WRITING COMMUNICATION

SECTION I

Motivation for the course

Nowadays it is of crucial importance for the specialists in all sectors to be able to find, read, analyze and synthesize scientific and technical information.

The basic text types relevant for scientific and technical context include: abstracts, laboratory reports, descriptions, scientific papers, and the comparative scientific paper.

What is communicative language ability?

Communicative language ability – or the ability to use language to achieve genuine communicative function consists of interactions between aspects of language knowledge, on the one hand, and strategic competence, on the other hand. Language knowledge according to Douglas consists of

Grammatical knowledge

  • Knowledge of vocabulary
  • Knowledge of morphology and syntax
  • Knowledge of phonology

Textual knowledge

  • Knowledge of cohesion
  • Knowledge of rhetorical and conversational organisation

Functional knowledge

  • Knowledge of ideational functions
  • Knowledge of manipulative functions
  • Knowledge of heuristic functions
  • Knowledge of imaginative functions

Sociolinguistic knowledge

  • Knowledge of dialects/varieties
  • Knowledge of registers
  • Knowledge of idiomatic expressions
  • Knowledge of cultural references

Strategic competence

Assessment

  • Evaluating communicative situation or test tasks and engaging an appropriate discourse domain
  • Evaluating the correctness or appropriateness of the response

Goal setting

  • Deciding how (and where) to respond to the communicative situation

Planning

  • Deciding what elements of language knowledge and background knowledge are required to reach the established goal

Control of execution

  • Retrieving and organizing the appropriate elements of language knowledge to carry out the plan.

Writing is probably the linguistic skill that is least used by most people in their native language. Good writing skills usually develop from extensive reading, some specific training, and a good deal of practice.

Writing involves the following basic skills:

  • Handwriting or typing
  • Spelling
  • Constructing grammatical sentences
  • Punctuation

At higher levels, writing involves cognitive skills such as:

  • Gathering information and ideas relevant to the topic, and discarding what is not relevant
  • Organising the information and ideas into a logical sentences
  • Structuring the sequence into section and paragraphs
  • Expressing the information and ideas in a written draft
  • Editing the draft and writing a final out.

(Paul Davies and Eric Pearse. Success in English Teaching. P 96.)

‘Writing has become an essential tool for people of all walks of life in today’s global community. Whether used in reporting analyses of current events for newspaper or web pages, composing academic essays, business reports, letters, or e-mail messages, the ability to write effectively allows individuals from different cultures and backgrounds to communicate. Furthermore it is now recognized that writing plays a vital role not only in conveying information, but also in transforming knowledge to create new knowledge. It is thus of central importance to students in academic and second language programs throughout the world. The nature of writing can be viewed both as a social and cognitive activity.

The ability to write effectively is becoming increasingly important in our global community As advances in transportation and technology allow people from nations and cultures throughout the world to interact with each other, communication across languages becomes ever more essential. As a result, the ability to speak and to write a second language is becoming widely recognized as an important skill for educational, business, and personal reasons.

Before we can discuss how to teach writing, we must start by attempting to define what we mean by writing ability. This is not a simple task, since no single definition can cover all situations. For example, the ability to write down exactly what someone else says (an important skill for a stenographer) is quite different from the ability to write a persuasive argument.

Writing and critical thinking are seen as an indication that students have mastered the cognitive skills required for university work. We will simply note that one cannot write in a second language without knowing at least something about grammar and vocabulary of that language. Writing can be conceptualized as a linguistic, cognitive, social, and cultural phenomenon.

The relationship between writing and speaking

Brown (1994) provides the following list of the characteristics that ordinarily differentiate written language from spoken language:

  • Permanence: oral language is transitory and must be processed in real time, while written language is permanent and can be read and reread as often as one likes;
  • Production time: writers generally have more time to plan, review, and revise their words before they are finalized, while speakers must plan, formulate, and deliver their utterances within a few moments if they are to maintain a conversation;
  • Distance between the write and the reader in both time and space, which eliminates much of the shared context that is present between speaker and listener in ordinary face-to-face contact and thus necessitates greater explicitness on the part of the writer;
  • Orthography, which carries a limited amount of information compared to the richness of devices available to speakers to enhance a message (e.g. stress, intonation, pitch, volume, pausing, etc.)
  • Complexity: written language tends to be characterized by longer clauses and more subordinators, while spoken language tends to have shorter clauses connected by coordination, as well as more redundancy (e.g. repetition of nouns and verbs);
  • Formality: because of the social and cultural uses to which writing is ordinarily put, writing tends to be more formal than speaking;
  • Vocabulary: written texts tend to contain a wider variety of words, and more lower-frequency words, than oral texts

Writing is ‘ an act that takes place within a context, that accomplishes a particular purpose, and that is appropriately shaped for its intended audience’ (Hamp-Lyons and Kroll, 1997: 8) Writing is a meaning-making activity that is socially and cultural shaped and individually and socially purposeful.

To summarize, writing is both a social and cultural activity, in that acts of writing cannot be looked at in isolation but must be seen in their social and cultural contexts.

