Lesson one
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Text types, continued
Structure and function of paragraphs
Text discussion
Writing assignment
Building a text
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Words
Clauses/sentences
Paragraphs
Texts
Paragraph
Paragraphs are functional parts of a text.
(Introduction, Development, Conclusion)
They have internal structure.
• Functional properties
• Central parts
Functional properties
• Unity (focused on a clear message)
• Coherence (The information should ‘hang
together’)
• Progression/development (The text needs to
go somewhere)
Lack of unity
Club Palm Resort's beaches are beautiful, and
the surrounding countryside is quite scenic. The
quality of the food leaves a lot to be desired.
Many vacationers enjoy the variety of outdoor
activities and the instruction available in such
sports as sailing and scuba diving. Unfortunately,
security is poor; several vacationers' rooms have
been broken into and their valuables stolen.
Christmas in the Bahamas can make the thought
of New Year's in Chicago bearable.
Unity
For vacationers sick and tired of the frozen
north, a week at Club Palm Resort can provide
just the midwinter thaw they need. Club Palm
Resort's beaches are beautiful, and the
surrounding countryside is quite scenic. Many
vacationers also enjoy the variety of outdoor
activities and the instruction available in such
sports as sailing and scuba diving. Christmas in
the Bahamas can make the thought of New
Year's in Minneapolis bearable.
Lack of coherence
Limited investment in the housing sector makes
it practically impossible to allocate sufficient
resources for urban dwellers' housing needs. A
high rate of urban population growth has
increased the country's needs for housing. A
small group of city officials has laid out a new
plan to combat the crisis. A solution to the
housing-shortage problem is a vital policy issue
here. The housing problem has grown in the last
twenty years.
Coherence
Limited investment in the housing sector makes
it practically impossible to allocate sufficient
resources for urban dwellers' housing needs. In
fact, the problem has grown in the last twenty
years. Because a high rate of urban population
growth has increased the country's needs for
housing, a solution to the housing-shortage
problem is a vital policy issue here. A small
group of city officials has laid out a new plan to
combat the crisis.
Lack of progression/development
A vacation at Club Palm Resort has its good
points and bad points. The beaches are nice, but
they may not be enough for some vacationers.
Progression/Development
A midwinter vacation at Club Palm Resort has its good
points and bad points. The beaches are clean and
uncrowded. The surrounding countryside is lush and
soothing to winter-weary eyes. Furthermore, being able
to take sailing and scuba diving lessons, while friends
back home shovel snow, makes the outdoor activities
extra-enjoyable. On the other hand, several features of
Club Palm Resort are substandard. The food is poor, and,
because the club is isolated, eating elsewhere is
impossible. Security could also be better, as thefts from
several guests' rooms indicated. So, for some vacationers,
nice scenery and fun activities may not be enough to
offset the possibility of poor service and lax security.
Topic
The market for 3D printers and services is small,
but growing fast. Last year it was worth $2.2
billion worldwide, up 29% from 2011, according
to Wohlers Associates, a consultancy. As
producers become more familiar with the
technology, they are moving from prototypes to
final products. Last year Wohlers reckons more
than 25% of the 3D-printing market involved
making production-ready items.
Supporting points
The market for 3D printers and services is small,
but growing fast. Last year it was worth $2.2
billion worldwide, up 29% from 2011, according
to Wohlers Associates, a consultancy. As
producers become more familiar with the
technology, they are moving from prototypes to
final products. Last year Wohlers reckons more
than 25% of the 3D-printing market involved
making production-ready items.
Concluding sentence
The market for 3D printers and services is small, but
growing fast. Last year it was worth $2.2 billion
worldwide, up 29% from 2011, according to
Wohlers Associates, a consultancy. As producers
become more familiar with the technology, they are
moving from prototypes to final products. Last year
Wohlers reckons more than 25% of the 3D-printing
market involved making production-ready items.
Some of those parts are taking shape in RedEye’s
printers.
Exercise
During the next few weeks publishers will release a crush of books, pile them onto delivery lorries
and fight to get them on the display tables at the front of bookshops in the run-up to Christmas.
It is an impressive display of competitive commercial activity. It is also increasingly pointless.
