COMMUNICATION

AND
STUDY SKILLS

FACULTY OF HUMANITIES

COMMUNICATION AND STUDY SKILLS UNIT

(CSSU)

National University of Lesotho 2016/2017

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 Table of Contents

Chapter Title Page

Introduction

Chapter 1 Defining Study Skills 7

Chapter 2 Listening in Lectures 13

Chapter 3 Referencing/Citation Skills 17

Chapter 4 End-text Referencing/Citations 29

Chapter 5 Continuous Writing/Academic Style 46

Chapter 6 Paragraph Writing Skills 57

Chapter 7 Essay Writing Skills 64

Chapter 8 Writing a Descriptive Essay 68

Chapter 9 Writing an Argumentative Essay 74

Chapter 10 Word Classes 84

Chapter 11 The Sentence 92

Chapter 12 Reading Skills 107

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 Introduction
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HIGH SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY

High school and university vary in a number of ways. Differences include

the ways in which subjects are organised and delivered. One of the main
expectations is that students will work independently faced with more
extensive reading and more sophisticated research requirements.

1. Introduction
Making the transition from a controlled learning environment such as high school to a
university learning environment, with its focus on self-responsibility, can be a big
challenge. It is definitely not the case of ‘more of the same’! Breaking down the process
into parts will help you to make sense of what you need to recognise and to implement.

Classes
At High School ... At University ...
 Class size is usually less than 30  Classes (lectures) can be enormous
students and normally involves with over 200+ students.
face-to-face classroom-based  Classes can take a variety of formats
teaching. such as lectures, tutorials and/or lab
 Your timetable is fixed by the work.
school.  Contact hours vary from course to
course.
Subjects
At High School ... At University ...
 Content reflects a structured  Content is more dynamic and will go
textbook-focused curriculum. beyond an assigned textbook.
 Teachers will tell you what the  There is a broader range of electives
most important information and beyond your core courses.
ideas are.  You have greater responsibility for
 There is a limited range of elective extracting the main information and
subjects. ideas by yourself.
Time Management
At High School ... At University ...
 Your study schedule is partly  You are solely responsible for
arranged and managed for you. arranging and managing your own
study schedule.

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Learning Environment
At High School ... At University ...
 Teachers will give detailed  Formal teaching such as lectures,
information about homework and tutorials and lab work takes up less of
expected out-of-class learning your learning time.
activities.  There are no formal end-of-semester
 Teachers will issue reminders reports for parents.
about assignment due dates.  You are expected to know your
 Your learning time is mostly taken course deadlines.
up by lessons.  You are treated as an adult who is
 Your progress is regularly fully responsible for their own
monitored by your teachers and learning and progress.
formalised in end-of-term reports  You are expected to self-direct your
to parents. own study. A good ratio is 1:3. That
is, for every timetabled hour, you
should do 3 hours of self-directed
study.
Responsibilities
At High School ... At University ...
 Less freedom: you must attend  Lecturers will not normally chase
classes. non-attendees.
 The school is responsible for  More choice: you can skip class. The
checking-up on your attendance. responsibility is yours. (Note:
attendance can be an assessable
component of some courses).
Contact
At High School ... At University ...
 Teaching staff know your name.  Teaching staff are not readily
 Teaching staff are available to available, so you will need to initiate
discuss your progress with you and consultations with them.
your parents.  Laws prevent teaching staff from
disclosing information about your
progress to your parents.
Feedback
At High School ... At University ...
 Feedback may be a part of your  Feedback can be infrequent.
assignment drafting process  Feedback is often given only after the
(formative feedback). final assignment is submitted
 You often receive frequent (summative feedback).
feedback from your teachers  Marking criteria can vary from course
without having to request it. to course.

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Preparing Assignments
At High School ... At University ...
 Assignments tend to be shorter and  Assignments tend to be longer and
more frequent. less frequent.
 Teachers might ask for your drafts.  You are expected to critically engage
 Your reproduction of core with the subject matter, but there is
‘knowledge’ is valued, with limited recognition that you will improve
consideration of alternative with greater practice.
perspectives.  Your assignment schedule is
frequently given out in advance for
the whole semester.
Assessment
At High School ... At University ...
 Frequently, there is a smaller range  Grading scales can vary between
of assessment types. faculties, programmes and courses.
 Teachers follow the same grading  There are more varied assessment
scales. types and this can include short and
long-term assessment.
Research Requirements
At High School ... At University ...
 Exact readings are normally  You are expected to research using a
determined by your teachers, wide range of purely academic
usually based on a set textbooks. sources only, such as electronic
 Teachers distribute photocopies. databases and journals.
 Your research is normally based on  You may receive long reading lists
a narrow range of ‘general’ sources and need to purchase different books
such as internet search engines and for different courses.
generic magazine or newspaper  You make your own photocopies that
articles. are normally at your own expense.
Examinations
At High School ... At University ...
 Final school examinations are  Examinations are marked internally.
marked externally.  Examinations may include open-book
 Normally, examinations are the and take-home types.
closed-book type.  Supplementary examinations can be
taken in certain cases.
Referencing
At High School ... At University ...
 You are normally required to  You are expected to be 100%
provide a final reference list, rather accurate in both in-text and end-text
than indicate references within your referencing techniques, as appropriate
text to show where each piece of use of referencing is highly valued in
information was sourced from. terms of substantiating your academic
work and avoiding plagiarism.

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 1.1Tips to help you bridge the gap between high school and
university
(a) Note that you are entering a different learning environment, thus now
experiencing the transitional process to which you should adjust with
patience.
(b) Do not assume that high marks at school are equated with high marks at
university. The marking criteria can require different levels of
understanding and synthesis.
(c) Learn how to use the library properly, as the Wikipedia, as a resource, is
often frowned on because of its editorial flaws.
(d) Learn to prioritise your studies; otherwise, time management issues could
become problematic for you.
(e) Read your course guides carefully. Your course co-ordinators, lecturers
and tutors will assume that you have done this.
(f) Note that you can change things, but you will need to be proactive,
without having to wait for others to offer help or support.
(g) Keep to regular exercise and good nutrition as basic requirements for
success in your studies.
(h) Remember that learning is more open-ended in a university context, and
that your independence in the learning environment is highly valued.
(i) Studying at university is not like a 9.00 am-5.00 pm job, so you will need
to be flexible in your study patterns.
(j) Avoid studying for hours-on-end without breaks. Take time out to
recharge your batteries.

1.2Useful Resources
There are many other resources, both local and international, which give valuable
information about experiencing the transition from high school to a university
learning environment. These include the use of electronic sources, comprised of
scholarly websites often based at universities as in the University of New South
Wales. Forming part of the virtual library such resources normally gives very
useful information on a wide range of knowledge and skills developed at
university. To find information students could visit the websites, among others,
with the following server names/extensions:

First Steps: A beginner’s guide to university

 http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/firststeps/differ.html

This Deakin University website follows a tabular model and gives some detailed
distinctions between school and university.

From secondary school to university

 http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/study-support/new-students/secondary-
sch

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 CHAPTER 1

DEFINING STUDY SKILLS

1.0 Introduction to Study Skills

This chapter is intended to provide students with evidence-based information to
support positive learning outcomes through exposure to a variety of study skills. Each
section represents a particular study skill or learning strategy. It contains a brief
introduction that defines the study skills in question and a selection of reprinted
resources that describe strategies known to increase the likelihood of student success
in the area.

1.1Why are study skills important?

Study skills are learning strategies that help students to organise, process, and use
information effectively. Because students need help not just with what they learn but
also with how they learn it, this chapter makes study skills instruction, together with
tutoring and dropout prevention one of the basic elements of student learning
programme at university. These skills are important not just for academic learning,
but also for everyday life. They can help students to be organised and successful
lifelong learners and manage their academic and professional lives.

Study skills can be especially critical for students with learning disabilities, who may
have difficulty staying focused and become discouraged by lack of success
(Beckman, 2002). When students attribute failure to internal factors, such as lack of
ability, or external factors, such as bad luck, their self-confidence suffers and they see
effort as futile (Peirce, 2004). Mastering the skills for studying and learning increases
students self-efficacy and empowers them to change their approaches and try
different learning strategies.

Signs that students need help developing study skills include spending too much time
on studying, taking class notes that are difficult to understand or contain wrong
information, procrastinating about large projects or tasks, being unable to identify or
recall important ideas in texts. Students and lecturers can use the checklist provided
by the Study Skills Guide to identify students dire needs or learning problems and
possible solutions.

1.2 Learning how to learn

Study skills are processes of meta-cognition, which is self-awareness of one’s
thinking and learning. Learners who are able to step back and monitor their thinking
and learning are able to use strategies for finding out or figuring out what they need to
do (Anderson, 2002). Research shows that students who are strategic learners –

(a) Know there are multiple ways to do things

(b) Have increased self-esteem
(c) Become more responsible
(d) Improve completion and accuracy of their work

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 (e) Are more engaged in learning
(f) Improve performance (Beckman, 2002)

Strategic learners find appropriate strategies to apply to specific subjects. Werger (2002)
gives examples for the study of math and Cohen (2005) for second language learning.

Types of study skills

Components of meta-cognition include:
(a) preparing to learn;
(b) acquiring, processing, and retaining information;
(c) applying what has been learned; and
(d) monitoring and evaluating strategy use and learning

Each of these categories involves study skills that can be explicitly taught.

1.3 Preparing and planning for learning

Preparing and planning for learning encompasses both physical (environment,
tools) and mental (attitudes, goals, priorities) aspects. Skills that help students
prepare to learn include:

(a) Organising one’s work by using agenda books, homework

planners, and notebooks.
(b) Managing time by developing schedules, prioritising tasks, and using
checklists.
(c) Arranging the physical environment, including finding a place that
is free of distractions, and choosing a time of day that works best for
the individual student. The chapter also suggests ways students can
organise their personal space for studying.

1.4Acquiring, processing, and retaining information

Effective learners systematically obtain, organise, and retain information,
beginning with good library and Internet search skills. Because individuals
have different learning styles, teachers should offer a variety of the following
strategies for students to explore and discover which work best for them. •
Effective reading is critical to acquiring information. The Word Identification
Strategy (Bremer et al., 2002) is a technique that helps readers to decode and
identify unfamiliar words. The Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review
(SQ3R) method described by the NCTN (n.d.) is a systematic approach that
helps students to discover and retain important ideas in texts.

(a) Effective listening in class is equally important. The NCTN reviews good
and bad listening habits that influence learning.

(b) Taking good notes enables review and retention of the material covered
in class. The NCTN’s note-taking tips begin with active listening and

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 describe the use of keywords and graphic symbols to make notes
personally meaningful.

(c) Outlining and summarising help learners see relationships between

concepts. Graphic organizers such as concept maps, story maps, and
relationship charts are strategies that visual learners might prefer to
remember content. Certain textbooks on study skills define and gives
examples of graphic organisers.

(d) Memory aids such as mnemonics and acronyms can assist verbal learners
(Beckman, 2002). The Study Skills Guide is also designed to help students
with disabilities, particularly visually-impaired students, thus helping them
to translate the skills into BRAILLE.

1.5 Applying learning

Students demonstrate and apply what they have learned in writing
assignments, oral presentations, and tests. Successful test-taking requires both
content knowledge (understanding of the material being covered) and
procedural knowledge (how to take tests).

(a) The test-taking strategies from a variety of study skills are described in
this study guide as tips for taking different kinds of examinations, such as
essay and multiple-choice questions.

(b) Learning is also demonstrated through problem solving. Solve It! is an

example of a strategic approach to mathematical problem solving (Warger,
2002).

1.6 Monitoring and evaluating

A key meta-cognitive process is self-monitoring. Anderson (2002) suggests
that, while using study strategies, students periodically ask themselves:

(a) What am I trying to accomplish?

(b) How well am I using this strategy?
(c) What else could I do to accomplish this task?

Skimming, Scanning and Close reading are monitoring and planning

strategies described in this chapter

1.7 Approaching study skills

This study skills guide describes an eight-step instructional sequence: Pretest,
Describe, Model, Practice, Post-test, and Generalization. The Study Skills
Guide will assist students by offering the following questions:

Explain the strategy and its purpose:

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 (a) why it is important?
(b) when and how do students use it?
(c) model its use, showing how to perform it and when it has the best chance
of success.
(d) provide time for assisted practice.
(e) promote self-monitoring so that students become aware of how a strategy
is or is not working for them.

1.8 Getting the best out of yourself

You have been selected for university studies because you have shown that you possess
the potential to succeed academically. It is now up to you to develop that potential to the
best of your ability. To do this, you will need to develop positive attitudes to yourself and
your studies, and effective ways of organising and performing your studies. This will be
easier if you understand the answers to the following questions:

1. What kind of student am I?

A B
I know what time(s) of a day I I study whenever I can.
think best and that’s when I schedule
my studies.

 Below are the pieces of advice that you need to consider in order to succeed
in your tertiary education.

1. Time
Study yourself for a week or two. Notice at which times of day you are most
mentally alert. Try to plan your study to coincide with these times.

2. Food
If, like most students, you have a tight budget, you need to plan your meals and
know something of nutrition in order to eat a balanced diet. Ask your student
counselor for advice. Try to begin the day with a nutritious breakfast. Avoid
heavy meals, especially in hot weather, as it is difficult to concentrate after eating
that.

3. Exercise
Regular moderate exercise can reduce tension and improve your concentration by
making you more alert.

4. Sleep
Different people need different amounts of sleep, so do not assume that your
needs are the same as your friends’. Notice how your performance in your studies
varies according to the amount of sleep you have had. If you sometimes find it

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 hard to concentrate and feel bad-tempered and unable to deal with minor
difficulties, does this usually happen after you have had less sleep than usual? If
it does, the solution is obvious.

5. Responsibility
As indicated earlier, you are responsible for getting as much as you can out of
tertiary education. If your learning style and a lecturer’s instructional style are
incompatible, it is up to you to find a solution, either through discussion with the
lecturer, or by finding alternative sources of ideas and information. If the lecturer
(correctly) thinks that you are responsible for your learning, and you (incorrectly)
think it is the lecturer who is responsible, it is clear that nobody feels responsible.
In these circumstances, your chances of learning are pretty slim.

6. Success
Make sure that your expectations of success in your studies are firmly founded on
effectively-organised hard work. Do not base your hopes on chance, muti or lucky
charms; they do not work/help.

7. Self-confidence
In some cultures, thinking highly of yourself is regarded as being shameful. In the
academic culture, the opposite is true. Strong self-confidence is recognized as
being a major factor in determining success. Students who feel good about
themselves, and who have high expectations of success, are likely to perform
well. On the other hand, students with a low opinion of themselves, and who are
overly concerned about what others think of them, are likely to perform as badly
as they expect. Self-confidence is not arrogance; it allows you to engage in
healthy self-criticism. It enables you to establish your own standards, values and
goals; it helps you to gain the maximum benefit from your opportunities; and it
gives you the resilience to overcome the setbacks that everyone experiences from
time to time.

8. Self-improvement
Self-criticism is positive when it is accompanied by self-confidence. It allows you
to recognise your weaknesses, which is an essential step in the process of
overcoming them.

9. Mistakes
Your own mistakes and other students’ are useful to you. They help to clear up
misunderstandings by bringing them to your attention. Good students are those
who are willing to share their ideas with others and risk being wrong. Students
who contribute to group discussions only when they are certain they are correct
do little to advance the learning of the group. This is something that students who
laugh at the contributions of others would do well to remember.

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10. Getting help
Students who try to hide their difficulties from their lecturers do not understand
that the lecturers are there to help them, not just to assess them. Your lecturers are
important learning resources. Get all the help from them as much as you can,
when it is appropriate. It will be too late when you are being assessed.

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 CHAPTER 2

LISTENING IN LECTURES
2.0 Introduction
Listening to the lecture should take priority over note taking. If you listen effectively, you
will have a better understanding of the lecture content which will enable you to write
clear, helpful notes that will make sense to you after the lecture.

2.1Listening for structure

As you listen to a lecture, try to focus on the structure of the lecture content. Sometimes
the structure is laid out for you at the beginning of a lecture, either as a list of headings or
as a potted summary of the content. Make a note of this structure straight away, it will
give you a sense of direction, enabling you to anticipate points or take up the thread of
information again should you get lost. During a lecture, a speaker may structure their
material by using verbal signposts such as:

"I shall now discuss..."; "My next point is......"; "Finally...".

These signposts identify a new point and you can show this in your notes accordingly.
Other signposts include:

(a) pausing to indicate a new point or heading

(b) summarising what has been said prior to moving on.

There are other, less obvious linguistic signposts which can help you structure your notes;
you will need to listen for these. Examples include:

"On the other hand...."; "Others have argued..." ; "Turning now to...".

Certain words and phrases will indicate that an illustration is being given:

"an example of this is..."; "this can be seen when...."; "evidence for this
can be found in...".

Your ability to listen will improve with experience. You will be better able to spot
digressions or additional examples and highlight these in your notes.

2.2 Taking notes

Avoid taking too many detailed notes. A dense transcript will be difficult to work with at
a later stage. The following techniques will help you make structured, useful notes. There
are different methods of taking notes from lectures. These include:

2.2.1 Using structure in your notes

(a) Use headings to order information.
(b) Give each point a new line or number it.

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 (c) Highlight examples and illustrations.
(d) Separate digressions from the main points.

2.2.2 Using your own words

Putting each point in your own words will help you understand and recall the lecture
content. Remember to:
(a) copy down important quotations or examples word for word.
(b) separate quotations and examples from your own words
(c) record points you don't understand in the lecturer's words adding a question
mark as a reminder to follow the point up later.

2.2.3 Using fewer words

(a) Reduce the number of words you use in taking notes: detailed notes are of
little use in remembering facts and ideas.
(b) Use keywords to represent points or ideas briefly.
(c) Add brief details of any examples or evidence that support a point.

2.2.4 Using abbreviations

(a) Use standard abbreviations and subject specific abbreviations.
(b) Make up your own abbreviations for common words, but be sure to be
consistent.
(c) Do not use so many abbreviations that your notes become a shorthand
transcript; continue using your own words.

(d) Some of the most common Latinate abbreviations used in scholarly writing
are:
Anon. ed.
MS. MSS. tr. Trans.
C/ca. et al.
op. cit. vide
Cf. Ibid
Passim viz

2.2.5 Using space

(a) Show structure in your notes e.g. putting each point on a new line.
(b) Leave gaps for additions or corrections at a later date.
(c) Make notes easier to read and review by using space to separate the points.

2.2.6 Using colour and image

(a) Categorise points under colour coded headings.
(b) Highlight in colour any points you want to remember.

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 (c) Use images or diagrams as a quick way of describing a concept or idea.
(d) You may want to consider using a diagrammatic style of note taking for
lectures.

2.2.7 Using handouts

Lecturers use handouts to help you follow the lecture and to highlight important
information. You can maximise the benefits of handouts by adding your own comments
by:

(a) highlighting keywords.

(b) adding colour to categorise information.
(c) adding notes in the margin.

2.3Organising your notes

(a) A4 paper stored in a ring binder with dividers is the most practical system for
organising notes.
(b) Begin each lecture with a clear heading of the lecture title, date and name of
the lecturer.
(c) Number the pages clearly so they can be easily kept in order later on.

2.4Following up lectures
Do not be afraid to ask a lecturer for clarification either in the lecture or afterwards,
especially if the lecturer invites questions. Use seminars and tutorials to clarify or discuss
material from the lectures. Review your notes as soon as possible after a lecture. Make
the most of your review by:

(a) highlighting points which seem particularly important or central

(b) adding any details which you can remember from the lecture
(c) showing links between points
(d) correcting any mistakes
(e) adding questions to highlight areas you don't understand or need further
information on.

2.5Overcoming problems
The following are some of the problems encountered by students in note-taking:
(a) Failing concentration: You are much less likely to find your concentration
straying when you use an active approach to note-taking. Putting points into
your own words, using space, colour and image, will make note taking a busy
but interesting activity. If you miss some points because your attention strays,
then just leave a space in your notes and check it out with the lecturer or
another student later.

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 (b) Being left behind: You may find that the information is being delivered too
fast for you to write down. If points pass you by, then leave a space and
compare your notes with another student’s. Doing some background reading
for the lecture will help you to keep up as the information will not be entirely
unfamiliar to you. Sometimes you can get lost because you don't understand
the material that is being delivered. This may be the case for the occasional
point or even for a large section of the lecture. Rather than giving up on the
lecture, write a series of questions that you can try to follow up later.

2.6 Summarising
(a) Be prepared - get to know the course structure and do pre-lecture
reading.
(b) Be organised - have a system for storing notes and take a selection of
pens and pencils to the lecture.
(c) Listen for structure - watch out for signposts that help you follow the
lecture.
(d) Be brief - try using key words and phrases as much as possible so the
emphasis is on listening and understanding.
(e) Make note-taking an active process - summarise in your own words,
make good use of space, colour, symbols and images.
(f) Leave gaps - if you miss a point, don't get further behind by panicking
about it, just leave a space and check it out with another student.
(g) Actively review your notes after the lecture, making additions as you
read.

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 CHAPTER 3

REFERENCING/CITATION SKILLS

3.0 In-text referencing/citations

As a matter of convention, writing an academic essay, article or paper, one will normally
use information from different sources or document sources. The sources included range
from reference works, textbooks and journal articles to the electronic sources such as the
Internet, for example. One will use this information:

 either to support an argument

 or give other information
 or simply, as Montaigne observed in the 18 th century, “… Only in
order to better express myself”.

When one writes academic essays, one is expected to use references or other sources of
information and ideas (especially if they are authorities on the subject) in order to add
weight to your argument. However, for whatever reasons, when information from other
sources is used, one will either be quoting or paraphrasing parts of that source. Very
few people could speak to an audience with ideas which are all their own creation. All of
us use other people’s ideas to build on, challenge or disagree with. Almost every textbook
or journal article you read makes use of other people’s ideas, and the author (if he/she is
honest) is always careful t about the sources, thus documenting all citation details.

There is academic tradition about acknowledging sources of ideas and facts which you
use in your own writing. In academic life, ideas are considered to be the ‘property’ of the
person who first produced them. This is also true of facts: whoever compiles, say, a table
of facts, is considered to be the ‘owner’ of this table. Anyone who uses the ideas or facts
like the table is expected to mention the name of the ‘owner’ – the person who first
produced them.

If you copy other people’s words without acknowledging those people, it is like stealing
their ideas. At university, you are expected to play the academic game according to the
rules. If you copy another person’s ideas and pretend that they are your own work, this is
called ‘plagiarism’, and it is one of the most serious ‘crimes’ that an academic can
commit. When one does quote or paraphrase a source, one MUST acknowledge that
source either by using a footnote or in a bibliography. If this is not done, the “borrower”
of that original source is guilty of plagiarism – and the etymology of the English word
“plagiarism” is the Latin word “plagiarius” which, in the original, means “kidnapper”.

Often, if a student is discovered to be guilty of plagiarism on a large scale, the student is

asked to leave the university or college or any degree gained on the strength of
plagiarized material is withheld from the student. If plagiarism is committed and financial
gain accrues, the person who has committed the plagiarism can be sued in the courts by
the person who has been plagiarized. If plagiarism is proved, damages in the form of
large sums of money will be awarded to the plaintiff.

