UNIV WRITING COVER_UNIV WRITING COURSE 29/05/2012 5:13 ΜΜ Page 1

University Writing Course

John Morley – Peter Doyle – Ian Pople

ISBN 978-1-84679-366-0
UnivWritCourse Contents_UnivWritCourse Contents 29/05/2012 5:17 ΜΜ Page 1

John Morley – Peter Doyle – Ian Pople

UnivWritCourse Contents_UnivWritCourse Contents 26/05/2016 5:03 ΜΜ Page 2

Published by Express Publishing

Liberty House, Greenham Business Park, Newbury,

Berkshire RG19 6HW, United Kingdom
Tel: (0044) 1635 817 363 - Fax: (0044) 1635 817 463
email: [email protected]
www.expresspublishing.co.uk

© John Morley – Peter Doyle – Ian Pople, 2007

Design © Express Publishing, 2007

First published 2007

Sixth impression 2016

Made in the EU

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored

in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic,
photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publishers.

This book is not meant to be changed in any way.

ISBN: 978-1-84679-366-0

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank colleagues at the University of Manchester for their
suggestions and input into these materials, in particular: Pat Campbell and Bill
Guariento for piloting some of the early versions of this material.

Thanks to all the staff at Express Publishing who have contributed their skills to
producing this book. Thanks for their support and patience are due in particular
to: Megan Lawton (Editor in Chief), Julie Baker Todd (senior editor), Steve Blake
(editorial assistant), Richard White (senior production controller), the Express
design team, and Tony Mason, David Smith and Timothy Forster.

We would also like to acknowledge all those who have allowed us to use
material in this publication. A full list may be found in the bibliography on
page 109.
UnivWritCourse Contents_UnivWritCourse Contents 29/05/2012 5:18 ΜΜ Page 3

Contents

Preface ................................................................................................................ 4

1 Organising Information and Giving Examples .................................................. 5

2 Classifying and Listing ....................................................................................... 13

3 Giving Definitions .............................................................................................. 21

4 Cause & Effect and Problems & Solutions ........................................................ 29

5 Comparing and Contrasting .............................................................................. 37

6 Writing about the Past ....................................................................................... 43

7 Describing Graphs and Trends .......................................................................... 53

8 Writing Introductions and Conclusions ............................................................ 65

9 Discussing Issues and Results ........................................................................... 73

10 Describing Processes and Methods .................................................................. 81

11 Referring to Sources ........................................................................................... 89

12 Being Critical and Evaluating ............................................................................ 97

Appendices: The Academic Writing Process .................................................. 103

Punctuation ................................................................................ 104

The Use of the Article ................................................................ 105

Commonly Confused Words ..................................................... 106

British/US Spelling ..................................................................... 107

Notes on Sentence Structure ..................................................... 108

Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 109

Sources According to Units ............................................................................... 110

Suggested Answers Section ............................................................................... 111

3
UnivWritCourse Contents_UnivWritCourse Contents 29/05/2012 5:18 ΜΜ Page 4

Preface

This book has been written for current and prospective students of English speaking
universities whose first language is not English. It is aimed at the large group of students,
undergraduate and postgraduate, whose level in English may be at or around level 6 in IELTS or
560 (PBT) in TOEFL, and who still need to further refine and improve their academic writing.
Adopting a general English for academic purposes approach, the units cover a broad range of
key functional and textual areas. Each unit includes a range of authentic sample texts, controlled
and less controlled writing exercises, and a reference list of useful phrases. The materials have
been developed over a period of 10 years at the University of Manchester by authors with a total
of over 40 years experience of teaching academic writing in a University environment.

John Morley
Peter Doyle
Ian Pople

4
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 5

Organising Information and Giving Examples

1
I. ORGANISING INFORMATION

The basic units of organisation in a written text are paragraphs. A paragraph normally contains
several sentences which are all concerned with one main idea (or topic). In a well-written
paragraph, the main idea (or topic) is expressed in a topic sentence, which is usually (but not
always) the first sentence. The other sentences in the paragraph develop the main idea in some way.
The whole paragraph should be coherent and easy to follow.

