MODULE PART 2 SEEKING FOR INFORMATION ENGLISH UNIT KOLEJ KEMAHIRAN TINGGI MARA PASIR MAS DUE10092/82 English For Communication INTERNAL CIRCULATION
1 Table of Contents Learning outcome 3 2.1 Reading comprehension strategies 3 2.1.1 The reading process 4 2.1.2 Paraphrase 6 Practice 1 9 2.1.3 Summary 11 2.1.4 Inference 12 Practice 2 13 2.2 Gathering and extracting information from other sources 14 2.2.1 Reading and understanding visuals 14 Practice 3 16 2.2.2 Gathering information from survey/questionnaire 17 2.3 Identifying main idea and supporting details (written and spoken materials) 18 2.3.1 Topic sentence 18 2.3.2 Main idea 18 2.3.3 Supporting details 19 Practice 4 21 2.3.4 Strategies for making inferences in listening 22 Practice 5 24
2 2.4 Structuring and outlining for writing 25 2.4.1 The writing process: in short 25 2.4.2 General organization of writing 26 2.5 Writing response paper and review 29 2.5.1 Writing response paper 29 2.5.2 Writing article review 30 Practice 6 31 2.5.3 Writing Film (and other audio-visual materials) review 33 Practice 7 37 References 38
3 Unit 2: Seeking for Information In this chapter, students get to: 1. Gather and extract information from written and spoken texts. 2. Identify main ideas and supporting details from written text and speech. 3. Form inferences and draw conclusion based on the given materials. 4. Produce well-structured writing. 2.1 Reading Comprehension Strategies As college students you must read loads of materials for completing assignments, acing exam questions or simply preparing for class discussion. In order to maximize the input, there must be strategies used when reading. ACTIVE READER PASSIVE READER Tailor their reading strategies to suit each assignment. Read all assignments the same way. Analyze the purpose of a reading assignment. Read an assignment because it was assigned. Adjust their reading speed to suit their purposes. Read everything at the same speed. Question ideas in the assignment. Accept whatever is in print as true. Skim the headings or introduction and conclusion to find out what an assignment is about before beginning to read. Check the length of an assignment and then begin reading. Make sure they understand what they are reading as they go along. Read until the assignment is completed. Read with pencil in hand, highlighting, jotting notes, and marking key vocabulary. Simply read. Develop personalized strategies that are particularly effective. Follow routine, standard methods. Table 1 Active readers are involved with what they are reading. They interact with the author and his or her ideas. Table 1 contrasts the active strategies of successful readers with the passive
4 ones of less successful readers. You need to discover specific strategies for becoming a more active reader and learner. Not all strategies work for everyone; experiment to discover those that work for you. 2.1.1 The Reading Process Reading is a process. It involves multi-steps with numerous strategies to be used before, during and after reading. Study Table 2 to visualize the reading process. Table 2 Before you start reading, preview the reading material by reading the title, subtitle, heading (dark print/bold), first and last paragraph. If there are any graphic, make note of it. The information you get will help you to make prediction or educated guess about the material to be read. Then you can connect your prior knowledge to the topic you are reading.
5 As you are reading, highlight and annotate to keep focus and help to structure the information. Highlighting and annotating can be done using the following guideline in Table 3. Table 3 Other than annotating and highlighting, you can also use outlining. Outlining involves listing major and minor ideas and showing how they are related. When you make an outline, follow the writer’s organization. Don’t worry about following the outline format exactly. As long as your outline shows an organization of ideas, it should work for you. You can either use words and phrases or complete sentences, whichever is easier for you. Use your own words and avoid writing too much. Pay attention to headings and make sure all information placed under the heading explains or supports the heading. Use Table 4 to guide you in using guidelines.
6 Table 4 When you are done with reading there are activities that you can do to enhance your understanding of the topic. Writing is an effective strategy. In fact, writing is an excellent means of improving both your comprehension and your retention. You can either use paraphrasing and summarizing to test your understanding and facilitate recall of information. 2.1.2 Paraphrase A paraphrase is a restatement, in your own words, of a paragraph, passage, or reading selection. It is a condensed (shortened) rewording of each sentence or key idea in the order in which it appears in a reading. § It is a way to record an author’s ideas for later use. Sometimes your paraphrase can be incorporated directly into a paragraph or essay. Remember, however, that although you have changed the wording, you are still working with someone else’s ideas. It is, therefore, necessary to document the source at the end of your essay.
