Academic Writing
&
Conference Presentation
Lecturer: Dr. Bo Yuan
E-mail: yuanb@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn
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Why coming here?
• The first time you attend an English class at your own choice.
• English is a catalyst in your entire career.
• If you are not comfortable with your English so far, now it is
your second chance.
• I am not an expert in English and my English was very bad.
• I know the feeling and I know what you guys need most.
• I will help you master the most practical and essential skills.
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Course Profile (Autumn, 2015)
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Lecturer:
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Contact
Dr. Bo Yuan
– Phone:
2603 6067
– E-mail:
yuanb@sz.tsinghua.edu.cn
– Room:
F-301B
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Time:
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm, Wednesday
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Venue:
CI-208
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Teaching Assistant
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Course Materials
– Miss Qiuhui Tong
– http://boyuan.global-optimization.com/Teaching.htm
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Learning Activities
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Week 1: Introduction
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Week 2-3: A Bird’s Eye View
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Week 4: Professional Writing
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Week 5: Public Speaking and Communication
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Week 6: Literature Review
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Week 7: Job Application Letters
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Week 8: Poster Presentation
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Assessment
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Task 1
– Type: Class Attendance
– Description: Various hands-on exercises
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Task 2 (Due: Week 6)
– Type: Practice
– Description: Individual 2 minutes video presentation in English
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Task 3 (Due: Week 8)
– Type: Poster Presentation
– Description: Individual 5 minutes presentation of a research paper
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Plagiarism
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Plagiarism is the act of misrepresenting as one's own original work
the ideas, interpretations, words or creative works of another.
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Direct copying of paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or
significant parts of a sentence.
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Presenting as independent work done in collaboration with others.
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Copying research results, computer codes, statistical tables,
designs, images, sounds or text or any combination of these.
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Paraphrasing, summarizing or simply rearranging another person's
words, ideas, without changing the basic structure or meaning.
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Rules & Policies
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Late Submission
– Late submissions will incur a penalty of 10% of the total marks
for each day that the submission is late (including weekends).
Submissions more than 5 days late will not be accepted.
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Assumed Background
– This course requires reasonable knowledge of English and
demonstrated skills in listening, reading, writing and speaking.
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References
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Where are you?
• Novice
– %$#*&^@ ...
• Amateur
– Lots of grammar errors
– Strange expressions
– Unstructured paragraphs
• Professional
– Good command of words
– Flow of ideas
• Terminator
– Full control of language
– Eloquent, Compelling, Infectious, Fascinating
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What you should know …
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This is not just another English course!
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Your active involvement is crucial.
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Communication in English is encouraged.
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Everyone needs to identify a research topic.
– Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation
– Having said that …
– Make the most of this course!
– Find some papers relevant to your project.
– You will need to work on them throughout the course.
– It is much better if you are writing a paper.
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It is going to be a lot of fun!
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How to improve your English?
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We have invested heavily in studying English.
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Bad News
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The biggest failure in English education
– Most people still have a fear of English.
– Lack of Interest
– Lack of Passion
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Good News
– You are closer to success than you believe.
– Need a bit of extra effort to make the magic happen.
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DIY
– Plenty of learning resources (free) are available.
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Learning Curve
Performance
Ideal Learning Curve
Boring Regions
Key Points
Time
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Learning Path
Listening
Grammar
&
&
Speaking
Rhetoric
Reading
&
Writing
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Think in English
Ambulance
救护车
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Commercial
• Repetitive
• Short Phrases
• Lively Expressions
• Everyday Vocabulary
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News
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Formal Language
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Standard Accent
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Limited Vocabulary
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Structured: Who, What, When, Where, Why
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Wide Coverage
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Visual + Text
– Won’t be frustrated by slang words.
– Easier to get started.
– News stories repeat themselves significantly.
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Movies
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Movie Quotes
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Movie Quotes
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Series
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Technology
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TOEFL
• Test of English as a Foreign Language
• US, Canada, Australia …
• Internet Based Test
• Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking
• Speaking is digitally recorded.
• Point Scale: 0-120
• Minimum Requirement: 85/100
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IELTS
• International English Language Testing System
• Australian, British, New Zealand …
• Academic vs. General Training
• Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking
• You need to talk to a real examiner.
• Band Scale: 0-9
• Minimum Requirement: 6.5/7.0
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Academic Writing
• Academic writing is more formal and more objective.
– Impersonal and dispassionate tone
– Technical and specialist language
• Formal Text
– The relative disadvantage of women with regard to their
earnings and levels of asset ownership indicates that within
classes there is further economic inequity based on gender...
• Informal Text
– Women earn less than men and own less than men.
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Academic Writing
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The process of nominalisation turns verbs (actions or events) into
nouns (things or concepts).
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Make the tone of your writing sound more abstract and more formal.
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We walked for charity. We raised money for the XYZ Foundation.
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The charity walk raised money for the XYZ Foundation.
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Crime was increasing rapidly and the police were becoming concerned.
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The rapid increase in crime was causing concern among the police.
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Academic Writing
• Do not use contractions:
– don’t, can’t, won’t
• Do not use colloquial vocabulary:
– above board vs. legitimate
– sooner or later vs. inevitable
– beyond the shadow of a doubt vs. definitely
• Do not use rhetorical questions.
• Avoid using run-on expressions:
– and so on, and so forth, etc.
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Presentation
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Presentation
Joke
Photo
News
Video
Opening
Question
Personal
Story
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Practice
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My Tips
A faithful heart makes wishes
come true…
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My Tips
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What really matters is not how many movies or dramas that you
have watched but how you watched them.
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Step 1: Keep your eyes away from the subtitle.
– Concentrate and try your best to recognize every single word.
– Start with something not that challenging.
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Step 2: Keep your eyes open.
– Use the subtitle to figure out the missing parts.
– New Words & Unfamiliar Phrases & Dialect & Slang
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Step 3: Keep your eyes closed.
– Recapture every single word.
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Step 4: Reinforce your skills.
– Use the newly learnt words and phrases whenever possible.
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Psychological Hint
Fake it till you become it!
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Review
• Course Profile
• Rules & Requirements
• Learning Activities
• Expected Outcomes
• Assessment
• Learning Tips
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