1 Introductory exercise on paragraph development

In the text below identify the topic sentence and reorder the sentences to form the original
paragraph.

a Finally, as the traditional means of communicating knowledge internationally, journals

are accepted and recognised by scholars and researchers. They define what is important,
maintain standards and also help to create an invisible college of those concerned with
a topic.

b They use technologies which are available to virtually every nation and to most academic
institutions, regardless of age or level of development.

c Through a well-established international infrastructure of library acquisition, new

journals can reach concerned scholarly audiences fairly efficiently.

d Journals have significant advantages as a means of international scholarly communication.

They are relatively inexpensive.

2 Focus on paragraph development

The above paragraph has a typical structure that can be identified in many paragraphs: the topic
sentence introduces the new idea, topic, argument or piece of information into the main text. This
is then either explained further or supported by subsequent sentences. This structure can be
represented like this:

Topic Sentence
(new idea, expressed in general terms)
Explanatory or Supporting Information (may include):
explanation
and/or past research
" illustrations/examples
" quotations
" statistics
" specific aspects

5
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 6

1
It is important for the unity of a paragraph that the explanatory or supporting information should
directly relate to the topic sentence and that only one main idea should be discussed. A new main
idea should be treated in a separate paragraph. It is also important that the explanatory or
supporting information should not repeat the general idea expressed in the topic sentence.

3 Exercises on paragraph development

The sentences in the boxes below (i-iv) are not in order. First, identify the topic sentence
and then put the remaining sentences in order.

(i)
a Britain lost most of its Empire after World War II, but even as the sun was setting
on the Empire, the United States was simultaneously rising as a political, economic
and military superpower. Thus the spread of English has continued without a
break.

b The widespread use of English and its current position as the world language is not
accidental, nor it is attributable to any intrinsic linguistic superiority of English as a
language.

c Wherever the British acquired colonies, they brought English with them as the
language of administration.

d It began with the establishment of the British Empire in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
(ii)
a Historically, this is because new foods and new ways of processing and cooking
foods have arisen since the separation of the two nations.

b The many differences in the terminology of transportation result from the fact that
the railroad (British: railway) and motor industries developed after the separation
of the United States and Great Britain.

c The vagaries* of fashion have caused divergence in the vocabulary of clothing.

d Three broad semantic areas in which British-American lexical differences are

especially noticeable are food, clothing and transportation.
* = unexpected, unpredictable changes
(iii)
a When a college student says that a certain book is great, it is more than likely that
the statement has nothing to do with the value of the book judged as a work of art
but simply means that he or she thoroughly enjoyed it.

b By extension of meaning is meant the widening of a word’s signification until it

covers much more than the idea originally conveyed.

c A box of candy or a chair may be lovely, and anything from a ball game to the
weather may be great.

d The word lovely, for example, means primarily worthy to be loved, and great means
large in size, the opposite of small. But today lovely and great have no such
meanings.

6
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 7

1
(iv) a Cycling alters the anatomical position of the spine (to a flexed position),
particularly the thoracic spine, and exposes the anterior portion of the vertebral
column to higher compression.

b Among cyclists, however, the most potentially serious of these disorders might be
increased thoracic curvature.

c Children may become interested in competitive sport at an early age.

d Early involvement (prior to maturity) in competitive sports often exposes

individuals to types of stress that may affect their growth, producing a disruption
of the normal growth pattern (Frost, 1979; Watkins, 1999).

4 Exercise on dividing a text into paragraphs

In the following text the paragraph divisions are not indicated. Identify the topic sentence(s)
and divide the text into paragraphs. There are three paragraphs in the original text.

