Learning the Language: Why Dolores' Essay Isn't Academic English...

Learning the Language: Why Dolores' Essay Isn't Academic English...

The example of ESL writing in this article is similar to what I see in many writing samples in my own classes. Teaching basic organization is easy, but teaching writers to adequately support their ideas is much more difficult.

Though there is no easy advice that I can give, one suggestion is to never make a statement that isn't supported further with either a citation, research, examples, observations, stories, or other ways that support the original idea. Too often, writers follow the organizational format and support the topic sentence, but fail to support the supporting sentences. This can be much more difficult. Supporting statements can stand on their own at times, but more often they require a little bit of their own support :)

Avoid weasel words

Avoid weasel words - Wikipedia

This Wikipedia guideline is a great guideline for academic writers in general. I really love the name that they give these, "Weasel Words". Great

Essentially, this entry/page is about hedging techniques and the problems that using them incorrectly can cause. As you read this, note that I don't agree with all of their opinions. However, their suggestions for siting your sources, even when hedging, is a great idea.

10 simple things you can do to improve your writing | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

10 simple things you can do to improve your writing | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

I don't agree with all of these and some are written for a non-academic audience, but I still think that there are some great suggestions here.

Politics And The English Language by George Orwell

Politics And The English Language by George Orwell

Interesting advice/opinions from George Orwell on clarity in writing. In my opinion, some of what he writes about is outdated, but much of it is as true today as when it was written.

Here are his recommendations/guidelines

i. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
ii. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
iii. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
v. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
vi. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Talking about a process: making a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich

EPT Writing Prompts

These writing prompts are great examples of prompts that you might see in an English test (in this case the EPT) that requires written responses.

I encourage you to write responses to some of these to test yourself and to get more comfortable responding to prompt such as these.

Formatting Guidelines for Bio-Medical Journals

Here are some resources on formatting guidelines for bio-medical journals.

* http://www.icmje.org/
* http://www.mlanet.org/publications/style/
* http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/ifora.dtl
* http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html
* http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citama.htm

CiLL Writing Links/Resources

Writing

This is really an incredible collection. Much more than bits and pieces put together in other websites. I'm very impressed with the scope of tutorials, resources, and assessments (mostly javascript quizzes) presented here.

Anyone putting together an academic writing course for ESL students (or even native English speakers) should refer to this site instruction or extra work in a writing classroom.

Dan

5 Embarrassing Grammatical Mistakes - MSN Encarta

5 Embarrassing Grammatical Mistakes - MSN Encarta

I'm not sure which blog to put this one in, so I guess I'll just do it in a few (sorry for the duplication if you read more than one).

This post just agreed with my inner English teacher. Now, I don't freak out over these mistakes, but they are certainly one that I commend on. Many people might not even notice these mistakes but those who do are often unforgiving about such errors.

She starts out describing typographical errors, which, lets be honest, happen to everyone. I can't believe that some typos on his Web page sealed his fate. If it were a piece of past professional work, I'd understand. So, I hope this it was more than just his blog :)

Of the 5 errors, the most difficult are the misplaced modifiers for both native and non-native speakers (writers) of English. The rest are strictly grammar rules, but knowing where to put the modifier is not. Grammatically, it can go just about anywhere in the sentence; however, pragmatically, it certainly cannot. Their aren't any set rules for this that I'm aware of.

Take a look at these. It may save you from future embarrassment.

Also, did you notice that I made one of each of these mistakes in my post above. Though, the misplaced modifier isn't too awkward. See if you can find them.

Dan