Unit 8 Writing Abstract
城市猎人粤语
Objectives
- Learn the purpo of writing an academic abstract
- Get to understand different types of abstracts and the abstract elements
- Understand features of academic English in writing an abstract
- Learn how to write an academic abstract
- Learn how to write key words
Contents
- Teacher’s introduction
- Reading and discussion:
What is an academic abstract?
What are the elements of an abstract?
- Language focus: commonly ud verbs and tens; ntence patterns
- Rewriting practice: understand different styles of academic abstracts
- Rewriting practice: understand the elements of an academic abstract
- Writing practice: write an abstract and key words bad on the given material
1. Reading Activity
1.1 Pre-reading Task
Abstract is an important part of academic assignments, most often, reports and rearch papers. The abstract is the last item that you write, but the first thing people read when they want to have a quick overview of the whole paper. We suggest that you leave abstract writing to the end, becau you will have a clearer picture of all your findings and conclusions.
Before you learn the detailed steps to write an abstract, plea discuss the following questions:
What is the purpo of writing an abstract?
What are the basic elements for an academic abstract?
What language problems may you have in abstract writing? (For example: the wording problem, the ten problem and the voice problem, etc.)
1.2 Reading Passage
Sample Abstract 1
This disrtation examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically important ca, the writer clarifies the process by which movements transform social structures and the constraints when they try to do so. The time period studied includes the expansion of voting rights and gains in black political power, the degregation of public schools and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the ri and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. Two major rearch strategies were ud: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three ca studies. Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports. This disrtation challenges the argument that movements are inconquential. Some view federal agencies, courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically the groups acted in respon to the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in Mississippi.夜视仪望远镜
(Kenneth Tait Andrews, “‘Freedom is a constant struggle’: The dynamics and conquences of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1984″ Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1997 DAI-A 59/02, p. 620, Aug 1998)
1.3 Reading Comprehension
1.3.1 What does the abstract talk about?
What the study does | |
How the study does it | |
What materials are ud | |
Conclusion | |
| |
1.3.2 双点划线Decide how many elements this sample includes and how they function.
2 Language Focus
2.1 Commonly ud verbs and tens in abstracts
Read the following sample abstract and pay attention to the verbs ud in it.
Sample abstract 2
Cybercrime – crime on the Internet – is of growing concern in the business community. Despite UK Government initiatives (such as BS7799) and growing sales in software solutions (e.g. anti-virus software), cyber attacks are on the increa. This disrtation focus on ways to asss the effectiveness of current preventative measures to cybercrime and to understand why organizations continue to be vulnerable to cybercrime. This disrtation met the twin rearch aims through an extensive study of relevant literature and the implementation of practical rearch. The latter was carried out through a Ca Study with Company XXX using mi-structured interviews with key I.T. curity personnel. This rearch produced a number of key findings: recent surveys confirm a significant increa in the incidences of cybercrime and their impact on the business community but also the types of cybercrime (virus, hacking, spam, identity theft, fraud, privacy issues, web vandalism, etc.); organizations lacked the curity experti to deal with cybercrime and so depended too much on readily available technical ways to combat cybercrime (and failing); organizations were not aware of Government recommendations on how to address Internet-bad curity issues; and Governments a
nd law enforcement agencies tended to localize cybercrime, allocating scant resources to contributing to a global solution. The main conclusions drawn from this rearch were that current approaches to fighting cybercrime are deficient becau they fail to embrace a holistic approach, instead opting for a narrow local software-bad focus, and that a lack of communication between major stakeholders at local, national and international level has hindered curity development. This rearch argues for a multi-pronged model to reduce incidences of cybercrime. It takes into account Risk-Asssment models, local management of company policies, implementation issues (including proper resourcing and review policies), the need for global support infrastructures, and a means of fostering communication networks.
(uk/Disrtation_Abstract.htm)
2.2 More verbs and ntences patterns
医院信息化系统Categories | Verbs | Sentence patterns |
Background | review， summarize， prent， ... | The theory comes/stems/emerges/originates from… The theory is obtained/provided/furnished from… |
Aim | 秋天英语 attempt， purpo， aim, ... | This paper develops a theoretical framework to… This paper prents an approach to… This report (thesis, prentation, document, account…) explains (outlines，summaries，evaluates，surveys，develops， investigates，discuss，focus on，航空技术…) the results of… |
Rearch focus(es) | Study, prent, include, ... | The chief aim (main purpo, primary object, major objective, principal, goal) of the study is… |
Rearch process | test， 圆蛛study， investigate， ... | They put forward (developed, propod) this theory, which is bad (advanced, suggested, created, constructed, formulated, elaborated) on.../ rests on, (proceeds from)... |
method | measure， estimate， calculate, ... | The curative effect (nsitivity, function) of certain drug (kit, organ) was obrved (detected, studied). |
| | |
2.2 Verb tens in abstracts
Type of information | Verb form
(ten or commonly occurring verbs) | Examples |
giving background details | prent ten | The industry is already well known for its efforts to improve the eco-efficiency of its process |
describing the rearch activity | simple past ten, prent perfect ten | The study focud on 2 main areas The framework for life cycle analysis has been developed |
describing the methods | simple past ten (active or passive) | We carried out a ries of field tests A large number of samples were tested for fracturing |
reporting results | simple past ten | Results indicated that the problem is even more rious than previously predicted The third model proved to be more durable than the other four |
stating conclusions | prent ten verbs indicating tentativeness : ∙ is possible ∙ is likely ∙ appears ∙ ems ∙ might modal auxiliary verbs can, may, could, might | This indicates that there are, in fact, veral factors contributing to the decrea It appears that the incidence of human error cannot be eliminated at any stage 狗狗咬人怎么办There might be a need for revising the list of criteria within the next 5-10 years |
| | |
