to the question.

It is therefore useful to be able to recognise the different voices in a text and

learn how to make yours clear.

Recognising different voices

Read extract 1 and try to identify the different points of view contained in it.

Extract 1

It is important not to assume that merely because a practice is associated with low-income levels that it is necessarily
inferior. Helen Icken Safa (1967) has shown, for example, that high-rise public housing destroys the sense of
community and patterns of neighborly cooperation that frequently exist in established slums and shantytowns. Betty
and Charles Valentine (1970) stress the resourcefulness, sense of humor, and informality of black ghetto culture.
Oscar Lewis's (1961, 1966) remarkable documentaries of ghetto life, as told in the tape-recorded words of the people
themselves, show that many individuals who are trapped in poverty nonetheless achieve a great nobility of spirit.

(Marvin Harris, Culture, people, nature: An introduction to general anthropology, Harper

& Row, 1975)

I think you will find the following:

 a cultural practice that is associated with low-income levels is not

necessarily inferior
 high-rise public housing destroys the sense of community
 cooperation among neighbours often exists in slums and shantytowns
 black ghetto culture is resourceful, informal and has a sense of humour
 many individuals trapped in poverty achieve a great nobility of spirit
Try now to see where these points of view have come from.

I think you will find the following:

 a cultural practice that is associated with low-income levels is not

necessarily inferior - comes from Marvin Harris, the author of the book
 high-rise public housing destroys the sense of community - comes from
the writing of Helen Icken Safa
 cooperation among neighbours often exists in slums and shantytowns -
comes from the writing of Helen Icken Safa
 black ghetto culture is resourceful, informal and has a sense of humour
- comes from the research of Betty & Charles Valentine
 many individuals trapped in poverty achieve a great nobility of spirit -
comes from the work of Oscar Lewis

So we can clearly associate the ideas with the different voices of the people
we have identified.

Point of view Voice of

a cultural practice that is associated with low-income levels is not Marvin Harris, the author of the
necessarily inferior book

high-rise public housing destroys the sense of community Helen Icken Safa

cooperation among neighbours often exists in slums and shantytowns Helen Icken Safa

black ghetto culture is resourceful, informal and has a sense of humour Betty & Charles Valentine

many individuals trapped in poverty achieve a great nobility of spirit Oscar Lewis

So the writer of the paragraph - Marvin Harris - is supporting his claim that
cultural practices associated with low-income levels are not necessarily
inferior by drawing on the work of others. These others are Helen Icken Safa,
Betty & Charles Valentine and Oscar Lewis.

In extract 2, the author's claim that the human impact on the environment has
been central to some Western historical geographers' studies is supported by
the voices of 4 other researchers: Darby, Sauer, Williams and McKnight.

Extract 2
The theme of the human impact on the environment has, however, been central to some Western historical
geographers studying the evolution of the cultural landscape. The clearing of woodland (Darby, 1956), the
domestication process (Sauer, 1952), the draining of marshlands (Williams, 1970), the introduction of alien plants
and animals (McKnight, 1959), and the reclamation of heathland are among some of the recurrent themes of a fine
tradition of historical geography.

(Andrew Goude, The human impact on the natural environment. Basil Blackwell, 1981)

These examples contrast with the single voice of the author in extract 3. As
we not provided with any other evidence, we conclude that it is Goude's
opinion that three basic questions have been asked::

Extract 3

In the history of Western thought three basic questions have been posed concerning the relationship of people to the
habitable earth. The first of these is whether the earth, which is plainly a fit environment for humans and other
organic life, is a purposefully made creation, made perhaps by God for humankind. The second is whether the
climates, relief and configuration of the continents have influenced both the moral and social nature of individuals
and the character and nature of human cultures. The third question seeks to find out whether, and to what degree,
humans have during their long tenure of the earth changed it from its hypothetical pristine condition.

(Andrew Goude, The human impact on the natural environment. Basil Blackwell, 1981)

In many of the above examples, the voices of the other writers have been
heard mainly though summaries of their work.

