1.
1) e
2) j
3) m
4) o
5) h
6) g
7) f
8) k
9) a
10) l
11) i
12) n
13) c
14) d
15) b
4.
1) administration
2) distributes
3) reside
4) primary
5) perception
6) securely
7) finalize
8) restrictions
9) construction
10) institutional
5A
1) maintenance
2) primary
3) labor
4) computer
5) positive
6) security
7) community
8) final
9) residential
10) prime
5B
1) person
2) time
3) Day
4) attitude
5) guard
6) college
7) exam
8) school
9) community
10) graphics
6B
1) designer
2) interpreter
3) author
4) finalist
5) mathematician
6) vegetarian
7) advisor
8) administrator
9) lawyer
10) individualist
11) theorist
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Homework of Jan 29th, 2008
Chapter 2.
1,
b, c, a, b, c, a, c, c, a, c, a
3,
1) age range
2) out of range
3) mountain range
4) gas range
5) range of symptoms
6) open range
7) firing range
8) within normal range
9) viewing range
10) price range
11) range of products
4A,
achievement achieve
conduct conduct
creation create
definition define
estimation estimate
function function
requirement require
item itemize
impact impact
range range
consultation consult
response respond
5A
estimate size, speed, cost
seek advice, shelter, assistance
create jobs, problems, poems
derive satisfaction, pleasure, benefit
5B
2) the sports section
3) legal issues
4) a friendly environment
5) yearly income
6) a university function
7) achievement test
8) financial assistance
9) welfare state
10) licensed psychologist
7B
Experience of Test Anxiety
In general, I don’t have real test anxiety. I always feel very nervous during the preparation of the tests because I am afraid of missing some important points that would be tested. This kind of feeling culminates when I am sitting in the classroom and waiting for the exam sheet to be distributed. At that moment, I feel thirsty, not able to focus, and temporarily memory loss. However, as soon as I get the exam sheet, things change dramatically and I calm down promptly. One thing that makes me peaceful is the thought, “everything is settled down already and you can not change the test result at this moment. So, why are you anxious now?”
However, the testing process does not go smoothly always. The worst scenario is that you suddenly find a big mistake for a major solution and you almost run out of time in the mean time. At that moment, I would feel the real anxiety, not because I do not know how to solve it, but because I do not have enough time to fix it. My brain starts heating up, my hands start sweating, and the worst, I am not able to concentrate. The outcome is always disastrous, even I try hard to correct the error at the last minute.
1,
b, c, a, b, c, a, c, c, a, c, a
3,
1) age range
2) out of range
3) mountain range
4) gas range
5) range of symptoms
6) open range
7) firing range
8) within normal range
9) viewing range
10) price range
11) range of products
4A,
achievement achieve
conduct conduct
creation create
definition define
estimation estimate
function function
requirement require
item itemize
impact impact
range range
consultation consult
response respond
5A
estimate size, speed, cost
seek advice, shelter, assistance
create jobs, problems, poems
derive satisfaction, pleasure, benefit
5B
2) the sports section
3) legal issues
4) a friendly environment
5) yearly income
6) a university function
7) achievement test
8) financial assistance
9) welfare state
10) licensed psychologist
7B
Experience of Test Anxiety
In general, I don’t have real test anxiety. I always feel very nervous during the preparation of the tests because I am afraid of missing some important points that would be tested. This kind of feeling culminates when I am sitting in the classroom and waiting for the exam sheet to be distributed. At that moment, I feel thirsty, not able to focus, and temporarily memory loss. However, as soon as I get the exam sheet, things change dramatically and I calm down promptly. One thing that makes me peaceful is the thought, “everything is settled down already and you can not change the test result at this moment. So, why are you anxious now?”