More quickly than almost anyone predicted, e-books are emerging as a serious alternative to the
paper kind. Amazon, comfortably the biggest e-book retailer, has lowered the price of its Kindle
e-readers to the point where people do not fear to take them to the beach. In America, the most
advanced market, about one-fifth of the largest publishers’ sales are of e-books. Newly released
blockbusters may sell as many digital copies as paper ones. The proportion is growing quickly, not
least because many bookshops are closing. For readers, this is splendid. Just as Amazon collapsed
distance by bringing a huge range of books to out-of-the-way places, it is now collapsing time, by
enabling readers to download books instantly. Moreover, anybody can now publish a book,
through Amazon and a number of other services. Huge choice and low prices are helping books
hold their own on digital devices, even against “Angry Birds”. For publishers, though, it is a
dangerous time. Book publishing resembles the newspaper business in the late 1990s, or music in
the early 2000s. Although revenues are fairly stable, and the traditional route is still the only way
to launch a blockbuster, the climate is changing. Some of the publishers’ functions—packaging
books and promoting them to shops—are becoming obsolete. Algorithms and online
recommendations threaten to replace them as arbiters of quality. The tide of self-published
books threatens to swamp their products. As bookshops close, they lose a crucial showcase. And
they face, as the record companies did, a near-monopoly controlling digital distribution:
Amazon’s grip over the e-book market is much like Apple’s control of music downloads.
Paragraph one
During the next few weeks publishers will release a
crush of books, pile them onto delivery lorries and
fight to get them on the display tables at the front
of bookshops in the run-up to Christmas. It is an
impressive display of competitive commercial
activity. It is also increasingly pointless.
More quickly than almost anyone predicted, ebooks are emerging as a serious alternative to the
paper kind.[…]
Paragraph two
More quickly than almost anyone predicted, e-books are
emerging as a serious alternative to the paper kind.
Amazon, comfortably the biggest e-book retailer, has
lowered the price of its Kindle e-readers to the point
where people do not fear to take them to the beach. In
America, the most advanced market, about one-fifth of
the largest publishers’ sales are of e-books. Newly
released blockbusters may sell as many digital copies as
paper ones. The proportion is growing quickly, not least
because many bookshops are closing.
For readers, this is splendid.[…]
Paragraph three
For readers, this is splendid. Just as Amazon
collapsed distance by bringing a huge range of
books to out-of-the-way places, it is now collapsing
time, by enabling readers to download books
instantly. Moreover, anybody can now publish a
book, through Amazon and a number of other
services. Huge choice and low prices are helping
books hold their own on digital devices, even
against “Angry Birds”.
For publishers, though, it is a dangerous time. […]
Initial paragraph
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What is the main idea of the paragraph?
What is the main function of the paragraph?
How is the paragraph structured?
What type of text is the paragraph taken
from?
Example one
WITHOUT them, life as we know it could not
exist, yet the exact definition of the hydrogen
bond - credited with keeping water liquid and
giving DNA its signature helical shape - has
always been fuzzy. Now these fundamental
linkages have a new official definition that
broadens the situations in which they can arise.
It should allow various chemical reactions and
behaviours to be better modelled and
understood.
Example two
IF YOU want to spot a liar, don't bother with a
polygraph. They are notoriously unreliable. In a
competition to find the world's most
inappropriately named technology, the lie
detector would be hard to beat.
Example three
FOR a man who claims to lack expertise in the field, Bruce Bueno de
Mesquita, an academic at New York University, has made some
impressively accurate political forecasts. In May 2010 he predicted that
Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, would fall from power within a year.
Nine months later Mr Mubarak fled Cairo amid massive street
protests. In February 2008 Mr Bueno de Mesquita predicted that
Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, would leave office by the end
of summer. He was gone before September. Five years before the
death of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, Mr Bueno de Mesquita
correctly named his successor, and, since then, has made hundreds of
prescient forecasts as a consultant both to foreign governments and to
America’s State Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies. What
is the secret of his success? “I don’t have insights—the game does,” he
says.
Example four
Threats to global biodiversity from climate change (1-8)
make it important to identify the rates at which species
have already responded to recent warming. There is
strong evidence that species have changed the timing of
their life cycles during the year and that this is linked to
annual and longer-term variations in temperature (9–12).
Many species have also shifted their geographic
distributions toward higher latitudes and elevations (13–
17), but this evidence has previously fallen short of
demonstrating a direct link between temperature change
and range shifts; that is, greater range shifts have not
been demonstrated for regions with the highest levels of
warming.
Paragraph separation
Blank line
At first, this intriguing book appears to be a wander through the night
written by a poet and essayist. There is a chapter on sunset, and then
another for each subsequent hour of darkness. In the end, though,
each chapter is merely a point of departure for a much more wideranging journey, through subjects such as astronomy, history,
palaeontology, the arts, culture and mythology.