However, in extract 4 you can hear the direct voice of Kemper directly though
the use of his actual words in a quotation. Again, there are two clear voices in
the extract: the voice of Paul Wright, the author, claiming that the differences
between engineers and technologists is not clear, and the voice of Kemper -
in a quotation - providing support for this claim

Extract 4

The functional differences between technologists and engineers are likewise blurred. Kemper (1982: 87) explains:

Technologists are supposed to work in that part of the engineering spectrum which lies between the engineer and the
technician, in the routine aspects of product development, manufacturing planning, construction supervision, or
technical sales. However, as is often the case, individual human talents may prove to be more important than the
intentions of educational programs, and it has been observed that many persons educated as technologists have
actually emerged in industry functioning as engineers. Since their educations bear strong resemblances to those of
engineers, such a development should not be especially surprising.

(Paul H Wright, Introduction to engineering. John Wiley, 1989)

Finding your own voice

See: Taking a stance

Exercise

Try this exercise: 

Exercise 1

^
Back to Introduction

Rhetorical functions in academic writing: Drawing conclusions

After evidence or data has been produced and described or arguments made,
it is necessary to come to a conclusion. This should follow logically from what
it follows and should be clearly signalled. It is particularly important to have a
good conclusion in the the conclusion section of your writing (See Writing a
Conclusion), but you need to come to intermediate conclusions throughout
your writing.

Analysis

Read the following example of the conclusion from the field of computer
assisted language learning and teaching. The study investigated the use of
the World-Wide-Web for teaching writing in a British university. After a
summary of the research, sentences 4 & 5 describe the final conclusion that
has been reached.

Use Of A Writing Web-Site By Pre-Masters Students On An English for Academic Purposes Course.

A. J. Gillett, University of Hertfordshire

Conclusion

1
During the past 10 years, the use of computers in education has increased dramatically and a wide range of
educational computer programmes are now widely available for individual and classroom use. 2However, there has
been very little research reported on the effectiveness of such use. 3The purpose of the present study was therefore to
ascertain the effectiveness of using computer-assisted instruction as compared to traditional classroom instruction in
an EAP writing class. 4The findings clearly suggest that the inclusion of web-based materials in EAP writing courses
for post-graduate students from East-Asia on an English language preparation course is effective. 5Further research is
needed, however, before the use of such materials can be recommended for all students in all subject areas at all
levels.

Examples

Read the following conclusions:

In conclusion, therefore, it can be seen that millions of people continue to be affected by water-related problems and,
contrary to popular belief, future water supplies are not inexhaustible. So the situation is very serious, especially in
view of the UN estimates of demand. Although projects to provide ever-increasing supplies of water indicate that a
growing number of countries are aware of the present problems and of those to come, these more often than not are
highly expensive and not very practical - and very time-consuming when time is a commodity in short supply. So,
while research in these areas is important, the eventual solution would definitely appear to be worldwide conservation
and pollution control - in other words, a greater respect for our most valuable natural resource.

Altogether, it seems that we cannot accept without question the dramatic increase in recorded crime as corresponding
to a real increase in victimization of the same proportions. But, however good it would be to explain away all, or even
most, of the increase as an artefact of recording changes, this cannot be shown to be the case. We can plausibly infer
that crime has been increasing in the last two to three decades, presenting a problem for explanation and policy.

Language
In short,
In a word,
In brief,
To sum up,
To conclude, ....
To summarise
In conclusion,
On the whole,
Altogether,
In all,

accepted
generally argued
It is that ....
widely held
believed

Therefore,
concluded
Thus, can
it be deduced that... .
On this basis, may
inferred
Given this,
 Table 1 seen
table concluded
figures can shown
From it be that ....
the data may estimated
results calculated
information inferred

In conclusion, we/may say

that ....
Finally it can/may be said

Recommendations

Conclusions often need recommendations.

See: Recommendations

^
Back to Introduction

Writing a list of references

At the end of all pieces of academic writing, you need a list of materials that
you have used or referred to. This usually has a heading: references but may
bebibliography or works cited depending on the conventions of the system
you use.

