Lengua II Grammar Project 2010
Writing the Draft
Draft Project due by Friday, 26th March
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About this Guide
This guide provides details about how to write your grammar project draft.
 In the draft, aim to submit a finished work. The idea is that you will then have time to fix
problems in the grammar project based on our comments.
 Submit the draft in 1.5 lines or double-spaced format stapled or bound pages, including the
cover page and bibliography.
 The final project should be 1500 - 2000 words (not including the text being analysed, any
appendices or the bibliography). The draft can be slightly shorter, but not too much.
 The Grammar project is an exercise in academic writing in which you are expected to show
that you can analyse grammatical features in a text and discuss their relevance in that text
by explaining how they relate to the text functions.
2 Sections of the Grammar Project
Your grammar project should be structured as follows:
1st page  Title page: Title of project, Name and Surname of the student(s), Year, Group, Date,
Name of the teacher. WORD COUNT!!!
2nd page  Abstract.
3rd page  Table of contents.
4th page  1. Introduction.
5th 2. Description of the Text.
 3. Grammatical Description.
 4. Grammatical Analysis.
 5. Summary and Conclusions
 Bibliography/References.
 Appendix: a copy of the chosen text (a transcription of the text if it is spoken)
2.1 The Abstract
The abstract should summarise the entire grammar project, such that some third person can read
the abstract and have a general idea what the whole project says. It should include relevant details
but not too many details. It should not be more than 2 paragraphs, say, a half page.
 What you are doing: analysing a text to see if the text function is supported by a particular
grammatical feature.
 What kind of text you are looking at.
 Which grammatical feature(s) you are looking at.
 Brief summary of the results.
2.2 Introduction
Basically, presenting the project: what you are going to do in it:
In this grammar project, we will show how the grammatical resources of English tense are
used to help realise the narrative function of a text. We will analyse one particular narrative
text (a short story by the Brothers Grim) detailing the tense selections made within each
major clause, and then show how these tense selections help the reader to properly
interpret the unfolding timeline of the narrative.
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In particular, your introduction should:
 Specify what your text is, where it is from, who it is written by.
 Specify the text function of this text.
 Specify the grammatical analysis you are performing.
 Indicate that you are going to test the hypothesis that the grammatical feature of interest
supports the function of the text.
 Provide an outline of what you will do in the paper:
Section 2 will outline the register and text type of this particular text. Section 3 will …
Other points:
 The introduction should not exceed half a page or a page.
 Do not provide any results of the analysis here.
2.3 Description of the Text
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Text Type: discuss the text type of your text. Relate the text type briefly to grammatical
and lexical patterns in the text (not only the one you are analysing, but others as well).
Possibly also give a brief description of the register (field, tenor, mode) of the text.
2.4 Grammatical Description
This section provides a summary of the grammatical feature(s) you intend to use in your analysis,
based on your study of grammar reference works.
 Consult at least three grammar books from the Course bibliography. You may also
consult websites or other resources of grammar information in addition to the required
grammar books.
 Synthesize what the reference books say, join them in a single description. Possibly, describe
the similarities and differences that these grammars present on the selected grammatical
aspect.
 Use your own words. If you want to quote, make sure you put the words in quotations, and
refer to the work and page number, e.g.
Greenbaum et al. (1998) describes the meaning of the present perfect as
follows:
”The present perfect is used to refer to a situation set at some indefinite
time within a period beginning in the past and leading up to the present.”
(p. 51)
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Select the aspects which are relevant to your discussion. If you are discussing modality
but in your text there are only modals of possibility you do not need to explain in detail other
types of modality, since these other types are not relevant to your discussion.
Demonstrate the grammar feature(s) you have selected to study with examples from your text
Provide a reference for each of the grammar sources you use. For instance, as in the
following, with full details in the bibliography:
Our description of the English Tense system is based on the following:
Leech (1966), Svartick (2003) and Johnston (1978).