The list of possible motivators:

  • Grades
  • Higher proficiency
  • Learning new information
  • Future job/promotion
  • Impressing teacher/other students

Linguistic knowledge includes knowledge of the basic structural elements of the language.

SECTION II

Abstract

An abstract is a text which main purpose is to present basic ideas and concept of a scientific paper in a condensed / squeezed / short form.

According to the purpose of an abstract it should be very clear, short, with no direct references. The writer should follow the main steps such as:

  • motivation
  • problem statement
  • approach
  • results
  • conclusions

The main function of the abstract is “to sell” your work.

Let us discuss each section more carefully.

  • Motivation:

This section should include the importance of your work, the difficulty of the area, and the impact it might have if successful.

  • Problem statement:

What problem are you trying to solve? What is the scope of your work (a generalized approach)? In some cases it is appropriate to put the problem statement before the motivation, but usually this only works if most readers already understand why the problem is important.

  • Approach:

How did you go about solving or making a progress on the problem? Did youuse simulation, analytic models, prototype construction, or analysis of field data for an actual product? What was the extent of your work?

  • Results

What is the answer? Specifically, most papers conclude that something is so many percent faster, cheaper, smaller, or otherwise better than something else. Put the results there in numbers. Avoid vague results such as “very”, “small’, or “significant”.

  • Conclusion

What are the implications of your answer? Are your results general, potentially generalizable, or specific to a particular case?

An abstract must be a fully self-contained, capsule description of the paper. It must make sense of itself. Meet the word count limitation. An abstract shouldn’t run too long. An abstract word limit of 150 to 200 words is common.

Common Problems:

  • too long
  • too many details
  • too short
  • failure to include important information. You need to be careful to cover the points listed above. Often people do not cover all of them because they spend too long explaining, for example, the methodology and then do not have enough space to present their conclusions

There are three types of abstracts: descriptive, informative and extended.

Descriptive abstract usually presents the purpose of a scientific paper, expresses someone’s opinion, consists of 50 words, and is often found in conference’s reports.

Informative abstract is usually well structured (problem statement, purpose, subject, methods, results) and can be up to250 words. Basically, each scientific paper has this type of abstract. In other words it is some kind of well structured summary.

Extended abstract is a research paper and can be up to 5 pages. It is usually requested by conference organizers. This type of an abstract in addition to the structure of an informative one contains introduction, examples, proofs of basic issues, conclusion.

The informative abstract is more relevant to the students making their BA and MA theses.

Thus, the purpose of an informative abstract is (without any details) to reflect the basic concept of a scientific paper: clearly, accurately, in a condensed form, presenting the subjects, methods used and principle results. While creating an informative abstract the following rules are necessary to bear in mind:

  • follow the structure (problem statement, subject of the paper, methods used , results);
  • use present tenses of English grammar;
  • use clear and accurate language.

How to write an informative abstract?

  • write a scientific paper;
  • choose key words for each section of your scientific paper;
  • with these key words make up one (maximum two) clue sentences which summarize best the key message of each section;
  • organize these clue sentences in logical, clear and accurate paragraph;
  • follow the structure: problem stating, purpose stating, methods used, results;
  • use traditional words to make the information sound logical, smooth and coherent;
  • reread, rewrite, revise.

NOTE!!!

Index terms and key words follow the abstract!!!

Example1

Read through the abstract from a published paper. It is about 220 words long. Read it through looking for the main purpose of each sentence (for example, presenting the reseach problem, objective, methodology, main finding, or conclusion).

Abstract

Major problems of the arid region are transportation of agricultural products and loses due to spoilage of the products, especially in summer. This work presents the performance of a solar drying system consisting of an air heater and a dryer chamber connected to a greenhouse. The drying system is designed to dry a variety of agricultural products. The effect of air mass flow rate on the drying process is studied. Composite pebbles, which are constructed from cement and sand, are used to store energy for night operation. The pebbles are placed at the bottom of the drying chamber and are changed during the drying process itself. A separate test is done using a simulator, a packed bed storage unit to find the thermal characteristics of the pebbles during charging and discharging modes with time. Accordingly, the packed bed is analyzed using a heat transfer model with finite difference technique described before and during the charging and discharging processes. Graphs are presented that depict the thermal characteristics and performance of the pebble beds and the drying patterns of different agricultural products. The results show that the amount of energy stored in the pebbles depends on the air mass flow rate, the inlet air temperature, and the properties of the storage materials. The composite pebbles can be used efficiently as storing media.

Example 2

Read through the abstract from a published paper. It is about 162 words long. Read it through looking for the main purpose of each sentence (for example, presenting the reseach problem, objective, methodology, main finding, or conclusion).

Abstract

The long-term performance of various systems was determined and the economic aspects of solar hot water production were investigated in this work. The effect of the collector inclination angle, collector area and storage volume was examined for all systems, and various climatic conditions and their payback period was calculated. It was found that the collector inclination angle does not have a significant effect on system performance. Large collector areas have a diminishing effect on the system’s overall efficiency. The increase in storage volume has a detrimental effect for small daily load volumes, but a beneficial one when there is a large daily consumption. Solar energy was found to be truly competitive when the conventional fuel being substituted is electricity, and it should not replace diesel oil on pure economic grounds. Large daily load volumes and large collector areas are in general associated with shorter payback periods. Overall, the systems are oversized and are economically suitable for large daily hot water volumes.

