Nina Nellemann Rasmussen ( ninaras@hum.ku.dk )

1. Nina Nellemann Rasmussen (ninaras@hum.ku.dk) Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use (CIP) www.cip.ku.dk Date: 1/2 2019 Place: 21.0.54 Academic Culture and Writing

2. Welcome to Denmark, Copenhagen and KU! Yay!

4. Outline 1. Danish academicculture 2. Academic writing

5. Danish academic culture • Multicultural classrooms are common at many universities around the world. • When students immerse themselves in a foreign academic culture, they often experience differences that can be quite pronounced. • The differences will seem more extreme if you come from a markedly different academic culture. Academic

6. - minutediscussion • How wouldyoucharacteriseyourownacademicculture in terms of, for example, interaction with teachers, level of formality and independence, assessment, and attendance? • Do youexpect the Danish academiccultureto be(very) similaror (very) different?

7. Student-teacher relations • Little hierarchy and non-authoritarian relations: • informal address among teachers and students; • students and teachers consider each other equals; • students expected to engage in ‘dialogue of equals’ with teachers and supervisors. http://www.intluniversity.dk/the-internationalisation-of-higher-education/

8. The difference in teaching and learning styles, compared to my experience in Spain, already became apparent in my first group work experience at UCPH. Our group was sitting together when the teacher walked in from the street with her bag casually strewn over her shoulder and started to engage us in a dialogue about how to solve the task at hand. This kind of teacher-mediated group work, a cornerstone in my programme, is the main ingredient in a pedagogy that I highly value because it stimulates my process of looking for answers with peers. To me, this is made possible by a ‘flat’ system, where teachers approach students as equals and seem to want to construct knowledge with them. Emma, Spain (http://cip.ku.dk/english/reflections/)

9. Expectations of student behaviour (in learning activities, at the exam, etc.) 2. Autonomy, independence and critical thinking: • students areresponsible for planningtheir studies and managingtheir time; • emphasis on critical and independent thinking  students encouraged to expresstheir opinion on the themesdiscussedduring the courses; • students are expected to be able to analyse and discuss material, both in class, in group work and in the final examination (oral exams!). http://www.intluniversity.dk/the-internationalisation-of-higher-education/

10. I find it really stimulating here because the atmosphere is, even though I have a lot to study, it is like relaxing. And I see maybe in Italy it is not the same because you just go to lessons and you listen and here instead you are very erm, teachers want you to talk, want you to give your opinion and in Italy if you, when you do the exam you have to be careful what you say. Lucilla, Italy (Larsen, 2013, p. 117)

12. Teaching formats • Projects • High degree of student control of bothcontent and process • Supervision and dialogue • Autonomy • Frequentgroupwork • Group work • Teacher definescontent • Students controlprocess • Collaboration, sharing, negotiation, adjusting • Discussion-basedteaching • Teacher controlscontent and pace • Student interactionnecessary • Lectures • Teacher controlscontent and pace • Students mainly passive (Ulriksen, 2014)

13. On the (sometimes reticent) local students • You might have to work a bit harder than expected to establish good socio-academic relationships with local students. Danes are hard to get close to. They seem very content to stick to their friends from high school (and occasionally university), so making friends with Danes is hard. I have heard this from nearly every foreigner.

14. Larsen (2013) Sanne: Do you communicate a lot with the Danish students? Andrea: Mmm yeah sometimes yeah. They are all very nice, but even if you try…. I did this PowerPoint presentation with a girl and it’s just the work and that’s it. She is really really lovely and the others as well if you have a discussion in class …but after the work is done erm yeah…

15. Some useful advice • participate actively in projects and discussions; • join as many activities and clubs as possible; • make an effort to meet and socialize with the rather reticent Danes; • embrace the uniqueness and idiosyncrasies of Danish (academic) culture; • learn to drink buckets of coffee and eat mountains of cake; • lose any inhibitions about speaking freely and openly to teachers; • learn some Danish (rødgrød med fløde):

17. And get yourself a…

19. Academic Writing • Academic language and style • Cohesion/coherence • Sentencelength and structure • Vocabulary • The most commonerrors • Structure

