They'll never take away our freedom to make references to Braveheart in class

Two files from today's class: the ppt file and related handout. Can you remember the missing words from these five statements? (answers are in the ppt)

1. In the film Braveheart (1995), the English are __________ as cruel, unscrupulous and cowardly.
2. __________The Bible, the first woman was made from one of the ribs of Adam, the first man.
3. The BBC web page, Bloom, __________organic agriculture as “a system of farming based on principles of human, animal and environmental health”.
4. In an article on the state of American politics __________ “What's gone wrong in Washington?”, published in The Economist on the 18th of February, Barack Obama __________ for present problems. The __________ __________ that “the basic system works” and that the current president has been incorrectly “let off the hook”.
5. The Declaration of Independence, signed in 1776, __________ that “all men are created equal”, although slavery was not abolished until 1865.

To plagiarise or not to plagiarise

I know I've used this Shakespearian construction far too many times this week, but it's hard to make this topic any more interesting than it is. The online quiz on plagiarism created by the University of East Anglia is just a click away here, while you may be interested in reading more / all of the articles I distributed in class:

Ian Jack writing on his experiences at the third International Plagiarism Conference.
A recent story about the Australian group Men At Work
A very short Guardian piece about anti-plagiarism software
A news story about Raj Persaud - next to it you'll find links to other articles about his case

Later I'll upload links to today's ppt and handout, as well as anything else that comes up...

Hamlet in 2 minutes 28 seconds

Notes from Southend

Despite salvaging the missing word file late in the day, I still managed to lose half of the notes from today's class in Southend. After our discussion of gambling and the difference between either electronic or casino-based roulette and Russian roulette (click here for an audiovisual example from The Deer Hunter) we looked at the use of language in this Guardian article about a couple who have just won £56million on the lottery. Issues that came up were white vans, the verb "reveal" and the differences between "job" and "jobs", and "quit" and "hand in your notice". We also spoke about culture of understatement and irony that seems prevalent in Britain...something that you might be able to spot in this clip from the film Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

2b or not 2b etc

A few of the things that we looked at today:

- text message poetry

- David Crystal's Guardian article and the related class handout

- today's powerpoint presentation

- a handout on facts and opinions

Resources for Business Studies Students

My student Muhammad and I found this very useful online resource for business studies vocabulary - The Finanical Times Lexicon. He's going to use it to make personalised glossaries for his notes, which I think will be useful We also looked at a pitch from Dragon's Den on Youtube. Plenty more are available, but this is a nice ten-minute example of what you find in the programme.

Monday Materials

Here is the ppt from today's class, and here is the handout which features some nice soundbites on marriage.

Reading...

I thought I'd try to put together some links for some materials that might be helpful to read in preparation for graduate diploma compare and contrast essays...I will update this post with more as and when I find them:

COMMUNICATION & TECHNOLOGY

Three articles about communicating by text: one piece arguing against the use of text speak, one defending it, and one article that combines two different writers' perspectives on the topic.

The Economy of the Premier League

I'm sure there's lots of material out there, but perhaps looking at some documents and opinions on the recent Manchester United bond issue might be an intersting option. It's summarised here and discussed here and this perspective also has a link to the official prospectus as a pdf.

Funding Education

A key section of a national report is here as is this article voicing mixed opinions, this piece from the Guardian arguing that students should pay, and this very recent article from The Economist. I'm sure you can find much more on the subject.

Global Warming

Yesterday The Observer published this debate about global warming, which could be a useful hub from which to explore the subject.

Graphs and Diagrams

In class we looked at a selection of graphs, tables, and charts from The Economist's online Daily Charts (click here to browse the archives). There's a slideshow of the data we looked at below, and a writing template is available here along with ppt files from Wednesday and Thursday's Graduate Diploma classes. Handouts on data commentary (adapted from Swales and Feak's Academic Writing for Graduate Students) and Monday's homeowork are also available if you click in the right place.

Shaun of the Dead

Two introductions to Shaun of the Dead...the official trailer:



...and if you click here, an attempt to splice scenes together in order to tell the whole story in five minutes.

Which vs That

OK. What's the difference between WHICH and THAT?...let's take a deep breath and then begin...

Perhaps the first step should be to look at DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES. In Cassell's Students' English Grammar, Jake Allsop defines relative clauses as being "like adjectives in that they give information about a noun or a pronoun". However, unlike most adjectives, relative clauses FOLLOW the noun (e.g. the woman that I love, the book that I read).