7 § Paraphrasing helps you clarify an author’s ideas. When you paraphrase, you are forced to work with each idea individually and see how the ideas relate to one another. § Paraphrasing is a useful study and learning strategy. When you paraphrase a reading, you think through and learn the information it contains. § Because a paraphrase requires you to use different words from those in the reading, writing paraphrases helps you develop your vocabulary. § By paraphrasing, you are practicing your own writing skills. Paraphrasing is common when writing an essay or research paper. It allows you to explain important ideas in your own writing style and focus on the information that is most useful in making your point. Even when you put someone else's ideas into your own words, you must cite the source of your information. This gives credit to the original author for their ideas. Paraphrasing is slightly different than summarizing. When you summarize a passage, you focus on restating only the main idea in your own words. Paraphrasing, on the other hand, aims to provide most of the information in a slightly condensed form. Summaries are much shorter than the original passage, while paraphrasing can be shorter, longer or the same length. Sometimes you only need to paraphrase the information from one sentence. Here are some examples of paraphrasing individual sentences: • Giraffes like Acacia leaves and hay, and they can consume 75 pounds of food a day. Paraphrase: A giraffe can eat up to 75 pounds of Acacia leaves and hay daily. • Symptoms of influenza include fever and nasal congestion. Paraphrase: A stuffy nose and elevated temperature are signs you may have the flu. Paraphrasing a longer passage can take a little more effort, as you have to ensure it is different enough from the original to be classed as your own work. Here is an example of paraphrasing a paragraph from “Family Values and Feudal Codes: The Social Politics of America’s Twenty-First Century Gangster.”
8 Original passage: In The Sopranos the mob is besieged as much by inner infidelity as it is by the federal government. Early in the series, the greatest threat to Tony's Family is his own biological family. One of his closest associates turns witness for the FBI, his mother colludes with his uncle to contract a hit on Tony, and his kids click through Web sites that track the federal crackdown in Tony's gangland. Paraphrased passage: In the first season of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano’s mobster activities are more threatened by members of his biological family than by agents of the federal government. This familial betrayal is multi-pronged. Tony’s closest friend and associate is an FBI informant, his mother and uncle are conspiring to have him killed, and his children are surfing the Web for information about his activities.
9 Practice 1: Write a paraphrase of each of the following passages. Try not to look back at the original passage. 1. "The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just as the sun is the source of our heat, and it exerts tremendous control on our climate," [Jacques] Cousteau told the camera. "The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water from the tropics, and its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human activity." From "Captain Cousteau," Audubon (May 1990):17. _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 2. The twenties were the years when drinking was against the law, and the law was a bad joke because everyone knew of a local bar where liquor could be had. They were the years when organized crime ruled the cities, and the police seemed powerless to do anything against it. Classical music was forgotten while jazz spread throughout the land, and men like Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie became the heroes of the young. The flapper was born in the twenties, and with her bobbed hair and short skirts, she symbolized, perhaps more than anyone or anything else, America's break with the past. From Kathleen Yancey, English 102 Supplemental Guide (1989): 25. _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 3. Of the more than 1000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused by head injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head. From "Bike Helmets: Unused Lifesavers," Consumer Reports (May 1990): 348.
10 _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 4. While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world's tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building. From Ron Bachman, "Reaching for the Sky." Dial (May 1990): 15. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
11 2.1.3 Summary A summary is a brief statement of the major points of a reading, and it is always shorter than the original. Unlike a paraphrase, a summary does not attempt to cover all of the reading’s key points and details. Usually a summary is about one-fifth the length of the original or less. Writing summaries has 3 main benefits: 1. Writing a summary improves your grasp of a writer’s ideas because you must identify key ideas and explain how they relate to one another. 2. Writing a summary saves you time when you are reviewing or studying for an exam. 3. College instructors across the disciplines—not just writing instructors— assign summaries. For example, you may be asked to write a plot summary of a short story or a summary of your findings for a science laboratory experiment. It is far more effective to keep a summary short - people are always more eager to read something short than something long. The longer something is, the greater a chance there is of including mistakes or misinformation within a piece of writing. In general, it is a good idea to consider having a summary outline format to keep your writing on point. • Have a topic sentence that gives information about the creators of the piece you are summarizing and the title of this information. • Include a few sentences about the people involved. These people may be the artists involved in the production, the characters of a book, or the actors in a movie. • Summarize the plot elements of the book: What are the critical things that happen, and how are they resolved? • Include a summary of the themes or morals of a book, story, production, or work of art. • Wrap up your summary with a sentence that pulls all of your ideas together about the piece. Your summary can be anywhere from a few sentences long to a few paragraphs, depending on the kind of summary you are writing.