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Quoting can be done in two ways
 Directly

 Indirectly (paraphrasing).
Direct quoting is where the actual words used in the original source are taken and used
as they are. Consider, for example, the following passage:

Teaching

A conventional view of teaching holds that it requires no more than Mark

Hopkins, a boy, and a desk. Common sense says that the desk may be
dispensed with but that two people, not necessarily man and boy, are
essential. Further, there must be an understanding between the two that one
knows more about something than the other and should impart it. According
to this view, the act of teaching is a simple process: it is to give or impart
knowledge. The conventional view provides a plausible model. It suggests
popular notions of what may go wrong: poor teaching occurs when teachers
have too little knowledge or too little skill to impart the knowledge they have.
Yet the model is not satisfying. In referring only to the teacher, it neglects
the interaction of teacher and pupil, and fails to explain the universal. If
intermittent, resistance of pupils, the hostility, sometimes alternating with
admiration and love, so often directed at teachers.
(Geer, Blanche.2007. “Teaching”. School and Society. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).

If one comes across this passage and decides to use it in order to support the claim that
some of the teaching methods are not of a satisfactory standard in schools, one might
wish to quote as follows:

It is now acknowledged that some teaching is not of a satisfactory standard and Geer
(2007) points out when this situation might arise, that is, “… when teachers have too
little knowledge or too little skill to impart the knowledge they have .”

It should be noted that quoting normally involves three main parts. These three integral
parts should appear in both direct quotations (verbatim) and indirect quotations
(paraphrasing) as is:

 The claim by the present writer/author:

 It is now acknowledged that some teaching is not of a satisfactory

standard.

 The link between the claim and the coming quote:

 and Geer (1971) points out when this situation might arise. The link
phrase in the quote is very often no more than the author’s surname
plus the date of the publication of the original source.

18
  The actual quotation supporting the claim:

 “… when teachers have too little knowledge or too little skill to impart
the knowledge they have.”
Exercise 1
Consider the following three main parts of a quote and arrange them into a suitable order
so that the sentence or sentences make sense.

1. [a] To quote correctly one must practice,

[b] “quoting does not come easily to anyone.”
[c] for, as Madibeng (1998) writes;

2. [a] “in every teaching situation, the teacher is … the superior and the pupil
the subordinate.”
[b] It is often claimed that the teacher is the superior and the pupil the
subordinate.
[c] In fact, Peterson states in The Teacher that

3. [a] And Wilson (2006) supports this, saying

[b] Disciplinary problems concerning pupils do not, interestingly, affect all
classes,
[c] “good and bad students … are consistently able to get through half or
more of their classes without friction”.

4. [a] When one describes an organization, one describes it in terms of

structure and culture.
[b] “… an orderly arrangement of social relations.”
[c] The former concept is defined by Becker and Geer in their “Latent
Culture” as

5. [a] Pheko (2005) puts this explicitly, claiming that

[b] It has been argued that the different social classes in Britain put greater or
lesser stress on the use of language in socializing a child.
[c] “many mothers in the middle class… relative to the working class place
greater emphasis on the use of language in socializing the child.”

3.1 Direct quotations

The way a direct quotation is introduced into your text is important, because it must not
interrupt the flow of your writing and the sentence(s) must still be grammatical. Note
some special conventions which apply to direct quotations, and apply them in your
writing.

The following points must be considered when inserting a direct quotation within one’s
writing:

19
  The actual words from the used source must be put in inverted commas. The
punctuation of inverted commas (“…”) at the beginning and at the end of the
quotation shows that someone else’s words are used as they are.

 If, for some reasons, you find it necessary to leave out part of a sentence because
it is irrelevant and would make the quotation unnecessarily long, then three dots
(…) are used to indicate this. These three dots (…), referred to as ellipsis, show
that parts of an original text are omitted from a quote because they are not
relevant to the needs of the person quoting.

Example
Original text:
‘The most useful way of making a world survey is to identify families of languages,
preferable [sic] using criteria such as those worked out by myself in 1998, showing
relationships by origin and development’ (Bereng, 2003:25).

Quote
‘The most useful way of making a world survey is to identify families of
language… showing relationships by origin and development’ (Bereng, 2003:25).

 If you add something, word or words, to a quotation to explain an abbreviation or

a reference in the text, or for some other reason as to make the quotation more
intelligible, this addition should be enclosed in square brackets [ ]

Example
‘the new vice-chancellor of the university [of Lesotho] encouraged the students to
work hard in order to pass their exams’ (Malibo, 2005:71).

 If a spelling mistake or other error has been made in the original text, you should
copy the error. After the error, the symbol [sic] in square brackets is used to
indicate that, even though the word seems unlikely, it is what actually appeared in
the original.

Example
‘Life in the last century was harder then [sic] life today’ (Lephole, 2006:27).

3.2 Indirect quotations (paraphrasing)

Paraphrasing, on the other hand, occurs when one uses the facts, arguments or
sentiments, for example, from other source(s) but one expresses these facts, arguments
and sentiments in one’s own words not using the original text wording. For example, if
one were to paraphrase, instead of quoting as was done in the claim given above, one
would get the following:

It is now acknowledged that some teaching is not of a satisfactory

standard. Geer (2007), for example, says that this might be so because
teachers do not know enough about their subject or it might be that they do

20
 have the knowledge but do not have the ability to get that knowledge
across to the student.

Paraphrasing has taken place as follows:

Original Paraphrasing
Poor teaching -----> teaching is not of a satisfactory
standard
Have too little knowledge ------> do not know enough about their
subject
Too little skill to impart that knowledge--> do not have the ability to get that knowledge
across
 Where possible, synonyms have been used or phrases have been used instead of
words. In fact, in a good paraphrase, it is only the technical words which are not
changed. It is very difficult to paraphrase satisfactorily terms such as “nuclear
power station”, “teacher”, “atom” and “bank balance”. In a paraphrase, these
technical terms of a subject are normally left as they originally were.

Note that paraphrasing is

 NOT only changing the order (sequence) of words, but it is replacing the
original wording with your own words, still maintaining the original text
meaning.
 What one does when answering a comprehension question which has for
example, a rubric such as: Explain/Relate/Account for in your own
words…

3.3 Incorporating quotations into an essay

One is expected to quote whenever making use of someone else’s or other people’s ideas.
When quoting someone else’s ideas or words, there are conventions about how to do this.
One is expected to follow these in all the work done. There is nothing wrong with other
people’s ideas: that is, after all, what one is expected to do in an academic writing.
However,
 You must always tell the reader when you are doing so.
 You must indicate the source of your quote.

3.4.1 Conventions about quoting

A. If you decide to begin your writing with the quotation, you must, at the end of the
quote, put the following information in brackets ( ):

 the author’s surname only, followed by a comma;

 the date of publication of the book, followed by a colon (:);
 the page number of the reference.
e.g. “Infectious diseases is no longer the major cause of human deaths

21
 in Australia” (Thuube, 2007:58).

(Please note that you must not change the order of these three items)
B. Sometimes you want to introduce a quotation with the author, as part of the sentence
or quotative clause. In such a case, you bracket only the following:
 the date of publication, and
 the page number(s)
e.g. Malibo (2005:45) believes that ‘flush toilets are actually quite unhygienic’.
Or
As Malibo (2005:45) states, ‘flush toilets are actually quite unhygienic’.

Perhaps, the best way of learning how to use quotes properly is to look at how a
professional writer uses both of these types of quotations in a text.

What follows is part of a well-written article from a Journal of International Standing.

The writer’s argument is supported by facts which he or she has gathered from other
books and journals. These source materials are acknowledged in the text and fully
documented at the end. Both direct and indirect quotations will be introduced or followed
by a reference to the source in brackets.

Read the following passage and locate information which is extracted from other
sources:

Women Work Twice as Hard as Men:

Developing World
(Peter Adamson reports on the results of recent research on women’s role in world
development)

For millions of women in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the working day commonly begins
at 4.30 or 5.00 a.m. and ends sixteen hours later, as they struggle to meet the most basic needs
of their families - food, water, firewood, clothes, health care and a home.

The reason for this ‘hundred-hour week’ is that most women do two jobs-in the home and in
agriculture. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome (1980:29),
women are responsible for at least 50 per cent of all food production. A study by the Economic
Commission for Africa, for example (1977:123), has shown that women do 60 percent to 80
percent of all the agricultural work on the continent, plus 50 per cent of all animal ‘husbandry’
and 100 per cent of the food processing.

In one region studied – Bukaba in Tanzania – the men work an average of 1800 hours a year in
agriculture and then their work is largely done. The women, on the other hand, work an
average of 2600 hours a year in the field … and their work has only just begun. In the local
Haryana language the word ‘to marry’ literally means ‘the man gets a hoe’.

It is the same story in India where women also do more than half of the subcontinent’s
agricultural work. It is usually thought that “it is the man who is responsible for the farm
work, assisted by the woman”(Chakravorty,1976:57); in a study of India’s wheat –growing

22
Haryana State, “but in most cases now it is the woman who does the farm work, assisted by the
man”.

Taking labour in both home and field into account, the Haryana study found that the average
working day for women was between 15 and 16 hours long. In one particular family, the work
load of the three adult women and one twelve-year-old girl totalled 58 hours a day-12 hours
doing household chores, 9 hours tending cattle, and 37 hours in agriculture. In a second family,
a woman of seventy-five was putting in a ten-hour day.

In the case of younger women, such work loads are commonly combined with frequent
pregnancy, child-birth and breast-feeding-exhausting processes for any woman’s body, but
particularly debilitating when compounded by inadequate food and long hours of back-
breaking work in the fields (Chakravorty, 1976:57).

What all this adds up to is that one important and most ignored health problems in the world of
the 1980s is that millions of women are suffering from chronic exhaustion. Unfortunately,
numerous studies over the last five years indicate that development effort itself can actually
make matters worse (Newland, 1979; Rogers, 1980).

In the effort to improve nutrition, the prevalent myth that farmers are always men has meant
that most of the agricultural training and technology has been greater to men’s work. Tractors,
for example, can shorten the work of the men who do the ploughing and lengthen the hours of
the woman who do the weeding.

In a now-famous African study, Boserup(1970:43) noted that, in villages where modern

technology had been introduced, the women’s share in agricultural labour had risen from 55
per cent to 68 per cent.

If the effort to improve food production illogically bypasses women, so does the effort to
improve health. According to the World Health Organisation (1978:16), about three-quarters of
all illnesses in the developing world could be prevented by better nutrition, water and
sanitation, immunization and health education, all areas in which women take major
responsibility. But three-quarters of health budgets are being spent – by men on men – to
provide expensive curative services to a small fraction of the population.

Similarly, the drive for literacy and education, which has seen school enrolment rates more
than double in the developing countries since 1960, has also seen women come off second best.
Two out of every three illiterate people in the world today are females. Yet as food producers
and processors, as homemakers and health workers, and as the principal educators of the next
generation, it is at least as important for women to be educated as men (WHO, 1978:16).

In the effort to improve nutrition, health and education – the basic building blocks of a better
life for the majority of the people - the rights, needs and contributions of women are being
largely ignored. Recognising the importance of women to the development effort is, therefore,
not only a matter of principle to be enshrined in dusty declarations, but it is an urgent practical
issue. Nothing could do more to take the brakes off economic and social progress than the
ending of discrimination against half the world’s people.

Bibliography
Boserup, Esther.1970. Women’s Role in Economic Development. London: Allen

23
 & Unwin.
Charakrorty, Shanty. 1976. Women’s Contribution in India. London: Oxford
University Press.
E.C.A. 1997. The New Economic Order - What Roles for Women? Addis Abbaba:
Economic Commission for Africa.
Newland, K.1979. The Sisterhood of Man. New York: Worldwatch.
Roger, Bernard. 1980. The Domestication of Women. Chicago: Kogan Page Ltd.
U.N.D.P.1980. ‘Rural Women’s Participation in Development: Evaluation study No.3’.
New York: U.N.D.P.
W.H.O. 1980, Health, Population and Development, Geneva, W.H.O.

Exercise 2
a) How many direct quotations are found in the passage
b) How many indirect ones?

For each quote write down:

i) the first six words of text where each indirect quotation begins
i) the last six words where the indirect quotation ends
ii) the source of the indirect quotation.

The facts Adamson refers to, give authority to his argument. However, notice one
important thing. He has very few DIRECT quotations: most of his quotations are
INDIRECT. He has not merely taken the words of his originals but instead he has
rewritten them so that they

 fit in with his own style;

 relate more precisely to the exact point he is making.

Make sure you do the same in your writing. Keep your direct quotation to a minimum. If
you put more than two direct quotations on each page of any writing, beware! You may
not be making use of them properly.

REMEMBER: The aim of any course paper or essay is to show your lecturer that you
have understood the topic and have done some reading.
 Too many direct quotations implies that you have not understood fully what you
have read, and have merely copied the whole sentences blindly.
 No reference to source at all implies that you have done no reading!
 Quotations (both direct and indirect) MUST NOT be used as a substitute for
your own thoughts.

GOLDEN RULE
Whenever you put a quotation - direct or indirect - into a paragraph,
you should retain the grammatical features of the sentence in which it
occurs.

Exercise 3

24
In what follows are different quotative/reporting clauses commonly used to introduce
information or ideas from other sources:

Madibeng (2001) points out… Madibeng (2001) pointed out…

Madibeng (1990:12) reports… According to Madibeng …
Madibeng notes… In Madibeng’s (2000) opinion…
Madibeng observed… As Madibeng (1997) has indicated…
Madibeng concludes… Madibeng defines…as…
Madibeng claims Madibeng argues
Madibeng (1994 observes Madibeng (2002) posits that…

While many quotative clauses include personal names, especially surnames as part of
reference indicators, exceptions include non-haman reference indicators used in many
areas of study, (particularly ‘hard’ sciences and some social sciences) as well as involve
corporate authors such as:

Studies indicate that…;

Research suggests that…;
The UNICEF reported that …
The WHO conducted a study… ;
The Oxford English Dictionary defines ….

NB: Note that using the present tense in the quotative clauses implies generalities or
currency of the phenomenon discussed while the past tense particularises or limits
the findings to the study referred to.

TASK:
a) Which of these introductory clauses should be followed by “that”?
b) Write them and include the word “that” in a suitable place.

There are two things to pay special attention to here:

1. Notice once again that if the original author’s name is included in the sentence,
the name is not repeated in the source reference:

e.g. As Lephole (2006:27) says ‘Life is hard … today’.

But
‘Life is hard … today’ (Lephole, 2006:27).

2. Notice how Adamson has put all his sources into his text: look at each sentence in
which a quote occurs. Notice that each sentence reads as a grammatically correct
one.

25
In the case of the Internet sources, in-text citations for the anonymous sources should
normally bear the website address which occurs sentence-finally, or at the end of the
paragraph, excluding the access date. Should you adopt the Vancouver (Number)
referencing system, (which uses numbers not author’s names within the text), you order
in-text references by Arabic numbers depending on the number of sources cited. This
style, which largely typifies medical and health sciences, prefers non-inegral citations;
that is, it places sources - Arabic numbers, square-bracketed sentence-finally as [1], [2],
[3]. For a lack of space here, the Vancouver style will be considered in more detail with a
focus on the disclipne-specific students in lectures.

Exercise 5
The following sentences illustrate common mistakes in putting quotations into sentences:
Rewrite each one correctly.

REMEMBER: Each one should read like a grammatically correct sentence

1. According to Nzeku, he says that women’s share of agricultural work has

increased rather than decreased where modern technology has been introduced.

2. Mothepu has defined health as ‘Health is complete physical, mental and social
well-being.’

3. Sefotho reports that in 1981 our records show that 57 men were convicted of
sexual offences against women.

4. As Mokuena states that ‘self motivation to learn is preferable to motivation

imposed by external sources.’

5. Taking into account what Lephole pointed out, is that, there are problems that are
confronting education planners.

6. According to Letsoela clearly states that ‘teachers must know when and how to
intervene.’

7. In Motaung, W. K S.’s quote he states that ‘schools must be placed where

children feel at home’.

Exercise 6
Paraphrase the following sentences:
1. The considered the cruel employer as the employer of the year and gave him an
award.

26
2. The building was in a very bad state of repair and was a danger to pedestrians.

3. The radio, which was advertised in the newspaper, was very much relevant to my
studies.

4. It has been discovered that the student who always pass the tests in distinction was
the leader of those who copied in the last exam.

5. It seems that this long piece of written work has been copied from a piece done by a
last year student.

3.4.2 As a reminder, note the following about both quoting and paraphrasing skills:

When to Quote:
 Using others as primary sources (data) verbatim, ‘a parrot version;’
 Appealing to their authority to give more weight/credibility/reliability to
one’s work than would a paraphrase;
 Interested in the author’s specific style in conveying the meaning;
 Disputing the source and want to state his/her case clearly;
 Using those words which are important to other researchers;
 Highlighting a particularly striking phrase, sentence or passage;
 Distancing oneself to cue readers to realize;
 Punctuating a quotation with “inverted commas”;
 Indenting a direct quotation that exceeds three lines.

NB: Avoid over quoting lest you seem to offer too little and no thought and analysis to
your material. But make your own argument (claims) solidly supported with concrete
evidence.

When to Paraphrase:
 Paraphrasing is a cognitive skill which shows understanding of the text at hand;
 If you are more interested in the content, findings or claims than the author’s
style/expression;
 Trying to clarify/simplify/restate/translate more clearly the author(s) ideas, but
retain the original text meaning;
 Using own sentences - appropriate grammatical structures, that is, new
ordering/sequense to avoid any close paraphrasing of the original;
 Close paraphrasing which denotes merely replacing the wording of the original
and keeping the same grammatical structures, is as bad as plagiarism;
 Making the paraphrase somewhat broader with a larger segment, but a condensed
form of the original source thereby leaving out page numbers;
 Avoiding to copy more than three consecutive words in a row;
 Making a reference in general, thereby double full stops – one at the end of the
paragraph, the other outside the parentheses;

27
  Keeping the focus, tone, emphasis, tense as well as technical terms of the
original.

NB: Double-check your quotations and paraphrases to ensure their accuracy with the
original sources.

28
 CHAPTER 4

END-TEXT REFERENCING/CITATIONS (BIBLIOGRAPHY SKILLS)

4.0 Understanding the front pages of textbooks and journals

The information placed on the preliminary pages of textbook for academic research,
using the library, and/or the virtual library such as the Internet onto which some textbook
material is uploaded.

Crucial for your research is the first cover page (the title page) on which is the title of the
book and the author’s names normally written in the chronological order: first name(s) or
initials and surname. Pay special attention to how the name appears. You will have to use
it exactly as it appears in the front page of the book. At the bottom of the title-page, you
can see the name of the publisher of the book, and the place where it was published.
Sometimes this information does not appear on the first page, but only appears on the
other page, the biblio, on the other side of the title page.

The second page (the imprint page) has a symbol © followed by a name and a date. The
symbol means ‘copyright’- this need not concern you here. Below that comes information
you will need to pay special attention to. You will see these words:

Published
Edition
Reprinted

To understand these words, it is necessary to understand how a book is produced. A book

in a bookshop or on the shelves of a library has been through several stages after the
author has written it. The author will have submitted a manuscript (usually typed pages)
to a publisher who decides whether it is suitable for selling as a book. Once the publisher
decides that it is, plans are made for how the book will look: how big it will be, what type
of print it will have, and what colour the cover will be. Changes may be suggested to the
author, or whole chapter may even be deleted if they are unsuitable. Once all this has
been done the manuscript is sent to a typesetter; and proofs are checked by the author and
editor. The final version of the book is sent to the printer, who prints each page, and binds
the pages together between covers. The book is then ready to be sold.

A popular book may be reprinted many times. Once the original books that the printer has
made are sold, the publisher may ask him to print more. This is called a reprint. Each
printing may sometimes be called an impression. Perhaps after a few years if the book is
still popular, the publisher may decide to add new information from the author or to
update technical or other information, or to change the format of the book by changing
the style of print or perhaps the size of the page. The new book that then appears is called
a new edition. The first time the book is published, it is called a First Edition of the
book. If the format changes or information within the book alters, then the new book is
called a Second Edition. Remember, the book itself will be substantially the same: it is
merely the physical appearance that may have changed, and alteration to the text may

29
range from minor revisions to major additions or revisions. A standard religious text like,
for instance, the Bible or the Koran, may well have gone through hundreds, if not
thousands, of different editions since they were first published, even though the text itself
may have barely changed over the years.

In your academic work, you will need to know which edition you are using. There are
two reasons for this. The first is that often you will be looking for a book in the library
because you have been referred to certain pages in a particular edition of it. The second
reason is that you may want to quote from the book yourself, and to do this you will have
to give the correct information about page numbers. The edition is important in both
these instances because page numbers often change from edition to edition, or even
whole chapters may have been inserted or removed. So, if a writer wants to quote
sometimes on page 67 of his copy of Ida C. Ward’s book, which happens to be the fourth
edition, then he must tell his reader that it is the fourth edition. If the writer does not do
this, then someone reading his work that has, say, the third edition, will look on page 67
and find something totally different. It is quite possible that any quotation chosen from
the book will be on different pages in each of the four editions! So, to identify the very
book you are working from, you must know the following information which is necessary
to identify the book correctly:

1. Author - (Ed(s) if by editor(s)

2. Date
3. Title (Sometimes followed by second, third fourth edition)
4. The place (town/city) where the book was published
5. The name of the publisher

30
Exercise 1

Look at the title and biblio pages from the sample textbook below and answer the
following questions:

Fourth Edition

A PRACTICAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR

A.J. THOMSON
A.V. MARTINET

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK

31
 Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
London, New York, Toronto
Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madrass, Karechi,
Petaling Java, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo,
Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Cape Town,
Melbourne, Auckland

And associate companies in

Beirut Berlin Ibadan Mexico City Nicosia

Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press

© Oxford University Press 1960, 1969, 1980, 1986

First published 1960

Second Edition 1969
Third Edition 1980
Forth Edition 1986

All rights reserved, No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of Oxford university Press

ISBN 0-19-431342-5 (paperback)

ISBN 0-19-431347-6 (hardback)

Printed in Hong Kong

1. What is the title?

2. What is the author’s name? (Get it exactly right!)
3. Who is the publisher?
4. When was this book published?
5. Is this the first edition of the book?
6. If it is not the first edition, how many editions of the book have there been?
7. Where was it published?

32
4.1 Reading the Front Pages of Academic Journals
Apart from actual books in a library, there is also a section containing journals, or
periodicals. Current issues of academic periodicals are usually displayed in a special
section called the periodicals or journal section. Back issues are usually kept in the main
part of the library, in bound sets. To find a particular issue of a journal, it is necessary to
know how they are identified.

Journals play an important part in academic life, for it is in journals that most academics
report the results for their research or try out new ideas in their particular fields.
Academic journals are usually linked specifically to one particular subject, and normally
appear on a regular basis, perhaps three or four times a year. The journals are necessary
in academic life, because they provide the means for academics to publish material that is
not suitable to be converted into complete books-usually because what the academic has
to say is too short.

The value for journals to students and to academics alike is that they provide a good
source of ideas. They also present up-to-date information on current research in a given
field.

Apart from the title of the journal, there are several items of information that you need
when looking for a particular source.

Usually, you will have been given the title of an article by your tutor, or you will have
come across the name of the article in one of your readings. To find the particular article
you are looking for, you will need to know much more than the title of the journal and the
article. This is because unlike books which are (usually) published only once, journals
appear regularly - as frequently as once a month. Most academic journals appear four
times a year, but this is by no means an inflexible rule.