20. Academic language and style List whatyouthinkare the threebiggestlanguage problems whenwriting a paper in English?

21. A survey of 100 PhD students produced the followingcategories: vocabulary in general – 20% phrasalverbs – 20% false friends – 15% prepositions and adverbs – 10% conditionals – 10% sentencelength – 6% pastperfect, pastperfectcontinuous, future perfect – 5% wordorder – 4% ambiguity – 0% (Wallwork, 2016, p. 12)

22. Aspectsthatnative-speakingreferees and professional editors most frequentlycomplainabout: sentencelength (6%) wordorder (4%) ambiguity (0%) • Most commoncauses of journal papersbeingrejected: problems with syntax clarity general readability (Wallwork, 2016, pp. 12-13)

23. So how do you achieve clarity and readability? 1) Make sure yourwriting ‘hangs together’ (cohesion/coherence) 2) Avoidredundancy (conciseness) 3) Keepsentencesshort and simple(25 words) 4) Use a verbratherthan a noun 5) ChooseLatinatewords (Wallwork)

24. Cohesion • It is importantthatyourtext flows or ‘coheres’. • One way of securing flow is by following a progression from old or given information to new information. • Placing relevant old information in early position establishes a contentconnectionbackward and provides a forward content link thatestablishes the context.

25. Compare the two versions of the followingtext. Whichseems clearer? Why? • Because the naming power of wordswasdistrusted by Locke, herepeated himself often. Seventeenth-centurytheories of language, especiallyWilkins’sscheme for a universal languageinvolving the creation of countless symbols for countlessmeanings, had centered on thisnaming power. A new era in the study of languagethatfocused on the ambiguousrelationshipbetweensense and reference begins with Locke’sdistrust. • Locke oftenrepeated himself becausehedistrusted the naming power of words. This naming power had been central to seventeenth-centurytheories of language, especiallyWilkins’sscheme for a universal languageinvolving the creation of countless symbols for countlessmeanings. Locke’sdistrustbegins a new era in the study of language, onethatfocused on the ambiguousrelationshipbetweensense and reference. (Booth, Colomb & Williams, 2008, p. 260)

26. Sentencesbegin with information a readercould not predict. • Apply the ‘firstsix or sevenwords’ test: • Becausethe naming power of wordswasdistrusted by Locke, herepeated himself often. Seventeenth-centurytheories of language, especiallyWilkins’sscheme for a universal languageinvolving the creation of countless symbols for countlessmeanings, had centered on thisnaming power. A new era in the study of languagethatfocused on the ambiguousrelationshipbetweensense and reference begins with Locke’sdistrust. • Lockeoftenrepeated himself becausehedistrusted the naming power of words. This naming power had been central to seventeenth-centurytheories of language, especiallyWilkins’sscheme for a universal languageinvolving the creation of countless symbols for countlessmeanings. Locke’sdistrustbegins a new era in the study of language, onethatfocused on the ambiguousrelationshipbetweensense and reference. (Booth, Colomb & Williams, 2008, p. 260) Sentencesbegin with familiar or repeated/old information.

27. Anotherway of ensuring flow is by insertingconnectivewords and phrases: • Comparison: in comparison, in contrast, similarly... • Time: At first, next, later, in the end, eventually... • Contrast: but, still, however, yet, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the contrary, in spite of this... • Addition: what is more, moreover, furthermore, in addition, also… • Reason: for this reason, owing to this, therefore... • Result: as a result, consequently, so, therefore, thus, accordingly... • Order: first, second, in the first place, firstly, to begin with, secondly, lastly, finally • Example: for example, for instance, such as... • Explanation: in other words, that is to say... • Attitude: naturally, of course, certainly, strangely enough, oddly enough, luckily, (un)fortunately, admittedly, undoubtedly... • Summary: finally, in conclusion, in short, to sum up... Signallingwords and expressions: http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

28. But usethemsparingly: [In any case] I agree that it is nice to create some variety. [However] Apart from if and and, which are frequently found within a short distance of each other, most other conjunctions do not need to be used in close proximity with each other. [For example] If you find a paragraph in which in addition appears at the beginning of three sentences, then the solution is not to replace in addition with furthermore and moreover. [Rather] The solution is to reorganize the paragraph so that in addition is only needed once. [In fact] English often just leaves conjunctions out. We can make our own connections, thank you. (Wallwork, 2016, p.47)