However, the testing process does not go smoothly always. The worst scenario is that you suddenly find a big mistake for a major solution and you almost run out of time in the mean time. At that moment, I would feel the real anxiety, not because I do not know how to solve it, but because I do not have enough time to fix it. My brain starts heating up, my hands start sweating, and the worst, I am not able to concentrate. The outcome is always disastrous, even I try hard to correct the error at the last minute.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Comparison of Academic and Informal Writing
Here after, Kim2006 is used to denote article “Academic oral communication needs of East Asian international graduate students in non-science and non-engineering fields”; Azuma1997 is used to denote article “A graduate school survival guide”.
Audience
How do the intended audiences of the two articles differ?
Kim2006: the audiences are East Asian international graduate students in non-science and non-engineering fields.
Azuma1997: the audiences are PhD students in science and engineering fields.
What are the concerns of these audiences?
Kim2006: the audiences concern required academic listening and speaking skill levels in their university courses.
Azuma1997: the audiences worry about whether and how they can graduate from the PhD program.
What do these audiences already know?
Kim2006: the audiences know the skills, academic listening and speaking, which they are required to master, however, have difficulties to meet them.
Azuma1997: the audiences know it is difficult to finish a PhD program, particularly, when the student has to work alone on a long-term research topic without detailed direction from the advisor.
What are their expectations when they read the article?
Kim2006: the audiences want to know how to improve the academic listening and speaking skills.
Azuma1997: the audiences want to know how to solve the problems in the process of PhD program and graduate as soon as possible.
What do they want to know and/or feel?
Kim2006: same as above.
Azuma1997: same as above.
What elements of the articles indicate the intended audience?
Kim2006: the title.
Azuma1997: the title.
Tone
Writing conveys a certain tone or “feeling” about the author and the author’s attitude towards the topic of a text. When referring to more expressive texts, tone is often discussed in terms of voice—the idiosyncratic features of a writer’s style. How does the tone or voice of the two articles differ? Provide some examples from the text.
Kim2006: this article is published in a journal, hence, the author has to be as much objective as possible. Basically, the author wants to do some analysis based on the data the author collected. In order to make the analysis convincible, the author provides a complete description about how the data are collected, filtered and demonstrates the different between the result and other researchers’ conclusions.
Azuma1997: Because the author was a recently graduated PhD student from computer science field and wanted to give some advices to junior graduate students in the same or close fields, the author basically wrote a letter in the flavor as a personal letter.
Authority
Audiences are interested in reading informative writing (or listening to informative oral presentations) because of the author’s authority or expertise in a given domain. What is the basis of the two authors’ authority? How is this established in the texts?
Kim2006: the author analyzed the data collected during a survey and compared the analysis with other researchers. Basically, this article is data-oriented.
Azuma1997: the author gave his personal experience for easing the difficulties met during the PhD program. Because the author has successfully finished the program, audiences are willing to believe him.
Rhetorical Structure
Texts are more than collections of words: They have a structure that sets up and meets readers’ expectations. What is the structure of the two texts? How and why does the structure differ? What purpose do the structural elements serve?
Kim2006: this article is a technical paper published on a journal and this means this article follows the typical format of a regular paper, i.e. abstraction, introduction, background (or related work), methodology, data analysis, and conclusion. In order to make the paper valuable and not repeat others’ work, it is very important to compare this work and the work done by other researchers and point out the difference at the very beginning. Then the methodology follows and results are provided. Analysis based on the data should be detailed and demonstrate the points what the author wants to present in the paper. Finally, a conclusion or summary presents the main points again.
Azuma1997: this article is a guide to junior PhD graduate student and, hence, does not follow any format. At the beginning of the article, the author presented his motivation for writing this article. Then the author started several sections focusing different aspects of the skills or techniques a PhD student needs to have to successfully reach the end of the program. Every section talks one particular skill, however, no direct relation between two contiguous sections.
Argument
How do the texts put forth their arguments? Are there different standards of proof in the two texts? How do they treat claims, reasons, evidence, counter-arguments, and basic assumptions? Do they position their discussion within the previous discourse of a particular community? If so, what is this community?