Because journals appear so frequently, it is not enough to simply rely on the year of
publication to identify a given issue. For this reason, journals give a volume number and
an issue number on the front cover. The volume number is usually connected with the
year: thus Volume I (or 1) of a given journal will be the first year that the journal
appeared. Volume VI (or 6) will be the sixth year it appeared, and so on.

The issue number tells the reader which issue within the year the journal is. So, if a
particular journal has ‘Vol. 4 (3)’ on the cover, it tells the reader that it is the third issue
of the journal in the fourth year of the journal’s life. Without the issue number, anyone
looking for a particular article would have to wade through all the issues of that journal
for a given year - which, in some cases, could amount to several thousand pages!

33
Exercise 2
Look at the front page of the journal below, and answer the following questions:

JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

December 2009
Volume 65, Issue Number 2

1. What is the title of the journal?

2. What is the date of publication of the journal?
3. What is the number of the journal? (Two things are needed here!)

As we shall see later on, there are very strict conventions about how you write out this
information, but, for the time being, it is only necessary to bear in mind that there are
seven pieces of information needed to correctly identify an article in a journal.

All this information both about books and about journals is important, not only for
finding references that you may have been given by your lecturer, but it is also necessary
when you compile a bibliography at the end of an essay or paper.

4.3 Using Electronic sources in academic writing

The Internet is one of the most important research tools in academic discourse. While
some information may be questionable, the Internet is a quick and essential source from
which very recent/current, downloadable and printable information can be accessed. The
Internet is a worldwide or ‘global network of interconnected computer networks’
(Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth & Harter, 2003:340). It comprises hypertext - World Wide
Web (WWW), ‘sometimes called Information Highway’, the main source which is linked
with other websites for relevant information for the reader’s consideration.

Like print sources have certain formats which readers should clearly identify in order to
know how and where to find the information. For electronic sources this means showing
the format on which [the information is stored, the protocol by which it is transmitted and
the path to its location. Frequently, data held electronically may be moved to different

34
locations, so that hyperlinks become obsolete and documents sometimes disappear
entirely. It is necessary, therefore, also to show the date on which you accessed the
source on the Internet so as to show the currency of such sources.

4.4 Evaluating Electronic Resources

The credibility of websites is also significant for academic writing. Information from a
wide range of electronic sources is increasingly used in academic writing. References to
such sources should be included in lists of sources cited in a written text. It is important
to realise that information on the World Wide Web is not vetted or evaluated by anybody
before it appears, so that the quality of the information may be excellent or downright
wrong or misleading or anything in between. It, therefore, becomes your responsibility as
a writer to ensure that you use only reliable information. Electronic sources, like print
materials, often are associated with scholarly credentials such as author’s names,
publication date, institutional status, the publisher, relevance as well as website. This
information serves to authenticate the reliability of the website in terms of its purpose and
the level of audience. It should be noted here that some websites which might in this case
hardly escape the notice of the students are not necessarily designed for educational
purposes. However, Internet sites are often faced with editorial and monitory or
regulatory problems which may make them prone to abuse and bias, by the especially
commercial or profit-making organizations such as internet service providers and other
non-education-oriented organisations. The website addresses of such organizations are
often marked by such Server Extensions as dot.com. or .co, .biz .net and so on. The
Wikis - wikipedia websites should also be treated with great care, since they fall within
those sites which have regulatory and editorial problems. If a website is anonymous you
should tread carefully just as you would when there were readily apparent language
errors, Reputable authors sign their work and check their language. It is, therefore,
important that readers look for the peer-reviewed or refereed journal articles sourced
from the Internet.

For educational purposes, it is noteworthy to focus on the Website Addresses or the

URL (uniform resource locator) which has academic provenance with the following
common Server Extensions: .edu and .ac often based in educational institutions such as
colleges and universities in which case they are authoritative by nature. Other equally
useful sources are coded as .gov, that is, government publications. These are also largely
objective with some degree of bias especially in cases of presenting their policy/position
papers. Also academically resourceful are websites marked by .org/.or about non-profit-
making and voluntary organizations, for example, Amnesty International, World Bank
and so on. Verify with other sources, for example, newspaper and magazine articles,
other scholarly articles which have reference lists which will in turn be verified. Check
the credentials of the individuals who wrote the articles. Find out how relevant to or
expert they are in the field as well as the professional level or status. It should also be
determined whether the emphasis of the internet source is mainly informative or
persuasive; if the latter is the case the objective of the source would be to make readers
buy the service or product for which reason it may be considered mainly commercial
(hence manipulative/advertorial tactics). It should be noted that this sketch of education-
based electronic resources is not necessarily exhaustive, so students are advised to find

35
out more about equally reliable electronic sources for their academic writing (Pearson et
al., 2003).

It is also important to note that Web information is theoretically the most current that is
available. Nevertheless, pages are sometimes not updated for years and information may
no longer be correct. Information on pages that no longer exist can also not be verified.
(When somebody cites a web page, which then disappears or moves, it is no longer
possible for a reader to check that citation). Dates of writing or of most recent update are
frequently found at the end of a series of pages in very tiny print. It is also important to
remember that when you find previously print-published information, such as
encyclopedias or dictionaries, freely available on the web, they are often the old, out-of-
print versions, (This does not apply to online information sources which academic
institutions pay subscriptions for and then make available to their students from their web
sites).

The tone of a text should he considered. Extravagant statements or over-emphatic claims

are not found in serious academic writing, nor are sweeping or vague statements, without
backup. You should look at the sources cited. An absence of citations or only references
to what other people have sold but not published, are not hallmarks of reliable
information. Beware of one—sided positions or evidence of bias; reputable writers tend
to try and present balanced arguments. Evidence of ulterior motives such as promotion,
scare mongering or advertising clues not point to reliable information either.

4.5 Some of the most useful electronic resources

In what follows are some of the most popular Databases for academic writing. Through
the search engines: googlescholar, google.com and yahoo.com (homepages with
hyperlinks leading to more information) and other search engines (databases), students,
and researchers alike should navigate their PCs for the refereed/peer-reviewed works on
various topics, subjects, articles etc from the following Databases. Electronic
information might further be found in electronic mail services, such as listsevers for
specific interest groups or published on CD-ROM discs or in electronic databases and the
WorId Wide Web (WWW). Information published electronically may have counterparts
that are also published on paper where electronic resources also exist in traditional print
form; it is advisable to note in references the details about the print as well as the
electronic sources

Other equally useful databases include EBSCOhost (Full Text) (Online Basic Research
Database), APA, ALA, Academic Search Premier, also Academic Source Premier,
Humanities International Complete, Academic Onefile, ERIC, JSTOR, OWL,
Communication and Mass Media Complete, Countrywatch, SocIndex, General
Onefile, Emerald Search Connections, Emerald Full Text to mention just a few.

Furthermore, the Internet references include website of general assistance in most aspects
of academic writing, with such laboratories (websites) as Online Writing Lab (OWL) at
Purdue, WC4 at Princeton University, and What is an argument? at Harvard
University (Henning, Gravett & van Rensburg, 2002). Visiting the above-mentioned

36
websites, students can access invaluable information which will, in turn help them to
hone their academic writing skills.

4.5 Writing a Bibliography

A bibliography is an alphabetical list of all the sources a person has used. It is set out at
the end of each piece of a written work. It must be in an alphabetical order, and each
entry must be laid out in a strictly ordered sequence. No academic essay or paper can
truly be said to be complete unless there is a bibliography at the end.

For textbooks, bibliographic entries should appear in this way:

1. The author’s surname should be followed by the initials or first names
2. Date of publication;
3. Titles of textbooks and journals should be italicised, or underlined if
handwritten;
4. Place of publication;
5. Name of the publisher.
6. If the book is edited, the abbreviation “Ed(s)”should immediately follow the
author(s’) initials as shown above.
7. The way the entry is punctuated;
8. The reversed order should apply even in cases of two or more authors in the
entry;

For example
Thuube, R. 2005. Women and law in Lesotho. Roma: National University of
Lesotho Printing Press.
or
Thuube, Raphael. 2005. Women and Law in Lesotho. Roma: National University
of Lesotho Printing Press. .

Nzeku, T. & Sefako, M.P. 2007. Communication and Study Skills for
Professionals. Maseru: Epic Printers.
or
Nzeku, Teboho & Puleng, Sefako. 2007. Communication and Study Skills for
Professionals. Maseru: Epic Printers.

For Journal articles, the entries are usually as follows:

The reversed order rule still applies here. However, the place of publication and
publisher should be omitted in the entries. Instead, the volume, issue number and page(s)
of the journals should be incorporated as shown below:

1. The author’s surname should be followed by the initials or first names;

2. Date of publication;
3. Title of the article in inverted commas; as in ‘ ’ or “ ”. Note that Standard
British English prefers single commas while American English double commas.

37
 4. Title of the Journal to be italicised;
5. The volume number, the issue number and page number(s) within that volume
all of which use the Arabic numerals:
For example:
Malibo, W. 2003, ‘Urbanisation in Lesotho: A development constraint’. Journal of
Economic Record. Vol. 36, No 2, 2-5.

Note the abbreviations: Vol. for Volume, and No. Latin nomero for Number.

REMINDER:

 Where there are two or more authors to a document place them in the order in
which they appear on the cover page of the original document. The first author is
usually the more/most senior. So his/her name must precede other name(s) in the
alphabetically bibliographic entries;

 Any second name appearing in an entry should also in the reversed order; this rule
applies to both the American Psychological Association (APA) and the
Harvard systems – the author-date styles.
 The first two each have the following details.

 An anonymous work should have its Title placed in the author’s position focusing
on the first key word and ignoring the article: A, An or The, if used to mark the
keywords;

 Works published on different dates by the same author should be ordered

consecutively starting with the earliest publication in the bibliographic entries;

 Capitalise the key words of the title in the entry;

 Put in the Corporate body or Organisation (e.g. the NUL) in the author’s
position, thus alphabetising it considering the first key word, not its preceding
article: A, An or The, as shown above;

 The reversed order rule also applies to the entries with two or more authors;

 You only underline titles of the published books or journals, titles of chapters or
articles are put in inverted commas (“…”); with page numbers often placed at the
end of the entry;

 If you refer to a title of an unpublished book, then put in the title in inverted
commas (“…”) in the same way that you would the journal articles;

 Unpublished papers are indicated with “MS” after the title;

38
  PhD theses (you indicate this by writing ‘PhD thesis’ after the title). E.g. Brown,
J. 1985. “The Interface between School and College’. PhD thesis, University of
Hawaii.

For the Internet Sources, bibliographic entries should appear as

follows:
Whether written in the Harvard or APA style, (each of which is also called the
Author-Date method), the Bibliographic entry should contain the following:
Likewise, note the horizontal layout as:

Author’s Last Name, First Name (Initials), Date, ‘Document Title’, Website Page Title.
[Web Address] (Last Update of Document). Date on which you Accessed the Document.

 If the Author is unknown, use the name/publisher of the website; or use the
abbreviation: Anon.
 ‘Document Title’: the document title often serves as a warning about the
authenticity of the source. However, sources without a title can be cited as well;
 Web Page Title: this is usually found on the bar across the top of the computer
screen, or sometimes in the header or footer of the hard copy;
 Date of Document: - this is often the date of the last update; it is useful for the
reader to contact the author if necessary.

Smith, M. 1998. ‘The Process of Re-engineering Life Cycle Methodology.’ University of

Southern Carolina.

[http://www.business.sc.edu/business/centers/prlc-l.htm] (December 1998). Accessed on

3 February1999.

Note the Server Extension which is marked by an abbreviation .edu in this web address.
This is useful as it shows the academic status of the source.

Alternatively, the Internet document could look something like:

 The author ‘s names, if located;
 The date on which the document was produced or updated;
 The title of the electronic document;
 The medium, which may be ‘Online’or ‘CD-ROM’ in square brackets, or you
may use ‘Electronic’ if you are not sure whether the source is online or networked
CD-ROM;
 The URL, which may sometimes be given between angle brackets < >. If the
URL is very long, it may be written on two lines, but try to break a line only
where a punctuation mark occurs and do not add a hyphen, because this will alter
the URL.
 The date on which the document was last accessed, often in square brackets.

39
Journal article available in both electronic and print formats. Examples are given
below.

Ferley, E., Cani, M. P. & Gascuel, J.D. 2000. Practical volumetric sculpting. The visual
computer. 1 6(8):469-480. [Electronic]. Available:
http://link.springerde/link/servicefjournals/0371 /bibs/01 68/0160469.htm [2001, January
31].

Smith, A. O. 1997. Testing the surf: Criteria for evaluating Internet

Information resources. The public-access computer systems review 8(3) [Online].
Available: http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/n3/smit8n3.html [2000, October 6].

Standler, R. B. 2000. Plagiarism in colleges in the USA. [Online].

Available:http://wwwrbs2som/plag.htm[2000,October3].

Exercise 1
Look at the following bibliographic entries in example 1 and 2 and the way it is arranged.

(a) In what order are the books?

(b) What is written first in each entry?
(c) Where does the book title appear?
(d) How is the title of the book indicated?
(e) What usually comes last in each entry?

NB: Some of the entries in the bibliography are for journals, not for books. You should
be able to recognise the difference immediately from the entry itself.

TASK: Write down three features for a journal entry that you do not find in a book
entry.

Note: Books and journals are not separated in a bibliography.

Sample Bibliographies: the Author-Date Systems with some Modifications

With the Harvard and APA Referencing System, the bibliographic entries should be
compiled in an alphabetical order starting with the surnames of the authors followed by
the first names or initials, hence the reversed order. These are compiled in turn, as
follows:

40
EXAMPLE 1 - Bibliographic entries for the Harvard System

Chele, M. 2005. “Gender Differences in the Case of Polite Terms” (Unpublished

MS). A paper presented at the LASU Conference at the National University of
Lesotho.
Hansard, M. 2004. “Use and Non-use of Articles”.
[http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslart.html]. [Accessed on March
2002].
The Jerusalem Bible: With Abridged Introductions and Notes. 2006.12th Ed.
London: Darton, Longman & Todd.
Leboela, M. & Monaheng, S. 1999. “Village Water Supply in Remote Areas:
The Case of Lesotho”. African Journal of Environment. Vol.55, No.1, 12-15.
Lephole, P., Leboela, R. &. Bolebali, A. Eds. 2000. Languages of the World. 2th Ed.
Mazenod: Mazenod Printing Press.
Letsoela, P. 2003. Moratuoa. Mazenod: Mazenod Printing Press.

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. 2007. 10th Ed. Cape Town:
Longman.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2000. London & New York: Oxford University Press.

Malibo, W.K.S. 2004. “Comparative Phonology Involving English and Sesotho”

(Unpublished MA thesis). University of Leeds.
The National University of Lessotho. 2002. Information Flash. Roma: NUL Publishing
House.
Nzeku, T. 2001. Twenty First Century Literary Criticism. Roma: NUL Publishing
House.
Nzeku, T. 2005. “A Study of Science and Technology Program in Developing
Countries”. In M. Chechile & P. Abiel (Eds.). Science and Technology.
Maseru: Epic Printers.
Sefako, P.M. 1999. “Understanding Politics in Lesotho”. Public Eye. Vol. 135, No. 35,
3-4.
Sefotho, M.M. 2006. “Psychology of Language”. Encyclopedia of Language. Vol. 26,
15-23.
Thuube, R. 2007. “Women and Law in Lesotho”. Journal of Law. Vol. 12,
No. 3, 105-118.
Thuube, R. 2008a. Advanced Communication. Morija: Morija Printing Works.

Thuube, R. 2008b. Communication and Study Skills. Mazenod: Mazenod Printing Press.

EXAMPLE 2 - Bibliographic entries for the APA System

Hala-hala, M. (2006). Advanced Communication Skills. Maseru & Maputo: Van Schik.
Muringani, B. (2008a). Argumentative Writing. Morija: Morija Printing Works.

41
Muringani, . (2008b). Professional Communication. Mazenod: Mazenod Printing
Press.
Nzeku, T. (2005). “A Study of Science and Technology Program in Developing
Countries”. In M. Chechile & A. Pule (Eds.). Science and Technology.
Maseru: Epic Printers.
Sefako, P. & Sefotho, M. (1999). “Understanding Politics in Lesotho”. The Public Eye.
Vol. 135, No. 35, 3-4.
Sefotho, M. (2006). “Psychology of Language”. Encyclopedia of Language, Vol 26, 15-
23.
Thuube, R. & Nzeku, T. (2007). “Women and Law in Lesotho”. Journal of Law, Vol. 12,
No. 3, 105-118.

Note that the dates are enclosed within brackets in the APA style above.

 A bibliography provides very important information regarding the publication

history of the source. The information for each entry should always be presented
in the same strict order. This order is used because the libraries in the academic
world catalogue their books by filing the information about them in this same
sequence. This means that everyone can quickly and easily find the sources for
which they search provided the writer of the paper writes his/her bibliography
correctly.

Exercise 2
This bibliography has some mistakes in it. Rewrite it correctly.

Thuube, R. ‘Urban Bias and Food Policy in Poor Countries’. Food Policy, Vol.1 no.4, pp
41-52, 1975. Morija Printers.

T.N. Nzeku. 1976. Losing Ground: Environmental Stress and World Food Prospects.
Maseru, Epic Printers.

Malibo, S. 1976. ‘Food and Agriculture’ Scientific American, Seventeen Vol., No.2

Sefotho, M., and L. Sefako. 1976. The Genesis Strategy, Mazenod Printers; Mazenod;
Lesotho; Southern Africa.

Madibeng, Caroline. 1975. ‘Increasing the Harvest’. Environment, No.1 Volume XII.
Leribe; Oxford University Press.

Exercise 3
Rearrange the following parts of the bibliographic entries in the correct order.

1. Journal of Education, Number 10; M.M. Seeiso; “Formal education language

policy in Lesotho”. Maseru; Volume 26, 1995; page 15 – 23.

2. Mazenod; Seeiso Lereko; Moratuoa 2003; Lesotho; Mazenod Printing Press.

42
3. Lenyora, Metsi; A Study of Sesotho; in M. Lenyatsa and Lerato Lenyatsa; Epic
Printers; Maseru; Lesotho; 2005; “The Sociology of Sesotho Language”. Editors.

4. “The new education policy: 2005”. Public Eye; Number 35; Mookho Sello
Volume 135; page 3 – 4; 2006; Epic Printers; Lesotho

5. 1999; The history of teaching English Language at high school; Matsela,

Lerotholi; NUL Printing Press; 3rd edition; Roma; Maseru; Lesotho.

6. Moeletsi oa Basotho; “Christianity”; Volume 135; Palesa Letsie and Puleng

Letsie; 1998; Number 24; Page 5; Mazenod Printers.

4.6 Understanding footnotes

Equally important system of referencing is footnoting - using footnotes, usually placed
under the ruled line at the bottom of the page of texts and/or at the end of texts. Footnotes
are commonly used in such academic texts as law, history and religion. Footnotes are also
preferred in the Modern Language Association (MLA). Also known as the author-title
method, the MLA is often preferred in philosophy, history, literature and religion, puts
the date at the end of the entry. You should become familiar with the footnoting system
for ease of use if required to do so in your academic writing. If in doubts, find out from
your lecturer or the department whether you should use footnotes.

Footnotes are marked in the text by a small superscript/raised number at the place where
the writer wants to clarify a point he or she has made, or to mention something that he or
she does not want to put in the main body of the text. This small number allows the writer
to list his or her notes consecutively as they appear in the text. The notes themselves can
be placed in one of two places:

1. At the foot of the same page as the small number, under a ruled line, or in
different print.

2. At the end of the text or chapter, before the bibliography. When footnotes appear
at this position, they are referred to as ‘Endnotes’ or sometimes as ‘References’.

Footnotes can contain full bibliographical information, especially if no proper

bibliography appears at the end of the text. However, footnotes usually contain
information in an abbreviated form which refers the reader to the bibliography at the end.

Exercise 4
The following words, phrases and abbreviations are frequently used in footnotes in
textbooks and journals, it is therefore, necessary to understand these short forms that are
used in footnotes. Most good dictionaries explain their meaning. So, look up each one of
the following in your dictionary, and write down their precise meaning
i) Anon. vii) ed.

43
 ii) MS. MSS. viii) tr. Trans.
iii) Ca. ix) et al.
iv) op. cit. x) vide
v) cf. xi) Ibid
vi) Passim xii) viz

Exercise 5
Read these footnotes, and then answer the following questions:

1. Shaver, H. 1977, Malaria and the Political Economy of Public Health, pp. 557-9.
2. Ibid, p. 623
3. Ibid.
4. Calder, R. 1946. Two Way Passage: A Study of the Give and Take of
International Alpassim.
5. Shaver, op. cit, p. 563.
6. Cf. in this connection the work of P. Goubert.
7. Djukanovic, V. et al, 1957, ‘Alternative Approaches to Meeting Basic Health
Needs Developing Countries’. WHO Technical Report, no. 392, p.6.
8. Jackson, R. (ed). 1960, Preventative Medicine in World War II, vol. I, p.47.
9. Ibid. vol. 1, p.69.
10. Edmonds, R. T., 1983. ‘The ineffectiveness of DDT Residual Spraying in the
Jordan Valley’. MS, University of Amman.

Questions
a) What is the title of the work referred to in footnote 3?
b) Why are these references not in alphabetical order?
c) Did Djukanovic write all of WHO Technical Report, no 392?
d) What is the title of the book referred to in footnote 5?
e) When was the book referred to in footnote 9 published?
f) Why is the title of the work referred to in footnote 10 not in italics?
g) Is it likely that the article referred to in footnote 10 will be in your library? Why?
h) Which of the books by P. Goubert has the writer referred to?
i) Why is there no reference to page number in footnote 3?

Exercise 6
The following footnotes are from a book by Paul Woodring entitled A Fourth of a
Nation. Answer the questions below by referring to the information in the footnotes.
Footnotes
Chapter 1, pp.4-30

1. William Ernest Hocking, Human Nature and its Remaking, p. 15.

2. Walter Lippmann, The Public Philosophy, Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston, 1955,
p.95.
3. Robert Ulich, Crisis and Hope in American Education, The Beacon Press Boston,
1951, p. 28.

44
4. John Dewey, Exprerience and Education, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1939,
p.v.
5. Ibid.
6. Irving Babbit, Rousseeau Romanticism, Meridian Books, Noonday Press,
New York, 1955 , p. 284.
7. Dewey, op. cit., pp.5-6
8. Boyd Bode, Progressive Education at the Crossroads, Newson & company, New
York, 1938, p.3
9. Ibid., p.3
10. Ibid., pp. 85-8.
11. Forest K. Davis, “Education is one,” The Antioch Review, Fall, 1955, p. 265
12. Robert Ulich, Crisis and Hope in American Education, The Beacon Press, Boston,
1951, p.28
13. Joseph Justman, “Wanted: A Philosophy of American Education,” School and
Society, May 12, 1956, p.159
14. Dewey, op, cit., p.vii
15. Ibid., p.10
16. David Riesman, The Lonely Crowd, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.,
1954
17. Ibid., p.85
18. Aristotle, Politics, Book VIII, Chap.2, Par.1

QUESTIONS

a) What is the title of the reference referred to in footnote 4?

b) Did Forest K. Davis (Footnote 11) write a book called The Antioch
Review?
c) What is the title of the article written by Joseph Justman (footnote 13)?
d) What is the book and page number referred to in footnote 5?
e) What book is referred to in footnote 10?
f) Who is the publisher of the book referred to in footnote 7?
g) If p.5 means page 5, what do you guess pp.5-6 means?
h) What is the page reference for footnote 14? Why is this in lower case
Roman numerals? (If you are not sure, look at any book and compare the way
the front matter is numbered with the way the text material is numbered.)