The object of your writing is for you to say something for yourself using the
ideas of the subject, for you to present ideas you have learned in your own
way. The emphasis should be on working with other people’s ideas, rather
than reproducing their words. The ideas and people that you refer to need to
be made explicit by a system of referencing. This consists of a list of materials
that you have used at the end of the piece of writing and references to this list
at various points throughout the essay. The purpose of this is to supply the
information needed to allow a user to find a source.

Therefore, at the end of your assignment you need a list of the materials you
have used - a bibliography or a reference list.
 There are many ways of writing a list of references - check with your
department for specific information.

 The most common system is called the Harvard system. There is no

definitive version of the Harvard system and most universities have
their own. But the one used here - the American Psychological
Association style - is well known and often used (American
Psychological Association, 1983, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2010).
 Click here or see Gibaldi (2003) and Modern Languages Association
(1998) for another way.
 Many scientists use a numerical system, often called the Vancouver
style or BS 1629. Click here or see International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors (1991) for more information.

A good overview can be found in Pears & Shields (2008).

1. Example

References

Abercrombie, D. (1968). Paralanguage. British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 3, 55-59.

Barr, P., Clegg, J. & Wallace, C. (1981). Advanced reading skills. London: Longman.
Chomsky, N. (1973). Linguistic theory. In J. W. Oller & J. C. Richards (Eds.), Focus on the learner (pp. 29-
35). Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House.
Fromkin, V. & Rodman, R. (1983). An introduction to language. London: Holt-Saunders.
Guiora, A. Z., Paluszny, M., Beit-Hallahmi, B., Catford, J. C., Cooley, R. E. & Dull, C. Y. (1975). Language
and person: Studies in language behaviour. Language Learning, 25, 43-61.
GVU's 8th WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/usersurveys/survey1997-
10/
Kinsella, V. (Ed.). (1978). Language teaching and linguistics: Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Lipinsky, E. & Bender, R. (1980). Critical voices on the economy. Survey, 25, 38-42.
Oller, J. W. & Richards, J. C. (Eds.). (1973). Focus on the learner. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House.
Longman dictionary of contemporary English. (1978). London: Longman.
Smith, F. (1978). Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stern, H. H. & Weinrib, A. (1978). Foreign languages for younger children: Trends and assessment. In V.
Kinsella (Ed.), Language teaching and linguistics: Surveys (pp. 152-172). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

NOTES

Use heading: References.
 Page numbers should be included for all articles in journals and in collections.

Use italics (or underlining in handwriting) for titles of books, periodicals,

newspapers etc.

Use alphabetical order. Alphabetise works with no author by the first

significant word in the title.

All co-authors should be listed.

Indent second etc. lines

Use (n.d.) if no date is given.

If the author of a document is not given, begin the reference with the title of
the document.

^
2. Books

a. One author:

Smith, F. (1978). Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

b. Two authors:

Fromkin, V. & Rodman, R. (1983). An introduction to language. London: Holt-Saunders.

c. More than two authors:

Barr, P., Clegg, J. & Wallace, C. (1981). Advanced reading skills. London: Longman.

d. Edited collections:

Kinsella, V. (Ed.). (1978). Language teaching and linguistics: Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oller, J. W. & Richards, J. C. (Eds.). (1973). Focus on the learner. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House.

e. Book, corporate author:

British Council Teaching Information Centre. (1978). Pre-sessional courses for overseas students. London: British
Council.

f. Book, no author, or editor:

Longman dictionary of contemporary English. (1978). London: Longman.

The Times atlas of the world (5th ed.). (1975). New York: New York Times.

g. Book, third edition:

Fromkin, V. & Rodman, R. (1983). An introduction to language (3rd ed.). London: Holt-Saunders.

h. Book, revised edition:

Cohen, J. (1977). Statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (rev. ed.). New York: Plenum Press.

i. Non-English book:

Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1951). La genése de l’idée de hasard chez l’enfant [The origin of the idea of danger in the child].
Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

j. English translation of a book:

Luria, A. R. (1969). The mind of a mnemonist (L. Solotaroff, Trans.). New York: Avon Books. (Original work published
1965)

k. Books or articles, two or more by the same author in the same year:

Lyons, J. (1981a). Language and linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lyons, J. (1981b). Language, meaning and context. London: Fontana.

