ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES 1

MORE WRITING SKILLS

FACULTY OF MEDICINE
UKRIDA

PARTS OF SPEECH
A noun names a person or thing.
growth, agony, illness
A verb shows action or being.
learn, reduce, spend
An adjective describes or
modifies a noun.
difficult, severe, illegal
An adverb modifies a verb,
adjective, or other adverb.
Increasingly, beneficially, equally

PARTS OF A SENTENCE
Simple sentence
Every English sentence must have a subject and
a verb. A simple sentence has one subject and
one verb. Example:

Subject

Verb

Maria

plays the harp

A sentence without a subject

or without a verb is called a
fragment. A fragment is a piece
of a sentence

More Subjects and verbs

Subject: The person or thing that does the
action. It comes before the verb
Verb: usually the action word in the
sentence. It comes after the subject.
Subject

Verb

That little boy

swims everyday

People in China

speak Chinese

Seven

is my lucky number

Practice: Fragment (F) or Sentence (S)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

____ Billy lives in a big apartment.

____ My mother breakfast every morning.
____ Is incredibly delicious.
____ Does carol have car?
____ They my cousin from Sulawesi.
6. ____ You a student?
7. ____ Michael likes classical music.
8. ____ The girls play soccer after school.
9. ____ Nancy and Jeannie very best friend
10. ____ I am from North Sumatra

Adjectives: before

nouns

or

after

verb be

Example:
1. Rachel draws small picture.
2. Jimmy is sleepy.

Practice
1. I dont like the weather.
The weather is humid.
2. Jimmy is a student.
He is excellent.

Subject Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. It
comes before the verb.
It is correct to use a persons name when you write one
or two sentences, but in a paragraph or in conversation,
good writers and speakers do not use the persons name
many times. Instead, they use a subject pronoun.
Example: Alisa lives in the city. She likes the noise and
the crowds.
Singular

Plural

I
you
he, she, it

we
you
they

Compound sentences
A compound sentence is two sentences
joined by a connecting word, such as and,
but, or so. A compound sentence has two
subjects and two verbs.
Example:
Japan imports oil, and Saudi Arabia
imports vegetables.

Practice: Simple (S) or Compound (C) Sentences

1. ____
2. ____
3. ____
4. ____
5. ____

Japan and Canada has the same two colors in

their flags.
The weather is bad, so the plane cannot take
off on time.
It is extremely hot in this room without an air
conditioner.
The students take a test every Friday, but their
scores are not very high.
The silver and gold rings are different in weight
and in prices

adverbs
There are several kinds of adverbs in English.
Most of them describe verbs. It usually ends in
-ly
Example: Kerry picked up the puppy carefully.
My sister studies hard.

Complex sentences
Sentences that are combined by using a connecting word
that is part of the sentence such as after, before,
because, if, although, since and when. The connecting
words in complex sentences are necessary part of one of
the sentences (clauses). Example:
Compound sentence:
Joy played tennis, and Vicky watched TV.
3 parts: 1 sentence + 1 sentence joined by and

Complex sentence:
Joy played tennis after Vicky watched TV.
2 parts: 1 simple sentences + 1 sentence that
begins with the connecting word after

Practice: Simple (S), Compound (CD)

Sentences, Complex (CX)
1. ____
2. ____
3. ____
4. ____
5. ____

I am going to scuba diving next weekend.

After he came home from the beach, Kevin
took a shower.
My father is going to retire next year, but my
mother is going to continue working.
Irene is going to call you when she gets home
from work.
Were going to go to the mall and the beach
next Sunday.

Review: Important Parts of A Paragraph

1. Topic Sentence: A good paragraph has
a topic sentence that states the main
idea.
2. Only One Topic: All of the sentences in
the paragraph are about one topic.
3. Indented line: The first line of a
paragraph is indented
4. Body and Supporting Sentences: A
good paragraph has a sufficient number
of supporting sentences.
5. Concluding Sentence: The last
sentence, or concluding sentences,
brings the paragraph to a logical
conclusion.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the presentation of another person's work,
ideas, or creations as your own, without acknowledging
where those ideas came from. In other words you take
credit for someone else's work. In academic writing, this is
the same as cheating on an exam.
* What is plagiarism?
* How to avoid plagiarism

What is Plagiarism - 1
copying

phrases and passages word-for-word

without quotation marks and without a reference
to the author; this includes but is not limited to
books, journals, reports, theses, websites,
conference papers and course notes
paraphrasing an author's work and presenting
it without a reference; this includes but is not
limited to sentences, paragraphs, ideas and
themes
copying any part of another students' work
submitting items of assessment that are
written in conjunction with other students
(without prior permission of the relevant staff
member)

What is Plagiarism - 2
submitting a piece of work has
already
been
submitted
for
assessment in another course
presenting other people's designs
and images as your own work
submitting work as your own that
someone else has done for you.
If you have used someone else's
work without acknowledging your
source, you have plagiarized.

How to avoid plagiarism 1

Plagiarism can sometimes be the result of poor note
taking, or paraphrasing without properly citing the
reference. Avoid plagiarism by: citing your
references, referencing correctly, recording direct
quotes and paraphrases correctly when note taking.
Quotes: When you use the exact words, ideas or
images of another person, you are quoting the
author. If you do not use quotation marks around
the original author's direct words and cite the
reference, you are plagiarizing.
Paraphrasing is when you take someone else's
concepts and put them into your own words without
changing the original meaning. Even though you
are not using the same words you still need to state
where the concepts came from.

How to avoid plagiarism 2

Note taking
Poor note taking can lead to plagiarism. You
should always take care to:
record all reference information correctly
use quotation marks exactly as in the original
paraphrase correctly
clearly distinguish your own ideas from the
ideas of other authors and researchers.
All plagiarism is viewed seriously and
can incur penalties.

References
http://monash.edu/lls/llonline/writing/general/plagiarism/2.
xml
Folse, Keith, Vokoun, A. Muchmore, Solomon, E. Vestri. Great
Sentences. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002
Folse, Keith, Vokoun, A. Muchmore, Solomon, E. Vestri. Great
Paragraphs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001
Hogue, Ann. First Steps in Academic Writing. New York: Longman,
1996.
Oshima, Alice & An Hogue. Introduction to Academic Writing (2nd ed).
New York: Longman, 1997.