11th February 2011
FACULTY OF ENGLISH STUDIES
ACADEMIC DISCOURSE
(Ακαδημαϊκός Λόγος)
INSTRUCTIONS
COMPLETE ALL THREE TASKS
Please write your name, ID number and your core session instructor’s name on the first
page of your answer sheet. Also indicate the number of assignments you have submitted.
TASK 1 (30 points)
(suggested time: 40 minutes)
The following extract is adapted from an article which discusses the attraction of people
from different cultures to medicines. Read the text carefully in order to identify the main
points it presents. Then
(i)
produce a formal phrase outline including the key points of the text,
(ii)
on the basis of your outline, write a summary of the text by paraphrasing adequately
(word limit: 80 words), and
(iii)
using the information provided above, write a full reference for the article.
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
1989, pages, issue 3 – volume 4
The Charm of Medicines: Metaphors and Metonyms (pp 345-367)
Sjaak van der Geest
Anthropological-Sociological Center
University of Amsterdam
and
Susan Reynolds-Whyte
Institute of Anthropology
University of Copenhagen
The nature of medicines as physical substances has important implications for social
relations. What writing and particularly printing have done to knowledge, medications
have brought about in medicine. Writing removes the monopoly on knowledge of
those who have produced it and makes it accessible to others. It objectifies
knowledge- that is, makes it a thing which can stand on its own, be kept in a
cupboard, locked behind doors, handed over to others across place and time. Writing
thus makes it possible for knowledge developed as the exclusive property of an elite
to become popularized. Ginzburg’s (1980) case study of a 15th-century north Italian
miller, who expanded his religious and philosophical ideas by reading books, is a
striking example.
In a similar way, medications objectify the healing art of physicians and make it into
something that can be used by anyone. Medications break the hegemony of
professionals and enable people to help themselves. Medicines, therefore, have a
“liberating” power, particularly in those societies where it is difficult to control their
circulation and use. Alland (1970), who did research among the Abron of the Ivory
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Coast, pointed out that Western medicines, including the most dangerous ones, were
available in local markets and shops and could be purchased without a prescription.
Penicillin tablets, for example, were available in every village. He noticed that people
exchanged their views and experiences with drugs, building up a fairly wide popular
knowledge of medications. They carefully kept empty boxes, tubes, and inserts that
made them familiar with the names of many drugs (1970). Alland remarked that what
people were really after was not so much the professional help of doctors or nurses
but medicines. Hospitals were seen in the first place as sources of medication, places
where you might be able to get better drugs than on the open market.
There is an even more embracing sense in which medicines may be “liberating,” and
this has to do with the relationship of the sick person to his or her community. Periods
of illness are occasions of dependency and social control. They provide an
opportunity to review social relationships and ideas of how the person is in the world.
Family meetings, confessions, sacrifices, rituals of exorcism and collective prayer are
examples of therapy embedded in community relationships. To these kinds of therapy,
medicines are an alternative, a treatment that can be carried out privately and that
focuses on the individual body.
Thus medicines can become vehicles of individualization, useful exactly at that point
where more “relational” forms of therapy might have emphasized the person’s
involvement with other people and/or subjection to spiritual forces.
TASK 2 (30 points)
(suggested time: 40 minutes)
The following newspaper article appeared in The Independent (17th January 2011) reporting on
scientific research findings by lecturer Gillian Butler, Newcastle University, School of
Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. Read it carefully and adopt the identity of the
researcher (in this case Gillian Butler) to
 write an extract of the original research article published in the Journal of Dairy Science,
 suggest the original research title.
SELECT only strictly scientific information. Make sure you PARAPHRASE any information
borrowed from the original. (word limit: 150 words)
Organic milk is better for you, say scientists
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
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Britain’s beleaguered organic sector receives a boost today with a study that suggests
organic milk is healthier than the ordinary variety.
The European Union-funded study analysed 22 brands sold in supermarkets and
found that organic milk had lower levels of harmful saturated fats and more beneficial
fatty acids than conventional milk. While the Newcastle University study stopped
short of saying that consumers should switch to organic milk, the lead researcher,
Gillian Butler, made that recommendation when discussing her research.
