TEMPLATES FOR ACADEMIC WRITING By Dr. Marna Broekhoff American English Institute Department of Linguistics University of Oregon in Eugene [email protected]
TEMPLATES FOR ACADEMIC WRITING
By Dr. Marna Broekhoff
American English InstituteDepartment of Linguistics
University of Oregon in Eugene
OUTLINE
I. PROBLEMS FOR WRITERSII. SOLUTION: TEMPLATESIII. Bottom-Up Sentence-LevelIV. Top-Down “Moves” LevelV. LIMITATIONSVI. APPLICATIONS & VALUES
I. PROBLEMSFOR ACADEMIC WRITERS
Lack of ability to structure or generate the standard parts of a research paper
Lack of awareness of how their argument fits into ongoing academic debate
Especially true for writers from diverse backgrounds (not seasoned professionals)
Non-academic backgrounds NNS (Non-Native Speakers) Ethnically diverse (non-Western discourse models)
Interdisciplinary
Academic writing now seen as collaborative
Current writing pedagogy, both writing center and classroom, and metaphors of the Burkean parlor Garret Storehouse
II. SOLUTION: TEMPLATES
Practical, concrete, hands-on way to analyze & generate a research paper and thus enter an academic dialog
Provide both bottom-up (sentence) skills, and top-down (structuring) skills
Basic paradigm: “They Say, I Say,” but includes other functions of academic discourse
III.Bottom-Up, Sentence Level
Both analytical and generative: helps comprehend sentences as well as create them
See Ellis handout for examples
A. “THEY SAY”
Others’ views Paraphrase
Summarize
Quote
Templates for Paraphrasing & Summarizing
Conventional wisdom has it that… Among X, it is commonly believed that… Many people argue that… In their recent work, X & Y have criticized Z because. In discussions of X, one controversy has been… On
the one hand, __ argues…, but on the other hand… My whole life I’ve assumed that… X acknowledges/believes/emphasizes/refutes
reports/observes/claims/recommends that…
Ellis’s Paraphrases & Summary
¶1 The Hamburg docs. place particular emphasis on the environment in which learning takes place. They recommend that there be awareness-raising campaigns on the need to learn, on promoting learning as "a joy, a tool…”
¶2 The Agenda for the future (1997b) specifically calls for the enhancing of the literacy environment through—
Can you summarize Ellis, Paragraph 3? Which template?
Ellis believes that Namibians have very few reading habits because reading is not required in normal daily business.
Templates for Quoting
X states, “….” As the prominent philosopher, Y, puts it,
“….” X agrees with Y when she writes, “….” This view is echoed by Z, who argues, “….
Basically, X is saying…. X’s point is that…. These words support my own view that…
Ellis’s Quotes
The solution to the lack of a reading culture seems paradoxical, but is in fact quite simple: as one of the foremost authorities on reading, Frank Smith (1978) says,”…people learn to read by reading.” Thus, since practice in reading is what improves one’s ability to read….
QUOTING PRACTICE
Choose a quote from Ellis, and introduce and explain it.
Ellis argues that Namibians should be required to read more because there must be “social pressure…for everyone to become literate.” (¶ 3)
Verb Tenses
Reference to single studies: PAST Reference to areas of inquiry:
PRESENT PERFECT Reference to state of current
knowledge: PRESENT
Which pattern does Ellis use?
B. “I SAY”
Your views
Within the debate context Counter-arguments Significance of your views
Templates for Your Views Within Debate Context Defenders of X can’t have it both ways. Their
assertion that…contradicts their claim that… By focusing on ___, X overlooks the deeper problem.. If X is right, as I think she is, then we need to look… Although I agree with Y up to a point, I can’t accept
his overall conclusion that… Though I concede that…, I still insist that… X is right that…, but he is wrong that… because as I
have shown… X has missed the point! His view does not fit my….
TEMPLATES FOR COUNTER-ARGUMENTS
Some readers may challenge my view because… Some conservatives might object that…, but I… NNS are so diverse that it’s hard to generalize about
them, but some might object on grounds that… One might ask, Is my proposal realistic? Although I agree with X that…, nevertheless I think… Traditional interpretations of this topic do not address
my claim that…because…
“I SAY” and PRACTICE
Your (the writer’s) viewsWithin the debate context
Does Ellis agree with “them,” disagree, or both?
How does he distinguish his views from others?
Ellis’s Views
Thus, only once literacy becomes a way of life, will the social pressure exist for everyone to become literate. (¶3)
Although teachers for some strange reason seem to hate them, there is a very important place for comics, photo-novels, the Reader’s Digest, romantic novels, sensational newspapers and magazines, etc. (¶4)
TEMPLATES for ‘WHO CARES’ (Signif. & Meta-Commentary)
My research corrects the earlier mistaken interpretation that…
These findings challenge dieters’ common assumptions that…
At first glance, teenagers appear to… But on closer inspection….
Ultimately, what’s at stake here is… These findings support the claim that… X is important to everyone concerned about
social justice because… Nearly any TITLE!
TITLES as Meta-Comment.
Titles, esp. with colons (They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter In Academic Writing; Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in Age of Show Biz)
Other templates: In other words… My whole point is that… Ch. 2 explores X, while Ch. 3 explores Y. To summarize… In conclusion…
‘Meta-Commentary’ PRACTICE
Significance of your views Has Ellis answered the question, “Who cares?”
¶6: In summary, what this interna-tional tour de force might mean for Namibia is, firstly, that we should celebrate multilingualism….
Can you add 2 examples of meta-commentary that E. might make?