45
 CHAPTER 5

CONTINUOUS WRITING: ACADEMIC STYLE

One of the principal aims of ELG1014: Communication and Study Skills course is to
teach students to write academic texts including essays, articles and other related research
projects. Crucial for academic style is the inclination towards vocabulary shift, that is,
being accurate, brief and clear. In general, academic style should, as far as possible,
retain the original text meanings of the sources and avoid wordage and hidden/idiomatic
expressions. While it should be noted that academic writing is not just a matter of
slavishly following hard-and-fast rules of the formal style, in what follows are some of
the most common features to consider:

British vs American English

In the first place, decide on the Standard English to use consistently: British vs
American English: spellings and usage, inexhaustive though

British English (BrE) American English (AmE)

Amongst among
Behaviour behavior
Centre center
Centre(d) around center(ed) on/upon
One… one’s books one… his/her books
Theatre theater
Practise [v] practice [v]
Sulphur sulfur
Plough plow
Meet someone meet with somebody
Consult a lecturer consult with a lecturer
Since, already, yet, since & just, But with the simple past in (AmE).
used with the perfect aspect (BrE).
Toward(s) toward

Avoiding contractions and abbreviations

Doesn’t; won’t; can’t; we’d; it’s; let’s; I’m; he’ll; you’ve are examples of contractions
which are widely used in informal conversation. Otherwise, contractions could be used in
spoken academic texts such as lectures, seminars, oral presentations and/or in such fields
as philosophy. Further, it is acceptable in an academic essay to use ’s or –s genitive to
show possession, as in the following phrases:

The essay’s argument: the argument of the essay

The country’s imports: the imports of the country
The law’s implication: the implication of the law
Likewise, such conventional abbreviations as e.g., i.e. etc, viz, characterise lazy writing,
and should be avoided in academic writing. However, forms, for example, Fig. 4 for

46
Figure 4, cf. vs. et al. Vol. No. Edn, Ed(s), Trans. and so on, are acceptable if used
approtriately, more especially in referencing. an academic essay, one can certainly use its
[meaning, of it, as, for example in its place [the place of it], its acceptance [the
acceptance of it] and its exports [the export of it].

Shunning colloquialisms
Under the heading of Colloquialisms, are included words which in a dictionary are
indicated as being:

Colloquial [col; colloq], slag [sl], or informal [infml]

Colloquial and slang terms are used, primarily, when one is talking with close
acquaintances; it is unlikely that one would use them – especially slang terms – in polite
or formal conversation or in conversation with one’s “elders and betters”.
Examples of colloquial terms, together with their non-colloquial equivalents, are:

to be had [I was had]: to be tricked [I was tricked]

hairy [a hairy journey]: frightening [a frightening journey]
not half bad [this meal is not half bad]: very good [this meal is very good]
hang-out [the hang-out is nearby]. place where one is often found [They
usually meet at a place nearby]

If one is doubtful about whether one should use a word or not, a dictionary should be
consulted to check whether it is colloquial or not. One could use either or both of the
following dictionaries:
The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

As a general rule, it should be noted that any natural language is continually changing
and today’s colloquialism may be tomorrow’s formal language. It can also be noted that
there is a continual introduction of new colloquialisms into the language. However, it is
also possible that not everyone will agree to what is colloquial and what is not. As
Fromkin and Rodman point out:

Hippie and pot are no longer recognized as slang by some person, but are by
others. Also, one generation’s slang is not another generation’s slang. Fan [as in
“a Rovers fan”] was once a slang term, short for fanatic. Phone, too, was of once
a slangy, clipped version of telephone, as TV was television. In Shakespeare’s
time, fretful and dwindle were slang, and recently goof, bling, and hot dog were
all hardcore slang.

In addition to colloquial, slang and informal words, there are other words that should not
be used in an academic essay. These are words which are marked as:

47
Taboo [tab] and derogatory [derog]
These are words which are used to insult people or are used on the most informal of
occasions with very close friends.

There is one more group of words which is not advisable to use in an academic essay, and
these are often indicated in a dictionary in one of the following ways:

Obsolete [obs]: poet [poet]: biblical [bibl]: literary [lit].

These terms are self-explanatory: if a word is “obsolete” it is no longer normally used; a
“poetic” word is one that would normally only be used in poetry; a “biblical” word, one
that is normally read only in an older edition of the Bible; and a “literary” term, one that
would normally be found mainly in literary works.

Euphemisms
One of the golden rules of academic style is ‘telling it like it is’ which is considered a
virtue while ‘beating about the bush is minor sin’. Euphemisms, that is, mild, indirect
words or phrases used to avoid harsh, direct or unpleasant connotations, should be
avoided as far as possible. Euphemisms are generally imprecise; they, therefore, conceal
the meaning of the text as a piece of academic writing. Typical examples include:
He has left us/gone home/passed away/kicked the bucket - died;
Senior citizens - the elderly;
An industrial action - strike;
Have cash flow problem- have no money;
Defoliated - demolished.

Vague and redundant expressions

Academic writiers should avoid vague exapressions including the following: get or (got).
For example, the word got is not the best word to use in the following sentences:
(a) He has got a bad cold.
(b) I have got a new car.
(c) She has got a new dress on.
(d) Have you got promotion?

It will be seen that the word got is not necessary. In both [a] and [b] the word got is
redundant:

He has a bad cold and I have a new car are both adequate. With reference to [c] and
[d], here there is laziness. In the first case, She is wearing a new dress is more accurate
and definite, while in the second case Have you received promotion? or Have you been
promoted? more clearly expresses the meaning.

Note that the caveat against using the word got in academic writing equally applies to
the corresponding American form gotten, both of which reflect lazy or redundant style,
as got.

48
Other vague expressions include style the use of nice, fantastic, amazing, good, bad
Consider the following sentences:

a) The weather is nice.

b) That cake tasted nice.
c) She was wearing a nice dress.
d) What she did was so fantastic.
e) That was very amazing.
f) They are good today.

Note that the above counter words/adjectives suggest multiple meanings, and can
confusion in academic writing. Instead, using accurate and/or precise words such as mild
weather, warm weather, rainy weather [after a drought], windy weather [if one wishes to
go sailing]; sweet cake, acceptable actions; interesting and bright ideas.

Using impersonal style

It should be noted that the impersonal style basically suggests the use of passive voice
and nominalisations - verbal nouns (also called Latinate words, normally formed from
verbs and/or adjectives). Here writing, more especially in ‘hard’ sciences (scientific
texts), stresses processes, as opposed to the doer/actors of actions or events involved. Of
course, the impersonal style, is not confined to scientific writing. In other words, the
impersonal style does not necessarily mean complete avoidance of the First and Second
Person Pronouns such as: I, We and you and their related proforms. The personal
pronouns: I and We, although, infrequently, still feature scientific texts in such strategic
positions/sections as the abstracts, introductions, methodology and conclusions. The
humanities and many social sciences use more active voice, which is considered short,
more direct, stronger as well as punchier in meaning-manking. Whether to use the active,
passive voice or nominalisations mainly depends on the discipline, the genre under
investigation and the emphasis desired as well as the balanced use of such rhetorical
devices across the paper/text as a whole.

Examples involve the following (academic) stylistic variations preferred across

disciplinary fields:
Active voice Passive voice
 As I have pointed out… As has been pointed out …
 We have already stated … It has already been noted
 I conclude/suggest that … It can/could be concluded that …
We will examine/discuss… It is/will be argued that ….
Scholars/researchers/scientists observe ... It is/was reported that
It is/was observed that…

Nominalisations
 The argument is that …
 Studies indicate that…
 The observation is that …
 Research suggests…

49
  The findings show/demonstrate/indicate that…
 The analysis indicates …

Note the use of various verbs and the nominalisalisation-focused expressions as used in
different areas of academic study.

Using Third person pronouns

Note that the third person pronouns such as he, she, they, and sometimes the impersonal
or indefinite it are commonly used to mitigate/avoid using the first person pronouns
noted above. Similarly, the third person noun phrases: the author, the writer, the
researcher, and also the study, the paper, and still the article/essay, feature many
academic texts, with writers striving towards distancing themselves from or objectifying
their pieces of writing.

Exercise 1
Based on the above explanatory notes, comment on the following clauses:

 As it has been mentioned … As has been mentioned …

 As have been seen … As has been seen …
 As has been pointed out that the legal system …
As has been pointed out, the legal system …
or the legal system …
or it has been pointed out that the legal system….
 As has been proved that the economic slump ….
As has been proved, the economic slump …
or It has been proved that the economic slump …
 I have made reference to … Reference has been made to …
 Reference has been made by me to …
Reference has been made to …
 We used transitivity as an example of …
Transitivity was used as an example of …
 Transitivity was used by us as an example of …
Transitivity was used as an example of. …
 You will find further details about x in …
Further details about x will be found in …
or one will find in
or One will find further details about x in ….
 You must not think that this was caused by …
It must not be thought that this was caused by …
or
 It must not be thought by you that this was caused by
One must not think that this was caused by …
 One should consider the price and he must also think about …
One should consider the price
and
One must) also think about……

50
  When one is looking for a TV, she must consider both
When one is looking for a TV, one must consider both.

Sexist Language
Academic style shuns, as much as possible, gender-biased expressions, more especially
male generics such as:
Mankind,- humankind, humanity, human race.
Firemen - fire workers/brigades;
Workmen - workforce/ workers, employees
Policemen - police officer;
Manpower development - Human resources development;
Lawyers love their wives - Lawyers love their spouses
Everybody should do his work - Everybody should do his/her (or their) work.

Bombast or complex vocabulary

Avoid any pompous or highly involved style. The rule is that use plain/simple style as in
the second in each pair below:
Commence - begin;
Demise/decease - death;
Initiate - start/begin;
Exponential - fast;
Exterminate - stop/end etc
Malady/condition - illness;
Proliferate - increase;
Utilise - use.

Jargon: Specialised terminology

Any academic writing cluttered with jargon, technical or specialised language, makes a
crammed style. Of course, any field of study is jargonish, involving technical vocabulary.
Of particular mention are ‘hard’ sciences: Physics, Bio/chemistry, Engineering and
Medicine, on the one hand, and Law and Polico-economic sciences, on the other hand, all
of which comprise highly specialised vocabulary, typified, among others, by
Latinate/Greek words, phrases, abbreviations as well as graphic (non-textual) materials.
The same applies to the ICT-Computerised language. The humanities and social sciences,
likewise, feature technical terminology making the disciplines distinct from others. For
general readership, academic writers should, therefore, use plain language, free of many
definitions and explanations of unfamiliar terms used.

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Exercise 2
Consider the following sentences:

a) The teacher is a professional but he is rarely paid. The implication of this sentence
is that all teachers are males and that none are females. Equally open to criticism,
of course, would be:
b) The teacher is a professional but she is rarely paid. This implies that there are no
male teachers. One way to get around this problem is to write:
c) The teacher is a professional but he or she is not paid.
d) However, this is a rather clumsy way of solving the problem. A much simpler
way of solving the problem, and one which removes the sexist element, is by the
use of the plural:
e) The teachers are professionals but they are not paid.

One word which tends to be overused is like. This word is best kept for use as a verb as is
shown in the following examples:

The use of force is not liked by governments. Teachers like an attentive

class.
One would like to emphasise that point.

It is a better style to avoid like in the following situations:

Best avoided Preferred

Like soldiers, the police wear uniforms. As do soldiers, the police wear uniforms.
He has many cars, like a Golf, a Peugeot He has many cars, for example, a Golf, a
and a Mercedes. a Peugeot and a Mercedes.
He works, like his brother, in a factory. He works, as his brother does, in a factory.
She visited several countries like Kenya She visited several countries, including
and Tanzania. Kenya and Tanzania.

The final point to be made about the style to be aimed for in an academic essay is that
only “technical” abbreviations should be used. To use abbreviations [and signs] such as:

e.g., NB., viz., %., km., 7, mm., etc., GOL, and MOE is not acceptable when writing an
essay in an academic style. Basically, the only abbreviations that are acceptable are
acronyms – that is, an abbreviation which is accepted as a word, for example, UNESCO,
WHO, LEPEC, NUL and IMF, and the technical ones, when to write the word out in full
would be more confusing than using the abbreviation, thus:

$200 is more efficient than 200 dollars;

900C is more efficient than 90 degrees centigrade;

and would be accepted in an academic essay. However, it is probably best to avoid

abbreviations whenever/wherever possible when writing an academic essay – but when it

52
comes to writing notes, then, one sees that abbreviations, if not overused, are extremely
valuable.

Hedging vs Boosting
Most importantly, academic writing involves a high degree of hedging, with some
aspects of boosting depending on the commitment authors have to the propositions made.
Hedging refers to the process/tendency of making less determinate or assertive statements
so as to avoid rendering one’s work oversimplified or questionable, on the one hand.
Boosting, on the other hand, denotes making too definitive or categorical statements, that
is, too general or sweeping assertions. While academic style should not necessarily
fudge, that is, overqualify one’s statements, students are advised to use some of the
following modality/hedging devices so as to sound academic or scholarly. These include:
probably, possibly, maybe, can/could, may/might, perhaps, seemingly/it seems,
apparently/it appears, tend to, usually, often, largely, mainly, mostly, hardly etc.
Similarly, students should avoid or use, with great care, the following items: always, all
the time, never, only, none, nothing, well-known, everybody knows, clearly, obviously in
their academic writing.

Exercise 3
The following sentences are in the less formal style of a lecture. Change them so that they
are in a more formal style and so suitable for an academic essay. Do not use ONE unless
it is absolutely necessary.

1. For comparative purposes, I also collected data on the Creole of Principle.

2. We have made an attempt in the introduction to define our concepts.
3. I also tape-recorded four folk-tales narrated by Mr. Ponte.
4. They have done relatively little work on the several hundred languages of West
Africa.
5. I use the word “kin” in my essay to include all individuals to whom relationship
terms are applied.
6. We have made a definitely systematic attempt to look for our data.
7. We must also take account of differences in our findings.
8. If you can identify the constants that you can relate to culture, you will have
succeeded.
9. I planned the current exercise in 1975 with my original results in mind.
10 By way of summary, I have discussed in some details my research.
11. Although I have not demonstrated that, I have suggested that this may be the case in
certain languages.
12. In other languages, we suggested that this is the case.
13. In my previous analysis, I attempted to show the error in the data.
14. We should first define what is meant by elegiac poetry.
15. The last type which I can cite as relevant evidence is Neanderthal man.

Exercise 4
Below, there are several passages which are written in a rather confusing style. Rewrite
these passages in an acceptable formal and academic style.

53
1. I shall take Senegal as an example of an actual linguistic situation, not because
it’s especially typical, but because we’ve unusually reliable, though far from
complete, data on the area.

2. I’ve already mentioned his inaugural lecture and you can find the bibliography of
his works in the library. Let us hope that this bibliography will be published one
day as a short monograph.

3. You will see that the San languages are very different in structure and vocabulary
from the Khoi languages and you can’t group them together.

4. Meanwhile, with Swahili, they made attempts to reform the orthography and to
eliminate undue Arabic influence. In fact, in Germany, they pressed for more
teaching of Swahili and less German.

5. Of Xiri we have v. little information, but what little we have suggests that there
are v. small differences between Nama, Ora and Xiri and that these don’t really
affect the lexical stock in any significant way.

6. In conclusion, they should mention again three general features. Firstly, you’ll
find on all levels a great measure of correspondence between ideophones and
verbs. Secondly, they argue that onomatopoeic ideophones seem to have their
own special features. Thirdly, you will see that a relatively great measure of
fluidity exists, e.g. with regard to several features of the ideophones.

Exercise 5
Read through the following extracts and decide which are written in a formal academic
style and which are not, with those which are not in a formal academic style, try, from the
language used in, the content and the lay-out of the extract, to guess the variety of
language used in the extract. Is it, for example, the variety of English used by lawyers in
their work or that variety of English used by journalists or that variety used in reference
works.

Also, with those that are not written in an academic style, explain why you have come to
this decision bearing in mind what you have learnt from the information given to you in
this Unit. Try and express your answer in a sentence or sentences on these lines;
statement + an example or examples. For instance,

This passage is not written in an academic style. There is, for example, wide/great use
[made] of the pronoun “I”, as in “I saw him there” [line 2] and “I ducked quickly” [line
3]. In addition, there are idioms and contractions, such as, “he downed his drink” [line 1]
and “don’t” [line 1] and “can’t” [line 5].

54
In the example above, one has the statement “This passage is not written in an academic
style” and it is then supported with three facts: Use of the pronoun “I”; Use of idioms;
Use of contractions.

It should also be noted that there are examples of the three facts given, in inverted
commas, because one is quoting from the passage and with a line number in brackets to
help the reader to locate quickly your evidence.

Reading the following passages for practice

Passage 1
I work for the Washington Journal, the largest newspaper in what official Washington
refers to as “our nation’s Capital”… I’ve never been able to get my juices going day in
and day out the way some reporters do about the job. Les Painter was that way about
his work. He really believed that what he was doing was the most important thing in the
world. He certainly was the most prominent journalist in Washington. By the standards
of the profession – such as they are – he was very good at what he did. So good, in fact,
that plenty of people were glad when he was killed, or rather, I should say, murdered.
And that’s how I got into the whole thing.

Passage 2
A Western diplomat said, “the President has run a pretty tight Government. He hasn’t
gone in for profligate spending and he’s won for his country a reputation for economic
growth and political stability. If he wants to build himself a new palace now, why
shouldn’t he? Maybe he feels that it’s time Cameroon had some kind of edifice
commensurate with its economic power.”

Passage 3
The precept to choose the familiar word, which is also probably the short word, must,
of course, be followed with discretion. Many wise men through the centuries, from
Aristotle to Sir Winston Churchill, have emphasized the importance of using short and
simple words. But no one knew better than these two authorities that sacrifice of either
precision of dignity is too high a price to pay for the familiar word. If the choice is
between two words that convey a writer’s meaning equally well, one short and familiar
and the other long and unusual, of course the short and familiar should be preferred.
But one that is long and unusual should not be rejected merely on that account if it is
more apt in meaning.

Passage 4
For this reason, continued my father, ‘tis worthy to recollect, how little alteration, in
great men, the approaches of death have made. –Vespasian died in a jest upon his
clossestool –Galba with a sentence – Septimus Severus in a dispatch – Tiberious in
dissimulation, and Caesar Augustus in a compliment. – I hop ’ twas a sincere one –
quoth my uncle Toby.

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Passage 5
The truth’s that plutonium’s one of the most dangerous substances known to man.
There’s no antidote. The victim may die in a week, he may linger for months, but blood
cell destruction continues. He’ll die, perhaps years hence, of a plastic anaemia. But he
will die. You can’t see it; you can’t feel it; you can’t smell it. Furthermore, in most
cases, it represents a danger that might not show up for ten or 15 years.

56
 CHAPTER 6

PARAGRAPH WRITING SKILLS

6.0 Paragraph writing

A good paragraph, as with a good sentence and a good essay, has a structure. The
structure of a paragraph is of two parts:
 Topic sentence

 The topic sentence is that sentence in the paragraph in which the idea of
that paragraph is expressed. Often the topic sentence comes first, but it is
possible for it to come at any point in the paragraph. It can even occur as
the final sentence as long as it contains the controlling idea of the
paragraph.

 Details to support the topic sentence

 With regard to the details to support the topic sentence, one must be very
careful that the details put into the paragraph are relevant to the topic
sentence, and only to that topic sentence. Such details should help ensure
unity within the paragraph as a whole.

The following is an example of a ‘good’ paragraph, that is, one which has a topic
sentence together with details which support that topic sentence and only that topic
sentence.

The meeting had been a very long one. Starting at nine o’clock in the morning,
it had eventually ended at seven o’clock in the evening. There were the usual
reasons for it lasting this long. Firstly, there had been too many items on the
agenda. Secondly, there were, as the proverb says, several ‘empty vessels’
which, as usual, ‘made the most sound’. These ‘empty vessels’, too, were aided
by a weak chairperson who had let them meander on, go off the topic, repeat
themselves and generally bore everyone. Finally, there had been a long and
bitter argument between the department of Science and Social Sciences over the
possibility of Science using some of Social Sciences’ excess money.

The idea being propounded in this paragraph is that

This certain meeting lasted for a long time and it is expressed in the [underlined] topic
sentence, coming first in the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph, on the other hand,
consists of details which back up the topic sentence. The actual length of the meeting is
given and the four reasons for the meeting lasting so long are stated, namely,

1. too much to discuss

2. people with nothing to say talked at great length

57
 3. the chairman did not control the meeting well
4. there was a long and bitter argument between the Department of Science and
Social Sciences

6.1 Effective paragraphing and using topic sentences

Definition
a) A paragraph is a distinct section of a written text (or printed text) that deal
with a particular idea or some aspect of it.
b) A paragraph is a unit of thought that deals with a particular aspect of the
whole or central idea.

Paragraph Development

Topic Sentence
c) As a unit of thought, a sentence should deal with ONE topic only. In other
words, it should have a topic sentence that expresses the main idea of the
paragraph.

Supporting Details/ Sentences

d) The rest of the sentences in the paragraph expand or develop on the main idea
expressed in the topic sentence to give support to it; to strengthen it or give
examples.

EXAMPLE

The Influences of Modern Technology

Topic Sentence/ Controlling Idea:

Technology has revolutionized activities in a modern business office.
Supporting Details/ Sentences:
For example, any number of letters or other documents can be copied quickly on a
photocopier than with a hand. If necessary, the copies can be enlarged or reduced in size
using a photocopier. Messages can be written on computers and transmitted instantly by
electronic mail. In addition, computers can handle letters, billing, inventory records and
all kinds of filling.

58
Exercise 1
Consider the following paragraphs and say whether the paragraphs are logically
constructed or not and explain why you come to your conclusion. Identify, where
possible, the topic sentence.

Paragraph 1
A library is a place where books and journals are kept. Journals are probably most used
by students and professionals. The principal difference between a book and a journal is
that the latter contains more up-to-date material. Books can normally be borrowed from a
library while journals cannot be. Libraries are found in all big towns and there are
traveling libraries which go out from these towns to allow people living in villages the
chance to borrow books.

Paragraph 2
There are basically eight steps followed in the making of a pencil. Firstly, graphite
powder, clay and water are mixed and this mixture is dried, becoming stiff and tube-
shaped. Thirdly, this stiff, tube-shaped mixture is forced through tiny holes slightly larger
than the desired size of the lead. Next, these tube-shaped strands are carefully lid on a
board and straightened. Then, these strands are dried again in an atmosphere of changing
temperature and humidity. The sixth step is the firing of these porous lead strands at
1,037’C. At the last but one step the lead strand is filled with wax to make it smoother
and the final step is the insertion of the lead stick into its, normal, cedar wood holder.

Paragraph 3
In 1861, the Evangelical Church set up a small printing press at Morija the first
newspaper, the monthly Leselinyana la Lesotho, was published there. The Evangelical
Church also set up a second printing press at Masitise in 1872 athough this was moved
and added to the Morija printing press in 1874. Also, in 1872, the Catholic Church started
a small printing press in Roma and its first publication was a 124 page book of prayers
prepared by the Catholic missionary, Joseph Gerard. The first entirely Basotho-owned
printing enterprise was established at Mafeteng there was produced Naledi ea Lesotho
which was a fortnightly newspaper, written partly in English and partly in Sesotho. In
1933, the Catholic Church moved its printing from Roma to Mazenod and Moeletsi oa
Basotho became a weekly printing newspaper. Thus, from this brief account of the early
stages of printing in Lesotho, it can be seen that printing in this country has been an
extremely long history.