Kim2006: In this paper, what the author exactly does is to analyze the data collected from a survey. In order to make the analysis valuable, the author compares s/he work with previous related works and emphasizes the different between his/her work and others. In the writing, the author refers a lot of research papers published before and emphasizes the conclusions that differ from previous ones. The paper is written by EAP professional and for classroom instructors in general and EAP professional in particular.
Azuma1997: In general, this article is the collection of personal experience about how to finish PhD program in science and engineering fields successfully. Because this is only an informal writing, the author does not try to prove what he claims all the time and it is up to the audience to make the decision accepting them or rejecting them. This article is mainly for new PhD students.
Scope
What is the scope of the two texts? Which text deals with a wider, more general topic and which one deals with a more focused topic? What factors are responsible for the difference in scope?
Kim2006: This article discusses how to improve the English writing and speaking skills for East Asian international students in US. Thus, the topic is very much focused on one particular point which is very common for technical papers. Limited by page size and numerous efforts done on the similar topics before, it is very difficult to cover a broad topic in a 10-page paper and the author has to narrow its scope to the contribution only.
Azuma1997: This article discusses different skills a PhD student needs to master or pay attention to in his/her degree program. Hence, it covers a much broader scope than the other one.
Sentence Mechanics and Grammar
Academic and informal texts have different requirements in terms of grammar. In broad terms, how does the grammar of the two texts differ? What specific features differ? Provide some examples from the text. Examples should include punctuation rules.
Kim2006: Academic paper should be written in an objective way. For example, “Because the response rate was fairly low, it should be emphasized that the results of this study do not reflect the opinions of all EAGS in the academic departments surveyed. Since the survey was rather long, it is likely that the respondents were primarily those who had strong interest in academic listening/speaking tasks and may thus not be representative of all EAGS.” In the above example, the author avoids to use “I”, “you”, etc. and tries to describes the things as a third-party viewer.
Azuma1997: Informal papers generally are more interesting for reading and consist of many subjective opinions. For example, “If you do not have an acceptable answer to this question, then don't get a Ph.D. I repeat: if you do not have a rock-solid reason for getting the Ph.D., then it is better that you leave with a Master's. Why? Completing a Ph.D. is a long, hard road with many potholes and washed out bridges along the way. You may run over some land mines and have to stop and turn around and explore other routes. If the goal is important enough to you, then these obstacles will not prevent you from completing your journey. But if you don't know why you are on this road, then you will get discouraged and will probably leave without finishing, having wasted years of your life. ” In the above example, the author writes the paragraph like he is talking to you directly which never happens in formal writing.
Style
Do the two texts include colloquialisms and casual expressions? Provide some examples.
Kim2006: This article does not include colloquialisms and casual expressions.
Azuma1997: This article is full of those words and expressions. The example given above demonstrates this very well.
Reference to Others’ Ideas
What conventions do the two texts use to refer to others’ ideas? What’s the purpose of the citations in each text? What determines the citation style used in each text?
Kim2006: This article refers others’ work a lot and follows the formal way to put citation in the text. The purpose of the citations is mainly to provide arguments developed by other researchers and proof materials for its own arguments.
Azuma1997: This article almost does not refer any others’ work except providing further reading at the end.
Vocabulary
How does the vocabulary used in the two texts differ? Discuss the differences in detail and provide concrete examples.
Kim2006: this article uses formal vocabulary, such as “examine”, “concern”, “consider”, “explore”, “conduct”, and “perception”.
Azuma1997: this article uses casual words, such as “toil and sweat”, “strike”, “magically”, “star graduate student”, “rock-solid”, and “soul searching”.
Audience
How do the intended audiences of the two articles differ?
Kim2006: the audiences are East Asian international graduate students in non-science and non-engineering fields.
Azuma1997: the audiences are PhD students in science and engineering fields.
What are the concerns of these audiences?
Kim2006: the audiences concern required academic listening and speaking skill levels in their university courses.