^
3. Periodical articles

a. One author:

Abercrombie, D. (1968). Paralanguage. British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 3, 55-59.

b. Two authors:

Lipinsky, E. & Bender, R. (1980). Critical voices on the economy. Survey, 25, 38-42.

c. More than two authors:

Guiora, A. Z., Paluszny, M., Beit-Hallahmi, B., Catford, J. C., Cooley, R. E. & Dull, C. Y. (1975). Language and person:
Studies in language behaviour. Language Learning, 25, 43-61.

d. Review of a book:

Carmody, T. P. (1982). A new look at medicine from a social perspective [Review of the book Social contexts of health,
illness and patient care]. Contemporary Psychology, 27, 208-209.

e. Review of a book, no title:

Maley, A. (1994). [Review of the book Critical language awareness]. Applied Linguistics, 15, 348-350.

f. Magazine article:

Gardner, H. (1981, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today, 70-76.

g. Newspaper article:

James, R. (1991, December 15). Obesity affects economic social status. The Guardian, p. 18

h. Newspaper/Magazine article, no author:

Acid attack ‘scarred girl for life’. (1986, October 21). The Guardian, p. 4.
(In the essay use a short form of the title for citation: ("Acid Attack." 1986))
i. Newspaper article, letter to the editor:

Hain, P. (1986, October 21). The police protection that women want [Letter to the editor]. The Guardian, p. 4.

j. Journal article, in press:

Johns, A. M. (in press) Written argumentation for real audiences. TESOL Quarterly.

^
4. Selections from edited collections

a. One author:

Chomsky, N. (1973). Linguistic theory. In J. W. Oller & J. C. Richards (Eds.), Focus on the learner (pp. 29-35). Rowley,
Massachusetts: Newbury House.

b. Two authors:

Stern, H. H. & Weinrib, A. (1978). Foreign languages for younger children: Trends and assessment. In V. Kinsella
(Ed.), Language teaching and linguistics: Surveys (pp. 152-172). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

^
5. CD ROMs etc

a. Newspaper or magazine on CD-ROM:

Gardner, H. (1981, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today [CD-ROM], pp. 70-76.
 b. Abstract on CD-ROM:

Meyer, A. S. & Bock, K. (1992). The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: Blocking or partial activation? [CD-ROM]. Memory
Cognition, 20,715-726. Abstract from: SilverPlatter File: PsycLIT Item: 80-16351

c. Article from CD-ROM Encyclopedia:

Crime. (1996). In Microsoft Encarta 1996 Encyclopedia [CD-ROM]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.

d. Dictionary on CD-ROM:

Oxford English dictionary computer file: On compact disc (2nd ed.) [CD-ROM]. (1992). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

^
6. Documents obtained from the Internet

All references begin with the same information that would be provided for a
printed source (or as much of that information as possible). The WWW
information is then placed at the end of the reference in the same way as
publishing information is given for books. It is important to give the date of
retrieval if the document on the Web may change in content, move, or be
removed from a site altogether.

The object of this is the same as all referencing - to supply the information
needed to allow a user to find a source. If you do not know the author or the
date and it does not have a clear title, think carefully before using it.
See Evaluating Sources.
a. An article:

Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A. Schwartz, A. A. (1995). A history of facilitated communication: Science, pseudoscience,
and antiscience: Science working group on facilitated communication. American Psychologist, 50, 750-765.
Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/journals/jacobson.html

b. A newspaper article:

Sleek, S. (1996, January). Psychologists build a culture of peace. The New York Times, pp. 1, 33 Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com

c. WWW Document:

Li, X. & Crane, N. (1996, May 20). Bibliographic formats for citing electronic information. Retrieved from
http://www.uvm.edu/~xli/reference/estyles.html

d. WWW Document - corporate author:

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). (1995, May 15). About the World Wide Web. Retrieved from
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/

e. WWW Document - corporate author:

American Psychological Association (1996). How to cite information from the world wide web. Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html

f. WWW Document - no author:

