Bigots, Brown, and Books

A few follow-ups to this afternoon's Graduate Diploma session. You may be interested to read more about Gordon Brown's gaffe, which Chimuco reported at the start of class. For those of you interested in ELT textbooks, you can find more details via OUP and Cambridge websites, as well as these specific pages for Cutting Edge (which is supposed to be a task-based learning textbook) and Inside Out, both of which are popular coursebooks for adults.

Animals & Us : BBC Documentary

The BBC Documentary that we listened to in preparation for next week's test is available here. You can also visit the website of Victor Schonfeld's film The Animals, the trailer for which is below:

Making Connections

The powerpoint presentation from today's class is available here.

You may also be interested in this collection of online activities based around vocabulary in the Academic Word List. They should keep you busy for a few minutes at least...

Providing examples

In the graduate diploma reading & writing class yesterday we looked at ways of incorporating examples in sentences and paragraphs. We noticed that patterns of use vary according to the expression employed and the length / structure of the example:

• Some students, for example Chao, did not come to class today.

• Some students did not come to class today, for example Chao.

• Some students did not come to class today. Chao, for example, is not here. Actually we have not seen him since last decade.

• Some European countries have benefitted greatly from joining the European Union. A case in point is Portugal, which was considered a developing country less than thirty years ago.

• Some European countries have benefitted greatly from joining the European Union. A good example is Portugal, which was considered a developing country less than thirty years ago

(apologies to Portugal if that's unfair or untrue...probably both...)

Here are the sentences we created in completing an exercise from Stephen Bailey's, Academic Writing : A Handbook for International Students:

1. A number of sports, for example football, have become very profitable due to the sale of television rights.

2. Certain twentieth-century inventions affect the lives of most people. For example, in the past, Arabic people were unable to communicate quickly with Chinese people. However, since the invention of computers and the Internet, Yasir and Maggie can send each other e-mails in a matter of seconds.

3. In recent years, many women have made significant contributions to the political world. For example Angela Mirkin became the German chancellor.

4. Three-year guarantees are now being offered by most car makers, such Toyota.

5. Certain diseases are proving much harder to combat than was expected 20 years ago. A case in point is influenza, which has actually become stronger because each year more strands of viruses develop.

6. Many musical instruments use strings to make music. For example, the guitar has two kinds of strings - thick ones and thin ones.

7. Several mammals are currently in danger of extinction. Pandas, for instance, need to be protected if they areto survive the next century.

8. Some students in this class are very intelligent. A good example is Lucy, who can always get the correct answer quickly.

9. The behaviour of some students in this class is quite predictable. For instance, Maggie and Lucy will chat with others or fall asleep when the class is boring.

10. Several members of the group, like Abdulaziz and Omar, have families in the UK.

Finally, we looked again at the difference a comma makes:

Kostas likes girls who cook for him. (he only likes the ones that cook for him)

Lucy likes men, who are better than women. (Lucy likes all men, and all men are better than woman

Youtube Tutorials

I've been asked about how to to perform certain formatting tasks in MS Word, like indenting text for long quotations. Youtube has lots of tutorial videos and it doesn't take much searching to find what you want, but you can click here for an example of a simple overview of paragraph formatting to start with.

Ode to Billie Joe

You can follow the lyrics to this song by clicking here.

Class Notes : Will, Would, Can, Could

WILL

WILL is used for future predictions, but it is also about willingness:
- Will you help me? (not a particularly polite way to ask for help)
- I’ll help you. (it’s always polite to offer!)
- I’ll get the phone.
- I’ll lend you the money.

WILL is a modal verb, and therefore reflects the writer / speaker’s point of view at the moment of writing / speaking. When we refer to the future without prior thought or planning, it’s very natural to use WILL:
- Are you going to the party?
- Yes
- Oh good…I’ll go too.

WOULD

If we think of WILL being a present tense, we can see that its meaning is REAL / POSSIBLE. If we think of WOULD as the past tense of WILL, it makes sense that its meaning is UNREAL / HYPOTHETICAL:
REAL: If Yasir brings a knife to the next class, Omar will feel scared.
UNREAL : If Yasir attacked Omar with a knife in class, Mark would encourage him.

Other UNREAL uses:
- I would never eat dog.
- If I were you I’d get my hair cut.
- If I was a woman I’d be happier.

WOULD is also used to report WILL in the past:

1900: “no man will ever walk on the moon”.

In 1900, it was believed that no man would ever walk on the moon.
In 1900, the idea that a man would one day walk on the moon was unfathomable.

CAN and COULD

CAN has several functions. It could refer to ABILITY (I can speak French), PERMISSION (Can I go to the toilet?), and a GENERAL prediction (English can be difficult at times).
COULD also more than one possible use. It can refer to LIKELIHOOD (Some people think that England could win the World Cup this summer), GENERAL ABILITY IN THE PAST (I could swim quite well when I was younger)
This is a potential barrier to clear communication. If we say “Maggie could get married”, are we talking about the past or the future? We can adjust our language to make meaning clearer:
SPECIFIC ABILITY IN THE PAST: Maggie was able to get married three years ago because she found a man who had lost his glasses.
FUTURE PREDICTION: Maggie could get married to a rich Saudi prince in the future if she is lucky.
“Maggie can get married” either refers to her ability – or rather eligibility – or the fact that she has permission to marry.

Class Notes : Verbs of Reference Revision

We can divide verbs of reference into two categories:

1.Verbs that can be used to introduce a quotation:
Note that these verbs can be followed by direct speech in quotation marks, or THAT followed by a subject and a verb.
Informal: Yasir says “Omar should suffer!”.
Yasir says that it is advisable to harm Omar.
Formal: Mark agrees (with Yasir) that corporal punishment is the only approach Omar will understand.
Examples of this type of verb:
- state, argue, (mention, note), claim, think, believe, write
- point out / indicate
- agree / concur (with someone)

An alternative to these verbs is ACCORDING TO:
e.g. According to Yasir, it is advisable to harm Omar.

2.Verbs that are followed by a noun phrase:
- describe e.g. Yasir describes ways to harm Omar. Firstly, he can be cut with a knife. Secondly, if no knife is present, it is possible to beat Omar with a stick or piece of wood. Yasir also discusses the possibility of injuring Omar with poison. However, he notes that none of these approaches will be successful unless we “first tie Omar up with rope”.
- explain e.g. Yasir explains the best way to harm Omar.
- refer to e.g. Yasir refers to scientific evidence that harming Omar is beneficial.

Note that these verbs are used to provide a summary or general overview of what has been stated. They therefore introduce a topic and tend to be followed by further explanation or exemplification.

Question: How can we use REFER in the passive voice?
- Scientific evidence that harming Omar is beneficial is referred to.
- Yasir’s argument has been referred to several times in this class.

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...