Weather conditions in Saudi Arabia vary almost as much as the terrain. In the mountains that
fringe the peninsula on the west, south and southeast, annual rainfall is about 50 centimetres
and there are often torrential downpours and destructive flash floods; yet parts of the Rub’ al-
Khali may receive no rain for as long as 10 years. Over much of central, northern and
5 northeastern Arabia, average annual rainfall is 5 to 15 centimetres and highly variable from year
to year. Temperature and humidity ranges are equally disparate. In the interior the air is dry,
while on the coasts, summer humidity is excessive, particularly at night. In summer,
temperatures in some areas may reach 50° C (122° F) in the shade, but in spring, the days are
balmy and the nights are clear. In winter, temperatures drop below freezing in the central and
10 northern regions, and snow sometimes falls in the mountains, the northern plateau and even in
the capital Riyadh. There are also strong winds, such as the prevailing northwest winds along
the eastern coast – the winds called the shamal – which frequently whip up dust and
sandstorms. The climate of the peninsula, nevertheless, is largely characterised by aridity and
heat. As a result, the vegetation, wildlife and domesticated animals of the peninsula share one
15 distinctive feature: a high degree of adaptation to the special demands of life in the desert. The
ability of men to adapt and survive in this harsh environment has had important effects on the
history of the peninsula and Saudi Arabia.

IRAQ
JORDAN IRAN

KUWAIT

Buraydah BAHRAIN

Medina QATAR

EGYPT U.A.E.

Jiddah Mecca

ΟΜΑΝ
SUDAN

Figure 1.1. Map of Saudi

YEMEN
ERITREA Arabia and surrounding areas

7
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 8

1
II. GIVING EXAMPLES
5 Pre-reading
(i) ñ Why do writers give examples in their texts?
ñ In what position in a paragraph would you normally expect to find examples?
(ii) ñ Do you know any words in English whose meanings have changed with time?
ñ How have they changed?

6 Reading for main points

Read the extract below and note two ways in which the meaning of a word can change and
give one example of each.

(1) It has been observed that in their sense development, words often pursue certain well-
marked tendencies. Among the more common of these are extension of meaning and narrowing
of meaning. By extension of meaning is meant the widening of a word's signification until it
covers much more than the idea originally conveyed. The tendency is sometimes called
5 generalisation. The word lovely, for example, means primarily worthy to be loved, and great
means large in size, the opposite of small. But today lovely and great have no such meaning. A
box of candy or a chair may be lovely, and anything from a ball game to the weather may be
great. When a college student says that a certain book is great, it is more than likely that the
statement has nothing to do with the value of the book judged as a work of art, but simply means
10 that he or she thoroughly enjoyed it. In everyday use these words have come to express only
enthusiastic approval of a rather vague sort. Another illustration is the word dean. It has, of
course, its proper meanings, such as the head of the chapter in a cathedral church or the head
of the faculty in a college. But it has come to be used as a designation for the senior or foremost
person of any group or class, so that we may speak of the dean of American critics, or, indeed,
15 of sportswriters.

(2) The opposite tendency is for a word gradually to acquire a more restricted sense, or to be
chiefly used in one special connection. A classic example of this practice is the word doctor.
There are doctors (i.e., learned men) in theology, law and many other fields beside medicine,
but nowadays when we send for the doctor we mean a member of only one profession. In some
20 of the preceding paragraphs, especially thοse in which were presented examples of old words
with new meanings, will be found a number of similar instances. The verb to park as applied to
automobiles and the war word tank are cases in point. The use of a word in a restricted sense
does not preclude its use also in other meanings. Often the restricted sense of a word belongs
to a special or class vocabulary. An enlargement means to a photographer a large print made
25 from a small negative, and in educational circles a senior is a member of the graduating class.
Consequently, it sometimes happens that the same word will acquire different restricted
meanings for different people. The word gas is an inclusive term for the chemist, but it calls up
a more restricted idea in the kitchen. Narrowing of meaning may be confined to one locality
under the influence of local conditions. Nickel in America means a coin, and for a number of
30 years the word prohibition in this country generally suggested the prohibition of alcohol. In the
same way the terms democrat and republican seldom have their broader significance to an
American but rather imply adherence to one or the other of the two chief political parties in the
United States.

8
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 9

1
7 Guided summary
Below is a short summary of the text. However, a number of important words and phrases
have been removed. Can you complete the summary by filling in the gaps?

With time, there is a tendency for some words to 1) ........................................... their meaning and
for 2) .................................... to acquire a more restricted meaning. An 3) .................................. of
the former is the word 4) ....................................., which originally meant large in size but can now
mean 5) ........................................... . The word doctor is a good example of the latter. Originally
meaning 6) ............................ man, nowadays it is usually 7) ......................... to refer to a medical
practitioner.