The book is a portrait of darkness in all its forms. When the sun goes
down, nocturnal creatures come out, children worry about monsters,
and hormonal changes seep through our bodies. The night is the realm
of ghosts, witches, dreams, bats, fireworks, prostitutes, northern
lights, romance and the moon. Above all, it is the time when the
imagination flows most freely and emotions seem more intense.
Paragraph separation
Indentation
At first, this intriguing book appears to be a wander through
the night written by a poet and essayist. There is a chapter on
sunset, and then another for each subsequent hour of
darkness. In the end, though, each chapter is merely a point
of departure for a much more wide-ranging journey, through
subjects such as astronomy, history, palaeontology, the arts,
culture and mythology.
The book is a portrait of darkness in all its forms. When
the sun goes down, nocturnal creatures come out, children
worry about monsters, and hormonal changes seep through
our bodies. The night is the realm of ghosts, witches, dreams,
bats, fireworks, prostitutes, northern lights, romance and the
moon. Above all, it is the time when the imagination flows
most freely and emotions seem more intense.
DO NOT!
At first, this intriguing book appears to be a wander through
the night written by a poet and essayist. There is a chapter on
sunset, and then another for each subsequent hour of
darkness. In the end, though, each chapter is merely a point
of departure for a much more wide-ranging journey, through
subjects such as astronomy, history, palaeontology, the arts,
culture and mythology.
The book is a portrait of darkness in all its forms. When the
sun goes down, nocturnal creatures come out, children worry
about monsters, and hormonal changes seep through our
bodies. The night is the realm of ghosts, witches, dreams,
bats, fireworks, prostitutes, northern lights, romance and the
moon. Above all, it is the time when the imagination flows
most freely and emotions seem more intense.
Assignment – Paragraph writing
• General subject are: Communication and
technology
• Find a specific topic within the general area
• Should function as introductory paragraph of
a text
To do
• Decide on what the main thesis/topic of the paragraph
(and text) should be and write it down.
• Decide on what the general background and main points of
the paragraph should be and write down the information as
bullet points.
• Plan how to develop your topic in a way that makes clear
what your main point/points are, using supporting
sentences.
• Write the paragraph
• The paragraph should function as the initial paragraph of a
longer text and give the reader a good idea of what could
be developed in the main body of the text.
• Come up with a good title.
Example: Food and Lifestyle
Thesis: The government should put a tax on unhealthy food
Background and main points:
• People in the western world are growing increasingly fatter.
• The cause is a combination of unhealthy diet and lack of
exercises.
• Obesity causes suffering for the individual.
• Healthcare costs for treating overweight people are
skyrocketing.
• A possible solution is to make unhealthy food more
expensive.
Example paragraph
Taxation as a diet
Today, two-thirds of the American population is either
overweight or obese, and the rest of the Western world is not
far behind. Although the reasons for this development are
many, it is clear that two main contributing factors are an
increasing consumption of food with high fat and sugar
content, and a more sedentary life-style. Not only does
obesity cause great problems for the people suffering from
overweight but it also costs the government large amounts of
money. A solution to the problem is urgently needed and
experience has taught us that the best way to achieve quick
results is to put pressure on the part of peoples’ lives where
they will feel it the most – their wallets.
Hand in
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Deadline: Friday 11 September
Send by mail to: mikael.svensson@liu.se
Include your name in the Word-document
Use 1.5 line spacing
Study questions
1. What is the main message of this article? Is there
anywhere in the article where this message is clearly
stated?
2. What type of readers do you think the article is aimed at?
3. How would you characterise the style of the text in terms
of being more or less formal? What in the texts do you
base your view on?
4. How would you describe the new way of doing facerecognition presented in the article?
Study questions
5. What different applications of the new
technology are mentioned in the article? What
other application can you think of?
6. Are there any dangers with the ways the new
technology can be used?
7. From what you have read in the article, when do
you think this technology will be available for
practical use?
Vocabulary
8. What other words could you use to express the
meaning of “meaningful”?
9. What does “designated” mean in this context?
10.What is the difference between “technique” and
“technology”?
11.What does “occlusion” mean?
12.What do you do when you “don something”?
What things can you “don”?
13.What is meant by “secret sauce”?
14.What is meant by “compelling” and “confident”?
Vocabulary
15. What is a “constraint”?
16. What other word can you use to express the meaning
of “render”?
17. What does it mean for something to be “obsolete”?
18. What does it mean that something “flies in the face
of”?
19. In what context would you start a sentence with
“nevertheless”?
20. What is the difference between “adopting” and
“adapting”?
21. What is a “privacy advocate”?