Paragraph 4
There are now in existence simple calculators which do not do mathematical calculations
but translate words from one language to another. These translating calculators, which
were developed from mathematical calculators, work as follows: Assuming that the
translating calculators have been programmed to translate Sesotho words into French
words, if one wanted to know what the French for the Sesotho word sefate is, one would
enter on one’s translating calculator, sefate by pressing the letters “s”, “e”, “f” and so on
– just as on a mathematical calculator one displayed on one’s computer, where normally

59
one would see a number, the button FR, standing for “French”, would be pressed and the
answer arbre would be produced.

Paragraph 5
The first real computer, as the word computer is understood today, was only developed in
1946, that is, less than 50 years ago. For such a young machine it is used extremely
widely, from banks to universities and from factory floors to outer space. Since its first
development, the design of computers has changed radically from the big mainframe one
which used the valve extensively, to the small briefcase size one which can be carried
around from home to office and back home and which runs on rechargeable batteries.
The silicon chip which is the main reason for the reduction in size of computers is itself a
very modern invention, being not more than twenty years old. These chips are also
widely used and are not simply confined to computers.

Exercise 2
Read the following paragraphs carefully and
i) Identify and state the controlling idea of each paragraph.
ii) Underline the topic sentence in each.
iii) List the irrelevant sentences which do not contribute to the controlling idea of
each paragraph.

Paragraph 1
(1) A reputation that took years to build can be destroyed in minutes. (2) Paul Sello, who
for thirty-six years served his country well as a Congressman from Masite is an example.
(3) He gained much power and prestige in his years in office; for sixteen years he was
chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the height of Washington power.
(4) Mr. Sello was considered the tax wizard of the nation. (5) Tax collectors normally
work hand in hand with the government and so it was the same in Washington. (6) His
constituents chose him to represent them in the nineteen straight elections. (7) It is clear
that the elections went very well and Sello won his constituency. (8) He was considered a
conservative politician who thought only of tax legislation. (9) One would wonder what a
conservative is. (10) Overnight, Mr Sello lost this reputation. (11) He and a carload of
friends, including Refiloe Lereko “the Argentine Firecracker”, a stripper, were stopped
by the U.S. Park Police. (12) The U.S. has several police stations located in their cities.
(13) Miss Lereko jumped into the Tidal Basin and was rescued. (14) Smith’s face was
cut and bleeding and his glasses broken, reportedly because of a previous altercation with
Miss Lereko. (15) Sello’s thirty-six years of dedicated labour were forgotten. (16) There
are several people who dedicated their labour to the nation for less than thirty-six years
but still retained their reputation. (17) His reputation was lost. (18) He was stripped of
his congressional chairmanship. (19) He did not run for re-election. (20) Mary Jones was
another candidate who did not run for re-election. (21) Indeed, a reputation is a fragile
thing. (22) It takes years to build, but only a moment to lose.

60
Paragraph 2
(1) The city of Toronto, Canada, is a pleasant place to spend a summer vacation. (2)
Upon arriving in Toronto, one sees a remarkably clean city. (3) The streets are not littered
with dirt or debris, and Toronto’s buildings are in such good condition that even the old
ones look new. (4) In some cities, the buildings look like they are falling apart. (5) Other
cities are using specially treated steel to build their skyscrapers. (6) Pittsburgh has one of
these buildings. (7) Toronto is also a delight to shoppers. (8) The streets in the shopping
district are closed to traffic and lined with shady trees and outdoor cafes to provide the
shopper with a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere away from the noise, the exhaust fumes, and
the general chaos of congested city streets. (9) The stores themselves are fun to shop in
because, in addition to the usual big department stores one usually finds in such a city,
Toronto also has many smaller stores which specialize in such goods as native Indian
crafts and hand-carved wooden art objects. (10) Department stores are convenient, but I
often find them boring. (11) You see the same items in all of the department stores and,
besides, they usually charge too much for their goods-especially clothes. (12) Another
reason I don’t like them is because, even though most of them make millions in annual
profits, they pay their employees as little as possible. (13) Toronto’s restaurants also add
to the city’s appeal. (14) Besides good food, they have nice atmosphere, and, best of all,
reasonable prices. (15) Pittsburgh has some nice restaurants, too. (16) The people who
live and work in Toronto also add immeasurably to the charm of the city. (17) Because
of their diverse cultural background, they are very interesting people, and their warm,
friendly personalities make a visitor feel welcome. (18) Toronto is one of the few large
cities in the world where one can still feel safe walking along the streets at night. (19) For
many visitors, Toronto’s low crime rate is its most appealing feature. (20) In some cities,
the people are afraid to walk the streets at night. (21) Of course, there aren’t too many
places left today where one can really feel safe. (22) Cities have no monopoly on crime.

Paragraph 3
(1) Foreign countries have many different laws and regulations regarding legal abortion.
(2) Denmark has legalized abortion up to the seventeenth week of pregnancy, but under
the Italian penal code, performing or consenting to an abortion is punishable by two or
five years’ imprisonment. (3) I think that this is probably because there are a lot of
Catholics in Italy. (4) In Switzerland, abortion is permitted when pregnancy is dangerous
to the physical and mental health of the mother and when there is reason to believe that
the child will suffer birth defects. (5) Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia limit abortions to
women having valid medical or social reasons, while the Soviet Union, Rumania, and
Hungary permit them only within a certain number of weeks after conception. (6) It is
interesting to note that most of the doctors in the Soviet Union are women. (7) Perhaps
they are more aware of the dangerous psychological effects of abortion on women. (8) In
Sweden, under the new abortion Act, the woman herself can decide the question of
abortion prior to the nineteenth week of pregnancy. (9) Almost all Swedish laws are more
liberal than those of other countries. (10) In Israel, an abortion is a crime punishable by
five years’ imprisonment – unless advance authorization makes it a legal medical act.
(11) In Germany, the Abortion Reform Bill stresses that termination of pregnancy after
the first thirteen weeks is illegal and can be penalized by a fine or a prison sentence of up
to three years. (12) Although abortion is forbidden outright in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and

61
Jordan, it is excused if done to preserve the family’s honour. (13) Apparently, the
women’s lib movement hasn’t made much progress in these Arab countries.

6.2 Making your paragraph stick/hang together

Some of the devices which aid UNITY and CONTINUITY in the development of the
paragraph are:
1. Enumeration
Using words such as First, Second, Third or Then, Later, Finally etc;

2. Pronouns as Reference items or Substitutes: (Backwards or Forwards)

Using pronouns such as he, she, it, these, we, those, they, etc. Please note
that these are used to refer to the subject named in the previous sentences
(sometimes in the forthcoming sentences) to unify the paragraph;

3. Use of explicit connecting/transitional words and phrases

These serve as pointers to guide the reader;

Types of transitional words and expressions

To show addition And; moreover; furthermore; in addition;

also; again
To show contrast But; on the other hand; however; yet;
nevertheless; on the contrary
To show similarity Likewise; in the same way; similarly

To show emphasis In fact; indeed; certainly

To show concession Granted; even though; although, though

To introduce an example For example; for instance; that is; in other

words; in particular
To introduce a result Thus, therefore; consequently; hence; then

To show progression or changes in time In the morning/afternoon/evening; later;

afterwards; next; at last; finally
To show course of development from one Of course; as a result; on the other hand;
point to another nevertheless; however; consequently
4. Repetition of key words and phrases
This keeps the central idea before the reader;

5. Parallel wording
Repeating the certain sentence patterns, especially the verb forms to add clarity and
emphasis to the paragraph.

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Exercise 3
Read the following paragraphs carefully; consider the arrangement of the sentences,
and rearrange the sentences logically in order to form an effective well constructed
paragraph.

(1) I hope I don’t have such a frustrating day soon again. (2) My husband
forgot I didn’t have a car, so he failed to pick me up after work. (3) My
day yesterday was a mess. (4) When I finally got to work, I found the
interesting project I’d been working on was cancelled and I spent the
whole day doing boring filling. (5) Feeling there was nothing else to do; I
flung myself on my bed -which immediately collapsed. (6) We got off to a
bad start because I had forgotten to buy coffee. (7) Because I was upset, I
burned the steak I had splurged on. (8) My fan belt broke when I was on
my way to work. (9) The baby sitter was sick so we couldn’t go to the
movie we were looking forward to.

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 CHAPTER 7

ESSAY WRITING SKILLS

7.0 Introducing the essay

A good education prepares a person to communicate effectively in writing. Writing is an
aspect of this course which has been planned to contribute strongly to that part of your
education. All writing is first of all an exercise in thinking, so effective writing will result
from your clearest thinking. Whenever you are asked to write any assignment in a few
lines, you will either be asked to write something which describes a situation or an event,
or you will be asked to argue about a particular point of view, saying either why it is
correct or why it is wrong. In this unit, the first type of writing task will be called
descriptive, and the second will be called argumentative.

 A descriptive approach is one in which you will have to state/say in detail what
sb/sth is like. Your own point of view is often not required at all.
 An argumentative approach is one in which you will have to state your own
point of view, and to defend it by giving supporting arguments.

If you want to do either of these tasks successfully, you will have to write a logically
organised essay. This unit will show you how you can write a logically organized essay,
whether it is descriptive or argumentative. Logically organised essays rely on careful
planning: for this reason a great deal of time will be spent on helping you to plan your
essays carefully, so that your writing will be logical in its thinking and in its
presentation. The following suggestions can help you improve the clarity and rigour of
your thinking and thus of your writing:

Careful planning in essay writing comes after full understanding of the instructions or
rubric. This includes understanding key words or phrases in those instructions. Your
attention is drawn to the importance of understanding the meaning of some of the key
words (direction words) in essay instructions in the following glossary:

7.1 A Glossary of instructional/direction verbs in essay writing

(This glossary has been adapted from Strenski, Ellen and Scott Waugh. 1982. Writing Historical
Essays. California: ASUCLA Academic Publishing Service).

The ability to read essay instructions carefully all as one word, usually a verb, makes an
essential difference to these instructions. Refer to this glossary whenever you are given
some essay tasks in order to sharpen your comprehension. Thus, it is vital to be able to
distinguish clearly the following operative/direction verbs:
 Analyse: Distinguish the parts that make up the whole. This requires
characterising the whole, identifying the parts, and then showing how the parts
relate to each other and to the whole.
 Assess/evaluate: Judge the importance or value of something. Usually you should
begin with a statement of your criteria for judgment before commenting on the
elements that meet or fail to meet those criteria.

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 Characterise/Describe: State the particular traits, qualities, features, or elements
of something, especially those things which in your judgment are the most
important for its recognition or identification.
 Comment on: Express your informed opinion on the subject at hand, calling on
facts and details to support your views.
 Compare: Present two or more things so that you demonstrate their similarities
and differences. For greater clarity, this instruction may appear as “Compare and
contrast ‘X’ and ‘Y’.”
 Contrast: Consider two or more things together in order to show their difference.
 Consider/Discuss/Examine: Write in detail about a specific topic, presenting the
various sides or points of view relating to the subject. These general instructions
open the way for you to decide on your own approach to your answer.
 Criticise: Evaluate the truth or the merit of a particular argument, opinion, or
view. Here you would usually set out by stating the criteria for your judgment in
answer to the question.
 Define: This may be done by
 pointing out what something is and what it is not; giving the meaning
of/referring to and/or labeling something.
 stating the distinguishing characteristics by which something can be
recognized;
 placing something in its general class/ categorizing / classifying then
differentiating it from other members of that class.
 Describe: see “Characterize”. Discuss: see “Consider”.
 Enumerate: see “List”, Evaluate: see “Assess.”
 Examine: see “Consider.”
 Explain: This may be done by
 justifying/giving reasons for, or the causes of, something;
 making clear the principles underlying something;
 indicating how or why something began or how or why it developed as it
did;
 generally making something intelligible. Imagine that you are clarifying
the subject for someone who has not taken ELG1014

 Identify: Point out the characteristics, origins, nature, scope of influence, or

significant relations of something or someone. For examination questions, you
will do well to think in terms of the traditional questions: ‘who?’ ‘what?’ ‘when?’
‘where?’ and ‘why significant?’.
 Illustrate: Provide specific examples that demonstrate or clarify the essential
attributes of something.
 Interpret: Make clear the meaning(s) of something.
 Justify: State the reasons that support[ed] something.
 List/Enumerate: Present item-by-item, in logical order, the essential points about
a specific topic.
 Outline: Present your organization of an account of something using both the
main and subordinate points, while omitting minor details.
 Prove: Establish the truth of something by

65
  citing factual evidence or
 giving logical reasons.
 Relate: Show how two or more things are connected with each other (for
example, in time, in space, in influence of one on the other).
 State: Present briefly without detailed discussion
 Summarise: Present a subject in condensed form with only the most important
details.
 Trace:
 Follow the development of something from its origins (or from some
specific earlier date) to some later points. Or
 beginning at a certain date; follow the development backwards to its
origins (or some specified earlier points).
 Write an Essay: This phrase implies that you have some freedom in choosing
what approach you take to the subject. It is not an invitation to “dump” everything
you may know about the subject, but rather a challenge to focus on a specific
aspect in a convincing way, usually including careful analysis leading to a clear
conclusion.

7.2 What makes a good essay?

1. Fulfilling the purpose

Usually a historical essay is written for one of three reasons: (1) to describe
something; (2) to compare and contrast two or more things; (3) to present an
argument (thesis) about a topic. In every case, even when vigorously stating an
argument, you are under an obligation to be scrupulously fair, especially to those
with whom you disagree. As you reflect on your subject, seek to find differing points
of view and anticipate possible objections to the way you are planning to formulate
your essay. Your purpose is also to demonstrate your understanding of some of the
documents that have become major sources for the writing of the essay. The body is
built with carefully crafted paragraphs, each of which presents and develops a single
major idea.

2. Organisation
Every good essay has three parts: a clear introduction, the body (the longest part),
and the conclusion. Central to this presentation is your opening paragraph, for
here is where you should seek to focus your reader’s attention on both the
importance of your subject and the major points or arguments that you present in
your essay. Every good paragraph begins with words providing a smooth
transition from the previous paragraph and contains a topic sentence that states or
suggests its major idea.

3. Coherence
This refers to the arrangement of ideas, paragraphs, and sentences in a lucid and
logical sequence, so that the words flow smoothly from the beginning to the end,

66
 from introduction to conclusion. Especially important here is making sure that
you write clear transitions from one idea or paragraph to the next, so that the
whole text ‘hangs/sticks together’ (coherence). Clarity is further achieved by
eliminating any irrelevant ideas or unnecessary words.

4. Evidence
The persuasiveness of even well formulated and interesting ideas is dependent
upon the solid support you supply using examples, brief quotations, or other
factual information. Be sure to indicate clearly how this data is relevant to the
point you are seeking to establish.

5. Style
Your writing is concise and clear, with a tone that is appropriate to the subject
under review. Writing in a good style also demands special attention to correct
punctuation. (If you are not fully certain about how to use punctuation marks (full
stop, comma, semi-colon etc) properly, it is now time to study and get a good grip
on the subject from good grammar books).

Remember:
 Your concluding sentences give you your final chance to influence your reader
and are thus worthy of your special attention.
 Some writers recommend restating the major points you have sought to make in
the essay. Just as you told the reader in your opening paragraph what you
intended to do, in the final brief paragraph you summarize what you have done in
the body of the essay. However, this may depend on the length of the essay/paper
you are working on at the time.

67
 CHAPTER 8

WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY

A descriptive or explanatory essay should contain the following:

 Introduction
 Body
 Conclusion

In order to master the writing techniques of a logically arranged descriptive essay, you
should consider the following points:
 the instructions given throughout are very precise, just as they will
be with the argumentative essay.
While this seems inflexible to you at a glance, you should not worry too much about it.
Once you have mastered the techniques covered, you will be able to adapt them to your
own writing style. It will help you to make your work (unified) stick or hang together,
thereby ensuring coherence throughout the text as a logically organised presentation.

8.0 Introduction
To write a descriptive essay, it is helpful to begin by asking yourself some questions. Do
not include the questions in the text of your introduction. The answers to them
provide the material for your introductory paragraph.

Some questions you should ask yourself when you are planning your introduction are:

1. Do I need to define any of the terms in the title?

2. Why is the topic I am writing about important?
3. How am I limiting my discussion?
4. Can I break up my task into a number of areas?

Look at an introductory paragraph below and see how the answers to the questions help
to construct a paragraph.

Rubric: Outline some of the things that led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.

Some of the things that led to the downfall of the Roman Empire

1. (Roman Empire fall): In its day, the Roman Empire was the most powerful political
forcein the world. However, in the fourth century AD the Empire began to crumble,
leaving chaos in its stead. It is worth investigating the reasons for the decline of the
Roman Empire. 2. (Modern day relevance) Many of the factors involved still influence
modern-day societies. 3. (limit to loss of unified political empire) Of course the Roman
Empire did not vanish overnight, never to be seen again. Rome itself continued to
influence European politics for centuries afterwards. However, there was a point when it
ceased to be the centre of a unified political empire and it is the factors that led up to this

68
point that will be discussed in this essay. 4. (five reasons for fall) There are, of course,
many factors involved, but in general there were five reasons leading to the fall of the
Roman Empire.

8.1 Thematising/focusing the essay in the introduction

1. What do I need to define?
You will need to explain some of the key terms in the title so that you can show the
person marking your assignment that you have understood what you must talk about.
Either you must define a term or you must explain some important features of the
term. Remember in the introduction you must decide on what you must explain and what
you do not have to explain.

Here are some other examples of the first section of an introductory paragraph:
Rubric: Explain, with examples, the role of the defence force in border disputes.
The Role of the Defence Force in Border Disputes
There are three arms of the defence force, the Army, the Navy and the Airforce. All
three of these can be involved in border disputes, depending on the location of the
border under dispute.

Rubric: Outline some of the Problems of Urbanisation in one Third-World

country.
Some of the Problems of Urbanisation in One Third-World Country
Urbanization is the process whereby a settlement becomes a town in its own
right, usually through a conscious decision of government.

Sometimes a dictionary definition is useful, but you must treat this particular technique
with great care: usually you would have to highlight a particular aspect of the term you
are defining, rather than its entire ‘meaning’. An example of this is if we take the first
rubric in the exercise below; we would need to define ‘curfew’, but only the fact that
stringent curfews prevent people from going out to shops, cinemas or to restaurants.
There is little point in talking about problems with visiting friends during a curfew.

REMEMBER: Often you will need to define more than one key word in a title in order to make it
clearer.

Exercise 1
Look at the following list of titles:
(a) What do you think you would have to define in each topic?
(b) How would you define it? (Remember you should define especially the key words
of the topic).

1. The Effects of a Curfew on Business Interests in a City.

2. The Extent to Which Sexual Equality Leads to Social Change.
3. Two Processes for Extracting Steel from Ore.
4. How a Compass Works.
5. Some of the Dangers of Development.

69
2. Why is the topic important?
Often, especially in an essay discussing a topic, you will need to explain the importance
of the topic.
 either in terms of its relevance today,
 or in terms of its relevance to the general study of the subject.

Here are some examples:

Rubric: Describe with examples the role of the defence force in border disputes.

The Role of the Defence Force in Border Disputes

A study of the defence force’s role in border disputes is worth examining

because it is a good example of the way that the armed forces take over
policing in areas where the police have little control.

Rubric: Outline some of the Problems of Urbanisation in one Third-World country.

Some of the Problems of Urbanisation in One Third-World country

Urbanisation is a process that is world-wide, and so any problem that one

particular country is having will have implications for any other country that is
contemplating the same process with any of its settlements.

Exercise 2
(a) Look at each of the titles in Exercise 7.1 that you have decided need a section on
the importance and
 write one or two sentences for each one.

3. How am I limiting my discussion?

This is the place in your paragraph where you tell your reader just what area you will be
discussing. No essay can deal with all the aspects of a topic, and so you should select
what you consider central to the topic. If the central point is not clear from the title of
the assignment itself, then your lecturer’s guidelines will often help.

 You should give one reason why you have restricted yourself here.
Examples:
Rubric: Describe, with examples, the role of the defence force in border disputes.

The Role of the Defence Force in Border Disputes

As most disputes are land-based, this discussion will limit itself to examining the role of
the Army.

70
Rubric: Outline some of the problems of Urbanisation in one third-world country.

Some of the Problems of Urbanisation in One Third-World Country

This discussion will limit itself to urbanization in Pakistan, for this country is the one
where urbanization has developed at the fastest rate of all other countries.

Exercise 3
 Look again at the five titles in Exercise 1 and write a short section describing
how you will limit your discussion for each of the titles.

4. Can I break up the task into a number of parts?

This is an equally important section, for it tells you, the writer, how many points you will
be writing. Each point will be one of your numbered parts.

Note:
 You should use words like ‘major’, or ‘main’ or ‘most important’ or you
will run the danger of saying that the only things to say are the ones you are
saying (which is of course not true!)
 This sentence should contain many of the words from your topic. It should
be very similar to the topic, to remind the reader of the topic that you are writing
about.
 You should not write out here what the areas are that you will be
describing. It is acceptable that you should list but not elaborate on them. The
rest of your essay does that!

Here are some examples:

Rubric: Describe, with examples, the role of the defence force in border disputes.

The Role of the Defence Force in Border Disputes

Although the army becomes involved in many ways, there are really three main
roles that the defence force in general, and the Army in particular, has in border
disputes.

Rubric: Outline some of the Problems of Urbanisation in one Third-World country.

Some of the Problems of Urbanisation in One Third-World country

There are four major problems that countries like Pakistan are having with
urbanisation.

71
Exercise 4
(a) Write a section for each of the five titles in Exercise 7.1, explaining that each can
be broken up into four areas.

REMEMBER:
 At this stage you do not say what the areas are, you only list them! The
rest of your essay will discuss the various areas, so why use up space
setting them out here? If you bring them in, then you run the risk of
making your essay boringly repetitive.

8.2 Body
Each of the body paragraphs should
 Treat one of the areas mentioned in the last section of the introduction
 Develop each idea fully and give adequate information in detail.
 Include examples and/or quotations supporting the controlling idea.

Look at this example:

The first major reason for the fall of the Roman Empire was a financial one. As
Roberts (1980:286) says, ‘the state apparatus in the west gradually seized up after the
recovery of the 4th Century’. A lack of conquest meant that the Roman state had no
way of financing its enormous army apart from taxing its citizens heavily. So high
were the taxes that the majority of the wealthy gave up trying to produce foodstuff
for trade, and instead concentrated on becoming self-sufficient. As trade declined, so
did the finances to support the army, and before long the huge numbers of highly
trained men were replaced by a poorly trained, ill-equipped force. The army in Gaul
for example, consisted mainly of local peasants, with only a handful of Roman
citizens to control them. As soon as an army like this meets opposition, it simply
melts away.

8.3 Conclusion
The conclusion to the descriptive essay should not be a long one.
You can do the following:
 Write about the future implications of what you have described.
 Write about the influence of what you have described on wider issues.
 Suggest how the situation could be improved in some way.

REMEMBER:
A conclusion is NOT repetition of what appeared in the introduction nor is it a
restatement of the main points in each paragraph, BUT it is an OVERVIEW of what has
been described.