Azuma1997: the audiences worry about whether and how they can graduate from the PhD program.
What do these audiences already know?
Kim2006: the audiences know the skills, academic listening and speaking, which they are required to master, however, have difficulties to meet them.
Azuma1997: the audiences know it is difficult to finish a PhD program, particularly, when the student has to work alone on a long-term research topic without detailed direction from the advisor.
What are their expectations when they read the article?
Kim2006: the audiences want to know how to improve the academic listening and speaking skills.
Azuma1997: the audiences want to know how to solve the problems in the process of PhD program and graduate as soon as possible.
What do they want to know and/or feel?
Kim2006: same as above.
Azuma1997: same as above.
What elements of the articles indicate the intended audience?
Kim2006: the title.
Azuma1997: the title.
Tone
Writing conveys a certain tone or “feeling” about the author and the author’s attitude towards the topic of a text. When referring to more expressive texts, tone is often discussed in terms of voice—the idiosyncratic features of a writer’s style. How does the tone or voice of the two articles differ? Provide some examples from the text.
Kim2006: this article is published in a journal, hence, the author has to be as much objective as possible. Basically, the author wants to do some analysis based on the data the author collected. In order to make the analysis convincible, the author provides a complete description about how the data are collected, filtered and demonstrates the different between the result and other researchers’ conclusions.
Azuma1997: Because the author was a recently graduated PhD student from computer science field and wanted to give some advices to junior graduate students in the same or close fields, the author basically wrote a letter in the flavor as a personal letter.
Authority
Audiences are interested in reading informative writing (or listening to informative oral presentations) because of the author’s authority or expertise in a given domain. What is the basis of the two authors’ authority? How is this established in the texts?
Kim2006: the author analyzed the data collected during a survey and compared the analysis with other researchers. Basically, this article is data-oriented.
Azuma1997: the author gave his personal experience for easing the difficulties met during the PhD program. Because the author has successfully finished the program, audiences are willing to believe him.
Rhetorical Structure
Texts are more than collections of words: They have a structure that sets up and meets readers’ expectations. What is the structure of the two texts? How and why does the structure differ? What purpose do the structural elements serve?
Kim2006: this article is a technical paper published on a journal and this means this article follows the typical format of a regular paper, i.e. abstraction, introduction, background (or related work), methodology, data analysis, and conclusion. In order to make the paper valuable and not repeat others’ work, it is very important to compare this work and the work done by other researchers and point out the difference at the very beginning. Then the methodology follows and results are provided. Analysis based on the data should be detailed and demonstrate the points what the author wants to present in the paper. Finally, a conclusion or summary presents the main points again.
Azuma1997: this article is a guide to junior PhD graduate student and, hence, does not follow any format. At the beginning of the article, the author presented his motivation for writing this article. Then the author started several sections focusing different aspects of the skills or techniques a PhD student needs to have to successfully reach the end of the program. Every section talks one particular skill, however, no direct relation between two contiguous sections.
Argument
How do the texts put forth their arguments? Are there different standards of proof in the two texts? How do they treat claims, reasons, evidence, counter-arguments, and basic assumptions? Do they position their discussion within the previous discourse of a particular community? If so, what is this community?
Kim2006: In this paper, what the author exactly does is to analyze the data collected from a survey. In order to make the analysis valuable, the author compares s/he work with previous related works and emphasizes the different between his/her work and others. In the writing, the author refers a lot of research papers published before and emphasizes the conclusions that differ from previous ones. The paper is written by EAP professional and for classroom instructors in general and EAP professional in particular.
Azuma1997: In general, this article is the collection of personal experience about how to finish PhD program in science and engineering fields successfully. Because this is only an informal writing, the author does not try to prove what he claims all the time and it is up to the audience to make the decision accepting them or rejecting them. This article is mainly for new PhD students.
Scope
What is the scope of the two texts? Which text deals with a wider, more general topic and which one deals with a more focused topic? What factors are responsible for the difference in scope?