The peer-reviewed paper said the health benefits were present all year round rather
than just during the summer, as indicated by research carried out by the same team
three years ago into the quality of milk on 25 farms. It contradicts the Food Standards
Agency’s (FSA) verdict four years ago that organic milk could contain higher levels
of short-chain omega-3 fatty acids but that they were of “limited health benefit”
compared with the long-chain acids found in oily fish. Last year an FSA-funded
review by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that organic
food, produced without chemical fertilisers and pesticides, was no healthier than
conventional produce.
Consumption of organic food in Britain has slumped in the past two years amid the
economic downturn. The new study, published in the Journal of Dairy Science,
sampled 22 brands, 10 of them organic, between 2006 and 2008. Mrs Butler, the
livestock project manager for the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group, said: “We
wanted to check if what we found on farms also applies to milk available in the shops.
Surprisingly, the differences between organic and conventional milk were even more
marked. Whereas on the farms the benefits of organic milk were proven in the
summer but not the winter, in the supermarkets it is significantly better quality all
year round.”
She linked the lower quality of conventional milk to a lower reliance on grazing and
chemical fertilisers’ suppression of clover. Conventional milk also varied more in
nutritional content.
“The results suggest greater uniformity of feeding practice on farms supplying
organic milk, since there were no brands which differed consistently in fat
composition,” said Mrs Butler. “We were surprised to see obvious differences
between the conventional brands, with the more expensive ones not necessarily better.
Switching to organic milk and dairy products provides a natural way to increase our
intake of nutritionally desirable fatty acids, vitamins and antioxidants without
increasing our intake of less desirable fatty acids,” Mrs Butler said. “By choosing
organic milk you can cut saturated fats by 30-50 per cent.”
TASK 3 (30 points)
(suggested time: 40 minutes)
A study by Lynn Goldberg (1998) analysed an expressive writing task in which students at
grades 3, 5, and 8 could choose to write about any topic they wish in the form of either a story,
poem, or play (and, in grade 8, a fourth choice of some other form of writing such as extended
description, reflective essay, etc.) about any topic they wish. Look at the data in the table below
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which describe percentages of students’ writing choice overall and by gender and then taking
into account the possible explanations given below write a text (about 200 words) in which you
describe the findings. Include some of the possible explanations given below (paraphrase when
possible).
Grade 3 Choice
Story
Poem
Play
Grade 5 Choice
Story
Poem
Play
Grade 8 Choice
Story
Poem
Play
Other
Boys
Girls
Total population
80 %
16 %
4%
74 %
22 %
4%
77 %
19 %
4%
68 %
28 %
4%
56 %
38 %
6%
62 %
33 %
5%
57 %
28 %
3%
12 %
47 %
40 %
5%
8%
52 %
34 %
4%
10 %
Table: Percentages of students’ writing choice overall and by sex
Possible explanations
 Stories were considered easier to write.
 Students have a lot of practice in writing stories.
 There is a general perception among teachers that poetry is hard to write.
 Students behaved like real writers by choosing something they liked or felt like doing and
by selecting the genre that best matched their message.
 Students were sensitive to the time constraints of the assignment and believed that they
could most successfully write a fully developed story or a compact poem in the available
time.
 When students have the opportunity to choose the form in which they will write, they
depart from prose narrative, the form with which they are most familiar.
 As the students get older they feel comfortable writing a greater variety of genres.
 Expressive writing involves making numerous choices regarding topic, audience and
form.
 Students typically activate prior knowledge and experience regarding the range and
variety of topics and genres in expressive writing.
 When writing a play students have to consider a lot of different types of language features
(including dialogue, scenes and skits).
 Students considering writing a story are invited to think about events, characters, and
setting.
 Students considering writing a poem are cued to think about words and phrases that help
“make a picture in the reader’s mind.”
 Writing instruction releases student imagination, gives shape to feelings, observations
and perceptions.
 Several of the pieces designated by students as “plays” read just like stories.
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