Look at this conclusion to the essay on the fall of the Roman Empire:
There were, then, many reasons why the Roman Empire fell. As the empire
crumbled, it became divided into the two centers of Rome and Constantinople. The

72
 resulting rivalry meant that the Arab forces were able to gain much more ground in
Europe and North Africa than they might otherwise have done. In the long term this
was perhaps an advantage to European culture as a whole, for it exposed Europe to
Arabic philosophy and science: both of which were in many ways far superior to
those in Europe at the time.

Exercise 5
a) What kind of conclusion is this?
b) Write down what the main idea of conclusion is.
c) Which of the three suggested types of conclusion is this one?

73
 CHAPTER 9

WRITING AN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

9.0 Introduction
In this chapter you will be looking at how to write an essay that
 puts forward one point of view and
 tries to defend that point of view.

Defending a point of view is perhaps the most frequently used extended writing exercise
in academic life. Most of the long essays you will be asked to write will be argumentative
ones. So it is worth spending a little time trying to get this technique right.

Why do teachers and lecturers expect one to do this so often?

The reason is simple. The argumentative essay is a very useful test of a student’s ability
to think logically. To write a good argumentative essay, your approach to the topic must
be logical from the beginning. A logical argument is the sign of a clear thinking. A
muddled argument is the sign of muddled thinking.

A special note
There are many ways of writing an argumentative essay, and none of them are ‘wrong’.
However, this chapter will suggest one method of writing an argumentative essay that is
used by many professional academics in their own work. If you can master this
technique, it will help you get through many of the books and articles that you will read
throughout the rest of your academic career. In order to help you master this technique
quickly, the instructions given are very precise, just as they were with the descriptive
essay. Please try to follow the technique suggested. Remember, once you have mastered
the technique you will be able to adapt it to suit your own style. The technique suggested
here will help you work out how to stick to the point, and it will make your arguments
much more logical in their presentation.

Essay Topics
The following essay topics are to help you do the exercises that follow which will help
you to gradually build up a detailed plan of an argumentative essay on each of them. The
topics are provided as an aid to your understanding.

1. Crime 9. Sexual equality

2. Technology 10. Media
3. Rape 11. Child-headed Families
4. Should smoking be made illegal/prohibited? 12. Abortion
5. Environmental Awareness 13. Divorce
6. Human Trafficking 14. Initiation Schools
7. HIV/AIDS 15. Youth in Politics
8. Education: for employment of the ‘whole’ man?

74
9.1 Positioning yourself (your point of view) in the introduction
An argumentative essay is usually a discussion of a topic, giving reasons why the writer
holds a particular point of view. Most academic papers or articles are laid out in such a
way that the introduction sets out the problem, and the view. If you look carefully at most
professionally written academic articles, you will find that the introduction is laid out
more or less like this:

 A section relating the topic to the reader’s own experience (you may need one or
more sentences for this).
 A question that sets out the problem behind the topic (one sentence only)
 A section showing why people who disagree with the writer are likely to hold
their opinion (you may need one or more sentences for this)
 A sentence that sets out the writer’s opinion on the topic and therefore signals
what the writer will defend in the body of the essay (one sentence only).

Let us look at each of these components as they actually occur in the following
introductory paragraph (the Economics of Oil Pricing) and identify

The Economics of Oil pricing

In his article on the use of the oil weapon in the 1970s, Brown (1984:23) suggests
that the main reason for the rapid increase in oil prices was the cost of the Arab-
Israel wars. But was that really the main reason behind the enormous price
increase at that time? Brown argues that the prices were the only way of providing
cash to replenish the huge amount of weapons lost by the Arabs in the wars. There
are, however, other far more important reasons behind the price increases at that
time than a mere shortage of cash.

Exercise 1
 Identify the four parts of the introduction appearing in the introductory paragraph
above.

Relating the topic to the reader’s own experience

Papers or essays are nearly always written for a reason. Often a topic is written about
because of recent publicity in the newspapers, or because someone in a previous
academic journal has put forward a point of view that the writer of the present article
disagrees with. Most professional writers will try to begin their articles or papers by
reminding their readers of the recent event of discussion. This is for a very good reason.
It says to the reader: ‘This is something you will be interested in. It is going to discuss
something you have been thinking about recently.’ It is a technique worth following in
your own writing: an essay that starts by arousing the lecturer’s interest is likely to gain
more marks that one which does not. Often you will need to write several sentences to
describe the recent event or discussion, but sometimes only one sentence can be enough.
Here are some examples of the introductory statements.

75
Example 1
The recent troubles in the Middle East have been widely reported in the world press.

Example 2
In last week’s daily papers there was a great deal of covering given to a case of
child beating. The parents, it seemed, were blaming their cramped housing on their
sudden loss of control.

Example 3
In the last year there have been over five hundred violations of air traffic rules in
the United States.

 What essay topics in the examples given above do you think each is
introducing?

Reminder:
The more DATES, FACTS AND FIGURES you can give in your introductory
section, the better!

Exercise 2
 Look at the topics listed on page 72, and write some introductory sentences for
any five titles of your choice.

Setting out with the rhetorical question (Issue), the problem behind the
topic
This is the most important part of your essay, because it helps to succinctly express what
the essay is actually discussing.

Look at the paragraph below, and see how the issue helps to define the theme of the
essay.

Football Violence
1. In a recent article about the role of the police in the handling of football crowds
Hanson suggested that police should be armed with 2-metre clubs with spikes on
the end (Hanson, 1984:27). 2. Is arming the police really the right way to go about
solving law and order problems at sports events? 3. Hanson suggests that giving
the police weapons is necessary because the only way to meet violence is with
violence. 4. There are, however, more sensible ways of dealing with law and
order in sports events.

The issue defines what the discussion will be about. The essay will not discuss whether
the clubs should be two metres or three metres long. It is not going to discuss whether
football should be banned: it is not going to discuss whether there is, in fact, violence at
sports events. Now, What is it going to discuss?

 Write what you think will be discussed.

76
By putting the issue right at the beginning, several things are achieved:
 The reader is told from the beginning what the writer will be arguing about:
what aspects of the problem are going to be discussed.

 Often the writing of an issue shows a writer what he really wants to write
about. Putting down the issue helps to clarify the writer’s own mind.

 The writer is forced to decide what that one main point really is. If the writer
in the example above had actually wanted to discuss what arms the police
should carry, then the issue would have had to be revised to reflect that. For
example, if the writer had wanted to discuss what arms the police should be
given, the issue would have had to be written to read something like this: are
these really the kind of arms the police should carry?

What Constitutes lame issues that lead to weak argumentative essay?

Often poor essays can be traced back to ‘lame issues’. A lame issue is one that does not
have two sides to it.

The following are some examples of lame issues:

 Is theft a crime?
 Should children do what their parents tell them?
 Is the world round?
 Should we obey the traffic rules?
 Are women legally equal to men?
 Is violence a bad thing?

For instance: ‘Is theft a crime?’ is a lame issue because the word ‘theft means to ‘take
something illegally’ crime is illegal, so the question is circular- ‘is an illegal act illegal?

You could change this to make a useful issue by rewriting it as ‘can one ever justify
taking other people’s property?’ This is a good issue, because there are two sides to it.

1. YES - because if one’s child is starving it is right to take food to survive.

2. NO - because taking other people’s property is theft, and theft is a crime.

Exercise 3
Consider the lame issues above and change them into useful issues.
N.B: If you have a good issue, you will have an argument that has two sides to it. A
good issue is one whereby you could imagine two people coming to blows over it!

77
A Statement of why some people may disagree with the writer, and are
likely to hold that opinion (Counter- argument)
When you write a sentence that shows the opposite side to your own point of view
you are doing several things:

 You are telling the reader, who may in fact already have the opposite point of
view to you about your issue, that the opposing argument does have some
strong arguments to support it.
 You are making sure that your issue does really have two sides to it. If you
cannot find any good reason why someone should hold the opposite point of
view to you, then you have not got a good issue!

Notice how the third sentence in the paragraph quoted on page 74 about Football
Violence gives only one reason why the writer with a different point view to the
writer holds his or her opinion.

Points to consider when developing a counter-argument

 Do not give more that one support for the counter argument because it might
weaken your own point of view.
 Make the counter argument appear less certain by using words/phrases
(hedges) such as:
 It can/could be argued that…
 It may/might be said that …
 Some people might argue that ….
 Some people maintain that….

REMEMBER:
With the counter argument, you include only ONE reason why the counter
argument could be considered valid.

A Statement that puts forward the writer’s own opinion on the topic
(Main idea statement/MIS)
This statement
 is the answer to the question posed by the issue.
 tells the reader what you, the writer, think about the issue.
Note that you do not write any reasons why you hold this opinion. The rest of your essay
is giving all the reasons, so you do not write them in the introduction. Most students find
it very hard to write a MIS without giving any reasons – there is no need to do this, as
you are going to discuss them at length in the paragraphs to come.

Points to consider when developing a MIS

 Make sure that your MIS sounds very definite/certain
 Introduce your MIS with phrases that make it appear very certain or factual.
You may use the following words/phrases:
o However, it is clear that …

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 o There are many reasons why …
o On the contrary, it is obvious that …
o In the converse case, it is strongly argued that ….
o In fact, there are far more reasons
 Avoid using modals such as: ‘can’ or ‘might’; instead, use the categorical
modality ‘is’ or ‘are’ and add phrases such as ‘of course’, ‘certainly’
definitely, absolutely, etc all of which show strong commitment to your
propositions.

Exercise 4
We have now covered all four parts of the introductory paragraph. Look at the list of
statements below, and decide whether they are:

A Themes
B Issues
C Counter arguments
D Main idea statements
E Lame issues

Write them with A, B, C, D or E beside them.

1. Should the law on theft be changed?

2. The law on theft should be changed.
3. Examinations should be abolished.
4. Police are unnecessary because they are not reducing crime.
5. Killing one another is a sin.
6. Traffic problems
7. Moslems make better human beings that Christians.
8. Rapists should be sentenced to death.
9. Motor racing should be banned
10. Should corporal punishment be practiced at schools?
11. Women and equality
12. Should we be kind to people?
13. Should government introduce compulsory education?
14. Life in Urban areas versus life in Rural areas.
15. Unemployment causes poverty.
16. Pollution is unavoidable.
17. Development must stop immediately.
18. The country should only be run by women.
19. Is crime bad?
20. Some people may claim that human trafficking does not exist in Lesotho.

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Exercise 5
The paragraphs below are the introductions to essays. What is wrong with them? Write
them correctly.

Paragraph 1
A few years ago it was suggested that English should be abandoned in Lesotho
schools because it is too time-consuming, and irrelevant to the needs of the
country. Is this really true? There are a large number of people who would agree
with this suggestion because they were never able to learn English well enough to
get on, but they do not consider the advantages of learning English.

Paragraph 2
Different schools, especially secondary and high schools, are working hard to buy
computers for their students. Computers are very necessary in schools especially
during this era of technology. Prof. Jones has argued that they are a waste of time
in schools because the children will just play games on them all the time. Last
week the government made a decision to buy computers for all the secondary
schools in the country. Do the schools really need computers?

Paragraph 3
Last week Prof. Max gave a lecture on the economic situation in Lesotho,
suggesting that all the developed countries in the world should give money to
assist the people living in this country. Should countries really give aid to the
Basotho nation? Certainly, money will be useful to Lesotho because it will be
used mainly to support the poor people that are starving. However, there are many
reasons why the world should not give out any financial aid.

Paragraph 4
Should we continue running the nation’s airline? There is overwhelming evidence
that we should keep the airline going. A large number of people are firmly
convinced that we should not, as the money would be better spent on health
services. In the newspapers last week there were several reports on the cost of
maintaining the airline.

Paragraph 5
Last year the government decided to give up malaria control. The reason they
gave was that it was too expensive. Is it right to give up a health programme on
the grounds of expense? The government’s argument was that the money could be
better spent on other things. But it is definitely wrong to cut health programmes
because people have a right to health care.

A checklist for the introductory paragraph

In each of your introductory paragraphs you should include the following:
1. Theme
 Provides the links between the topic and a recent event.

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  Provides context for the issue,
2. An issue
 Phrased as the question
 Does not contain supporting reasons
3. A section containing a counter-argument to your own point of view
4. A main idea statement, which is your own point of view.
 Is the last sentence of the paragraph.
 Does not contain any supporting reasons
 Is the answer to the question posed by the issue.
 Most of the words in the MIS are the same as those in the issue

9.2 Body
Supporting sentences in an argument within the essay
The next stage in the planning of your essay is to ensure that your supporting arguments
actually support your MIS. That sounds simple, but in fact it often is not the case. Each of
your supporting details should be a paragraph of its own. Paragraphs are the main
sections which serve to develop the main ideas raised in the argument. As such,
paragraphs make up the body of the text as a whole, with each paragraph contributing to
the topic introduced at the beginning. So if you have three supporting facts, your essay
may have three paragraphs. The paragraph should thus have the following structure:

Introduction
1. Controlling Idea 1 – Paragraph 1
Supporting sentences

2. Controlling Idea 2 – Paragraph 2

Supporting sentences

3. Controlling Idea 3 – Paragraph 3

Supporting sentences

Each support paragraph should begin or end with your topic statement which is, in fact,
the TOPIC SENTENCE for that paragraph.

You may begin your first support paragraph in this way:

The first reason why ______________is______________
(Put MIS here) (Put support here)
and so on.
Remember:

 Each paragraph begins with a restatement of your MIS, and then clearly
lays out what the support statement for that paragraph is going to be. This
helps you to keep to the point, and helps the reader to remember what your
main point is.

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  The rest of our paragraph explains your support statement, incorporating
such aspects as quotations from sources, or references to other authorities
in the field to give weight to your point of view (MIS).

 Each support paragraph may conclude with an example that proves your
support is a valid one. The examples should be as precise and convincing
as possible to make your argument valid. So, they should not be made-up
ones. The more precise and concrete your examples, the more convincing
the armament will be.

Look at the following support paragraph:

The first reason why the nation should keep its airline is because it is an
important item of international prestige. Whenever one of the aircraft is
seen abroad, it indicates that the nation is wealthy enough and commands
expertise enough, to keep such an enormous investment running. As
Sefotho, the chairperson of Lesotho Air says no one cares a jot whether
the plane they see is paid for or not. All they look for is the logo on the
tail…” (2006:27). Nations without an airline of their own are considered
by international travellers as very undeveloped: not worth visiting. It is for
this reason that small nations like Botswana and Swaziland have airlines
of their own.
NB:
Notice how the explanation deals only with the support covered by the first sentence, and
the example makes the support valid.

Exercise 6
In the following exercise, each sentence is the beginning of the four support paragraphs
for an essay entitled ‘Introduction of Death Penalty’
The MIS for this essay is ‘death penalty should be introduced’.
Each one of the following openings is wrong in some way. Write them out and then write
down what you consider to be the correct openings.
1. The first reason is crime would be cut down if it was.
2. The second reason why is because of cost.
3. Finally we should introduce because an eye for eye and tooth for a tooth.
4. We need it because crime will be less.
5.
A Checklist for Writing Support Paragraphs
 when writing a topic sentence you should always bear in mind the MIS
 supporting sentences should relate to the controlling idea of the paragraph
 use quotations to support your argument
 use examples if and when necessary
 support paragraphs should not contain any suggestions

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 9.3 Conclusion
The concluding paragraph should:
 begin with the restatement of your MIS
 suggest a solution to the problem that was introduced
 try to show how the two opposite sides could be reconciled
 avoid just summarising of all the supporting details; that makes the conclusion
merely boringly repetitive.

For instance, if your issue has been ‘Should the police be armed?’ and your MIS was ‘the
police should not be armed’. Then your conclusion should reconcile the two sides the two
sides in this way:

Although it is clear that the police should definitely not be armed, there are
occasions on which it is necessary for the police to have weapons: when dealing
with a dangerous criminal, for instance, the answer to this perhaps to allow the
police to carry weapons only when permitted to by a judge or someone similar.

Remember:
The only place you should put suggestions in an argumentative essay is at the end, in the
conclusion.

The Preparation Sheet

In future each time you begin to plan an assay:
You should lay out a preparation sheet, which will serve as your essay plan.
Your preparation sheet should look something like this:

1. INTRODUCTION
 THEME
 ISSUE
 COUNTER-ARGUMENT
 MIS

2. BODY
 SUPPORT PARAGRAPH 1
 SUPPORT PARAGRAPH 2
 SUPPORT PARAGRAPH 3
 SUPPORT PARAGRAPH 4

3. CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH
 RECONCIATORY STATEMENTS
 SUGGESTIONS/RECOMMNDATIONS.

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 CHAPTER 10

WORD CLASSES

10.0 WORD CLASSES

 A clause or a sentence is made up of words which are spoken or written in a

particular order, so that it conveys the intended meaning. Each word has a
particular place and role in order for the meaning to be clear.

(1) Pule reads a letter.

In (1) above, the words are “Pule”, “reads”, “a” and “letter”. If the order of these words is
altered, the resulting sequence might not be a sentence.The words “Pule” and “letter”
refer to “things”; “reads” is an “action” word, while “a” is a word which normally
precedes words denoting things.

 Words such as “letter” and “Pule” are called nouns;

 Words such as “reads” are called verbs.
 The term for words such as “a” is determiners.

Nouns, verbs and determiners are referred to as word classes.

The following is a list of word classes and some examples:

 Nouns: letter, Pule, Maseru, examination;

 Main Verbs: run, learn, seem, search…
 Adjectives: black, sad, small, old…
 Adverbs: quickly, suddenly, yesterday, exactly…
 Auxiliary verbs: will, would, can, might…
 Determiners: a, the, all, that, …
 Pronouns: she, some, they, which, who …
 Prepositions: at, of, in, over, with, in spite of ….
 Conjunctions: and, because, when, although …
 Interjections: oh, ah, wow, phew…

Exercise 9.1

Which word classes are used in the following sentences?

(a) The cat ran behind the mouse.

(b) Intelligent students always work hard.
(c) They lecture in Chemistry.
(d) Many students attended the visiting professor’s lecture yesterday.
(e) Amsterdam is a border town in South Africa.

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Exercise 9.2

(a) Does the word “lecture” as it appears in (c) and in (d) belong to the same word class?
Explain.
(b) To how many word classes do the following words belong? Name the word classes
and use them appropriately in sentences:
 turn;
 run;
 charge;
 round.

9.2 Major Word Classes

9.2.1 NOUNS
They are defined as naming words – the name of something

They can be classified into the following categories:

 singular of plural;
 conuntable or uncountable;
 proper nouns or common nouns;
 collective, abstract or concrete;
 used as subject, object or complement;
 used as head noun in a noun phrase.

Exercise 9.3

 Give examples to illustrate each of the above categories.

9.2.2 MAIN VERBS

It is a word that is concerned with the action or state of the subject in a sentence. It can
be the only verb in a sentence.
Example: Naletsana smokes dagga.

Verbs can be classified in to the following:

 transitive
 intransitive or linking;
 singular or plural ;
 finite or non finite;
 positive or negative;
 in present tense or past tense;
 in progressive aspect or perfective aspect;
 in active voice or passive voice;

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  regular or irregular;
 participial;
 action verbs or state verbs,
 phrasal,
 used as adjectives.

Exercise 9. 4

 Give examples to illustrate each of the above categories.

9.2.3 .ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word which describes or qualifies a noun or a pronoun since it limits the
word it describes in some way, by making it more specific. It gives more information
about a noun or a pronoun.

Example: He is carrying a heavy load on his broad shoulders.

In the example above, the word heavy describes the noun load, and the word broad
describes the noun shoulders

Adjectives can be

 attributive or predicative; (put before or after nouns)

 gradable (e.g. comparative/superlative);
 modified by degree adverbs;
 derived from nouns;

Exercise 9.5

Give examples to illustrate each of the above categories.

9.2.4 ADVERBS

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, clarifies or adds more information to a verb. It
can sometimes modify an adjective or another adverb.

Examples: He arrived yesterday.

She speaks very quickly.
She married a very rich man.

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Adverbs can

 modify adjectives, other adverbs, nouns, pronouns, numerals, prepositions and

determiners;
 be complements;
 be gradable;
 be more than one in a clause or simple sentence;
 can occupy at least three different places in a clause or simple sentence.

Exercise 9.6

Give examples to illustrate each of the above categories.

9.3 OTHER WORD CLASSES

9.3.1 AUXILIARY VERBS (HELPING VERBS).

Auxiliary verbs do not occur alone in a sentence. They always come before the main
verbs.

Example:

Tselane can read a page in half-a-minute.

When an auxiliary verb occurs alone, a main verb is “understood”.

For example: Matseliso: Likengkeng cannot swim.

Teboho: But I know that she can. (meaning “can swim”).

Auxiliary verbs:
 do not mean that something actually happens;
 can be finite or non-finite;
 can be in present or in past tense;
 can be primary or secondary (modal);
 there can be more than one auxiliary verb before a main verb.

Exercise 9.7

 give examples to illustrate each of the above categories.

9.3.1.1 Types of Auxiliary verbs

Primary auxiliary verbs are

 ‘do’ and its forms,
 ‘be’ and its forms and
 ‘have’ and its forms.

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Exercise 9. 8

 list all the forms of “do”, “be” and “have”.

 complete the following pattern: do – does; have - ?; be - ?

A primary auxiliary can also be the only verb in a sentence, that is, it can be a main verb.
For example: I have two younger sisters

Modal auxiliary verbs e. g.

can, could may, might,
will, would shall, should
ought to; need;

Please note that

The suffix “-s” is never added to a modal auxiliary.
Modals cannot be the only verbs in sentences, except only under the conditions stated
above.

9.3.2 DETERMINERS

A determiner is a word which comes before a noun in a sentence. It helps to clarify some-
thing about that noun. For example:
Indefiniteness e.g. a pen;
Definiteness e.g. the pen;
Possession e.g. his pen.
Numbers e.g. two reasons
 Here are some of the most important determiners:
Articles (a, an, the);
Possessives (his, its, their, etc);
Demonstratives (this, those, these …).

9.3.3 PRONOUNS.

A pronoun is a word which takes the place of a noun phrase in a sentence.

For example in the following sentence:
The boy is looking for a book,
“the boy” can be replaced by “he” and “a book” can be replaced by “it”.

Here are some pronouns you should know about:

 Personal pronouns: she, he, it, we, they;
 Demonstrative Pronouns: that, this, these;
 Interrogative Pronouns: who, which, what;
 Negatives: none, nobody, nothing;
 Personal and Reflexive pronouns: I, my, myself;
 Reciprocal: each other, one another;
 Relative Pronouns: who, whom, whose, which or that.

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Exercise 9.9

Use each of the following in two different sentences. In one sentence, use it as a pronoun
while in the other you use it as a determiner:
That,
These,
Which.

9.3.4 PREPOSITIONS

A preposition is a word that relates two or more elements of a sentence, clause or phrase
together. It shows how the elements relate in time or space and generally comes before
the word it governs.
Examples of prepositions:
at, of, to, towards, until, by

 Words governed by prepositions are nouns, noun phrases or pronouns:

For example: on the table; in shock;
at the church; before the altar;
to town; from me.
 Prepositions also occur before adverbs:
For example: before tomorrow;
 Before adjectives:
For example: at least
 Before clauses:
For example: about what I was telling you
into what used to be my room
 There are also prepositions which are made up of two or three words:
For example: along with; instead of;
due to; in comparison with;
on account of; in front of.

