Say what you want to do … do it … say what you have done

Basic Outline:

1. Introduction and thesis statement (Say what you want to do)

1. Before writing you must have a thesis statement. This is one sentence announcing the central idea of the paper. It must be specific. This statement should sum up the basic meaning of the paper and signal to the reader what to expect.

2. The first sentence is the most important one because it gets the reader’s attention.

3. The first paragraph is very important. It should make the reader want to continue reading.

2. The body of the paper (Do it)

1. Each paragraph should deal with one central idea. This idea is introduced early in a topic sentence, telling the reader what to expect in the paragraph.

2. It is not enough to simply state ideas, you must support them. By giving evidence, you convince readers of the truth and accuracy of your ideas. If you successfully prove your statements, the reader should agree with your conclusion.

3. As a writer, you must structure the sequence of ideas carefully and logically. Transitions between paragraphs link them together logically.

3. Conclusion (Say what you have done)

1. Restates the thesis and main points supporting it. In the conclusion, the writer should give some new ideas or information to challenge the reader to think further [3].

Exercise 12. Apply the requirements from Peter Timman’s article to the theses given below and rewrite them if necessary.

1. Role of marketing in modern society

Nikolay P. Maslov

Siberian Transport University

Our modern society, we live in, is the world of goods and services. It is a Multiplan picture with the consumer in the center, who has needs, requirements and inquiries, which he tries to satisfy with goods. The chain can be prolonged: exchange – bargain – market and finally marketing. Marketing is an aspect of human activity directed for meeting the needs and wants wherewith an interchanging.

The US economy is perceived and studied all over the world as the most powerful so its marketing conception is an example for research and study.

Marketing harms to the individual consumers, society as a whole and other commercial enterprises wherewith: heavy prices, use of misleading receptions, use of press goods on methods, sale of substandard or unsafe in usage goods etc. Marketing influences society as a whole: erosion of culture, excessive political influence on business, necessary goods shortage, etc. Marketing influences executives: narrowing competitiveness merges artificial barriers for the new firms at the market and an injurious competitiveness.

The citizens can regulate marketing. Mass public anti-enterprise movements (consumerism and movement for environment protection) appeared with the purpose to stop it.

In our days the majority of firms recognized all new rights won by the consumers (marketing with orientation to the consumer, innovative marketing, marketing of value dignities, marketing with comprehension of public mission), thus the concept of social and ethic aspects of marketing was organized.

Each figure of marketing should produce basic principles of Victorian behavior for him - moral principles of his marketing. Some forms of out-of-shop trade in retail are marketing’s receptions: retail trade with the order of the goods by mail or by telephone and peddler. Great changes of marketing are TV, Internet, etc.

B. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Evgheny Bukhgammer

Siberian Transport University

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Textbooks define the field as “the study and design of intelligent agents”, where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”.

The problem of simulating (or creating) intelligence has been broken down into a number of specific sub-problems. These consist of particular traits or capabilities that researchers would like an intelligent system to display. The traits described below have received the most attention: ddeduction, reasoning and problem solving

Early AI researchers developed algorithms that imitated the step-by-step reasoning that human beings use when they solve puzzles, play board games or make logical deductions. By the late 80s and 90s, AI research had also developed highly successful methods for dealing with uncertain or incomplete information, employing concepts from probability and economics. For difficult problems, most of these algorithms can require enormous computational resources - most experience a “combinatorial explosion”: the amount of memory or computer time required becomes astronomical when the problem goes beyond a certain size. The search for more efficient problem solving algorithms is a high priority for AI research.

Human beings solve most of their problems using fast, intuitive judgments rather than the conscious, step-by-step deduction that early AI research was able to model. AI has made some progress at imitating this kind of “sub-symbolic” problem solving: embodied approaches emphasize the importance of sensorimotor skills to higher reasoning; neural net research attempts to simulate the structures inside human and animal brains that give rise to this skill.

Exercise 13. Compare the following passages and say which outline format is correct. Why?