Academic writing

Academic writing Cohesion – linking sentences in Engelish

Sum up from last week • Metadiscourse • Referencing • Summaries (workshop)

cohesion Coherence: the linking of ideas at a conceptual level Cohesion: the linking of concrete words, clauses, and sentences at sentence level

Task 1 (comp p. 30) • However, nobody had seen one for months. • He thought he saw a shape in the bushes. • Mark had told him about the foxes. • John looked out of the window. • Could it be a fox?

Task 1 (comp p. 30) • John looked out of the window. (4) • He thought he saw a shape in the bushes. (2) • Could it be a fox? (5) • Mark had told him about the foxes.(3) • However, nobody had seen one for months. (1)

Task 1 cntd. • John looked out of the window. (4) • He thought he saw a shape in the bushes. (2) • Could it be a fox? (5) • Mark had told him about the foxes.(3) • However, nobody had seen one for months. (1)

Task 2 • Specialists recommended that parents only receive public child allowances for the first three children, but the government postponed the necessary changes in law for several years.

Task 2 cntd • Implementation: changes based on a decision • Recommendation: advice, suggestion • Restricted: limited to

Simple sentences and complex (compound) sentences • Simple sentences • The sun was shining. The birds were singing. • Compound sentences • The sun was shining and the birds were singing • Sentences linked by coordination • And (addition), but (difference or contrast), or (alternative idea) – ”coordinating conjunctions”

Task 3 (comp. p. 32) • She missed the bus BUT quickly hailed a taxi. • All nations should stop haunting the blue whole OR it will become extinct. • The number of dentists has increased ninefold since 1948, BUT/AND the ranks of doctors have expanded fifteen times. • The official language is Arabic, BUT there are also other officially recognised languages

Sentences linked by subordination • Main clause and subordinate clause introduced by ”subordinating conjunction” • Contrast: whereas, while • Cause and effect: because, since, as, for • Result: so … that, such a … that • Purpose: so that, in order that • Concession: even though, though, although

Task 4 • Whereas only a few years ago the two major powers in the world would not talk to each other, their leaders now seem unable to keep apart. Even though there is still a lot which divides them ideologically, they both feel that there is more that unites them because the safety of the world is at stake. Before their meetings, the threat to world peace was so strong that nobody felt there was any chance of real and lasting peace. Their meetings began in order that such fear could be dispelled. Even so, few people thought these meetings would get very far as there was too much distrust on both sides. All that has changed since the two leaders have started to talk to each other.

Task 4 cntd. • contrast • concession • cause and effect • result • purpose • cause and effect • cause and effect.

Linking adverbs • Sentence adverbs or conjucts: connect one sentene logically to another • However: the unexpected, a contrasting idea • Therefore: consequence, result, effect • See comp. pp. 34-35.

Task 6 • I know that there are objections to my decision to become a social worker. FOR EXAMPLE, there is the big one my father points out: money. I know, OF COURSE, that a woman has to make a living, BUT, as I tell him, a woman doesn’t need more than her tastes require. He says, in good nature, that I don’t know how expensive my tastes are, that I have had lots of privileges I don’t even recognize as such, IN FACT, coming to this kind of college. It doesn’t do much good to reply that, EVEN THOUGH I have had it easy, I want something beyond that easiness of life. You see, he cuts me off here, and says that I have a good hard logical mind and a person isn’t happy unless she is using her best talents, AND that, CONSEQUENTLY, I should go into law or something like that to use mine. GENERALLY SPEAKING, my father is right, OF COURSE. He himself, FOR EXAMPLE, has used his talents; for he is one hell of a good corporation lawyer, and is happy in his business, BUT I am me.

The writing process • ”How to get started and how to get done – 8 myths and how to overcome them”

Getting started • How do you start writing and when? • Are you motivated? Why/why not?

First process, then product • Aim: 1. To write 2. To write well

What if my writing isn’t good enough? • Allow yourself to write poorly – the wrong content and the wrong wording. Later you will revise and improve from what is most often a bad beginning. • Write so that you are satisfied, • If you try to meet the demands of other people, make sure you know what those demands are – sometimes they differ from what you imagine them to be. • Use feedback from others constructively.

