2. How to begin writing a paper?
• Setting the goal: expository essay
• Topic: choose a particular world area for the
Introduction to Area Studies and the Areas course
• Brainstorming: generating ideas, and then narrowing
the topic to the specific perspective you would like to
explore in your paper
• Scope: the amount of detail will depend on the length
of your paper and the knowledge of your audience
Do task 9, p. 63
Academic Language Centre
3. Developing your topic (1):
Read actively (and efficiently):
1.Read critically
2.Look at the structure of the tekst
3.Read the topic sentences
4.Understand and interpret the author’s message
5.Analyse how it relates to your topic
6.Develop your own response to the author’s
message
Do task 10, p. 65
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4. Developing your topic (2):
Take notes while you are reading, and include:
Bibliographic information
Sources, page numbers
Paraphrase the author’s message, unless you
want to quote verbatim
Use the chart on p. 67
Do task 12, on p. 67; task 14 on p. 69; and task 21
on p. 79.
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5. Paraphrasing:
• Find synonyms using a thesaurus
• Find antonyms
• Change the grammar (passive to active voice,
and vice versa)
However,
a much better strategy is to write an outline
with key and supporting points, put the
original away, and write down what you have
understood.
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6. More on register
• Anglo-Saxon verbs are informal, and easy to
recognise (all are irregular)
• Latinate words were introduced after 1066,
when French was the language of the courts
(royal and legal). This was therefore the
formal language.
Do task 22 on p. 82; task 23 on p. 83; task 26 on
p. 85 (if time).
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7. Types of peer feedback
• Directive feedback, suggesting a specific
change
• Praise, a positive description of something the
author has done well
• Summary comments review main points of a
text (organisation, clarity, etc.)
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Editor's Notes
cf. p. 64
Sometimes it is so obvious to a university teacher that a student cannot possibly have written such a beautiful piece themelves, so try and google a sentence. – that ’s what students do ! Many universities have plagiarism detection programmes on a computer which highlight all the sentences and phrases that have been lifted from other sources, so the best strategy to use is the last one. They usually allow up to 10 %; between 10 and 20% is regarded as suspicious and students will be given a warning; more than 20% and students will be expelled straight away.