Kim2006: This article discusses how to improve the English writing and speaking skills for East Asian international students in US. Thus, the topic is very much focused on one particular point which is very common for technical papers. Limited by page size and numerous efforts done on the similar topics before, it is very difficult to cover a broad topic in a 10-page paper and the author has to narrow its scope to the contribution only.
Azuma1997: This article discusses different skills a PhD student needs to master or pay attention to in his/her degree program. Hence, it covers a much broader scope than the other one.
Sentence Mechanics and Grammar
Academic and informal texts have different requirements in terms of grammar. In broad terms, how does the grammar of the two texts differ? What specific features differ? Provide some examples from the text. Examples should include punctuation rules.
Kim2006: Academic paper should be written in an objective way. For example, “Because the response rate was fairly low, it should be emphasized that the results of this study do not reflect the opinions of all EAGS in the academic departments surveyed. Since the survey was rather long, it is likely that the respondents were primarily those who had strong interest in academic listening/speaking tasks and may thus not be representative of all EAGS.” In the above example, the author avoids to use “I”, “you”, etc. and tries to describes the things as a third-party viewer.
Azuma1997: Informal papers generally are more interesting for reading and consist of many subjective opinions. For example, “If you do not have an acceptable answer to this question, then don't get a Ph.D. I repeat: if you do not have a rock-solid reason for getting the Ph.D., then it is better that you leave with a Master's. Why? Completing a Ph.D. is a long, hard road with many potholes and washed out bridges along the way. You may run over some land mines and have to stop and turn around and explore other routes. If the goal is important enough to you, then these obstacles will not prevent you from completing your journey. But if you don't know why you are on this road, then you will get discouraged and will probably leave without finishing, having wasted years of your life. ” In the above example, the author writes the paragraph like he is talking to you directly which never happens in formal writing.
Style
Do the two texts include colloquialisms and casual expressions? Provide some examples.
Kim2006: This article does not include colloquialisms and casual expressions.
Azuma1997: This article is full of those words and expressions. The example given above demonstrates this very well.
Reference to Others’ Ideas
What conventions do the two texts use to refer to others’ ideas? What’s the purpose of the citations in each text? What determines the citation style used in each text?
Kim2006: This article refers others’ work a lot and follows the formal way to put citation in the text. The purpose of the citations is mainly to provide arguments developed by other researchers and proof materials for its own arguments.
Azuma1997: This article almost does not refer any others’ work except providing further reading at the end.
Vocabulary
How does the vocabulary used in the two texts differ? Discuss the differences in detail and provide concrete examples.
Kim2006: this article uses formal vocabulary, such as “examine”, “concern”, “consider”, “explore”, “conduct”, and “perception”.
Azuma1997: this article uses casual words, such as “toil and sweat”, “strike”, “magically”, “star graduate student”, “rock-solid”, and “soul searching”.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Homework of Jan 24th, 2008
EAV Chapter 1
4B:
1)Scientists always analyze their data before writing up the results of their research.
2)We conceptualize the idea for the project after discussing it in our group.
3)Our ability to find a good job after graduation will depend on some extent on the strength of the economy.
4)We are encouraged by our professors to formulize and express out own opinions.
5)You need two forms of personal identification.
6)Although the members of our study group have individual learning styles, we all work well together.
7)Most students change their majors at least once during their undergraduate studies.
8)There was a strange occurrence in the dorm last night when all the lights suddenly went out.
9)It is normal for first-year students to experience periodic homesickness during their first semester away from home.
10)Our professor specifically said to turn in the assignment on Thursday.
11)Students often find it difficult to understand their classmates’ editorial comments when they are peer reviewing an essay.
5.
1)Student can gain considerable benefits from learning to work together.
2)Our assignment was to define the general concepts in Chapter 10 of the textbook.
3)Our group project is to study environmental data on annual rainfall in our state.
4)I could not find the correct formula to complete this calculation.