Getting started cntd. • Why is it more difficult to start writing than it is to start reading? • When you are about to start writing, why do you suddenly need to …

Do the dishes

Clean the house

Water yuor flowers

Make an appointment to see the dentist

Call your mother

It is easier to talk than write • Less focus on mistakes • Immediate response • The possibility of adapting to the listener’s response.

Use the advantages of speech when you write: • Begin by talking to someone about your topic, take notes, record your conversation. • Write your first draft as if you were talking to someone – use spoken language and possibly in the form of a long letter. • Use very simple language: ultrabrief sentences(S-V-DO) – like a first grade reader (Søren og Mette) - (very suitable method if you are writing about an abstract and theoretical topic)

Your daily writing • Warm-up 15-30 min: switch your pc on, write a few lose thought (and water your flowers) • Think about quantity • How many pages of first draft are you going to write, regardless of quality. • For how long will you write? • Start by writing the easy text types first • Start by writing the easiest or funniest part of the text • Do not begin with the introduction but in hte middle of a section, a line of thought, or even in the middle of a sentence. • Start by writing about what you wrote about yesterday.

Keep the time! • It is much easier to get started if you known when you will stop, and that you will have som time off later. • It is very diffiult to get started if your plan is to keep on writing until you ”have written something good”. • If you know that you will not be done until much later that day (or night), it becomes impossible to cope with your writing work. (and you may end up postponing your writing or not getting started at all (”better to limit your work to a few hectic days than have all your time spent on the writing work) • Research shows: People who write in long streches (many successive hours, after regular working hours, sometimes days in a row) have difficulties getting started with every new writing process.

Finishing well • Finish your daily writing work not by finishing a section, but in the middle of an idea, possibly in the middle of a sentence – then you have a place to start the next day. • Finish by noting all extra ideas and lose thoughts and words.

Tips • Write every day – regardless of mood and ”inspiration”. • Ask yourself to write for a minimum period of time before turning to other daily activities (emails, newpapers, phone calls, etc) • Write when you have the most energy. • Avoid long stretches of writing - good writing does not equal long uninterrupted sessions • Create continuity in your writing work (then you need less time to pull yourself together, warming-up, and getting started) • Write every day at at certain time. • Write small, but fixed, qunatities (3 pages a day is realistic) • Do not extend regular sessions to long stretches (after five hours, the quality is often so poor that is it not worth the effort)

Tips cntd. • Divide your writing task in smaller parts, which can be written in fx 30 minutes. • Change between freewriting and more ’structural’ writing • Share your writing with others • Try to work at 2-3 drafts at a time • Share a room with another writer • Reward yourself

Myth 1 • Myth: you need inspiration to write – good writing begins spontaneously in an inspired moment • Reality: Inspiration emerges from writing.

Myth 2 • Myth: you have to think before you can write • Reality : you think when you write or after you have written

Myth 3 • Myth: you need a sense of control and coherence in your thinking before you can write. • Reality: control and coherence appear when you write

Myth 4 • Myth: it is important to begin well • Reality : the best beginning is often written as the last thing. It is more important to begin at all than to begin well! begynde!

Myth 5 • Myth: all texts must be original – you always have to write something new • Realty: very little is thought, written or said which is completely new.

Myth 6 • Myte: all texts must be flawless and perfect • Reality: There is no such thing as a perfect text.

Myth 7 • Myth; good writing progresses easily • Reality: writing is full of ’relapses’. You need to rewrite, delete and be patient!

Myth 8 • Myth: writing is most effective if you write in very long sessions, and writing demands long streches of uninterrupted time. • Reality : the above leads to long breaks and getting burnt out. Creativity is arises from continuously working with writing

Study time • Compendium p. 32, task 5 (cohesion) • Your own revised text on “The origins of English” or “Modernity and English: British and American Englishes” – check cohesion in your text. Make changes, if need be. • Reflect on your own writing habits.

Academic writing