Section 6. LISTENING
30. Listen to the text “Goals of Conference Attendance”. Answer the questions that follow.
1. Why is attending a conference a professionally rewarding experience?
2. What will listening to presentations inform you of?
3. What is one of your jobs at a conference?
4. What are the suggestions on meeting the researchers you don’t know at a conference?
5. Why is it important to interact with other researchers?
6. What will you learn about your research from others?
31. As you listen to the text, say which of these statements are true and which are false.
1. One of the reasons to attend a conference is to socialise with colleagues.
2. You have to learn to approach people you don’t know.
3. To tell others about your research is an important skill.
4. It is not necessary to practise your presentation before a conference.
5. You should first talk about the techniques you are using.
6. To convince others that your work is worth hearing is very important.
Check your answers with your groupmates and tapescript 7 of the text. Look up the words you do not know in the dictionary.
Retell the text about the reasons for attending a conference.
Give your groupmates some other suggestions to attend a conference.
Section 7. WRITING
35. We have to fill in different forms on various occasions. Forms do not usually ask questions, but they ask for information. Match an expression in A with a question in B.
В
a. When were you born?
b. Where are you living now?
c. What degree/diploma do you have?
d. What is your phone number?
e. Are you married or single?
f. What is your family name?
g. How much do you earn a year?
h. What is your rank/status?
i. What do you do in your free time?
| 10. Occupation | j. Where do you come from? |
| 11. Annual income | k. What is your first name? |
| 12. Qualifications | 1. Where do you live? |
| 13. Hobbies/Interests | m. What do you do? |
| 14. Tel. no. | n. Where were you born? |
Forms ask you to do certain things. Do the following.
a) Write your name in block capitals.
b) Put a cross if you are male.
c) Put a tick if you are a female.
d) I am a university undergraduate student / a postgraduate student / an employee
e) Delete where are not applicable.
f) Sign your name.________________________________________
g) Please specify which presentation session/s (up to two) you would like to attend.
h) Please specify dietary requirements for lunch (including if vegetarian / non-vegetarian / other):
i) Would you like to join the dinner reception after the Conference (Yes / No)?
Fill in the registration form to take part in the conference.
Registration Form — Conference
Deadline of registration: 20 June 2011
Research Student Conference on
“Architecture in Modern Life”
Tuesday 20 October 2011 | University of Liverpool
Delegate information
(Please note that the name you give here will be printed on your badge and the list of delegates)
Surname: | Title:
First name: _________________________________________________________
Country of Origin: ___________________________________________________
University:
Department/Faculty/School ____________________________________________
Address for correspondence (including country, city/town and post code):
| Tel. no.: | |
| E-mail: | |
| Please specify which parallel presentation session/s (up to two) you would like to attend (1 /2 / 3): | Note: Session 1: Landscape Architecture Session 2: Vernacular architecture. Session 3: Interior Design |
| Please specify dietary requirements for lunch (including if vegetarian/non-vegetar-ian/other): | |
| Would you like to join the dinner reception* after the Conference (Yes/No)? (*Cost not included in registration fee) |
Payment
Please specify the payment methods for registration (cheque/credit/debit card).
Use the Internet to find some information about conferences you are interested in. Fill in a registration form provided and present it to the class.
Unit 8.
ACADEMIC WRITING
Section 1. READING FOR DETAIL
1. Before you read Text 8A “Academic Writing as a Skill”, discuss these questions with your groupmates or teacher.
a) What are the specific features of academic writing?
b) What is an essay characteristic of?
c) What is the purpose of a summary essay?
d) Does a report differ from other types of academic writing? e) What is an abstract?
Read and translate Text 8A. The Active Vocabulary List following the Text may be helpful. Find out if your answers are right or wrong. Use the introductory phrases given in Unit 1.
Text 8A. ACADEMIC WRITING AS A SKILL
Postgraduate studies call for advanced critical thinking, argumentation, writing and research skills. You may be expected to define your own topics, analyse and evaluate primary and secondary source materials, and undertake written specialised writing tasks such as literature reviews, research proposals, abstracts, and reports. Writing a research essay, Master’s thesis or PhD dissertation is very different from the writing tasks you encountered at undergraduate level. Not only will the process (planning, drafting, editing, and revising) take you months or even years, there are a number of specialised tasks to master. Whether these tasks are separate pieces of writing or part of the whole, they have specific stylistic requirements.
Academic writing does many of the things that personal writing does not: it has its own set of rules and practices. These rules and practices may be organised around a formal order or structure in which to present ideas, in addition to ensuring that ideas are supported by authors’ citations in the literature. In contrast to personal writing contexts, academic writing is different because it deals with the underlying theories and causes governing processes and practices in everyday life, as well as exploring alternative explanations for these events.
Some kind of structure is required, such as a beginning, middle, and end. This simple structure is typical of an essay format, as well as other assignment writing tasks, which may not have a clearly articulated structure. Typical university assignments follow a formal structure, which is often more formal than in personal writing.
In the case of an essay, the introductory paragraph informs the reader about the nature of the topic, which is discussed and evaluated in the middle of the essay, also referred to as the body. The introduction may also summarise very succinctly, in a sentence or two, your position on the issue, which is then elaborated on at length in the series of paragraphs that make up the body of the essay. The final paragraph constitutes a conclusion in which you may summarise the overall points made. The concluding paragraph is also a good point at which to move the essay forward to touch on implications or future advancements surrounding the issues addressed.