29. Notice the natural links (logicaldevelopment of ideas, repetition of keywords or synonyms) in the followingIntroduction: The use and effects of cohesive devices in student writing has been of interest for some time (xxxx), but their impact on essay quality is unclear. For instance, the presence of local cohesive devices (i.e., devices related to sentence level cohesion such as connectives or word overlap between sentences) in writing produced by adult first language (L1) writers is often associated with judgments of lower writing quality (xxxx). In contrast to L1 writing studies, a number of studies examining adult second language (L2) writing report positive correlations between the presence of local cohesive devices and writing quality (xxxx). There are several unexplored explanations for these differential findings. One such explanation rests on differences in links between writing quality and the production of local cohesive devices, global cohesive devices (i.e., devices related to cohesion between larger chunks of texts such as word overlap between paragraphs in a text), and text cohesive devices (i.e., devices related to cohesion across an entire text such as the ratio of pronouns to nouns [givenness] and word repetition [lexical diversity] in the text). Recent computational studies have reported differences between local and global cohesive devices and their relation to writing quality for L1 writers, with local cohesion negatively related to writing quality and global cohesion positively related to writing quality (xxxx). No studies, to our knowledge, however, have explicitly examined differences between local, global, and text cohesive devices in L2 writing. Understanding differences between these types of cohesive devices in L2 writing may help to better explain L2 writing proficiency and differing expectations for L2 writers on the part of expert raters. Beyond examining the relations between cohesive devices and writing quality, there has also been an interest in investigating the longitudinal development of cohesive devices for both L1 learners (xxxx) and L2 learners (xxxx). However, more research concerning the development of cohesive devices has been conducted for L1 writers than L2 writers resulting in a paucity of available information about cohesion development in L2 learners. To our knowledge, studies examining the development of local, global, and text cohesive devices in L2 learners are infrequent, and none of these links the development of these cohesive devices with judgments of writing quality. This study addresses these gaps by examining… (Crossley, S. A. et al., 2016, pp. 1-2)

30. The development and use of cohesive devices in L2 writing and their relations to the judgments of essay quality The use and effects of cohesive devices in student writing has been of interest for some time (McCutchen & Perfetti, 1982; Witte & Faigley, 1981), but their impact on essay quality is unclear. For instance, the presence of local cohesive devices (i.e., devices related to sentence level cohesion such as connectives or word overlap between sentences) in writing produced by adult first language (L1) writers is often associated with judgments of lower writing quality (Crossley & McNamara, 2010, 2011; Evola, Mamer, & Lentz, 1980; McCulley, 1985). In contrast to L1 writing studies, a number of studies examining adult second language (L2) writing report positive correlations between the presence of local cohesive devices and writing quality (Jafarpur, 1991; Yang & Sun, 2012). There are several unexplored explanations for these differential findings. One such explanation rests on differences in links between writing quality and the production of local cohesive devices, global cohesive devices (i.e., devices related to cohesion between larger chunks of texts such as word overlap between paragraphs in a text), and text cohesive devices (i.e., devices related to cohesion across an entire text such as the ratio of pronouns to nouns [givenness] and word repetition [lexical diversity] in the text). Recent computational studies have reported differences between local and global cohesive devices and their relation to writing quality for L1 writers, with local cohesion negatively related to writing quality and global cohesion positively related to writing quality (Crossley & McNamara, 2011; Crossley, Roscoe, McNamara, & Graesser, 2011). No studies, to our knowledge, however, have explicitly examined differences between local, global, and text cohesive devices in L2 writing. Understanding differences between these types of cohesive devices in L2 writing may help to better explain L2 writing proficiency and differing expectations for L2 writers on the part of expert raters. Beyond examining the relations between cohesive devices and writing quality, there has also been an interest in investigating the longitudinal development of cohesive devices for both L1 learners (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987; Berninger, Fuller, &Whitaker, 1996; Hayes & Flower, 1980; Myhill, 2008) and L2 learners (Crossley, Salsbury, & McNamara, 2010a; Crossley, Salsbury, McNamara, & Jarvis, 2010; Yang & Sun, 2012). However, more research concerning the development of cohesive devices has been conducted for L1 writers than L2 writers resulting in a paucity of available information about cohesion development in L2 learners. To our knowledge, studies examining the development of local, global, and text cohesive devices in L2 learners are infrequent, and none of these links the development of these cohesive devices with judgments of writing quality. This study addresses these gaps by examining… (Crossley, S. A. et al., 2016, pp. 1-2)

31. Referencing • You need to • placeyour new work in an existing research context; • show how it builds on previousknowledge and differs from othercontributions. (Feak & Swales, 2009, p. 7; Gillett et al. , 2009, p. 40) Remember to alwaysciteyoursources!

