- •Государственное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования «Сибирский государственный аэрокосмический университет
- •Preface
- •Credits
- •Table of contents
- •Unit 1 what is science?
- •Part 1: principles of effective reading
- •Skimming: for getting the gist of something
- •Detailed reading: for extracting information accurately
- •Text a the discovery of X-rays
- •Text b call for tolerance towards some 'stem cell tourism'
- •Text c general guidelines
- •Part 2: oral or written?
- •Group 1
- •The academic audience
- •Levels of formality
- •The range of formality Technical → Formal → Informal → Colloquial
- •Part 3: what is science?
- •What is science?
- •Part 4: technology: pros & cons
- •Part 5:listening for academic purposes
- •The Computer Jungle
- •Unit 2 science to life: between the lines
- •Part 1: how effectively can you read?
- •Reading skills for academic study
- •Using the title
- •Part 2: paragraph development and topic sentences
- •Text a Science and Technology
- •Text c Research: Fundamental and Applied, and the Public
- •Part 3: scientists' brain drain Task 16. You are going to read a magazine article (Text a). Choose the most suitable heading from the list (1 – 9) for each part (a – j) of an article
- •Text a highlights of the north
- •Text b bio tech brain drain: are too many talented scientists leaving the southeast?
- •Part 4 reading skills for success
- •Reading skills for success: a guide to academic texts
- •Collocations
- •Part 5: listening for academic purposes
- •Going Digital: The Future of College Textbooks?
- •Part 6: grammar review sentence structure
- •1. Simple sentence:
- •2. Compound sentence:
- •3. Complex sentence:
- •Unit 3 order of importance
- •Part 1 academic vocabulary
- •C a social occasion to which people are invited in order to eat, drink and enjoy themselves
- •A a way of dealing with a problem, an answer
- •Part 2 Coherence
- •The importance of stupidity in scientific research
- •Consumerism is 'eating the future'
- •Now fly me to the asteroids as well
- •Cohesion: Using Repetition and Reference Words to Emphasize Key Ideas in Your Writing
- •Repetition of Key Words
- •Rotation may solve cosmic mystery
- •Part 3 writing & speaking fundamentals
- •Article 1 shapefile technical description
- •Article 2
- •Article 3
- •Article 4 disposable containers for a disposable society
- •Article 5 knowledge, theory, and classification
- •The table of the useful vocabulary
- •Part 4: listening for academic purposes
- •Part 5:grammar review (punctuation)
- •Unit 4 matter of perspectives
- •Part 1 mistakes and negligence
- •Text a mistakes and negligence
- •(1) Changing Knowledge
- •(2) Discovering an Error
- •Part 2 Comparison and Contrast
- •Part 3 listening for academic purposes
- •Recognising lecture structure
- •1. Introducing
- •Unit 5 research misconduct
- •A Breach of Trust
- •Task 4. Study the second case.
- •Treatment of Misconduct by a Journal
- •Part 2 reading skills for academic study: note-taking
- •How to take notes
- •Part 3 preparing an abstract
- •Abstract 1 The hydrodynamics of dolphin drafting
- •Abstract 2 Recomputing Coverage Information to Assist Regression Testing
- •Abstract 3 Methods for determining best multispectral bands using hyper spectral data
- •Abstracts and introductions compared
- •Introduction
- •Introduction
- •Text a The Biosphere: Its Definition, Evolution and Possible Future
- •Introduction
- •Text b The Environment: Problems and Solution
- •Text d The Biosphere: Natural, Man-Disturbed and Man-Initiated Cycles
- •Part 4 listening for academic purposes Giving background information
- •Showing importance/Emphasising
- •Unit 6 finding meaning in literature
- •The Selection of Data
- •Lexical & grammar review
- •Part 2 avoiding plagiarism
- •3. Plagiarism!
- •4. Plagiarism is bad!!
- •5. The importance of recognizing the plagiarism
- •Is It Plagiarism?
- •Part 3 evaluating sources
- •Sample mla Annotation
- •Sample apa Annotation
- •Task 22. Analyse an extract of the following annotated bibliography. Define its format.
- •Ethics in the physical sciences course outline and reference books
- •Philosophy
- •The life of a scientist
- •Ethics for scientists
- •A few cautionary notes on saving Web materials
- •Unit 7 writing & publishing Objectives
- •Part 1 sharing of research results
- •The Race to Publish
- •Part 2 how to read an academic article
- •Article 1
- •50 Million chemicals and counting
- •Article 2 sun is setting on incandescent era
- •How to read a scientific article
- •Part 3 how to write an academic article
- •Publication Practices
- •Restrictions on Peer Review and the Flow of Scientific Information
- •Guidelines for Writing a Scientific Article
- •Part 4 listening for academic purposes
Part 2: paragraph development and topic sentences
Choose a singular focus
Each paragraph should have a clear, singular focus to it. If there is an overriding error students make in writing, it is shifting topics within the same paragraph, rather than continuing to develop the same idea they began with. A paragraph is a discrete unit of thought that expands one specific idea, not three or four. If you find yourself shifting gears to start a new topic, begin a new paragraph instead.
Someone once compared the beginning of a new paragraph to the changing angle of a wall. When the angle of the wall changes, a new wall begins. Let your paragraphs be like that wall: running straight along a certain angle, and beginning anew when the angle changes.
Begin with a topic sentence
Nothing will help you keep a tighter focus on your paragraphs than topic sentences. A topic sentence is generally the first sentence of the paragraph, and it describes the claim or point of the paragraph, thus orienting the reader to the purpose of the paragraph. When you use topic sentences, your reader will invariably find it easier to follow your thoughts and argument. As an example, look at the first sentences of each paragraph on this page. The entire paragraph is focused around the stated topic sentence. Additionally, headings are used to make it even clearer and easier to follow. If you're writing a long research essay (10 + pages), you might consider using headings.
A topic sentence is a sentence whose main idea or claim controls the rest of the paragraph; the body of a paragraph explains, develops or supports with evidence the topic sentence's main idea or claim. The topic sentence is usually the first sentence of a paragraph, but not necessarily. It may come, for example, after a transition sentence; it may even come at the end of a paragraph.
Topic sentences are not the only way to organize a paragraph, and not all paragraphs need a topic sentence. For example, paragraphs that describe, narrate, or detail the steps in an experiment do not usually need topic sentences. Topic sentences are useful, however, in paragraphs that analyze and argue. Topic sentences are particularly useful for writers who have difficulty developing focused, unified paragraphs (i.e., writers who tend to sprawl). Topic sentences help these writers develop a main idea or claim for their paragraphs, and, perhaps most importantly, they help these writers stay focused and keep paragraphs manageable.
Topic sentences are also useful to readers because they guide them through sometimes complex arguments. Many well-known, experienced writers effectively use topic sentences to bridge between paragraphs.
Develop the idea
Invariably students shift topics and lose focus within their paragraphs because they do not know how to adequately develop their ideas. They usually know the paragraph needs to be longer, but they don't know how to expand their idea to fill that length. Indeed a paragraph should be at least half a page long, but usually no more than one page. How, then, if you don't have enough to say, do you fill that paragraph length? Instead of broadening the focus, which will only be another form of topic shifting, try implementing these techniques for development:
illustrate your idea with examples
give an authoritative quotation
anticipate and respond to counterarguments
back your ideas with more evidence
offer another perspective to the idea
brainstorm more insights about the idea
elaborate on causes/effects, definitions, comparison/contrasts
(http://www1.aucegypt.edu/academic/writers/paragraphs.htm)
Task 8. Look through Text A concentrating on the beginning of each paragraph (to be done in class and continued at home).