There is another type of summary — a summary essay. The key features of this type of writing are that it is shorter than the source; and that it repeats the ideas of the source in different phrases and sentences. The purpose of the summary essay is to convey to others an understanding of a text you have read, without their having to read it themselves. An important feature of the summary essay is its fidelity to the source; you must represent your source accurately and comprehensively, with as little of your own interpretation as possible. The following format works well for a summary essay.
a) The introduction (usually one paragraph) contains a one- sentence thesis statement that sums up the main point of the source. It also introduces the text to be summarised: the title of the source and the name of the author.
b) The body of a summary essay (one or more paragraphs) paraphrases and condenses the original piece. In your summary, be sure that you include important data but omit minor points. Do not include your own ideas or interpretations. You are simply repeating what the source text says, in fewer words and in your own words.
c) There is customarily no conclusion to a summary essay.
Another type of structure is that of a report, often organised around the identification of problems or difficulties and corresponding solutions. Unlike most essays, a report is divided according to clearly labelled sections, such as Introduction, Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations. Further, unlike an essay, reports allow for bulleted points with respect to the conclusion and recommendation sections.
An abstract is a stand-alone statement that enables readers to obtain an overview of your whole work. The abstract comes first in your paper, but you write it last. It resembles your conclusion more than your introduction. Writing a strong abstract is a daunting prospect for many researchers. The key here is to make your abstract, like your other communications, message-driven. You want your abstract to catch the reader’s attention, and you want it to convey your main message clearly.
Above all, follow precisely the instructions about its length, font, etc. for the particular journal for which you are writing. In general, your abstract should be one paragraph, 150-300 words, and should briefly convey all the essential information of your paper, present the objective, methods, results, and conclusions of a research project, contain all the key terms associated with your research, and have a succinct, non-repetitive style. Look at abstracts as examples from the prior year of the particular conference you are interested in.
Like all varieties of writing, academic writing has its own tone, which dictates the choice of words and phrasing. Academic writing typically aims to be objective, concise, and formal (e.g. avoiding slang, exclamation marks, contractions). It is important to remember who you are writing for. Being conscious of academic tone suggests that you should be aware of your audience and respect the formality normally associated with academic writing. When writing academically, you must target a more general audience than just your supervisor. You should assume that your readers will be intelligent thinking people, but they may not be specifically informed of your topic. Do not presume that your reader knows all the terms and concepts associated with your work. In academic writing you should always follow rules of punctuation and grammar.
ACTIVE VOCABULARY LIST
draft [dra:ft] n v — проект, набросок; составлять план (проект), набросать черновик
edit ['edit] v — редактировать, готовить к печати; компилировать
edit data from various sources — сводить (воедино) данные из разных источников
revise [ri'vaiz] v — проверять, исправлять; просматривать
revision [i'i'vi3(a)n] n — просмотр, проверка, исправление
cite [’sait] v — ссылаться, цитировать
citation [sai'teijan] n — ссылка, упоминание, цитата
paragraph ['paeragrarf] n — абзац; параграф, пункт
convey [kan'vei] v — передавать, выражать; перевозить
condense [kan'dens] v — сжато выражать (мысль и т.п.); составлять сокращенный вариант текста
omit [a(u)'mit] v — пропускать, не включать
omit details — опускать подробности
report [п'рэТ] и v — доклад, сообщение, отчет; сообщать, рассказывать, описывать, докладывать, представлять отчет
font size — размер шрифта
journal ['бзэ:п(э)1] п — журнал (научный)
highlight ['hailait] v — выдвигать на первый план; придавать большое значение; ярко освещать
succinct [sok'siijkt] adj — сжатый, краткий; короткий
ensure [in'fua] v — обеспечивать, гарантировать
accept [ak'sept] v — принимать, признавать
acceptable [ak'septabal] adj — приемлемый, допустимый
deal (with) [di:1] v — иметь дело (с), рассматривать вопрос
articulate [a:'tikjuleit] v — ясно выражать, формулировать
elaborate [i'laeb(9)rat] adj — тщательно, детально разработанный; продуманный; подготовленный; [i'laebareit] v — детально, тщательно разрабатывать или обдумывать; вырабатывать
with respect to [ri'spekt] — что касается
unlike [,An'laik] prep — в отличие от; не похож, не свойствен
3. Complete the following sentences with details from the Text.
1. The planning, revising,, and editing of your academic writing take you a very long time.
2. Academic writing has its own____________ and practices.
3. The final paragraph of an essay includes in which
you summarise the overall points made.
4. One of the main features of a summary essay is that it is shorter than.
5. comes first in your academic paper.
4. Locate the following details in the Text. Give the line numbers.
1. In which lines does the author explain the difference between personal writing and academic writing?
2. Where in the Text does the author first mention the structure of academic writing?
3. Where in the Text does the author discuss the introduction of an essay?
4. At what point in the Text does the author explain the meaning of academic tone?
5. Underline the detail that is NOT mentioned in the Text in each of the sentences below.
1. The structure of an essay format includes an introduction, beginning, middle and end.
2. You must represent the summary essay source accurately, comprehensively, and with your full interpretation.
3. You should follow the instructions about an abstract length, font, and title for a particular journal.
6. Answer the following detail questions.
1. According to the Text, the middle part of an essay is called
a) its evaluation part.
b) its main part.
c) its body.
2. According to the Text, a summary essay repeats the maim ideas of the source
a) in the same phrases.
b) in different sentences.
c) in the author’s phrases and sentences.
3. According to the Text, a report is divided according to
a) unlabelled sections.
b) specific parts.
c) bulleted points.
4. According to the Text, what does an abstract look like?
a) an academic paper
b) an introduction
c) a conclusion
5. According to the Text, who should you target when writing academically?
a) a general audience
b) your supervisor
c) intelligent thinking people