Here's the PPT we used and adapted in today's class. I hope I don't see any of those mistakes again soon...
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Projects : Essay Feedback
I will give you a copy of this during tutorials, but the handout that we created together in class is available to download here. Meanwhile I just wanted to give you an example of how to use a mix of quotation and summaries in one pargaraph. I started by looking at some opinions on marriage which I found in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations..."A man is only as faithful as his opportunity." (Chris Rock)
"I don't think it's the nature of any man to be monogamous. Men are propelled by genetically ordained impulses over which they have no control to distribute their seed." (Marlon Brando)
"Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same." (Oscar Wilde)
I then wrote a paragraph to try to draw these ideas together...this is what I came up with:
Many men make excuses for being unfaithful, but some give detailed reasons. The actor Marlon Brando accounts for male infidelity with a scientific explanation. He argues that since men are genetically ordained to spread their seed, it is against nature for them to be monogamous. For Oscar Wilde, monogamy is “one wife too many” and therefore simply a waste of time, while Chris Rock questions whether faithfulness really exists at all among men. He claims that “a man is only as faithful as his opportunity”, meaning basically that if a man has the chance to cheat, he will.
Many men make excuses for being unfaithful, but some give detailed reasons. The actor Marlon Brando accounts for male infidelity with a scientific explanation. He argues that since men are genetically ordained to spread their seed, it is against nature for them to be monogamous. For Oscar Wilde, monogamy is “one wife too many” and therefore simply a waste of time, while Chris Rock questions whether faithfulness really exists at all among men. He claims that “a man is only as faithful as his opportunity”, meaning basically that if a man has the chance to cheat, he will.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Free TV
Don't worry if you have no TV in your house or can only get a snowy picture (like me), there are plenty of programmes available free online. In class I told you about BBC iPlayer - you might like to try an episode of Dragon's Den to start with - but you can also find lots of online TV content on the ITV and Channel 4 websites.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Reading : Thursday & Friday EAP Classes
You can go to the FT website to read the article about CNPC in full, and the Word document we worked on in class is available here. In class I asked you to finish the reading exercises on pages 22 to 24. You can find the answers on this PowerPoint presentation. Meanwhile, if you would like to do some extra complex sentence writing practice you can complete the handout I gave you in class and check the key here. There is another writing exercise for you to try on page 18 of your materials booklet, with an answer key available to download here. Tuesday, September 08, 2009
The Business Cycle
Thanks again to Matt, Elsa, and Am for their introduction to today's topic. If you'd like to read the Observer feature in full online you can find it here with the sector by sector guide here.I promised you some questions...I hope you can provide me with some answers. Post your ideas as comments please...
1. Is now a good time to sell my flat?
2. Is unemployment likely to fall soon?
3. How easy should it be for me to borrow money from a British bank now?
4. Are any countries showing signs of a faster recovery than the UK?
5. What can or should the government be doing to speed up the recovery?
Plagiarism
The PowerPoint file from today's class on plagiarism is available here but it would be much more interesting for you to explore the subject in further detail on the university's authorship and plagiarism page.
EAP: Argumentative Essays
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Introductions & Conclusions : Key to Tasks in Materials Booklet
Writing introductions
WHAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN AN INTRODUCTION
2. explaining the aims of the essay
6. giving a plan of how your essay will develop
WHAT YOU MAY DECIDE TO INCLUDE IN AN INTRODUCTION
1. relating the topic to your own experience and / or current events
3. stating your own opinion on the topic
4. explaining why the topic is important / interesting / relevant
7. giving your personal interpretation of the title
9. providing some background research on the topic
10. defining terms that are used in the essay title
WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT INCLUDE IN AN INTRODUCTION
5. providing a summary of your main points
8. giving reasons and examples to support your main idea
Other things you can or should try to do in an introduction:
- limitation of the scope of the essay, i.e. what you are NOT covering
- mention of differing viewpoints on the subject
- the seriousness of the problem, why attention has to be paid to it
- mentioning previous work on the subject (or lack of it)
Writing conclusions
WHAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN A CONCLUSION
4. summarising your main points, but in a different way
9. re-stating your personal opinion or evaluation of the topic
WHAT YOU MAY DECIDE TO INCLUDE IN A CONCLUSION
3. repeating your main points
5. providing a solution to any issue or question raised at the beginning
7. suggesting further investigations into the topic / issue
8. reconciling two opposing points of view
WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT INCLUDE IN A CONCLUSION
1. presenting your main idea
2. providing some additional examples in support of your main points
6. present the opposite point of view to the one covered in your main points
Additional things that can go in a conclusion:
- a deduction made on the basis of what has been discussed
- comment about the future – a predication or projection on the basis of the main conclusion
- statement of dissatisfaction with gaps and limitation of the essay
Features of introductions and conclusions
The following two paragraphs are extracts from the same paper, entitled 'Innovation in Materials' by George F. Ray (from Forester, Tom ed. 1988 The Materials Revolution Oxford, Blackwell). Skim through the texts quickly in order to answer these points:
1 Which comes from the introduction and which from the conclusion?
2 What exactly does the writer do for the benefit of the reader in each paragraph?
3 Make a list of the words and phrases that helped you differentiate between the introduction and conclusion.
A : Conclusion
- starts with a quotation which the writer relates to the overall content of his article. (This is as good a way of starting a conclusion as it is at the beginning of the introduction).
