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What aspects of book reviewing does each of examples cover? Make up appropriate questions. Complete the chart.
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What aspects of book reviewing does each of examples cover? Make up appropriate questions. Complete the chart.
| 1, 3, 4 | the intended audience | e. g. Who is the intended audience? |
| the author's style, whether it is formal or informal | ||
| the quality of the writing style by using some of the following standards: coherence, clarity, originality, forcefulness, conciseness, correct use of technical words, fluidity, fullness of development, etc. | ||
| illustrations, charts, etc. used and how these are to be evaluated | ||
| the thesis of the author or some general points which emerge from the book | ||
| how useful the book might be to a specialist in the field, a student or a common reader |
Ex. 5. How do you read scientific books? What factors are important to you to enjoy reading? Read some students’ opinions[6]. Discuss yours with your partner.
SKILLS
Make a review of a research paper you would like to recommend to your fellow students. Use the questions[7] below as a plan for your review.
- Who was the paper written by?
- What is the title of the paper?
- What are the year and the place of its publication?
- What is the target audience of the research?
- What is the overall purpose of the research?
6. How does the research fit into the context of its field? Is it, for example, attempting to settle a controversy/ show the validity of a new technique/ open up a new field of inquiry?
- Do the title, abstract, key words, introduction and conclusions accurately and consistently reflect the major point(s) of the paper?
8. Do you agree with the author's rationale for studying the question in this way?
- Are the methods appropriate/ current/ described clearly enough so that the work could be repeated by someone else?
10. Were the measurements appropriate for the questions the researcher was approaching?
- Are all tables and figures clearly labeled? well planned? too complex? necessary?
- Point out any errors in technique, fact, calculation, interpretation, or style.
13. Do you agree with the conclusions drawn from the data?
14. Are these conclusions over-generalized or appropriately careful?
15. Give your comments on the list of references. Is it complete/ accurate? Does it include the latest materials on the topic of research?
- What is the major contribution of the paper?
- What are its major strengths and weaknesses?
- What portions of the paper should be expanded? condensed? combined? deleted? Please, be specific!
- Is the writing concise, easy to follow, interesting?
UNIT 2.
Writing Abstracts and Annotations
STARTING UP
Ex. 1. Look at these sayings. What do they mean? Which of the ideas do you agree with?
- Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
Henry David Thoreau, American author (1817 – 1862)
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- Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.
Ayn Rand, Russian-American novelist (1905 – 1982)
- I can’t write five words but that I change seven.
Dorothy Parker, American poet and writer (1893 – 1967)
Ex. 2. Read the information and answer the questions below.
Do you know how many new books were published May 10, 2013, the day this unit is being updated? 6, 532. And how many new books have been published in 2013 by May 10? 859, 249.
Look at the data on books published displayed on the Worldometers’ counter which is based on statistics published by UNESCO. This is the list of the top ten countries with the number of new titles per year as of the latest year available:
the United States (2010) 328, 259 (new titles and editions)
theUnited Kingdom (2005) 206, 000
China (2010) 189, 295 (328, 387 total)
the Russian Federation (2008) 123, 336
Germany (2009) 93, 124
Spain (2008) 86, 300
India (2004) 82, 537 (21, 370 in Hindi and 18, 752 in English)
Japan (2009) 78, 555
Iran (2010) 65, 000
France (2010) 63, 690 (67, 278 total) [8]
1. How can a reader sail this ocean of books?
2. How can a researcher stay on top of new research in his field?
3. What resources can help a person to browse a large amount of publications? Think about book reviews, reader’s digests, Google Scholar Alert option[9] and others.
VOCABULARY
COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS
Ex. 1. Infer or imply? Read the information[10] in the box and underline the correct word in the sentences below.
| Infermeans " to deduce, reason, " and implymeans " to hint at, suggest. " A speaker or writer implies, a hearer or reader infers; implications are incorporated in statements, while inferences are deduced from statements. Implymeans " suggest indirectly that something is true, " while infer means " conclude or deduce something is true". Remember that imply and infer can be used to describe the same event but from different points of view. Compare: 1. He implied that the General had been a traitor. [presented from the writer’s/speaker’s perspective who doesn’t actually claim that the General had betrayed his country]. 2. I inferred from his words that the General had been a traitor. [presented from the listener’s perspective who deduced from the General’s words that he was in fact a traitor] To infer is used in the construction 'to infer something from something': To imply is normally followed by a clause. |
- I inferred/ implied from what my advisor said that I had failed the test.
- Are you implying/ inferring that I was responsible for handing out the conference invitations?
- The reader can easily infer/imply from the first ten pages that the protagonist will have been killed by the end of the novel.
- Am I right to infer/ imply you think my husband owns the gun that killed the policeman? Is that what you're implying/ inferring?
- The report implies/ infers that the number of childrenwith autism might double in five years.
- I did not mean to imply/infer thatthere is any reason to justify his behavior.
- From the speech of the President, the audience can infer/ imply that Russia will improve its position globally in the nearest future.
- “Reading between the lines” is what we usually mean by inferring/ implying.
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