ABSTRACTS AND INTRODUCTIONS COMPARED

At first glance, it might seem that the introduction and the abstract are very similar because they both present research problem and objectives as well as briefly reviewing methodology, main findings and main conclusions. However, there are important differences between the two:

Introduction

  • Should be short, but does not have a word limit;
  • main purpose is to introduce the research by presenting its context or background. Introductions usually go from general to specific, introducing the research problem and how it will be investigated.

Abstract

  • Has a maximum word limit;
  • is the summary of the whole research;
  • main purpose is to summarize the research (particularly the objectives and the main finding / conclusion), not to introduce the research area.

INTRODUCTION

General

The purpose of an introduction is to prepare the reader for the body of writing that comes

after it.

Introduction clearly and briefly states the purpose of the paper and urgency of the topic. Introduction usually develops from general to specific; from the problem to the solutions. Basic structure is as follows:

  • present the scope and urgency of the work;
  • review the background information and the state -of- the art;
  • state the methods of investigation together with the reasons of this choice
  • present the structure of the paper/article

More detailed introduction is as follows:

  • subject of the paper
  • purpose of the paper
  • a working hypothesis
  • scope of the discussion
  • statement of organization of the paper (listing of the main points discussed. E.g. Section one deals with ...:; section two discusses ...)
  • an explanation of the methods used (the reason for the choice of a particular method should be stated)
  • definitions of terms and abbreviations used in the paper
  • the results of investigations
  • a description of the state of the arts (briefly review the literature to orient the reader.

A good introduction:

indicates the topic that the essay is about

describes how the body of the essay is organized

explains the point of writing the essay; the point of writing an essay is usually to argue for a thesis, so you will need to explain what thesis you argue for and how you argue for it – this is called a thesis-statement, and most essay introductions include one.

Introduction

  • Should be short, but does not have a word limit;
  • main purpose is to introduce the research by presenting its context or background. Introductions usually go from general to specific, introducing the research problem and how it will be investigated.

NOTE !!!

The introduction like the abstract is written after the paper has been completed, and NOT BEFORE!!!

Frequently asked questions

4. What is an introduction for? Is it a summary?

An introduction is not a summary. A summary repeats the main ideas of an essay. An introduction introduces the reader to the topic of the essay, describes the organizational structure of the essay, and

explains the point of the essay (the thesis argued for).

Introduction

Sample 1

The given article is divided into ____ sections.

Section one deals with important issues in (e. g. in the development of theories for the teaching of writing). Emphasis has been given here to (e. g. two apparently contrasting approaches, one associated with the process of writing, and the other with the demands made by the contexts in which writing takes place. During recent years there has been a degree of debate, at times heated, between proponents of one approach or the other. The article argues for (e.g. a pedagogy that draws on the considerable strength of both views of writing instructions).

The second section of the article looks at currently available (e.g. teaching materials in the light of the discussion in Section One) and proposes a set of (e.g. criteria which teachers can use when they are evaluating the potential usefulness of published materials). The emphasis here is ____. Thus two key areas (Business Communication and Foreign Language Teaching for Academic or Study Purpose) are taken as case studies.

Introduction

Sample 2

This paper (work) attempts to outline answers to these questions (outline general information about ....), and is organized in the following way. Section 1 provides an introduction to (e.g. writing assessment), or an overview of (e.g. writing assessment). Section 2 deals with direct testing of writing. Section 3 reviews a large body of research on writing assessment. Section 4 presents information and advice on designing tasks for writing assessment. Section 5 discusses scoring procedures. Section 6 provides an in-depth discussion of a number of writing tests for a variety of contexts. Section 7 looks towards the future directions in second-language writing assessment.

Introduction

Sample 3

The Hall Effect is widely regarded as a successful and innovative method for engineering applications. The currency/urgency of the problem discussed in the present article is in the necessityto investigate the Hall Effect and its applications more thoroughly in order to understand how this effect can be employed practically. The purpose of the given paper is to provide an overview of the Hall Effect, study ways in which the Hall Effect can be exploited in order to improve the quality and properties of the devices based on the Hall Effect and to compare the Hall Effect with MR Technologies. The subject of the present research paper is to determine the opportunities of the Hall Effect applications. Since the discovery of the Hall Effect in 1879 by Dr. Edwin Hall, many different researches and varieties have emerged. This paper is compiled very carefully, with apparently all the requisite data and critical apparatus. The following publications and researches comprise the theory of the present research work. (In the process of working оn the present paper the works of the following Russian, American and English authors: ПассовЕ.И., КолкерЯ.М., СолововаЕ.Н., СероваТ.С., Peter Falvey, David Riley, Mark Powell, Eleri Sampson, Anne Laws, were studied. The analysis of the аbоvе mentioned scientific works constitutes the theoretical value of the present paper.) The practical value of the paper consists in