Grammar CHOICES that matter in academic writing

1. Grammar CHOICESthat matter in academic writing Nigel A. Caplan (University of Delaware) for the University of Michigan Press nacaplan@udel.edu http://nigelteacher.wordpress.com/handouts/tesol2013

2. Grammar Choices is different • Graduate students • All writing, all the time • Corpus-based authentic examples and exercises • Integrated vocabulary building • Choices not rules • Beyond the clause • An efficient grammar

3. Audience • Graduate students • Professional academic writers (postdocs, faculty) • Advanced undergraduates • Self-study, course textbook, writing centers • Writing classes, grammar classes, pre-matriculation, coursework/dissertation support classes • Cross-referenced to Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rded (Swales & Feak)

4. A Functional Grammar:Three Layers of Meaning • Experiential meaning: what happened? • Interpersonal meaning: what do you think about it? • Textual meaning: how will you present it? (1) This study gives concrete evidence to support policies that ban smoking in public places. (2) Concrete evidence supports policies that ban smoking in public places. (3) A ban on smoking in public places is supported by evidence from this study. (4) This study tells us that smoking should be banned in public places.

5. 1. Increased natural resource use has negatively impacted the environment. (change the interpersonal meaning: add the modal verb may) 2. The United States holds a very small fraction of total world resource reserves, but we account for a disproportionately large fraction of total resource consumption. (change the interpersonal meaning: rewrite without we) (change the experiential meaning: rewrite about another country) (change the textual meaning: change the order of the two clauses) 3. Reserves of oil are expected to last 36 years. (change the interpersonal meaning – rewrite without the reporting verb expect)(change the interpersonal and textual meaning) Scientists expect (rewrite with an action verb such as exhaust, or run out)

6. Verb Tenses (Biber et al., 1999, p. 546-561; Davies, 2012)

7. Preview Test (Unit 4) Takahashi et al __________________that most reported oral non-Hodgkin's lymphomas were B-cell lymphomas Research ____________________ few insights into why different attitudes exist Currently, very few studies __________________ this issue (Mu, Kurozawa, Wang, & Kotani, 2006)

8. Today professors ____________________ more advanced technology such as PowerPoint and blackboard to deliver course information (Bork, 2000; Mines, 2000). These multiple purposes and audiences ___________________ textbooks to their discipline. Their results ­______________________ that at about -33C surface melting starts.

10. Grammar Awareness • 1This paper looks at the problem of college choice in an environment with heterogeneous agents, competitive admissions processes, and post-graduation wages dependent on college reputation. 2It is demonstrated that under certain regularity conditions, a separating equilibrium where all the top agents attend the college with the good reputation while weaker agents attend the lesser college exists and is unique. 3This result is incorporated in a simple dynamic model, which shows that initially identical institutions may become endogenously differentiated over time, and that this may be hard to reverse. 4Finally, the model is applied to race-based admissions policies, and used to analyze the distributional effects of such policies.

11. Adjectives Corpus of Contemporary Academic English (COCA) www.americancorpus.org

12. The first step is to analyze the results. • Work on the new machine began to move faster. • It will be difficult to implement the policy. • Many tasks that previously done by hand can now be done on a computer. • After extended use, the product begins to lose quality. • Researchers have found that many people only access the Internet on their smartphones. • Some public health experts argue that advertising of prescription drugs should be banned. • It is important for heads of research labs to manage their resources effectively.

13. Sentence Revision • It is a worthy goal to construct such an integrative theory. • It is very important to the child who is growingto acquire speech. • When writing was invented, humans achieved a lot. • The way that people regulate their words by themselves helps us understand the way personality develops more broadly. (Tip 1 – “verbal” = to do with words; tip 2: change “by themselves” to “self” + nominalization)

14. Hedging and Boosting • modal verbs • would • comparatives • conditionals • lexical heading

15. In 2009/10, the U.S. hosted a record high of over 690,000 international students (Open Doors, 2010). Although the U.S. market share has declined in the last decade, the U.S. nevertheless hosted far more international students than any other destination. The United Kingdom, the second most popular international study destination, hosted about 450,000 international students, two-thirds of the U.S. total.

16. According to UNESCO, in 2008, the top five study destinations (the U.S., the U.K., France, Australia and Germany) hosted 55 percent of the world’s tertiary-level mobile students. At less than four percent, the proportion of international students to overall higher education enrollment in the U.S. remains 1[quite small / almost insignificant / unacceptably low] compared to other top host countries, 2[although / and / while] the percentage is higher at the graduate level (11 percent). Furthermore, in 2009/10, 3[fewer than two thirds / over 62 percent / more than half] of international students in the U.S. were hosted at fewer than 200 colleges and universities. With 4[over 4,000 / many / thousands of] institutions of higher education in the U.S., there is 5[some possibility / tremendous potential / little chance] for more institutions to host more international students, 6[perhaps / only / particularly] at the undergraduate and non-degree levels.

17. Wait, there’s more! Roundtable: Supporting ESL Graduate Students • Today, 3:00-3:45pm “Evolutions in EAP Writing: Academic Writing for Graduate Students” with Chris Feak • Today, 5:00-5:45pm in C141 Workshop: “Teaching the Genres of Graduate Writing”(Chris & Nigel’s double act) • Tomorrow, 1:00-2:45pm in D165 • Meet Nigel & Chris tomorrow, 2:45-3:45 at the Michigan booth in the exhibit hall http:nigelteacher.wordpress.com/handouts/tesol2013

18. Nigel A. Caplan (University of Delaware) for the University of Michigan Press nacaplan@udel.edu http://nigelteacher.wordpress.com/handouts/tesol2013