5)When Bill performed a careful analysis of his project, he realized that he had made a mistake.
6)In our first class, the professor introduced the basic concepts of the course.
7)In our group project for Business 101, we have to analyze the financial data of a major company.
8)We should carry out a brief analysis of the topic before we spend a lot of time on it.
9)I expect to gain substantial benefits from my degree program.
10)Our group found a successful formula for identifying the chemicals.
6A: g, j, a, f, b, k, c, d, h, e, i
6B:
1)poor visibility
2)visitation rights
3)visiting hours
4)visual aid
5)visible to the naked eye
6)visiting professor
7)20/20 vision
8)visually impaired
7A: 6, 2, 1, 5, 3, 4
7B (1):
Based on my experience of team work, the best part is that you can get a lot of thoughts from other teammates for the same topic. Every individual may have totally different angle to look at the same problem, thus can provide a much broader view about the problem than your own and figure out the approach more quickly.
If the project workload is evenly and clearly distributed among the team and each team member takes his/her part seriously, the project can be efficiently carried out and each member can benefit from other teammates. However, if some members are lazy and do not do their jobs, the cooperation in the team may be damaged. Firstly, some parts of the project are not finished and then the whole project may be influences. Secondly, those teammates who deal with their parts seriously may feel unfair and do not like to put the same energy as before. Hence, in order to make all teammates of the same project cooperative, open discussion and commitment are very important. Otherwise, the efficiency of a team will be even less than a capable individual.
4B:
1)Scientists always analyze their data before writing up the results of their research.
2)We conceptualize the idea for the project after discussing it in our group.
3)Our ability to find a good job after graduation will depend on some extent on the strength of the economy.
4)We are encouraged by our professors to formulize and express out own opinions.
5)You need two forms of personal identification.
6)Although the members of our study group have individual learning styles, we all work well together.
7)Most students change their majors at least once during their undergraduate studies.
8)There was a strange occurrence in the dorm last night when all the lights suddenly went out.
9)It is normal for first-year students to experience periodic homesickness during their first semester away from home.
10)Our professor specifically said to turn in the assignment on Thursday.
11)Students often find it difficult to understand their classmates’ editorial comments when they are peer reviewing an essay.
5.
1)Student can gain considerable benefits from learning to work together.
2)Our assignment was to define the general concepts in Chapter 10 of the textbook.
3)Our group project is to study environmental data on annual rainfall in our state.
4)I could not find the correct formula to complete this calculation.
5)When Bill performed a careful analysis of his project, he realized that he had made a mistake.
6)In our first class, the professor introduced the basic concepts of the course.
7)In our group project for Business 101, we have to analyze the financial data of a major company.
8)We should carry out a brief analysis of the topic before we spend a lot of time on it.
9)I expect to gain substantial benefits from my degree program.
10)Our group found a successful formula for identifying the chemicals.
6A: g, j, a, f, b, k, c, d, h, e, i
6B:
1)poor visibility
2)visitation rights
3)visiting hours
4)visual aid
5)visible to the naked eye
6)visiting professor
7)20/20 vision
8)visually impaired
7A: 6, 2, 1, 5, 3, 4
7B (1):
Based on my experience of team work, the best part is that you can get a lot of thoughts from other teammates for the same topic. Every individual may have totally different angle to look at the same problem, thus can provide a much broader view about the problem than your own and figure out the approach more quickly.
If the project workload is evenly and clearly distributed among the team and each team member takes his/her part seriously, the project can be efficiently carried out and each member can benefit from other teammates. However, if some members are lazy and do not do their jobs, the cooperation in the team may be damaged. Firstly, some parts of the project are not finished and then the whole project may be influences. Secondly, those teammates who deal with their parts seriously may feel unfair and do not like to put the same energy as before. Hence, in order to make all teammates of the same project cooperative, open discussion and commitment are very important. Otherwise, the efficiency of a team will be even less than a capable individual.
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