TITLE Practice
Does Ellis’s title indicate the content?
Can you create a more interesting title with a colon?
C. COHESION Connectors
Transitional words: although, after all, consequently, admittedly, for example (depend on function)
Pointing words: this, that, their, such Key words (depend on subject) &
synonyms (especially repetitions)
COHESION PRACTICE
Connectors In Ellis’s writing, underline all transitional words, key words, and pointing words & synonyms
¶1(1) ¶3(4) ¶4(4) ¶5(1)
IV. Top-down, ‘Moves’ Level
Both analytical and generative
Helps identify and create major sections or functions (‘moves’) of a research paper
Much homogeneity across genres
IMRD Structure of Res. Paper
In pairs, try to do sentence scramble for Introduction to an RP in physics
CARS Model for IntroductionsApplied to Eakins RP
Move 1: Establishing a territory
a) by showing that the general research area is important, central, interesting, problematic, or relevant in some way (optional)
b) by introducing and reviewing items of previous research in the area (obligatory)
(can have author or subject orientation)
Move 2: Establishing a Niche(at least one is obligatory)
a) by indicating a gap in the previous research,
b) by indicating an error, or
c) by extending previous knowledge in some way
Move 3: Occupying the Niche
by outlining purposes or stating the nature of the present research (obligatory)
by listing research questions or hypotheses (PSIF)
by announcing principal findings (PSIF) by stating the value of the present
research (PSIF) by indicating the RP structure (PSIF)
Eakins & “Marsh” Pictures
Divide Sentences 1-7, 8-10, 11-12 into 3 basic moves
Divide Move 1 into 1a, 1b? What kind of Move 2? What kind of Move 3? Underline wds. in Sents. 1-4 used
to establish research territory
Answer Key for Eakins Intro.
Move 1b (research review) begins w/ Sentence 2
Move 2a (gap) begins w/ Sentence 8 Move 3a (nature of present research)
begins w/ Sentence 11 [one of the greatest, over the last thirty years,
many studies, major exhibition devoted…,his best known pictures, compositional brilliance, deep insight into character]
Physics RP Intro. Unscrambled
Adapted from S. Kelham & H.H. Rosenburgh, Journal of Physical Chemistry: Solid State Physics, 14, qtd. in Swales (2004).
7--6--2--4--3--1--5--8
(7) THE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY AND SPECIFIC HEAT OF EPOXY RESIN FROM 0.1 TO 80K.
(6) The thermal properties of glassy materials at low temperatures are still not completely understood. [Move 1a]
(2) The thermal conductivity has a plateau which is usually in the range from 5 to 10K, and below this temperature it has a temperature dependence which varies approximately as T2. [1a-General knowledge]
(4) The specific heat below 4K is much larger than that which would be expected from the Debye theory, and it often has an additional term which is proportional to T. [1a-general know.]
(3) Some progress has been made towards understanding the thermal behavior by assuming that there is a cut-off in the photon spectrum at high frequencies (Zaitlin and Anderson, 1995a,b), and that there is an additional system of low-lying two-level states (Anderson et al., 2002; Phillips, 1997). [1b: Previous research]
(1) Nevertheless more experimental data are required, and in particular, it would seem desirable to make experiments on glassy samples whose properties can be varied slightly from one to the other. [2-gap]
(5) The present investigation reports attempts to do this by using various samples of the same epoxy resin which have been subjected to different curing cycles.[3a-purposes]
(8) Measurements of the specific heat (or the diffusivity) and the thermal conductivity have been taken in the temperature range 0.1 to 80K for a set of specimens which covered up to nine different curing cycles. [3e-rpt. struc.]
Analysis of RP Intros.
In pairs, identify the moves and templates (including verb tenses) in the Introductions for two research articles from different fields. Which orientation?
Then exchange your articles with another pair and repeat the process.
Lastly, discuss your findings with your group. Similarities? Differences?
Teaching Applications
Looking at templates from both the bottom-up and top-down perspectives, what problems do they help solve for graduate-level or advanced academic writing classes?
What problems to they not solve? How might you design a course
around templates?
V. LIMITATIONS OF TEMPLATES
Can seem formulaic Do not provide models for
imitation Do not deal with all parts of the
writing process Adequate and valid research
(pre-writing steps) Complexities of logical
argument
Do not automatically generate the all-important and all-difficult thesis statements (main clause + reason why clause is true)
Possible thesis for Ellis article: Sophisticated Euro-centric lit is inappropriate for Namibia be- cause it lacks a ‘reading culture’
VI.APPLICATIONS AND VALUES
Quantitative and qualitative and research papers
Bottom-up, or inductive, and top-down, or deductive teaching approaches
Sentence generation & structural (“moves”) analysis
Strong historical and contemporary supportClassical tradition (topoi)Current RFP’s (Proposals & article submissions)
Booth’s Rhetorical Triangle, Collaboration
Support from current applied linguistics
Popular writing texts WAC (Writing Across the
Curriculum) Genre theory Corpus linguistics
Concordance Data for Sentence-Level Templates
“Word Search” software by Vivana Cortes
“AntConc” software by Anthony Laurence
Concordance Data For ‘Moves’ Level Templates
“AntMover” software by Anthony Laurence
“Moves” window shown in slide. Can also view original & outline of document
“META” VALUES
WritingReadingCritical thinkingWorld peace! TESOL 2010
End of Show—Thank you for your attention!
QUESTIONS?
Marna BroekhoffAmerican English InstituteDepartment of Linguistics
University of Oregon in [email protected]
Annotated References: See handout