A field guide to sources on, about and on the Internet: Citation formats. (1995, Dec 18). Retrieved from
http://www.cc.emory.edu/WHSCL/citation.formats.html

g. WWW Document - no author, no date:

WWW user survey. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wast.ac.uk/usersurveys/survey2000-10/

h. An abstract:

Rosenthal, R. (1995). State of New Jersey v. Margaret Kelly Michaels: An overview [Abstract]. Psychology, Public
Policy, and Law, 1,247–271. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/journals/ab1.html

i. Entry in online reference work, no author, editor or date:

heuristic (n.d.) In Merriam-Webster's online dictionary (11th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.m-

w.com/dictionary/heuristic

^
7. Others

a. Government report:

National Institute of Mental Health. (1982). Television and behaviour: Ten years of scientific progress and implications
for the eighties(DHHS Publication No. ADM82-1195). Washington DC: US Government Printing Office.

b. Publication with no date given:

Malachi, Z. (Ed.). (n.d.) Proceedings of the International Conference on Literary and Linguistic Copmputing. Tel Aviv:
Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University.

c. Unpublished dissertation or thesis:

Devins, G. M. (1981). Helplessness, depression, and mood in end-stage renal disease. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
McGill University, Montreal.

d. Unpublished conference paper:

Howarth, P. (1995, March). Phraseological standards in EAP. Paper presented at the meeting of the British Association of
Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes, Nottingham.
 e. Film or videotape:

Maas, J. B. (Producer), and Gluck, D. H. (Director). (1979). Deeper into hypnosis [Film]. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall.

Features of academic writing

Introduction

Try this exercise.

Academic writing in English is linear, which means it has one central point or
theme with every part contributing to the main line of argument, without
digressions or repetitions. Its objective is to inform rather than entertain. As
well as this it is in the standard written form of the language.There are eight
main features of academic writing that are often discussed. Academic writing
is to some extent: complex, formal, objective, explicit, hedged, and
responsible. It uses language precisely and accurately.
Complexity

Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language. Written

language has longer words, it is lexically more dense and it has a more varied
vocabulary. It uses more noun-based phrases than verb-based phrases.
Written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical complexity,
including more subordinate clauses and more passives.

Complexity
Formality

Academic writing is relatively formal. In general this means that in an essay

you should avoid colloquial words and expressions.

Formality
Precision
In academic writing, facts and figures are given precisely.

Precision
Objectivity

Written language is in general objective rather than personal. It therefore has

fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader. This means that the main
emphasis should be on the information that you want to give and the
arguments you want to make, rather than you. For that reason,  academic
writing tends to use nouns (and adjectives), rather than verbs (and adverbs).

Objectivity
Explicitness

Academic writing is explicit about the relationships int he text. Furthermore, it

is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how
the various parts of the text are related. These connections can be made
explicit by the use of different signalling words.

Explicitness
Accuracy

Academic writing uses vocabulary accurately. Most subjects have words with
narrow specific meanings. Linguistics distinguishes clearly between
"phonetics" and "phonemics"; general English does not.

Accuracy
Hedging

In any kind of academic writing you do, it is necessary to make decisions

about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are
making. Different subjects prefer to do this in different ways.

A technique common in certain kinds of academic writing is known by linguists

as a ‘hedge’.

Hedging
Responsibility
In academic writing you must be responsible for, and must be able to provide
evidence and justification for, any claims you make. You are also responsible
for demonstrating an understanding of any source texts you use.

Responsibility

Check list

Here are some useful questions to ask yourself about your essay:

1. Does the essay deal with the topic that was set?
2. Does the essay answer the question that was set?
3. Does it cover all the main aspects and in sufficient depth?
4. Is the content accurate and relevant?
5. Is everything in the essay relevant to the question?
6. Is the material logically arranged?
7. Is each main point well supported by examples and argument?
8. Is there a clear distinction between your ideas and those of other
authors?
9. Is your voice clear throughout?
10. Have you acknowledged all the sources you have used?
11. Is the length of the essay right for its purpose?
12. Is it written plainly and simply, without clumsy or obscure
phrasing?
13. Is the grammar, punctuation and spelling acceptable?
14. Is it neat and legibly written?

^
^