8 Language focus
ñ Read through the text again and underline any language used to introduce examples.
ñ What other words or phrases can be used to give examples?

9 Reading for detail

Now re-read the text and complete the table below.

Paragraph 1
Extension of meaning
Example 1: Word lovely New meaning vague approval
Example 2: Word ……………… New meaning ……………………..
Example 3: Word ……………… New meaning ……………………..

Paragraph 2
Narrowing of meaning
Example 1: Word ……………… New meaning …………………….
Example 2: Word ……………… New meaning ……………………
Example 3: Word ……………… New meaning ……………………
Narrowing of meaning (special vocabulary)
Example 1: Word ……………… New meaning …………………….
Example 2: Word ……………… New meaning ..……………………
Example 3: Word ……………… New meaning ……………………..
Narrowing of meaning (local vocabulary)
Example 1: Word ……………… New meaning …………………..
Example 2: Word ………………. New meaning …………………..
Example 3: Word ……………….. New meaning …………………..
Example 4: Word ……………….. New meaning ………………….

How are the examples of special and local vocabulary introduced?

9
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 10

1
10 Language for giving examples

Examples as the main information in a sentence

For example,
the word doctor used to mean a learned man.
For instance,

A good
A classic
A well-known example of this is the word doctor.
A typical
Another

are
Examples of extension of meaning lovely and great.
include

The following are examples of extension of meaning: lovely and great.

example
The word lovely is a good of extension of meaning.
illustration

Extension of meaning can be illustrated by the words lovely and great.

illustrates this point.

The word doctor
shows this point clearly.

is a case in point.
The word doctor is a good example of this.
serves as a good illustration of this.

Words such as lovely and great serve as good examples.

is exemplified
This is shown by the words lovely and great.
is illustrated

Examples as additional information in a sentence

Pavlov found that if some other stimulus, for example the ringing of a bell, preceded the food, the
dog would start salivating.
A number of well-known diseases can result at least in part from stress, including arthritis, asthma,
migraine, headaches and ulcers.
In Paris, Gassendi kept in close contact with many other prominent scholars such as Kepler, Galileo,
Hobbes and Descartes.
such as copper, iron ore, oil, coal and aluminium, have
The prices of resources,
like declined in real terms over the past 20 years.

10
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 11

1
11 Sentence constructions using for example and such as
ñ What kind of grammatical structures follow for example and such as?
ñ Is there any difference between them?
(i) Rewrite the sentences (a-f) below so that they include the examples which are given
on the right. Use such as and make whatever changes you feel are necessary.
Example: The desire to avoid stress may also lead people to avoid potentially beneficial
changes to their lives, such as job changes and promotions.
(ii) Rewrite the examples on the right as complete sentences using for example. Expand
on the information which is given.
Example: For example, they may avoid changing jobs or fail to pursue promotion
opportunities.

Sentences Examples

a The desire to avoid stress may also lead people to avoid i job changes, promotions
potentially beneficial changes to their lives.

b Giving people the correct information can encourage ii cutting down on smoking
them to adopt health promoting behaviour. cutting down on drinking

c People are more likely to pay attention to certain bodily iii aches, pains
sensations when they are under stress.

d The focus of medical care in our society has been shifting iv poor eating habits,
towards changing many of our unhealthy behaviours smoking, failure to
rather than simply curing the resulting diseases. exercise

e For some people, being called upon to give a talk in front v a pounding heart and a dry
of a class is a highly stressful stimulus that will mouth
immediately produce symptoms of an alarm reaction.

f Young people begin smoking for a variety of reasons. vi peer pressure and the role
modelling of parents

12 Writing Tasks
(i) Choose one or more of the points below and write a paragraph, adding examples to
support the point(s).
ñ Clothing for traditional weddings varies from culture to culture.
ñ Differences in men's and women's speech may be partly based on social factors.
ñ What is described as preventative medicine may cover a number of different practices.
ñ Smoking has many disadvantages. Some of them concern personal hygiene and
appearance whereas more serious disadvantages relate to health.
(ii) Write one or two paragraphs illustrating a fact, theory or argument within your own
subject area.

11
UnivWritCourse U 1_UnivWritCourse U 01 29/05/2012 5:22 ΜΜ Page 12