12 2.1.4 Inference Another strategy that you can use when reading is inferencing. Inferencing involves making or reaching conclusion based on evidence and reasoning. As you read, you have to read between the lines. Use clues provided by the author to figure things out. You may use the context clues to understand the concept, situation and so on. Table 5 Example of inference: Edward has a pale complexion, never eats in front of others, only comes out at night and seems to move more quickly than is humanly possible. You can infer that Edward is a vampire.
13 Practice 2: Read each passage and then respond to the questions. Each question will ask you to make a logical inference based on textual details. Explain your answer by referencing the text. Crack! Thunder struck and rain poured. Mat stared blankly out the window, trying to contain his emotions that raged like the weather. He was beginning to lose it. Dropping the kite from his hand, Mat broke out into full sob. His mother comforted him, “There, there, Mat. We’ll just find something else to do.” She began to unpack the picnic basket that was on the counter and offered him a sandwich. Mat snapped, “I don’t wanna sand-mich!” A flash from the sky lit up the living room. Boom! Mom sighed. 1. Why is Mat upset? _________________________________________________________________________ 2.How do you know this? _________________________________________________________________________ 3. What was Mom planning on doing today? _________________________________________________________________________ 4. What in the text supports your description? _________________________________________________________________________ “Tajul!” Mom called out as she walked in the front door. “Tajul,” she continued shouting, “I sure could use some help with these groceries. There was still no reply. Mom walked into the kitchen to put the grocery bags down on the counter when she noticed shattered glass from the picture window all over the living room floor and a baseball not far from there. “I’m going to kill you, Tajul!” Mom yelled to herself as she realized that Tajul’s shoes were gone. 5. What happened to the window? _________________________________________________________________________ 6.How do you know this? _________________________________________________________________________ 7. Why did Tajul leave? _________________________________________________________________________ 8. What in the text supports your description? _________________________________________________________________________
14 2.2 Gathering and Extracting Information from Other Sources Apart from written materials that could be such as books, journals or online sources, you also need to get information from other sources such as visuals, survey and also interview’s findings. 2.2.1 Reading and understanding visuals Writers include visuals in many forms of writing, including textbooks, articles and essays, research reports, manuals, and magazines and newspapers. They help writers present complex information in a simple, readable format that readers can easily understand and to clarify or emphasize important concepts. Table 6 (next page) summarizes some of the different types of visual aids and how writers use them. Tips for Reading Visuals 1. Read the title or caption and legend. The title tells you what situation or relationship is being described. The legend is the explanatory caption that may accompany the visual, and it may also function as a key, indicating what particular colours, lines, or pictures mean. 2. Determine how the visual is organized. If you are working with a table, note the column headings. For a graph, notice the labels on the vertical axis (the top-tobottom line on the left side of the graph) and the horizontal axis (the left-to-right line at the bottom of the graph). 3. Determine what variables (quantities or categories) the visual is illustrating. Identify the pieces of information that are being compared or the relationship that is being shown. Note any symbols and abbreviations used. 4. Determine the scale or unit of measurement. Note how the variables are measured. For example, does a graph show expenditures in ringgit, thousands of ringgit, or millions of ringgit? 5. Identify any trends, patterns, or relationships the visual is intended to show. 6. Read any footnotes and identify the source. 7. Make a brief summary note. In the margin, jot down a brief note about the key trend or pattern emphasized by the visual. Writing will crystallize the idea in your mind, and your note will be useful when you review it.
