Describing and Predicting

1. Describing andPredicting Wu-Lin Chen(wlchen@pu.edu.tw) Department of Computer Science and Information Management

2. Description • A description serves to introduce a writer’s view of something. • A description may also tell the characteristics or distinctive features of an object. • The nature of something can be explained by describing it. • To describe something, you simply have to tell your audience about it. • You simply tell how your subject appears to the senses. • Many experienced writers find description one of the most challenging expressive modes.

3. Using English To Describe • Physical description • It is a flaming ball of extremely hot gases. • Shape: ball • Physical composition: hot, flaming gases • The surface temperature is about 11,000° F, hot enough to turn every solid to vapor, but relatively cool compared to the intense heat at the center. • Surface temperature: 11,000 ° F, hot enough to turn every solid to vapor, cool compared to center • Located about 93 million miles from the earth … • Position or location: 93 million miles from earth • …the sun has a diameter that is approximately equal to 109 of our earths lined up like a row of beach balls, and that is about 330,000 times the mass of the earth. • Diameter: 109 x earth’s diameter • Mass: 330,000 x earth’s mass

4. Using English To Describe • Functional description • The sun is the original source of nearly all our energy. • Importance: source of our energy • Chemical description • It is mostly made of hydrogen, although it also contains nearly every other kind of atom that exists on the earth. • Chemical composition: mostly hydrogen + nearly all other known atoms

5. Sentence Patterns • The present simple tense is used most frequently when describing. • The most commonly used verbs are to be and to have.

6. Sentence Patterns:Describing Characteristics The Nile River Mount Everest The Dead Sea The pipe 4,145 miles 8,848 meters 11 miles 3 centimeters long. high. wide. thick. is 4,145 miles. 11,000° F. 5,500 feet. 11.3. about 75 years. The Nile The sun The Grand Canyon Lead An elephant length surface temperature depth specific gravity life span has a of

7. Sentence Patterns:Describing Characteristics length color texture orbits shape the Neil iodine sand planets earth 4,145 miles. purplish black. rough and granular. elliptical. spherical. The of is/are Pluto Glass Zinc and cadmium Blue stars Copper salts relatively somewhat rather extremely slightly small. brittle and transparent. reactive and silvery. hot. blue in aqueous solutions. is/are

8. Writing Skills • To write a good description, you have to do more than string adjectives together. • Rules for descriptive writing: • Be specific • Focus on a particular aspect of what you are attempting to describe • Compare the object being described to something vivid (optional)

9. Writing Skills: Be Specific • When writing description, avoid vague words like big, impressive, beautiful, overwhelming, bad, and awesome. • Instead, use more precise words. • Rachel is “beautiful.” • Give the details so that your audience can “see” • “Rachel’s radiant blonde hair backlit by the winter sun”

10. Writing Skills: Be Specific • Be more specific by “translating” the adjectives into the five senses: • sight • hearing • smell • touch • taste

11. Writing Skills: Be Specific • An “impressive sight” • a “drawn and weary, ashen-faced old man” • An “impressive sound” • “the mellow strings of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra” • An “impressive smell” • “the cranberry vapors of my mother’s breakfast cake” • An “impressive texture” • “the smooth, cold marble of the altar.” • An “impressive taste” • “the salt-edged bite of the sea”

12. Writing Skills: Focus On • For example: If you are describing a person, do not just randomly list his or her various characteristics. • Pick one characteristic (good humor, weariness, awkwardness) and use specific details to develop that characteristic.

13. Writing Skills: Comparison • If comparisons go on for too long, focus can easily be lost. • Keep your comparisons short and pointed. • Example: The soldiers just stood there like bowling pins. • Example: The whaler’s rocklike captain refused to abandon the hunt. • Example: Checkerboard rice fields covered the valley.

14. Predicting • The goal of all scientific investigation is to predict the future. • Assumptions are usually made before predicting. • No prediction of the future behavior of nature is 100 percent certain.

15. Using English to Predict • A prediction is a claim that something will happen. • EX: At any giving time, the side of the earth facing the sun will have daylight, and the side turned away from the sun will have night. • A probable prediction • EX: If you light a match on an airplane, no wind will blow it out. • This prediction will come true if certain conditions are met.) condition prediction

16. Using English to Predict • A hypothetical prediction • EX: If you should travel around the earth on these two dates, you would find the days and nights equal every place you went. • This prediction will also come true if certain conditions are met. But, since the conditions are unlikely to occur – you are unlikely to travel around the world on these days – the prediction is hypothetical. It may or may not come true.) condition prediction

17. Using English to Predict • An impossible prediction • EX: If the earth were flat, the post could not cast a shadow at noon. • This condition is impossible – obviously the earth is not flat. Therefore, the prediction cannot be fulfilled.) condition prediction

18. Sentence Pattern • Prediction • active: There {will be} an eclipse tomorrow. • passive: The eclipse {will be hidden} by the clouds. • Probable prediction • active: If it rains, we {will get wet.} • passive: If the eclipse is hidden, the photos {will be ruined.}

19. Sentence Pattern • Hypothetical prediction • active: If I should studied, I would (could or might) pass. • passive: If the eclipse should be hidden, the photos would (could or might) be ruined. • Impossible prediction • active: If I had studied, I would (could or might) have passed. • passive: If it had been hidden, the photos would (could or might) have been ruined.

20. Sentence Pattern • The future tense with will is used for predictions that are likely to occur. The modal would, could, or might are used for hypothetical or impossible predictions. • With if clauses, the subjunctive form were is used instead of was (for example, If I were rich…). • Any prediction that is based on a past condition cannot be fulfilled. • EX: If the war had ended a year earlier, many lives would have been saved. • Since the war did not end earlier, the prediction cannot come true. Nevertheless, the relationship expressed in the sentence is true.

21. Writing Skills • Use modal auxiliaries properly to express your attitude towards the prediction. • Transition words for predicting • a few years from now • eventually • in the future • gradually • later • after a while • before long • one day