EFS 698C - STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Writing and Presenting Research

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EFS 698C: Week 5 Notes
 

I. Questions on anything so far...

• Your writing process: raising consciousness and increasing efficiency

II. Pronunciation review -- Reduced forms: www3.telus.net/linguistics issues/ReducedForms.html (+ handout)

III. Formal writing for publication: some key concepts from EFS 698B (we'll discuss some of these in more detail as the course goes on)

• Style and correctness; convention (from Williams & Colomb Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace)

• Clarity:           verbal over nominal style

                        main character as subject

                        control of passives

• Cohesion: flow of one idea to the next; given/new structure

• Coherence: logical development of the text, sequence of topics

• Emphasis: important information last

• Concision: eliminate unnecessary elements

• Controlling long sentences--dealing with interruptions; modifiers

OTHER

• Genres: structure of academic papers; conventions of your individual fields

• Discourse functions

• Abstracts

• Introductions

• Dissertation writing

• Conclusions

IV. Other areas (not in 698B)

• Discussion sections

• Figures, tables, appendices

• Titles

• Writing in posters and PowerPoints

        • Other?

Which of the items in III and IV are most important to you?

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Homework: 

1) Work on a current piece of writing--send me up to 10 pages. Come prepared to discuss any specific writing issues you have.

2) Continue work on pronunciation with English Central. Pay particular attention to reduced forms.

3) Finish the overview of the writing process handout