- restates the purpose of the article
- indicates the limitations of his argument in relation to the future
- but hopes that his ideas will be of benefit for future work
In one of his many publications concerning the role of science, Freeman wrote: "Much scientific research is concerned with the exploration of the unknown. By definition we cannot know the outcome of such explorations and still less can we know its future impact on technology." This general statement can be applied with some force to materials. This brief survey is intended to show how science and technology have contributed to the supply of industrial and other materials in the past and that progress has been a continuing one. History does not necessarily repeat itself; nor do the examples given in this paper of scientific and technological achievements solving materials problems provide any guarantee for the future. They do, however, provide a basis for the hope that progress will go on and future advance continue to secure a link between the demand for and the supply of materials that industry and other sectors of the economy will require.
B : Introduction
- explains the structure of the paper and the content of the two parts
- gives further explanation of the ways in which the two parts are different
- states the reason for limiting the content area of the paper
This study is in two main parts. The first surveys the history of some thirty materials which are relatively new or were 'new' at the time of their introduction into general use. The dissemination of any innovation takes time; that of new materials often takes an unusually long time; hence this first part concerns materials that already have a history. The second, shorter, part deals with the present, that is, the progress of the area of materials. For both the past and the present the choice is very wide and therefore it was necessary to be selective.
WHAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN AN INTRODUCTION
2. explaining the aims of the essay
6. giving a plan of how your essay will develop
WHAT YOU MAY DECIDE TO INCLUDE IN AN INTRODUCTION
1. relating the topic to your own experience and / or current events
3. stating your own opinion on the topic
4. explaining why the topic is important / interesting / relevant
7. giving your personal interpretation of the title
9. providing some background research on the topic
10. defining terms that are used in the essay title
WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT INCLUDE IN AN INTRODUCTION
5. providing a summary of your main points
8. giving reasons and examples to support your main idea
Other things you can or should try to do in an introduction:
- limitation of the scope of the essay, i.e. what you are NOT covering
- mention of differing viewpoints on the subject
- the seriousness of the problem, why attention has to be paid to it
- mentioning previous work on the subject (or lack of it)
Writing conclusions
WHAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN A CONCLUSION
4. summarising your main points, but in a different way
9. re-stating your personal opinion or evaluation of the topic
WHAT YOU MAY DECIDE TO INCLUDE IN A CONCLUSION
3. repeating your main points
5. providing a solution to any issue or question raised at the beginning
7. suggesting further investigations into the topic / issue
8. reconciling two opposing points of view
WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT INCLUDE IN A CONCLUSION
1. presenting your main idea
2. providing some additional examples in support of your main points
6. present the opposite point of view to the one covered in your main points
Additional things that can go in a conclusion:
- a deduction made on the basis of what has been discussed
- comment about the future – a predication or projection on the basis of the main conclusion
- statement of dissatisfaction with gaps and limitation of the essay
Features of introductions and conclusions
The following two paragraphs are extracts from the same paper, entitled 'Innovation in Materials' by George F. Ray (from Forester, Tom ed. 1988 The Materials Revolution Oxford, Blackwell). Skim through the texts quickly in order to answer these points:
1 Which comes from the introduction and which from the conclusion?
2 What exactly does the writer do for the benefit of the reader in each paragraph?
3 Make a list of the words and phrases that helped you differentiate between the introduction and conclusion.
A : Conclusion
- starts with a quotation which the writer relates to the overall content of his article. (This is as good a way of starting a conclusion as it is at the beginning of the introduction).
- restates the purpose of the article
- indicates the limitations of his argument in relation to the future
- but hopes that his ideas will be of benefit for future work
In one of his many publications concerning the role of science, Freeman wrote: "Much scientific research is concerned with the exploration of the unknown. By definition we cannot know the outcome of such explorations and still less can we know its future impact on technology." This general statement can be applied with some force to materials. This brief survey is intended to show how science and technology have contributed to the supply of industrial and other materials in the past and that progress has been a continuing one. History does not necessarily repeat itself; nor do the examples given in this paper of scientific and technological achievements solving materials problems provide any guarantee for the future. They do, however, provide a basis for the hope that progress will go on and future advance continue to secure a link between the demand for and the supply of materials that industry and other sectors of the economy will require.
B : Introduction
- explains the structure of the paper and the content of the two parts
- gives further explanation of the ways in which the two parts are different
- states the reason for limiting the content area of the paper
This study is in two main parts. The first surveys the history of some thirty materials which are relatively new or were 'new' at the time of their introduction into general use. The dissemination of any innovation takes time; that of new materials often takes an unusually long time; hence this first part concerns materials that already have a history. The second, shorter, part deals with the present, that is, the progress of the area of materials. For both the past and the present the choice is very wide and therefore it was necessary to be selective.
Friday, September 04, 2009
Vocabulary Matters
There's more depth to the stupid doodles we started today's class with - click here to read an interesting discussion of them. To explore Forbes lists in more detail, the Forbes Lists website has, unsurprisingly, a wide array of interesting lists for you to look at. The Academic World List resources we looked at in class are just a click away, and you can also download the PowerPoint file from today's class here. That should keep you occupied for the weekend, and you can save your money for Lakeside on Monday.Thursday, September 03, 2009
Referencing
For more information on referencing, including practice tasks and further links to information about plagiarism, follow this link. The PowerPoint file from today's class is available to download here and remember to buy and eat as much Cocon mango pudding as you posssibly can.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
EAP : Unity & Coherence and Paragraphs Revisited
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Project Criteria
Two things for you here...the powerpoint presentation from class, and an extra language exercise on a Word document for you to try...if you need some extra work to do...
Marketing
Apologies for the audio disaster in today's class. If you want to listen to Steve Moody properly you can download the audio file here. Meanwhile, here's the powerpoint presentation from MY part of the lesson. Perhaps if Saki, Steve, and Aiko send me theirs I can make that available too. Or we could just cheat (like they did) and do "their" marketing quiz online here.
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