15 Table 6
16 Practice 3: Think and respond to the prompt questions.
17 2.2.2 Gathering information from survey/questionnaire There will be time when you need to get information that is not readily available. You may need to come out with your own questionnaire to get first-hand information. For instance, you may be asked to write about the favourite cafeteria food of KKTM students. In this case you have to ask around and conduct your own survey. With the wonder of technology, you can distribute the online questionnaire. Tips when making and collecting feedback: 1. Go online. Get people to take a survey starts by making it accessible to them. 2. Keep your survey short. If respondents see that your questionnaire consists of multiple pages, they’ll be more inclined to leave several questions unanswered. 3. Use survey incentives to motivate respondents to take your survey. 4. Be clear and direct. Respondents won’t know how to fill out a survey if they don’t understand what’s being asked of them. 5. Follow up with respondents. When you get the feedbacks: 1. Sort your data demographically so that you can compare the trend between different groups. For example, do female students choose the same type of cafeteria food as male students? 2. You can also compare the data collected to other data e.g., from previous survey done by other people. 3. If you have any open-ended questions in your survey you will need to take more time to go through and analyze each question and feedback. 4. Visualize your data by putting them in the form of table, chart, or graph to make it easier to organize, present and compare them.
18 2.3 Identifying Main Idea and Supporting Details (Written and Spoken Materials) Every written text we read is combination of topics, main ideas and supporting details. Locating the topic, main idea, and supporting details helps you understand the point(s) the writer is attempting to express. Identifying the relationship between these will increase your comprehension. The successful communication of any author's topic is only as good as the organization the author uses to build and define his/her subject matter. 2.3.1 Topic sentence The topic sentence announces the general theme (or portion of the theme) to be dealt with in the paragraph. Usually it also states the main idea of the paragraph. Although the topic sentence may appear anywhere in the paragraph, it is usually first – and for a very good reason. This sentence provides the focus for the writer while writing and for the reader while reading. 2.3.2 Main idea Main idea is the key concept and the most important piece of information the author wants the reader about the concept of that paragraph. It is the point of the passage, minus all the details. Identifying the main idea teaches students to discriminate the important information from the less important details in a text. The ability to identify essential ideas and salient information is a prerequisite to developing insight. When an author does not state the main idea directly, it should still be implied, and is called an implied main idea. This requires that the reader look closely at the content - at specific words, sentences, images that are used and repeated - to deduce what the author is communicating. Identifying the main idea and determining what is important are prerequisite skills in summarizing a text. Summarizing requires readers to determine important—and discard unimportant—details and to put the main ideas in their own words.
19 Table 7 2.3.3 Supporting Details Supporting details elaborate upon and prove the topic sentence. Supporting details should be drawn from a variety of sources and based on research and experiences.. plus the writer’s own analysis. Using a combination of different supports is the most common and effective way to strengthen a paragraph. The following are commonly found as supporting details: • Explanations: definition, analysis, facts, statistics • Elaboration: personal opinions and such • Examples: relevant situations, items, stories, anecdotes In order to understand the main ideas, topic sentences and supporting details, it is important to understand the overall organization of a written text. It can be summarized as the visual/graphic organizer in Table 7: Introductory paragraph Thesis statement Extent/limit of coverage Writer’s attitude toward the topic Contents Main ideas Topic sentence Explanation & Elaboration Examples Concluding sentences Concluding/summarizing paragraph Re-state the main ideas/summary Conclude based on evidence Introduction Body of contents Conclusion cccc C