32. Referencing • Quote • Summarize • Paraphrase (Ridley, D., 2012, p.131) Combined attributions Avoidplagiarism!

33. Plagiarism • You run the risk of committingplagiarism if you do any of the following: • Youquote, paraphrase or summarise a source withoutciting it. • Youuseideas or methods from a source withoutciting it. • Youuse the exactwords of a source and cite it but fail to put quotation marks around the words. • Youparaphrase a source and cite it, but yousticktooclosely to the original text. (Booth, Colomb & Williams, 2008, p. 192)

34. Referencing • Citations areused to recognise and acknowledge the intellectualpropertyrights of authors. • But theyarealsotools of persuasion and canbeused to give statements greaterauthority (= academicweight). • And do not forgetthat citations function as reading guides, pointing the reader to the relevant works. (Feak & Swales, 2009, p. 7; Gillett et al. , 2009, p. 40)

36. Avoid redundancy (omit needless words) • Make it easy for the reader by using the minimum number of words: Our research [activity] initiallyfocused[attention] on [the process of] designing the architecture. The [task of] analysis is not [a] straightforward [operation], and there is a [serious] dangerthat [the presence of] errors in the text… This shouldbeavoidedsince it [is] generally [the case that it will] fails. X showed a better performance than Y  X performedbetterthan Y the tendencyamong researchers to focus on  researchers tend to has the intention of becoming  intends to owing to the factthat  because for the purpose of  to in view of the factthat  since (Wallwork, 2016, p. 79)

37. Keep sentences short and simple (Wallwork, 2016, p. 57) The average length of a sentence in English has become shorter and shorter over the centuries. In Shakespeare’s time, it was about 45 words; 150 years ago, it was about 29 words; and today’s experts recommend between 15 and 18 words.

38. Ideally, each sentence should contain only one piece of information and should be no more than 25 words long. • The following sentence is from an Abstract. Is it easy to read? The aim of our study was firstly to assess changes in the level of tolerance of natives of one country towards immigrants over the course of a 50-year period in order to be able to advise governmental agencies on how to develop strategies based on those countries that have been more successful in reducing racism as already investigated in previous studies, but not in such a systematic way, and secondly to establish correlations with data from the USA, which until now have been reported only sporadically. (86 words) (Wallwork, 2016, p. 58)

39. And the rewritten version: We assessed changes in the level of tolerance of natives of one country towards immigrants over the course of a 50-year period. The main aim was to be able to advise governmental agencies on how to develop strategies based on those countries that have been more successful in reducing racism. This aspect has already been investigated in previous studies, but not in a systematic way. The second aim was to establish correlations with data from the USA, which until now have been reported only sporadically. (22, 28, 15, 20) (Wallwork, 2016, p. 58)

40. Keep your subjects short and subject and verb close to each other: We assessed… The main aim was… This aspect has already been investigated… The second aim was… • Excerpt from a published article! Hello verb, where art thou? This national snapshot of Canadian public libraries’ micro- blogging organizing decisions, their management policies and practices and their insights into the benefits and challenges of this micro- blogging practice within the larger public library program in combination with the preliminary follower analysis of a random sample of followers in one large Canadian public library together lay a firm foundation for this future work. (61 words! 53-word subject!) (Cavanagh, M. F., 2016, p. 248)

41. Keep subject and verbclose to each other: A vast amount of research on different techniques using fly ash generated from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) as the source of extraction and the benefits and potentials of using these techniques (27 words!) have already been conducted. A vast amount of research has examined different techniques...   • And avoid unnecessarily long modifier phrases (highlighted in red): Because most existing studies have examinedonly a single stage of the supplychain, for example, productivity at the farm, or efficiency of agriculturalmarkets, in isolation from the rest of the supplychain (34 words!),policymakershave beenunable to assesshow problems identifiedat a single stage of the supplychaincompare and interact with problems in the rest of the supplychain. (Pinker, S., 2014, p. 109)