9.3.5 CONJUNCTIONS

These are words which join words, clause elements or clauses or sentences.
For example:

 Joining words: fish and chips;

hungry and tired;
Lesotho or Malawi.
 Joining clause elements:
(subject): Happiness and fatness are what he lives for.
(object): She wants to eat fish and chips.
(clauses): She has worked hard but she does not look tired.
She is not tired although she has worked very hard.
Although she has worked very hard, she does not look tired.

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9.3.5.1 Kinds of Conjunctions

There are two kinds of conjunctions:

 coordinating conjunctions
 subordinating conjunctions.

Coordinating Conjunctions
They join or link items that are “equal” or the “same”(e.g. word classes, subjects or
clauses).

Examples of coordinating conjunction are

 and; both …and
 but; not…but;
 or; either…or;
 nor; neither…nor;
 not only…but (also)

Subordinating Conjunctions
When two items, usually clauses, are linked by a subordinating conjunction, they
are not “equal”. Normally, the clause that follows the subordinating conjunction is
dependent on the other clause, if there are two clauses.

For example:
Jean stayed in the room because her toddler cried whenever she walked to the
door.

The main clause is “Jean stayed in the room” because it is independent. The next clause,
“because the toddler cried” begins with the subordinating conjunction “because”. The
clause is subordinate to the main clause because it explains why she “stayed” in the
room. The clause is actually the Adverbial element of the main clause.

The clause “whenever she walked to the door” is linked to the preceding clause by the
subordinating conjunction “whenever”. It is subordinate to the clause “because the
toddler cried” as it clarifies the circumstances under which the toddler “cried”. That
means it is an adverbial element of the other clause.

Exercise 9.10

Use the following in sentences:

 First use them as conjunctions;

 and then use them as prepositions. (Your dictionary can help you).

i) Before;
ii) like

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 iii) since
iv) until.

Examples of Subordinating Conjunctions with More than One Word:

 in order that; considering that;

 as far as; as soon as;
 rather than; as if;....
 if…then;
 no sooner…than; whether…or.

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 CHAPTER 11

THE SENTENCE

What is a sentence?

 A sentence is an independent group of words that when arranged logically

makes sense and expresses a complete thought/idea.
 A sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop; although this
will depend on the type of the sentence.
 “In English, words in a sentence have meaning because of their position and
order” (Rose & Purkis, 1981:70).
For example: ‘The dog bit the man’ is NOT the same as ‘The man bit the
dog’.

 A sentence must contain at least a subject and a verb (predicate). The subject
may be implied or suggested or not directly stated, as in a request or a command.
For example: “(You) Take this away from me immediately!”

10.1 THE ELEMENTS

The clause elements are the essential parts of a simple sentence or a clause. They are
related to each other in certain specific ways. It could be said that they have special
functions necessary for the existence of the sentence.

The FIVE elements are

 Subject (S);
 Verb (V);
 Object (O);
 Adverbial (A)
 Complement (C).

NOTE:

 Clause elements should not be confused with word classes. Word classes
could be combined in certain ways in order to form sentence elements.

For example:
(1) Samuel (S) wrote (V) assignments (O) yesterday (A).
(2) He (S) must write(V) two long assignments (O) in one week (A)

In the two sentences above, the sentence elements remain the same, although in
the second sentence, the elements are made of different word classes or several
word classes. For instance, in the second sentence,

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 i. the subject is a pronoun instead of a noun as it is with the first
sentence;
ii. the verb consists of an auxiliary verb and main verb as opposed to the
main verb in the first sentence;
iii. the object is made up of a determiner, an adjective and a noun instead
of only a noun;
iv. the adverbial is made up of a preposition, a determiner and a noun in
stead of an adverb.

Exercise 10.1

Identify the clause elements in the following sentences:

a. The lecturer explained the functions of the noun phrase

b. She gave me good advice.
c. Thabo gave Lineo a beautiful present.
d. She sings.
e. Sam became a prefect.
f. The teacher caught me off the guard.
g. My lecturer gave me a book yesterday.

Exercise 10.2

Construct sentences with the following structurers:

a. SV
b. SVC
c. SVOC
d. SVA
e. SVOO
f. SVO

10.2 Sentence patterns based on word order

English word-order is essential to meaning – the position of a word in the sentence often
helps us to decide what the word means. Word order also allows us to identify certain
sentence patterns. If we know the basic sentence pattern, it is easier for us to see
whether the sentences we write or utter are correct, since we can determine whether we
have included the right elements in the right order by measuring them against the basic
sentence pattern.

1. Sentence Pattern 1

Sentence Pattern 1 (SP1) = SIMPLE SUBJECT (S) + VERB (V)

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We say that a subject that has no modifiers is a simple subject. But what is a modifier?
Barry and Scholten (1995:47) explain that ‘[w]ords that modify – adjectives, adverbs –
make the meaning of other words more exact. The word modify means to describe, limit,
or restrict. Adjectives and adverbs “describe, limit, or restrict other words”. You will
notice that there are no modifiers for the subjects in the example below.

 People die. (S) + (V) = (SP1)

 Learners learn. (S) + (V) = (SP1)
In this sentence pattern, the verbs are intransive, in other words, they do not require
objects. The following sentences contain more examples of intransive verbs:
 The asthmatic man coughs. S + IV = SP3
 Happy cats purr. S + IV = SP3

2. Sentence Pattern 2

SP2 = SUBJECT (S) + TRANSITIVE VERB (TV) + DIRECT OBJECT (DO)

Here the basic [(S) + (V)] sentence pattern has an object (O) added to it. The subject of
the sentence is doing something to the direct object (DO), which is either someone or
something specific. In SP2 we have a complete subject instead of a simple subject. We
call a subject that has a modifier a complete subject. In the following sentences, where
the action carries over from the subject to the object, the active verbs (AV) are called
transitive verbs (TV). In other words, a transitive verb requires an object.

 The hairy dog bit the man. S + TV + DO=SP2

 The enthusiastic learner read the book. S + TV + DO=SP2

 The young woman design cars. S + TV + DO=SP2

3. Sentence Pattern 3

SP3 = SUBJECT (S) +TRANSITIVE VERB (TV) = INDIRECT OBJECT (I0) + DIRECT
OBJECT (DO)

 The President awarded Bafana Bafana medals. S + TV + 10 = DO = SP3

 Thato gave me sweets S + TV + IO + DO = SP3

In this example ‘(IO) Bafana Bafana’ is the indirect object and ‘medals’ (DO) the direct
object.

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4. Sentence Pattern 4

SP4 = SUBJECT (S) + LINKING VERB (LV) + COMPLEMENT (C)

(NOUN/ADJECTIVE)

 The grey-haired man is a politician. S + LV + C = SP4

 Thabo became the President of SRC. S + LV + C = SP4

5. Sentence Pattern 5

SP5 = SUBJECT (S) + VERB + ADVERBIAL (A)

 Lerato sings beautifully. S + V + A = SP5

6. Sentence Pattern 6

SP6 = SUBJECT (S) + VERB + OBJECT + ADVERBIAL (A)

 Khahliso finished the experiment early S + V + A = SP6

7. Sentence Pattern 7

SP7 = SUBJECT (S) + VERB + OBJECT + COMPLEMENT (C)

 The student made him class representative S + V +O + C =SP7

10.3 SUBJECT – VERB AGREEMENT

The word “finite” means “limited”; and a Finite Verb is so called, because it is limited to
the same Person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) and to the same number (Singular or Plural) as its
Subject. Let us put it this way:

Number:

(a) If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular

For example: The dog is barking.
The book costs only M500.
(b) If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural
For example: The dogs are barking.
The books cost only M500.

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Person:

(a) If the subject is in the First Person, the verb must be in the First Person;
For example: I run.
We laugh.

(b) If the Subject is in the Second Person, the verb must be in the Second Person,
For example: You run.
You laugh.

(c) If the Subject is in the Third Person, the verb must be in the Third Person,
For example: He runs.
He laughs.

This brings us to the important rule:

 A Finite Verb must agree with its Subject in Number and Person, or, in other
words: A Finite Verb must be in the same Number and Person as Subject.
 There are verbs that are not finite and these are referred to as non-finite
verbs
which are not affected by the status of the subject in number and person.

For example: I wish (finite) to go non-finite to town.

She wishes (finite) to go non-finite to town.
They wish (finite) to go non-finite to town.

Exercise 10.3

Fill in IS or ARE
a) Tom and Jack ---- brothers.
b) Either Jane or Ellen ---- coming.
c) Neither you nor ------- wrong.
d) Dick, with two others, ---- going.
e) The news ---- bad.
f) The captain or the soldiers ---- die.
g) None of us ----- strong enough to lift the stone.

Exercise 10.4

Give the Simple Present Tense of each Verb in Brackets:

1. The soldier guarded the guns.
2. The parade found gold in the cave.
3. The invalid saw many visitors all week.

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4. My father likes toast for breakfast.
5. I can work this lock myself.
6. They all came to my birthday party.
7. He has run ten seconds to constitute a record for the 1 500 metres.
8. Fruit, like peaches, apricots and plums grew luxuriantly in Paris.
9. The mare together with her foal run in a small paddock.
10. A number of cars in our street was in traffic jam in the morning.
11. News that he resigned spread quickly.
12. Two-third of Lesotho population live below a poverty line.
13. Our national squad arrange monthly games.
14. Neither of them (to remember) what happened.
15. All one can see in that village after the war (to be) some debris from
fallen office buildings.
16. Only one in ten people (to know their HIV status).
17. None of the girls (to succeed in their final exams).
18. His son and the only heir (to squander) what took his parents a lifetime to
accumulate.
19. Green paper as well as tomatoes (to appeal) to some people, but not to me.
20. Mr Malibo, my teacher and mentor, (is working) hard on his novel.

10.4 Kinds of Sentences

We have seen that we can distinguish between seven sentence patterns on the basis of
word order, and the presence or absence and type of subject, object, and complement.
Something you will have noticed is that all the examples contain a finite verb, and are,
therefore, by definition sentences. The verb is a very important part of any sentence, and
it must always be included.
As Purkis (1981:77) explains, “[W]hen a phrase [i.e. a group of words functioning as a
part of speech] contains a finite verb, it is called a clause”.

In English, there are different types of sentences, depending on the type of clause or
clauses they contain. English sentences fall into the following three categories:

 Simple Sentences
 Compound sentences
 Complex sentences

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 10.4.1 A Simple Sentence

It is a sentence containing ONLY one main/independent clause. It has only one

Finite verb and therefore one clause.

For example:
 I am happy to see you.
 Grammar is a very interesting subject.
 Owing to illness, Lineo did not attend the SU
meeting

10.4.2 A Compound Sentence

It is a sentence composed of two or more coordinate clauses, which are equal in

that none is dependent on the other. It has more than one main clause. The
clauses are linked together by coordination (Crystal, 1988: 176). Refer to pp 89
on coordinating conjunctions.

For example:
 The chairperson read the report and decided to
conclude the meeting.
 Thabo likes meat but dislikes vegetables.
 Either you take it or you leave it.

10.4.2 Complex Sentences

A complex sentence is a sentence which includes:

 at least one main clause, and

 at least one subordinate clause

Crystal (1988:177) Says, “in complex sentences, the clauses are linked by subordination,
using words such as because, when and although. Here, one clause (the subordinate,
clause) is subordinated to another [the main clause].” The subordinate clause cannot
stand as a sentence in its own; it is a dependent clause.

For example:
 When Jane rang the bell needs some other clause before it can be used”
A complete sentence would be:
 When Jane rang the bell, students assembled in the hall.
 I bought the newspaper because I was keen to find news about the
prime minister.
Exercise 10.5

Join the following groups of sentences to form complex sentences. Do not use AND OR BUT.

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 1. The bell rang. Lineo ran out of the classroom. She left her books on the desk.
2. We were returning from Leribe. We had spent a weekend there. We saw a car. It
had been involved in an accident.
3. The child was adopted by a relative. The child’s parents had been killed in a
motor accident.
4. Paul is the boy. I suspect him of having committed the theft.

Exercise 10.6

Join the following sentences to form simple sentences and also form complex sentences

1. I was ill. I could not play in the match.

2. The storm was raging. We sheltered in a cave.
3. We shuddered. We were so horrified at the sight.
4. A little girl was not down by the train. She was wearing a red dress.
5. He left this morning. My uncle gave him a beautiful present.
6. He could not start the car this morning. There was a mechanical problem.
7. Do you know? How old is he?
8. A decision should be carefully weighted. It is likely to affect one’s whole
future.

Exercise 10.7

Join the following sentences by means of conjunctions to form either complex or

compound sentences. Do not use the same conjunction twice. Please underline the
conjunction that you have used in each sentence.

1. It was I. The principal blamed me.

2. The boy has just left. He is selling magazines.
3. She cried. She was too excited.
4. I waited for him. It began to grow dark.
5. A decision should be carefully weighted. It is likely to affect one’s whole
future.
6. You help me. I shall never finish
7. I read in a magazine. Most women live longer than men.
8. We are ready. Why don’t we leave now?

Exercise 10.8

Change the following simple sentences into complex sentences. Sentence a) is done for
you as an example.

a) In reply to my letter, he provided all the necessary information.

He provided all the necessary information when he replied to my letter.

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 1. Do you know his age?
2. He could not explain his absence from school.
3. We met them on our way to town.
4. She screamed with fright.
5. I told him not to court danger.
6. Owing to illness, Thato could not attend the meeting.
7. His success was obvious.
8. A little girl in a red jacket was knocked down by the car.

10.5 CLAUSES

What is a clause?
A clause is a grammatical unit that:
 includes a subject and a finite verb and other elements are optional
 may represent a noun, an adjective or an adverb

A Clause is similar to a Phrase in that it is a group of words. The essential difference is

that a Clause has a Subject and a finite verb whereas the phrase does not.

Clauses can be divided in to two clauses:

 A main clause
 A subordinate clause
10.5.1 MAIN CLAUSE

It is part of the sentence that makes which makes a complete sense and it is independent
of other clauses. A simple sentence is therefore a main clause. It consists of one
independent t clause. It has only one finite verb.

For example:
 NUL students work hard.
 She ran.

In a sentence where there is more than one main clause joined together by a coordinating
conjunction, the other main clause(s) is said to be A Coordinate Main Clause. A
coordinate main clause is a clause which belongs to a series of two or more clauses
which:
(a) are not syntactically dependent on one another.
(b) are joined by means of a coordinating conjunction.

The sentence so formed is called A Compound Sentence.

For example:
 Nul students work hard and they pass.
 She ran but she did not win the competition.

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10.5.2 SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

It is a clause which depends on another in order to complete the sentence. This is why it
is known as a dependent clause. Subordinate clauses are normally introduced with
subordinating conjunctions (cf; 89-90). They can perform the functions of a noun, an
adverb or an adjective, and thus replace them. This is why there are three kinds of
subordinate clauses, thus:

 Subordinate Noun nominal clauses

 Subordinate Adverbial clauses
 Subordinate Adjectival clauses
For example:
 She ate what did not cook.
 Nul students work hard because they want to pas the exams.
 I met an old man who stole your car.
In the examples above
 ‘What she did not cook’ is subordinate, it depends on the main Clause
‘she ate’
 ‘Because they want to pass the exams’ depends on the main clause
‘ NUL students work hard’
 ‘Who stole your car’ depends on the main clause ‘I met the old
man’

10.5.3 DETERMINING THE FUCNTION OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

It is most important to remember that subordinate clauses can be named only by

determining the function of the clause in the sentence.
 If the clause does the work of a noun, for instance, then it is a noun
Clause.
 If it does the work of an adjective, then it is an adjectival (relative)
clause.
 If it does the work of an adverb, then it is an adverbial clause.

Many students are led astray by looking only at the conjunction. Sometimes the
conjunction does give us a clue. But, it should be remembered that a particular
conjunction can often be used to introduce different kinds of subordinate clauses. The
following examples should be considered:

1. WHEN CAN INTRODUCE

 A NOUN CLAUSE
 I do not know when my father will be back.
 Please ask him when he will pay.
 AN ADJECTIVAL CLAUSE
 I shall become a teacher when I grow up.

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 Christmas is the time of the year when I think of you.
The year when you went to High school was the year that Lineo
was born.
 AN ADVERBIAL CLAUSE
 He did not mention the lime when he would go to town.
 I shall go when I can.

2. WHERE CAN INTRODUCE

 A NOUN CLAUSE
 He told me where he had put my book.
 AN ADJECTIVAL CLAUSE
 This is the place where I found my boyfriend.
 AN ADVERBIAL CLAUSE
 I was standing where the lion could not me.

3. THAT CAN INTRODCUCE

 A NOUN CLAUSE
 Ii is true that she passed the exam.
 AN ADJECTIVAL CLAUSE
 The girl is riding a horse that is high- spirited.
 AN ADVERBIAL CLAUSE
 I slept so soundly that I did not hear him enter the room.

10.5.4 Noun Clauses

A noun clause does the work of a noun and, as such, it can be Subject, Object or
Complement to the verb. The following pairs of sentences show how a noun can be
replaced by a Noun Clause:

1. His reply was quite clear. What he said was quite clear
2. He told me the news. He told me what had happened.
3. That was the result. That was what finally took place.

 In the first sentence, the Noun Clause is the Subject of the Verb
 In the second sentence, it is object;
 In the third, the Complement to the Verb.

In addition to these uses, a Noun Clause may be used in apposition either to the subject
or to the object. Apposition is explained as a noun phrase/clause which provides further
information about the same noun in the same expression or sentence.

 It is quite possible that he may go. (In apposition to the anticipatory

subject ‘it’).

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  The messenger brought the reply that we should leave at once. (In
apposition to the noun ‘reply’

10. 5.5 Adjectival/Relative Clauses

An Adjectival Clause which is referred to as relative clause modifies or qualifies the

meaning of a noun or a pronoun in precisely the same way as an Adjective does. It is
usually introduced by the Relative Pronouns which, that or who:

 The girl is riding a high-spirited horse.

 The girl is riding a horse that/which is high-spirited.
 Eternal smiles betray his emptiness.
 Smiles that/ which t are eternal betray his emptiness.
 I met an ugly man.
 I met the man who is ugly.

10.5.6. Adverbial Clauses

An Adverbial Clause is a clause which modifies a verb, an adjective or other part of

speech in precisely the same way as an adverb does. It adds information about time,
place, manner, condition, purpose, result etc.

8.5.6.1 Kinds of Adverbial Clause

 Time

The usual introductory words for this kind of adverbial clauses are: when,
after, before, since, till, until, while, as soon as, as, whenever.
For example:
a) Look before you leap.
b) He will go when he has finished.

 Place or Direction

The usual introductory words: where; wherever; wither; whence.

a) She is popular wherever she goes.

 Cause or Reason

The usual introductory words: because; as; since; seeing that; for.
For example:
a) I went because it seemed necessary.
b) I shall go since you want me to go.
 Purpose

The usual introductory words: in order that, so, that, so that, lest.

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 For example:
a) He studied hard in order that he might pass his examination.
b) Work hard lest you fail.

 Result (or Effect)

The usual introductory words: that, so… that.

For example:
He ran so hard that he was completely exhausted.

 Condition
The usual introductory words: provided that; on condition that; if; unless;
whether; supposing; in case.
For example:
I shall come unless I am detained.
We shall be glad to take you provided that there is room in the car.

 Concession

The usual introductory words: although, notwithstanding, even if, etc

For example:
I went although I did not want to go.

 Comparison

a) Manner

The usual introductory words: as, as if, as though, the way.

For example:
He left it as he found it.

b) Degree

The usual introductory words: as, than.

For example:
a) He is older than you are.
b) Peter works as hard as the others (work).

Exercise 10.10
Analyse the following sentences into clauses, stating the kind.
(N.B: Please use a table with 2 columns for your answer as in the following example :)
EXAMPLE:
CLAUSE KIND
1. I would like to go to town Main Clause
- because I have to meet my friend Subordinate Adverbial Clause
- but I do not have money Coordinate main clause

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 1. The noticed that she was trembling.
2. While she was waiting for them, she did some baking.
3. I think I would go shopping.
4. She returned the books that she had borrowed.
5. A child who is over protected does not learn to take care of himself.
6. As we were returning from Botswana where we had spent a week-end we saw a car that
had been involved in an accident.
7. That the farmers were angry with the rates imposed on their produce was evident.
8. The child whose parents had been killed in a motor accident was adopted by a relative.
9. My father was very angry because someone had damaged his car which he had parked in
front of the post-office for about ten minutes.
10. As it was getting late, they decided to return to the camp so that they could set out from
there at dawn the next morning in order to look for the wounded lion, which one of the
parties had shot.
11. If he had remained in the room, the fumes would have asphyxiated him.
12. They say his employer has victimized him.
13. The magistrate told him that he had abused his trust.
14. Several reports interviewed that man who saved the child who has drowned.
15. My father scolded me because I had devoted too much of my time to sport and the pursuit
of my hobbies.
16. When you are writing an essay, imagine that you are explaining something to someone
who has reasonable amount of common sense.
17. If you imagine you are sending information to a real person, you will avoid many of the
problems which are involved in deciding what to put in and what to leave out.
18. This is what I need.
19. That I have been intending to run my own business is true.
20. The student who is liked by the Lecturer has failed the exam and has been discontinued
from the programme.
21. By the end of this lecture students should be able to analyse sentences into clauses.
22. What ever you can give will be highly appreciated.
23. Wait until you name is called.
24. Caroline mentioned that she was unable to start her new business and she declared to join
her friend.
25. Do you remember the time when you became a business person?

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 26. That you have been admitted at the University is incredible and is a great joy to your
parents.
27. The student who passed COSC with merit was granted a scholarship to study at the
university in the United States but she declined.
28. Either you follow the instructions or you will fail the course.
29. Because he was fiddling with electrical devices, he was shocked.
30. Although the lecturer, who was very concerned about the students’ performance, had
reminded them to prepare for the test, they ignored her reminder and they failed the exam
and were discontinued from the programme.

Exercise 10.11

Underline the dependent clause in each of the following sentences:

1. Even though Carol’s car is only two years old, it is already covered with rust spots.
2. The president returned to his home in California after he had delivered his last
speech.
3. When Bernie gets nervous, his personality changes.
4. Before you can write a paragraph, you must first learn how to write a complete
sentence.
5. Unless Bertha loses some weight, she’ll never be able to wear that new bathing suit.
6. Rich is upset because his wife doesn’t want to go camping with him.
7. If you want a good laugh, watch Jerry try to talk that policeman out of giving him a
ticket.
8. Although Charlie likes to play golf, his new job doesn’t allow him much time for the
golf course.
9. We will eat dinner as soon as Rita and Joe get back from the flea market.
10. If you remove the dependent clause from these sentences, what kind of clause is left?

CHAPTER – 12

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 READING SKILLS

11.0 COMPREHENSION
The overall skill of “comprehension” can be divided into specific skills, namely,

 SKIMMING
 SCANNING
 UNDERSTANDING IN DEPTH
 AURAL COMPREHENSION

Each of these specific comprehension skills is used on different occasions in one’s

academic studies. The efficient student is the one who matches the appropriate
comprehension skill with the task in hand.

11.1 SKIMMING: TO LOCATE AN OVERALL IMPRESSION

Skimming, in this process, you are interested only in getting a general impression of the
material. You use skimming when you first survey a chapter in a textbook, or when you
want to determine whether an article contains new or useful information about a topic
you are interested in.

For skimming of this kind, you ignore all details and look instead for the main ideas.
These are usually expressed in topic sentences which often occur at the beginning or, less
often, at the end of a paragraph. Therefore, it is useful to look only at the first and last
sentences of each paragraph. You are likely to find the transitions, summaries, and
conclusions that are important to the development and statements of the main idea.