20 Table 8 Table 8 shows an example of a common organization of a paragraph. The text is on healthy lifestyle. The topic sentence states the main idea of the paragraph. Supporting 1, supporting 2 and supporting 3 explain and elaborate the main idea. The concluding sentence closes or concludes the paragraph and prepares for the next paragraph. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle requires eating a nutritious diet and getting regular exercise. A nutritious diet includes eating a variety of foods from each of the four food groups: meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and grains. Regular exercise is also an essential part of keeping a healthy lifestyle. Most experts recommend exercising at least thirty minutes a day, six days a week. These two aspects, eating a healthy diet and exercising on a regular basis, will maintain a healthy lifestyle. Topic Sentence Supporting 1 Supporting 3 Concluding sentence Supporting 2
21 Practice 4: Extract the major/main idea and supporting details/examples from the given paragraph. You can use Table 8 as guidelines. A new hearing device uses a magnet to hold the detachable soundprocessing portion in place. Like other aids, it converts sound into vibrations. But it is unique in that it can transmit the vibrations directly to the magnet and then to the inner ear. This produces a clearer sound. The new device will not help all hearing-impaired people - only those with a hearing loss caused by infection or some other problem in the middle ear. It will probably help no more than 20 percent of all people with hearing problems. Those people who have persistent ear infections, however, should find relief and restored hearing with the new device. Supporting 2 Main idea Supporting 1 Supporting 3
22 There are four keys to identifying main ideas in lectures and presentations. 1. First, a speaker may signal a main idea through discourse markers; that is, there are certain phrases that tell you a main idea is coming. Here are some examples: 2. Another key to identifying main ideas is repetition, or how many times a word or phrase is repeated. If something is repeated several times, it suggests importance. 3. The third key to identifying main or important ideas is pace. Pace is the speed of speech. Unimportant points or small details are usually spoken more quickly. Important points, such as main ideas, are usually spoken more slowly and clearly. 4. Finally, a lecturer’s visual aids, such as outlines, lists or drawings, often provide obvious clues to a speaker’s main points. 2.3.4 Strategies for Making Inferences in Listening An inference is an assumption made from information that we have. That is, in the case of listening comprehension, an inference is an interpretation, or a conclusion based on the information that we hear. Making inferences is a critical skill because not all important information is clearly or explicitly stated; therefore, even if we understand all the words in a listening segment, we still may not have complete comprehension. How can we make inferences successfully? Here are ways to improve your inferencing skills. • Review your pre-listening strategies carefully and apply them Inferences are largely based on background knowledge. The more you know about the subject and the more you have predicted about the listening passage, the better able you will be to make inferences. • Trust your instincts and don’t be afraid to guess! If you guess wrong, try to determine why you were wrong and move on. That is what learning is all about. The point I want to make/cover here is… The main point is… The important thing here is… What I’m trying to show is… What I’m going to talk about today is… The purpose of my remarks is … This afternoon I’d like to explain/focus on…
23 • Listen to word stress Word stress, also called primary sentence stress, refers to the word or words of a spoken sentence that are louder, longer, and of a more prominent pitch than the other words in the sentence. Spoken English is a stress-based language. That is, the stressed words, or content words, in a sentence carry the essential meaning of that sentence and represent the important content or new information the speaker wishes to express. On the other hand, unstressed words, or function words, simply provide a grammatical context for the stressed words. Therefore, if you are able to identify the stressed words in a message, you will usually be able to identify the essential meaning of that message You hear: Example: What are the MECHANISMS that explain why SOME BODIES are so VULNERABLE to STRESS-RELATED DISEASE? Stressed: MECHANISMS - SOME BODIES - VULNERABLE - STRESS-RELATED DISEASE? Explanation: In this last example, it may seem strange to you that some is stressed. After all, stressed words are usually nouns, main verbs, descriptive adjectives and adverbs (words that carry the central meaning); they are usually not conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, and adjective determiners, such as some. Therefore, the fact that some is stressed tells us something very important about the speaker’s message. It tells us that he is asking why only particular bodies some, not all bodies are vulnerable to stress related disease. In sum, a speaker’s meaning is coded in the words he or she stresses.
