The exercise is not the game

1. The exercise is not the game Some misunderstandings about writing academic English http://goo.gl/yt3Rh Brett Reynolds

2. The exercise and the game

3. The exercise has become the game By Georges Seguin (Okki) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)] via Wikimedia Commons

4. How the exercise becomes the game • What the teacher says: • “Two common ways to organize an essay comparing two topics are…” • What the student remembers: • “The two ways to organize an essay comparing two topics are…”

5. How the exercise becomes the game • The student becomes the teacher. • What the new teacher says: • “The two ways to organize an essay comparing two topics are…” • What the student remembers: • “The two ways to organize the comparison/contrast essay are…”

6. What we really mean: • Sometimes, when students are practicing to be better writers, following a formula or copying a structure is a useful exercise. • This simplifies things for them by allowing them to focus on certain elements and ignore others.

7. It’s not a free-for-all • It’s she went, not she goed. • It’s I saw him, not I him saw. • Sentences end with punctuation, usually a period. • Sentences are organized into paragraphs.

8. Some areas of confusion • Number of paragraphs in essays • Use of first-person • Sentence-initial coordinators • Use of contractions and -n’t

9. 5-paragraph essays • Introduction • Hook • Background • Thesis • Body 1 • Support 1 • Support 2 • Support 3 • Body 2 • Support 1 • Support 2 • Support 3 • Body 3

10. 5-paragraph essays • Think of a five-paragraph essay you’ve read in the last year.

11. 5-paragraph essays • Think of a five-paragraph essay you’ve read in the last year. • Now think of one outside of the context of a writing course.

12. 5-paragraph essays • Many students (and teachers) believe this is what academic writing is. • It’s helpful to understand the history.

13. 5-paragraph essays • Exercise • Or • Game?

14. 5-paragraph essays • Exercise

15. Contractions and -n’t • “You can’t use contractions in academic writing.”

16. Contractions and -n’t • “You can’t use contractions in academic writing.” • In conversation: • Contractions used in 50% of possible cases. • -n’talmost 100% of the time • In academic: about 1–5% of the time. • Academic articles in the COCA have more than doubled their use of n’tsince the early 1990s

17. Contractions and -n’t • Exercise • Or • Game?

18. Contractions and -n’t • Both

19. First and Secondperson • “You can’t use I or you in academic writing.”

20. First and Secondperson • “You can’t use I or you in academic writing.” • From the OWL website: “Although you may have been told that ‘I’ is never used in academic writing, that is not true. It is okay to use it, but only if the ‘I’ is a vital part of the thing that is being discussed.” (Cimasko, 2012)

21. First and Secondperson • “You can’t use I or you in academic writing.” • From the OWL website: “Although you may have been told that ‘I’ is never used in academic writing, that is not true. It is okay to use it, but only if the ‘I’ is a vital part of the thing that is being discussed.” (Cimasko, 2012) • Youis about 50% as frequent as I.

22. First and Second person • Exercise • Or • Game?

23. First and Second person • Exercise

24. Old-fashioned English is formal English • “You must put a semi-colon before sentence adverbs such as however.”

25. Old-fashioned punctuation is formal • “You must put a semi-colon before sentence adverbs such as however.” • ; = This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HowToTieBowtie_VersionA.png under the creative commons cc-by-sa 3.0 license.

26. Old-fashioned punctuation is formal In the 18th century, semicolons were all the rage

27. Old-fashioned punctuation is formal

28. Old-fashioned punctuation is formal • Exercise • Or • Game?

29. Old-fashioned punctuation is formal • Neither

30. And whom? Whom is only slightly more frequent than thee

31. FANBOYS • “The coordinating conjunctions in English are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so (FANBOYS). You have to put a comma before them.”

32. FANBOYS • “The coordinating conjunctions in English are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so (FANBOYS). You have to put a comma before them.” • The coordinators are and, but, and or. • In academic writing • but follows a comma about 50% of the time. • andis only preceded by a comma about 25% of the time and • oronly about 17% of the time

33. FANBOYS • Exercise • Or • Game?

34. FANBOYS • Neither

35. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • “You can’t use ‘conjunctions’ such as and at the beginning of a sentence.”

36. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • “You can’t use ‘conjunctions’ such as and at the beginning of a sentence.” • While it is true that these are less common in academic writing than in other types of writing, it is very common to find them.

37. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • “You can’t use ‘conjunctions’ such as and at the beginning of a sentence.” • While it is true that these are less common in academic writing than in other types of writing, it is very common to find them. • About 10% of buts in academic writing come at the beginning of a sentence in the COCA.

38. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • “You can’t use ‘conjunctions’ such as and at the beginning of a sentence.” • While it is true that these are less common in academic writing than in other types of writing, it is very common to find them. • About 10% of buts in academic writing come at the beginning of a sentence in the COCA. • Sentences like Because he was young, he had trouble finding work are fine.

39. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • “You can’t use ‘conjunctions’ such as and at the beginning of a sentence.” • While it is true that these are less common in academic writing than in other types of writing, it is very common to find them. • About 10% of buts in academic writing come at the beginning of a sentence in the COCA. • Sentences like Because he was young, he had trouble finding work are fine. • Sentences like Because he was young are considered incomplete and non-standard.

40. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • Exercise • Or • Game?

41. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • BUT… sentence-initial and is often overused by inexperienced writers, especially younger children.

42. Sentence-initial “conjunctions” • Exercise

43. Only one and per sentence • “You can only use one and per sentence.”

44. Only one and per sentence • “You can only use one and per sentence.” • Andcan come before the last item in a coordination (e.g., big, bad, and ugly.)

45. Only one and per sentence • “You can only use one and per sentence.” • Andcan come before the last item in a coordination (e.g., big, bad, and ugly.) • But a sentence can have more than one coordination (e.g., they’re big, bad, and ugly, and they’re my friends.)

46. Only one and per sentence • Exercise • Or • Game?

47. Only one and per sentence • Neither

48. Brainstorming and Outlines • “Students should begin the writing process by brainstorming and writing an outline.”

49. Brainstorming and Outlines • Exercise • Or • Game?

50. Conclusion • Too often teachers and the textbooks we use tell students not to do x in academic English or to be sure to do y for the wrong reasons. • We forget that we are setting them an exercise and instead present our contrived rules as facts about how academic English is written. • Drills and exercises are useful, but students should be allowed the freedom to play the game and write with all the flexibility that experts and professionals do.