42. Which of the following sentences do you find easier to read: S1) In Figure 8, the transport stream-function averaged over the whole simulation period is shown for EXP1 and EXP2. S2) Figure 8 shows the transport stream-function for EXP1 and EXP2 averaged over the whole simulation period. • Now let’s look at how the two sentences are structured: S1) In Figure 8 // the transport stream-function // averaged over the whole simulation period // is shown for EXP1 and EXP2. (4 parts) S2) Figure 8 shows the transport stream-function for EXP1 and EXP2 // averaged over the whole simulation period. (2 parts) • S2 is normal English wordorder: thereareonlytwo parts. (Wallwork, 2016, p. 75)

43. Use a verb rather than a noun • This improves readability and conciseness. Example: a) This was used in the calculation of the values. b) This was used to calculate the values. a) This allows the transfer of the money to be performed. b) This allows us to transfer the money/This allows the money to be transferred. a) A comparison was made between the USA and the Russian Federation. b) The USA was compared to the Russian Federation. a) The Russian Federation showed a much better performance than the USA. b) The Russian Federation performed much better than the USA. (Wallwork, 2016, p. 135)

45. Choose Latinate words • Avoid using weak (Germanic) multi-word verbs if there is a stronger and more precise one-word (French/Latin) synonym: build up  blow up  get better/worse do away with put out  put up with put off  put together go up  go down  • accumulate • explode/detonate/enlarge • improve/deteriorate • abolish/eliminate/obviate • extinguish • tolerate • deter/postpone/procrastinate • assemble/compose/synthesise • increase/augment • decrease/decline/diminish

46. Exercise! Replace the informal multi-word verbs with more formal equivalents: • The use of touch screen voting systems could get rid of many problems associated with traditional paper-based ballots. The use of touch screen voting systems could eliminate… • Researchers have come up with a number of models to describe the effect of certain cola drinks on dental enamel erosion. Researchers have created/developed/devised/proposed a number of models… • AIDS researchers have run into a variety of unexpected problems in their efforts to develop an effective medicine. AIDS researchers have encountered/faced a variety of unexpected problems in their efforts… • Rice and aquatic products make up a major part of the diet of the people in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Rice and aquatic products constitute a major part of the diet of the people in…

47. Researchers put this trend down to globalisation, privatisation, accountability, and demographic changes in the graduate student population. Researchers attribute this trend toglobalisation, privatisation, accountability, and…. • The tenant was thrown out after failing to pay his rent on time. The tenant was evicted after failing to pay his rent on time. • Raising taxes has been shown to reduce revenue to the government and make the job situation worse. Raising taxes has been shown to reduce revenue to the government and exacerbatethe job situation. • Problems with the new data management software showed upsoonafter it waslaunched. Problems with the new data management software appeared/emerged/materialised/surfacedsoonafter it waslaunched. • Exercise, work habits and dailymovement patterns arealsolooked at to find out if something is contributing to a particular problem. Exercise, work habits and dailymovement patterns arealsoexamined/analysed/consideredto determine/establish if something is…

48. Collocations are pairs or groups of words that are often used together and sound natural to native speakers: *Giveimportantquestions vs. √Raiseimportantquestions *Raise a debate vs. √Ignite/generate/trigger/ provoke/fuela debate *Make research vs. √Do research *Warm debate vs. √Heated debate *Deeply disagree vs. √Strongly disagree *Recur to another strategy vs. √Adopt/resort to/employ/ choose/useanother strategy *Keep to requirements vs. √Meet requirements

49. Beaware of collocations when you are reading/listening to English • Check collocations in dictionaries / collocations dictionaries e.g. • Oxford Collocations Dictionary (CD-ROM) • Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English (CD-ROM) • Macmillan Collocations Dictionary (book only) • Collocations link http://www.just-the-word.com/ • Examples of some of the phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of academic writing: The Academic Phrasebank: http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

50. The most common errors: punctuation • Correct punctuation is important! Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog. Rachel Ray finds inspiration in cooking, her family, and her dog. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/6/