There are two types of relative clause - DEFINING and NON-DEFINING. Suppose I was to say "I hate the student". Would you know which student I was referring to? I think not, because I have lots of different students. If I DEFINE which student I mean, you will understand more clearly. So, how about "I hate the student WHO ASKS ME QUESTIONS ABOUT GRAMMAR AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS, BEFORE HE HAS EVEN SAID HELLO TO ME". With this extra information, you can understand that "the student" is Yasir. The clause "WHO ASKS ME QUESTIONS ABOUT GRAMMAR AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS, BEFORE HE HAS EVEN SAID HELLO TO ME" provides a definition of "the student". OK? Hmm....perhaps I should have chosen a shorter and more simple example. How about "I never eat food". It's not true, is it? So we add "I never eat food WHICH HAS BEEN REHEATED IN A MICROWAVE". The extra information defines the type of food to which I am referring (it's very hard to define defining relative clauses without using defining relative clauses. I love grammar).

The examples I have given so far contain examples of WHO and WHICH, but not THAT. So here's the first key difference between WHICH and THAT:

WHO refers to people (like THE STUDENT WHO ASKS ME GRAMMAR QUESTIONS). WHICH refers to things (like FOOD WHICH HAS BEEN REHEATED IN A MICROWAVE). THAT, however, can refer to both. So we can say THE STUDENT THAT ASKS ME GRAMMAR QUESTIONS and THE FOOD THAT HAS BEEN REHEATED IN A MICROWAVE. Easy. Lovely. Perfect...WHICH = THINGS, while THAT = THINGS or PEOPLE...simple...

If only life were always that simple...actually there are some relative clauses in which it is NOTpossible to use THAT. These are NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES, which just give extra information. That last sentence is an example of one, but here are two more:

- I hate Yasir, who comes from Saudi Arabia.

- I read War and Peace, which many people find difficult boring, in less than a week.

In these two sentences, I expect my reader to know who / what I am referring to when I write YASIR or WAR AND PEACE. My reader doesn't need a DEFINITION of these nouns, but I want to provide some extra information, so I provide it through a relative clause. Notice, however, that these relative clauses are surrounded by commas. The comma shows that the clause is separate and, if you like, not ESSENTIAL for understanding my main point. In cases like this, it is NOT POSSIBLE to use THAT. So we can't say "I read War and Peace, that many people find difficult..." or ""I hate Yasir, that comes from...". No no no...

So here is a second key point about WHICH and THAT. Don't use THAT after a comma. This is useful to know, because sometimes WHICH is used to continue a sentence and give extra information about a whole clause or statement. THAT is not used for this person. For example:

- I missed my bus, which is why I was late for class.

- I ate too much cheese last night, which is why I had nightmares.

Remember that THAT does not follow a comma, so if we wanted to use it in these examples, we would have to start a new sentence:

- I missed my bus. That is why I was late for class.

- I ate too much cheese last night. That is why I had nightmares.

Of course, if we are developing an argument in academic writing, we are more likely to use THIS than THAT, because THIS makes the subject seem more immediate and relevant to our reader. This is why (can you see what I'm doing?) you will not find many sentences which begin with THAT in academic writing.

No doubt you are bored of reading this by now, but I should mention two further functions of THAT and WHICH that / which (ha ha) show how different they are.

WHICH is used for questions when, as Jake Allsop states "you wish to identify one or more things or people from a group of things or people". For example:

- Which do you prefer, coke or pepsi?

- Which Spice Girl would you most like to kill...sorry, I mean kiss?

- Which shirt shall I wear tonight?

In such questions, it would be impossible to replace WHICH with THAT. The same is true when we creat a noun phrase with WHICH, such as in the sentence "I can't decide which shirt to wear tonight" or "I don't care which Spice Girl you kill first". Yes, I meant "kill" that time...

Finally, THAT has functions which / that (ha ha again) cannot be performed by WHICH. One is DEMONSTRATIVE, like in the phrase "that time" (two sentences back - remember?), "I want that one!" or even "I don't want to kiss that Spice Girl".

THAT is also a conjuction (e.g."It's so funny that you want to kill the Spice Girls" and "I find it surprising that the Spice Girls are all still alive") and can be used to report speech and ideas - something that university students SHOULD find incredibly useful. Consider expressions like:

- I think that I love you.

- I believe that I love you.

- I know that I love you.

- Don't forget that I love you...

- Have you heard that the Spice Girls have broken up?

...and so on and so on. That's enough love for one evening. Notice, though, how THAT is used to introduce a statement or idea, and it allows us to use one subject and verb after another. I KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT EASY BUT TRY TO REMEMBER THAT I AM DOING THE BEST I CAN...

If you're really clever, you'll ask why I didn't write "the best THAT I can"...but that's a question for another day...

Monday Materials

Three files from this morning's class: the ppt file, a handout, and my feedback on last week's writing. Any questions will be welcomed with open arms...