Most typically:
 Reference to a work with a single author: Greenbaum (1999)
 Reference to a work with two authors:
Quirk & Greenbaum (1999)
 Reference to work with more than 2 authors:
Quirk et al (1999)
 When giving page number, include it after the year: Quirk (1990:127)
 When the reference is in parentheses, don’t put the year in parentheses: (see Quirk 1999).
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You can introduce a reference in various ways:
 According to Greenbaum (1990:127), four features are important...
 As Greenbaum (1990) indicates...
 Greenbaum (1990:127) implies/states/arguse/claims/points out/reports/notes/
observes/concludes/ recognizes that...
 To quote from X, ‘...’
2.5 Grammatical Analysis
Before sitting down to write your report, analyse your text in terms of your grammatical feature(s).
In the report, you summarise this analysis, but don’t give all the details.
Main points:
 This section reports your interpretation of your grammatical analysis.
 You should not provide the whole text and its analysis here. You can if you wish place the
analysis itself as an appendix, but do not include the text in your word count.
 You may include examples in your summary, to support your interpretation.
 Explain the importance of the features in the text and their relation to the functions of the text.
 An example (from the Grammar in Text exercises):
The main text function of news reports is expository, and this is realised in two subfunctions. Firstly, the news article describes a sequence of events, and thus the news
article serves partly a narrative function. This analysis is supported by the strong usage of
material processes in the text, (24 out of 32 = 75%). For instance, escaped, raining,
found, broke out, crawled, scaled, picked up, searching, made a dash, downed keys, went
back, broadcast, finding, hampered, thumb lifts…)
Secondly, expository texts need to contextualise events, so a small element of explanatory
function is present. In this text, we can see this aspect through use of relational processes,
such as the following: the warders’ strike was part…, the strike is in protest…
Some mental processes used to present facts as not confirmed, part of expository function:
were thought to have made a dash.
From the Course materials:
How am I expected to discuss the relation between the grammar features and the
functions of the text?
In Topic 2 we will see that text functions and text types are closely connected to the presence of
specific grammatical features and vocabulary. For example, a narrative is characterized by the
presence of tense sequences, often in past tenses, and a description is characterised by the
presence of noun phrases and noun modifiers. This means you might analyse a descriptive text
by looking at what the modifiers of nouns contribute to that function of description, or you might
analyse the way in which a narrative structure is constructed in a text by means of the presence
of a sequence of verbs in past tense.
This means that you are expected to establish a relationship/connection between the text type
and the grammatical point studied, that is, you should answer questions such as: why is this
particular grammatical point relevant in this text? Why did the author select it from all the other
grammatical choices? How does it help to develop the author's point of view?
 Do not just list examples of grammatical features from the text.
 Do not include in this section examples from the grammar books or from other texts. Focus on
your text.
2.6 Summary and Conclusions
Summarise the main observations of your project. If you have worked with a hypothesis, explain
whether it has been fulfilled. The conclusion should not exceed half a page or a page.
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2.7 Bibliography
Include here all works which you refer to in the body of the grammar project.
Books:
Cottrell, S. 1999. The Study Skills Handbook. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.
Greenbaum, S. & R. Quirk. 1990. A Student's Grammar of the English Language. London:
Longman.
Articles:
Selinger, H. 1984. "Issues in the testing of English for Specific Purposes", Language Testing. 1.2:
202-220.
Chapters within books:
Bates, E. & B. MacWhinney. 1982. "Functional approaches to grammar". In E. Wanner & L.
Gleitman (eds.) Language Acquisition: The State of the Art. London: Routledge.
Electronic references: Should include the date on which you used it.
http: //www.foe.co.uk// 16 May 1998
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Also include the text you analysed in the references. If the author’s name is not given, give the
title of the article first.
2.8 Plagiarism
Remember, plagiarism includes:
 using words more or less exactly as they have been used in articles, books, lectures
 using other people’s ideas or theories without saying whose ideas they are
 paraphrasing what you read or hear without stating where it comes from
Any grammar project which includes text from the web or published works and DOES NOT
REFER TO THE SOURCE will get a zero for this assignment.
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