Reference books and textbooks usually use different sizes of type of signal divisions.
Sections are often summarized in headings or captions. Important ideas, formulas, or
definitions are sometimes italicized or separated from the main text by spaces or boxes.

11.2 SCANNING: TO LOCATE SPECIFIC INFORMATION

For example, if one wanted to find the meaning of the word “leach” in The Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary [ALD], one would not start reading from page 1. That is, one would
not read the definition for “a”, then those of “aback” and “abacus”, reading, in fact, all
the definitions until one reaches the one for “ leach” on page 1120. This would be a most
inefficient way of finding the meaning of “ leach”. The efficient way is to flick through
the dictionary until one reaches the page where the definition of “leach” is to be found.
Once the page has been found, it would also be inefficient to start reading from the top of
the first column on the page, reading the definitions of “layette”, “lay figure”, “lazar”
and so on until one reaches “leach”.

The efficient way to find the definition of “leach” on page 1120 is to let one’s eyes run
down the page noticing but not reading each headword until one reaches the word for
which one is searching, in this case “ leach”. Now one stops and reads the definition

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wanted.

If one finds the meaning of a word in the efficient way described above, one is using the
specific comprehension skill of Scanning. This skill is used, whenever, one, for example:

 looks a word up in a dictionary;

 finds something in an index;
 searches in a gazetteer for the name of a town or river
 finds the data of a certain event in a calendar.

Scanning, therefore, is searching rapidly for a piece of information, often in a

reference work or index. The quicker the student can find the requisite information from
a reference word, the more the time tells that will be left for more basic reading of a text.

11.3 UNDERSTANDING A TEXT

We seldom have to deal with words, sentences or even paragraphs in isolation. We are
more likely to deal with larger units, which we refer to as texts. Wainwright & Hutton
define ‘text’ as “A stretch of language, written or which can be studied, analysed or
described. It can be very short – ‘One Way’ on a traffic sign – or very long – War and
Peace or the film 1900”. In such a case as above in which the date of the publication is
missing, the abbreviation [s.a.] can be used. The [s.a.], a short form for Latin - sine anno
is often shown in square brackets).

Managers, employees, learners and lecturers in the academic, business and professional
worlds deal with different types of written communication (texts) such as letters, reports,
memoranda, circulars, assignments and research papers.

The traditional comprehension exercise is designed to train the reader in comprehension

skills (interpretation and understanding). It is essential, therefore to

 Understand the basic meaning (gist) of a document at a glance and to

interpret it accurately.
 Identify the main ideas as quickly as possible and then distinguish between
the central themes and the subordinate or secondary ones.
 Learn to be critical and evaluate the content, style, tone and register of the
texts you read.

The word ‘comprehend’ means “to grasp or understand the meaning of something”. The
word ‘interpret’ means “to expound, clarify, or explain the meaning of something”.
Many statements are so clear that they do not need to be interpreted. Others may be so
obscure that they may be understood in a number of different ways.
Whenever you read a significant text, you should ensure that its meaning is
clear to you, if not, you must make a more intensive study of the passage.
Remember: You read a text to find out what the writer means, not what you
think he or she means, or what you think he or she ought to mean.

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11.4 THE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF COMPREHENSION TEST

As has been mentioned earlier, the most important objective of comprehension exercises
or tests is to establish whether the learner has understood what he or she has read and can
communicate his or her understanding of the text in speech in an oral or written
examination.

You should try to grasp the literal meaning of the text as well as the implicit intention or
attitude of the writer as indicated by the choice of words, style, register and tone.
Develop an informed opinion of the subject-matter of significant texts you read.
Ask yourself the following questions:

What is the
text all about?
What am I
expected to
dodoknow

What is the
What implied
conclusions am thinking or
I expected to intention?
come to on my
own?

11.5 HOW TO APPROACH A COMPREHENSION TEST

 Read the rubric or instructions very carefully.

 Read the text quickly to get a general idea of its content.
 Read the questions set so that you know exactly what is expected of you.
 Re-read the text or specific paragraphs so that you have a fuller
understanding of the content.
 Now read each paragraph separately and identify the topic or key
sentence.
 Underline the key words and phrases and number the main points.
 Try to understand the difficult words and expressions from the context
in which they occur. Use your dictionary whenever necessary and
possible.
 Distinguish each question after you have re-read and thoroughly
understood it.

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  Re-read your answers and edit them to eliminate language and content
errors.

11.6 HOW TO ANSWER COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

 Try to answer the questions in the order in which they have been set. You
may change this order in an examination, but remember to number your
answers correctly. Be guided by the marks allocated to each question when
deciding how much detail to include. As a rule of thumb, work on the basis
of one fact per mark. Should a question count five marks it would be
advisable to try to include five points in your answer.

 Do not spend too much time on any one question – if you do, you may not
have enough time to answer all the questions set. (If you are not happy with
your answer, proceed immediately to the next question. You may have time
to answer the question later.)

 If you do not know the answer to a question, make an intelligent guess

instead of leaving a blank space. Attempt at questions – you will almost
certainly receive partial credit for an attempt, whereas an unanswered
question cannot be allocated any mark.

 Follow the instructions carefully and accurately. For example, you may be
asked to:

 answer the questions using your own words as far as possible, and not
those contained in the text;
 quote (directly and accurately) from the passage to prove a point or
substantiate an argument;
 define a term or key concept;
 comment on something in the text;
 fill in missing words or phrases;
 explain the meaning of a word, phrase, term or concept in context.

 Take note of the tense: “The tense of a verb indicates when the action took, is
taking, or will take place” (Rose & Purkis, 1981:16).) Your answers will usually
be in one of the three basic tenses (present, past and future), depending
on the question.

 Establish whether the word for which you have to find a synonym (word or phrase
with the same meaning) or antonym (word or phrase with the opposite meaning)
is in the singular (one) or the plural, choose the plural form of the synonym or
antonym.
 Your answer should be in full sentences unless you have been instructed
otherwise.

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  Remember to keep your answers short, correct and to the point. Do not repeat the
question when answering it.
 Focus your attention on answering the actual question set and not an imagined
one of your own.
 You are usually required to answer comprehension questions in your own words.
 Do not copy phrases or whole sentences from the text unless you have been asked
to quote from the text in your answer.
 If you have been asked to quote from the text, make sure that you copy the
relevant section down carefully and accurately. All direct quotes from the source
or text must be acknowledged (indicating the line or lines of the passage and the
paragraph from which they come). They must also be identifiable by being placed
within clearly formed quotation marks/inverted commas.
 When you edit your answers, ensure that words are correctly spelt.
 Punctuate your sentences carefully and accurately.
 Your answers will be evaluated according to content and correct language usage.
Make sure that your answers are grammatically correct.

11.7 DIFFERENT TYPES OF QUESTIONS

You will probably have realized from the points above that in a comprehension test,
questions are asked in many different ways. We shall now look at the different types of
questions you can expect to encounter in a comprehension test. In each case, you will see
an example of the type of question, and an example of how you might answer it.

(a) Thematic questions are straightforward and clear, and require you to have a
sound understanding of the text. You could be asked to identify facts,
summarize, or rewrite extracts. For example:

Question:According to the author, what are South Africa’s economic

prospects in 2001?

Answer: South Africa’s economic prospects in 2001 are promising because

the country has an abundance of raw materials, skilled and semi-skilled
labour, a good transport infrastructure, and cheap sources of energy.

(b) Interpretive questions test the readers’ ability to understand certain selected
parts of the text in terms of the main theme. You could be asked to discuss the
meaning of specific words, phrases and sentences, and to comment on and
evaluate them within the given context. For example:

Question: Is the writer’s definition of the term ‘précis’

acceptable?

Answer: Yes! Because she defines ‘précis’ in specific terms as a

condensed version of speech or a written passage which retains
all of the main points of the original text.

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 (c) Stylistic questions evaluate the reader’s understanding and
appreciation of the style, register and tone of the author’s writing.
For example:

Question: What does the author achieve by describing people as

‘robotic’?
Answer: The author stresses humanity’s mechanical, unthinking
actions. He emphasizes that people are programmed by society and
often act and respond automatically, without thinking or feeling.

(d) Content questions require you, the reader, to find certain facts in the text and
to explain them in your own words. These questions are set in such a way that
they are usually easy to identify. (I hope that you will remember that your
answers must be in logically and grammatically complete sentences, written
in your own words. You must, however, retain the original meaning). For
example:

Question: What was the police official’s reason for visiting the
Place. Described in the text? Why on his arrival, did he consider
that objective no longer necessary?

Answer: He had come to the old mansion to arrest a heavily armed

young serial killer, only to find an elderly invalid in a wheelchair.

(e) Explanatory questions: require you to explain certain words,

phrases, sentences or paragraphs.
For example:

Question: What does the lecturer mean by ‘verbosity’ and

‘pretentiousness’?

Answer: Verbosity refers to speech or writing that is long-winded (does not

get to the point immediately) and repetitive as well as the use of too
many words. Pretentiousness in writing or speaking is using overlong,
formal words to show off or in an attempt to impress the reader.

11.8 HOW TO SUMMARIZE A TEXT

A summary or précis is a coherent, easily readable piece of prose (ordinary writing – not
poetry) written in full sentences. A précis is a highly selective type of summary of a
continuous prose passage. It should contain the relevant, essential thoughts contained in a
piece of spoken or written communication.

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The ability to write a good précis is an extremely useful skill in the workplace, where
communicating only the essence of a text concisely, coherently and correctly is often a
daily task. You will have to summarise course material during your period of study at
tertiary level for revision and assignment purposes, and, at work, you have to summarise
correspondence, business or technical reports and research finding to save time and
minimize storage costs. The most common and well-known forms of précis are:
telegrams, faxes, telephone messages, notices, advertisements and often texts on the
internet.

11.9.1 SUGGESTED APPROACH TO PRÉCIS

The amount of details you include in a summary will vary and you may need to be
selective in the information you choose to summarise from your reading material.
However, you will probably need to go through most of the following stages:

 Quickly read through the text to gain an impression of the information, its
content and its relevance to your work. Underline/highlight the
main points as you read.
 Re-read the text, noting the main points.
 Put away the original and rewrite your notes in your own words.
 Begin your summary. Restate the main idea at the beginning of your summary,
indicating where your information is from.
 Mention other major points.
 Change the order of the points, if necessary, to make the construction more
logical.
 Re-read the work to check that you have included all the important information
clearly and expressed it as economically as possible.

In a summary, you should not include your own opinions or extra information on the
topic which is not in the text you have read. You are summarizing only the writer’s
information. Also take care not to include details of secondary importance. Summarising
can help you to avoid plagiarism. It is most important that you use your own words in
presenting information (unless you are giving a direct quotation). It is better to adopt
the practice of taking notes and then writing from your notes without having the original
text in front of you. In the academic traditions of English-speaking world, using another
person’s words and ideas, without indicating that they are not your own, where they came
from and who wrote them, provokes a very negative reaction.

11.10 HOW TO PARAPHRASE A TEXT

A paraphrase is a type of translation. “Paraphrasing is to say the same thing in other

words” (Keith & Keith, 1991:120). It will contain only the essential elements of the
original text or conversation.

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Paraphrasing is closely related to précis writing and comprehension skills. In a
comprehension you try to understand the text and explain aspects of it, in a précis your
objective is to summarize a document or text, and in a paraphrase you translate and
process something you have heard or read in your own words, without deviating from the
original meaning.

In everyday life, when we repeat the content of a conversation or discuss an article in a

popular magazine or professional journal, a book we read, or a film we have seen, we are,
in effect, utilizing our skill in paraphrasing. Having to paraphrase something consciously
in an assignment leads to greater accuracy in the use of words, greater concentration on
the written text, which involves the further use and development of your comprehension
and interpretation skills.

11.10.1 A SUGGESTED APPROACH TO PARAPHRASING

 Focus on reading and rereading the text (or sections of it) until you understand
the content and have established the writer’s general intention.
 ‘Translate’ and simplify difficult words, phrases and sentences without putting
everything into your own words.

 Prepare a rough draft in pencil. Write on alternate lines so that you have space
for deleting, adding and re-writing parts of the paraphrase, where necessary.

 Compare the rough draft with the original text to ensure that nothing important
has been omitted or anything added unnecessarily.

 Edit the language and content of your rough draft.

GLOSSARY

A GLOSSARY OF STUDY SKILLS/ACADEMIC TERMS

As with any skill, good academic practice has its own terminology. Here are some of the
terms you will most commonly encounter, with their specialist meanings.

Acknowledge (sources of information)

To avoid plagiarism, you should acknowledge the work of others. This means using the
conventions of referencing to indicate which sections of your assignment are not your
own work, but drawn from your reading of other people’s research. In acknowledging the
work of others, you should state who these other scholars are and where their research
may be found (See also cite, reference, work).

Author

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The author of a text is responsible for researching it and writing it up. An author may be a
named individual or a group of several authors, all of whom should be mentioned when
acknowledging them in your work, either using ‘et al.’ in your text or named in full in the
reference list. An author may also be an organisation such as a government department,
non-governmental organisation or business company. The author may be responsible for
a whole text, such as a book or journal article, or part of a text, such as a chapter in an
edited book or an entry in a reference work (the author should not be confused with the
editor in this case). Reference lists are always organised by alphabetical order of the
(first) author’s surname (See also editor).

Author-date Method or System

Another name for the Harvard referencing system; so called because it uses the author’s
surname and date of publication in the text to acknowledge sources. See also in-text
referencing.

Bibliographic
The word ‘bibliographic’ describes anything to do with books.

Bibliography
The meaning of this term depends on the referencing system you are using. Some
referencing styles, particularly in-text styles such as the Harvard system, make a
distinction between a 'bibliography' and a 'reference list'. In these styles, a bibliography is
a full list of all the texts you consulted in your research for an assignment, whether you
referenced them in your writing or not. By providing a bibliography, you show all the
reading that influenced your ideas, even indirectly. In this case, a bibliography is different
to a reference list, which is a list of only those sources that you acknowledged in your
writing. Check your course handbook for details of which you should use. However,
other styles, particularly those using footnotes or endnotes, do not make a distinction
between a 'bibliography' and a 'reference list', using the two terms interchangeably to
mean a list of the works you have cited. In this case, the inclusion of works you have not
referenced in your writing may be discouraged and it is best to check with your lecturer.
The bibliography appears at the end of the assignment, and provides full bibliographic
details of each work. These appear in alphabetical order of the author's name. See also
reference list.

Citation/To cite
Cite is a broad term that means to formally mention the work of another writer. A citation
could take the form of a direct quotation, or a paraphrase with a reference. To cite a text,
one of the conventional referencing systems should be used. See also reference.

Close reading means reading a text carefully so you can really understand it.
Collusion
UEA defines collusion as ‘a form of plagiarism, involving unauthorised co-operation.
(See also plagiarism).

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Comprehension: good comprehension involves a number a number of considerations.
They involve:

(i) Being able to select and understand what you need

(ii) Retaining and recalling the information
(iii) Linking the new information to existing information

Conclusion: the claim being defended by the reasons or evidence. (Do not confuse this
with the other usage of ‘conclusion’ to mean the last part of an essay or presentation).

Copyright
Copyright is a legal term, referring to the protection given to authors which prevents
unauthorised copying or publishing of their work. It is related to plagiarism.

Editor
An editor co-ordinates the publication of collected articles or chapters by individual
authors for a book or journal. The editor invites contributions, selects and organises
material by other authors on a chosen topic, and may write an introduction to the
collection. (See also author).

Endnote
Some referencing styles use endnotes to present bibliographic information. An endnote
appears as a number in the text, either in superscript2 or in square brackets [2], which
directs the readers to the full information at the end of the article, chapter or book, in
numerical order of appearance in the text. For this reason, systems which use endnotes do
not usually have an alphabetical reference list at the end too, as this would be
unnecessary. (See also footnote.)

Et al.
Et al. is an abbreviation of the Latin 'et alii' (‘and others’). This abbreviation is used in a
reference which has three or more authors, to avoid long lists of names in your text. For
example, (Smith, Patel and Jacobs 2003) would be given as (Smith et al. 2003) in your
text. The full names should be given in the reference list or bibliography, however. The
conventions of some journals differ from this, so if you are following the referencing
style of a particular journal, be sure to check this point, as some permit no more than two
author names in full, even in the reference list.

Footnote
Some referencing systems use footnotes to present bibliographic information using
numbers in the text, either in superscript 2 or in square brackets [2], which refer to a full
entry at the bottom of the page. A second use of footnotes is to offer observations which
are relevant to the main text, but which do not relate directly enough to be included in the
argument itself. This type of footnote should be used very sparingly, to avoid the
inclusion of too much unnecessary material. See also endnote.

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 In-text referencing
In-text referencing is one of the two ways in which referencing can be presented (the
other is as numbered footnotes or endnotes). In-text methods use brackets to give the
minimum of bibliographic information in the text, from which the reader can identify the
full entry in the reference list at the end. These methods therefore always consist of two
parts – the brackets in the text linked to the reference list at the end. Different referencing
styles include different information in the bracket (for example the author’s name and
date, or page number) and include the Harvard system, MLA, APA etc. See also
Author/date system, endnote and footnote.

Literature
In this sense, ‘literature’ refers to a body of published research, usually peer-reviewed
and academic in origin. The term is often used interchangeably with ‘scholarship’.

Paraphrase
A paraphrase is a description of someone else’s ideas in your own words, and is the most
common way information is cited in citation styles. Proper paraphrasing is a skill. You
must not only acknowledge your debt but re-compose the original in your own words. In
other words, to paraphrase is to give an account of someone else’s work in your own
words. Paraphrasing is a way of presenting a text, keeping the same meaning, but using
different words and phrasing. Paraphrasing is a skill which requires you to identify key
points and demonstrate your understanding of them by explaining them in a different
way. For this reason, it is often better than direct quotation. However, you still need to
include a reference, as the ideas or findings you are using are not your own work, even if
the expression is. Paraphrasing is sometimes also called ‘indirect quotation’.
Paraphrasing must be carefully done; if your paraphrase is too close to the original, you
may still be committing plagiarism. See also quotation and summarise.

Peer review
Peer review is a process that ensures the quality and reliability of research published in
academic books and journals. Publishers send submitted material to be evaluated by
academic experts in the same field of research, who decide if it is suitable for publication.
Peer-reviewed scholarship should form the majority of your reading. The quality of other
material (for example from websites or newspapers) is not guaranteed and it may well
offer a second-hand account rather than original research.

Plagiarism
UEA’s Policy on Plagiarism and Collusion defines plagiarism as:

(a) The reproduction without acknowledgement of work (including the work of

fellow students), published or unpublished, either verbatim or in close paraphrase. In this
context, the work of others includes material downloaded from computer files and the
internet, discussions in seminars, ideas, text and diagrams from lecture handouts.

(b) Poor academic practice which is un-intentional.

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 (c) The reproduction without acknowledgement of a student’s own previously
submitted work.

Plagiarism Officer
Each School at UEA has one lecturer who acts as a Plagiarism Officer. Their role is to
promote good academic practice and to investigate suspected cases of plagiarism and
collusion. For more information, see the UEA policy on plagiarism.
Premise: reasons/evidence to support a claim. Arguments can have 1 or more premises.

Quotation/To quote
A quotation is an exact reproduction of spoken or written words. To quote is to use
another author’s words verbatim (reproduced exactly word-for-word) in your writing.
This is often referred to as ‘direct quotation’. You should signal that you are quoting
someone else’s words by using quotation marks (‘ or “) and include a reference to the
original source to avoid plagiarism. Avoid overuse of quotation; a paraphrase is often
more concise and a better demonstration of your understanding. For more information on
how to present a quotation, see the study guide Essay Presentation.

Reading
The ability to successfully generate meaning from text.

Referencing
Referencing is a system used in the academic community to indicate where ideas,
theories, quotes, facts and any other evidence and information used to support your
assignments, can be found. A reference is a sign to the reader that the words, ideas,
opinions, information etc. are not the writer’s own work, but that of another. It tells the
reader exactly where the original source can be found. There are a number of different
conventions about the way to present references, but whichever method you choose, your
references should be clear and contain full bibliographic information. See the study guide
Referencing your work. See also cite, referencing system. Referencing methods/traditions
are:

(a) American Psychologi Association (APA) – used at BI

(b) Harvard style
(c) Note System
(d) etc

Reference List
The meaning of this term depends on which referencing system you are using. A
reference list (sometimes called a 'bibliography' or 'list of works cited') is a full list of all
the works you have referenced in your assignment. It is used in the in-text referencing
styles such as the Harvard system, and may also supplement those which use footnotes
(but not necessarily endnotes) in longer pieces of work such as a dissertation. For in-text
referencing systems, the reference list is a key component of the system, without which it
would not function. The reference list appears at the end of the assignment, and provides

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full bibliographic details of each work. These appear in alphabetical order of the author's
name.

In some referencing styles, particularly the in-text styles, a distinction is made between a
'reference list' and a 'bibliography', which in this case means a full list of all the works
you consulted for the assignment and which influenced your thinking, not just the ones
you referenced. Check your course handbook to find out which you should use. However,
in other referencing styles, particularly those which use footnotes or endnotes, the two
terms 'reference list' and 'bibliography' are used interchangeably to mean 'a list of works
cited', and inclusion of works not cited may be discouraged. See also bibliography.

Referencing system
There are several systems of referencing, and different subjects use different ones
according to the needs and traditions of their discipline. You should choose the one
recommended in your course handbook, or one of the ones usually associated with your
subject (look at academic publications in your subject, such as journal articles, for more
information). There are essentially two main ways of referencing, in-text systems, and
footnote or endnote systems.

Scanning: (quickly searching a text for a particular piece of information). Scanning

means quickly running your eyes across the page to find the answer to a particular
question.

Scholarship
Scholarship refers to a body of published research by academic authors. It is often used
interchangeably with ‘literature’.

Secondary referencing
Secondary referencing is a way of referencing something when you have not read the
original, but have found it cited in another book. If you have not read the original, you
should make this clear by giving a reference to both the original and the text you found it
in. You should always attempt to read the original if possible, rather than relying on a
second-hand account of it. Secondary referencing should be used as sparingly as possible.
(See the study guide Referencing your work for an example of a secondary reference)

Skimming: (quickly reading through a text to get the gist). Skimming means looking
over a text quickly to find out what it’s about.

Study skills: these are learning strategies that help students organize, process, and use
information effectively.

Summary
A summary is an overview of a text. The main idea is given, but details, examples and
formalities are left out. To summarise, or make a summary of a text, is to make a
shortened version of it that conveys the main points as succinctly as possible. It differs

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slightly from a paraphrase, in which the aim is to express the main point in your own
words. See also paraphrase.

Transition words
These are words and phrases that show relationships among ideas in sentences,
paragraphs, and longer selections.

Verbatim
To copy something verbatim means to reproduce it exactly word-for-word. If you do so,
then this is quotation and you should use quotation marks.

Work of Others
To avoid plagiarism, you should always acknowledge the work of others (including the
work of fellow students). However, ‘work’ in this sense may mean not just words, but
also ideas, theories, opinions, findings, data, images, tables, formulae, audio-visual
material, lectures, discussions in seminars etc. It also includes material downloaded from
computer files and the internet. ‘Work’ may mean anything that is the product of
someone else’s expression, research or thought. It is also important to remember that
reproducing without acknowledgement, your own previously submitted work is regarded
as self-plagiarism.

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