24 Practice 5: Click on the link given and listen to the talk. Fill the table with information from the audio clip (identify at least 3 main ideas with supporting details). Is it normal to talk to yourself.mp3 Title: ____________________________________________________ Main Idea 1: Supporting 1: Supporting 2: Supporting 3: Main Idea 2: Supporting 1: Supporting 2: Supporting 3: Main Idea 3: Supporting 1: Supporting 2: Supporting 3:
25 2.4 Structuring and Outlining for Writing In the first part of the module, you are exposed to different sources of information (print, audio visuals). In the second part, you will learn how to make use of the information in your writing. Academic setting requires students to write report, review and even reflection. Producing good piece of writing needs you to gather information, outline ideas. College-level reading and writing assignments differ from high school assignments not only in quantity but also in quality. Managing college reading assignments successfully requires you to plan and manage your time, set a purpose for reading, practice effective comprehension strategies, and use active reading strategies to deepen your understanding of the text. College writing assignments place greater emphasis on learning to think critically about a particular discipline and less emphasis on personal and creative writing. 2.4.1 The Writing Process: In short Table 9
26 2.4.2 General Organization of Writing By now you must have been familiar with the three parts of essay namely introduction, content and conclusion. Writing Introduction Writers need a thesis statement to provide a specific focus for their essay and to organize what they are about to discuss in the body. Just like a topic sentence summarizes a single paragraph, the thesis statement summarizes an entire essay. It tells the reader the point you want to make in your essay, while the essay itself supports that point. It is like a signpost that signals the essay’s destination. You should form your thesis before you begin to organize an essay, but you may find that it needs revision as the essay develops. For every essay you write, you must focus on a central idea. This idea stems from a topic you have chosen or been assigned or from a question your teacher has asked. It is not enough merely to discuss a general topic or simply answer a question with a yes or no. You have to form a specific opinion, and then articulate that into a controlling idea—the main idea upon which you build your thesis. Remember that a thesis is not the topic itself, but rather your interpretation of the question or subject. For whatever topic your professor gives you, you must ask yourself, “What do I want to say about it?” Asking and then answering this question is vital to forming a thesis that is precise, forceful and confident. A thesis is one sentence long and appears toward the end of your introduction. It is specific and focuses on one to three points of a single idea—points that are able to be demonstrated in the body. It forecasts the content of the essay and suggests how you will organize your information. Remember that a thesis statement does not summarize an issue but rather dissects it. Your introduction should begin with an engaging statement devised to provoke your readers’ interest. In the next few sentences, introduce them to your topic by stating general facts or ideas about the subject. As you move deeper into your introduction, you gradually narrow the focus, moving closer to your thesis. Moving smoothly and logically from your introductory remarks to your thesis statement can be achieved using a funnel technique, as illustrated in the following diagram “Funnel Technique” as shown in Table 10.
27 Table 10 Writing Topic Sentences and Main Ideas Now that you have identified common purposes for writing and learned how to select appropriate content for a particular audience, you can think about the structure of a paragraph in greater detail. Composing an effective paragraph requires a method similar to building a house. You may have the finest content, or materials, but if you do not arrange them in the correct order, then the final product will not hold together very well. A strong paragraph contains three distinct components: 1. Topic sentence. The topic sentence is the main idea of the paragraph. 2. Body. The body is composed of the supporting sentences that develop the main point. 3. Conclusion. The conclusion is the final sentence that summarizes the main point. An effective topic sentence combines a main idea with the writer’s personal attitude or opinion. It serves to orient the reader and provides an indication of what will follow in the rest of the paragraph. Organization of a paragraph reflects the organization of the whole text, where the topic sentence can usually be written at the beginning as introduction to the specific paragraph while supporting sentences exist as the body of the paragraph. A paragraph usually ends with a concluding statement that will both summarize and wrap up the discussion. General Statement Introductory remark Thesis statement
28 Writing a Conclusion It is not unusual to want to rush when you approach your conclusion, and even experienced writers may fade. But what good writers remember is that it is vital to put just as much attention into the conclusion as in the rest of the essay. After all, a hasty ending can undermine an otherwise strong essay. A conclusion that does not correspond to the rest of your essay, has loose ends, or is unorganized can unsettle your readers and raise doubts about the entire essay. However, if you have worked hard to write the introduction and body, your conclusion can often be the most logical part to compose. The Anatomy of a Strong Conclusion Keep in mind that the ideas in your conclusion must conform to the rest of your essay. In order to tie these components together, restate your thesis at the beginning of your conclusion. This helps you assemble, in an orderly fashion, all the information you have explained in the body. Repeating your thesis reminds your readers of the major arguments you have been trying to prove and also indicates that your essay is drawing to a close. A strong conclusion also reviews your main points and emphasizes the importance of the topic. The construction of the conclusion is similar to the introduction, in which you make general introductory statements and then present your thesis. The difference is that in the conclusion you first paraphrase, or state in different words, your thesis and then follow up with general concluding remarks. These sentences should progressively broaden the focus of your thesis and manoeuvre your readers out of the essay. Table 11 Paraphrase thesis General concluding remark Manoeuvre out
29 2.5 Writing Response Paper and Review 2.5.1 Writing Response Paper In academic writing, a reaction paper is an assignment that involves providing your opinion on another person’s article or an abstract. It contains your thoughts and conclusions on a piece of written content by another author. The purpose of a reaction paper is to gauge a student’s understanding and analytical skills in written journals. A reaction paper is rarely as long as the paper review and article critique. The bulk of the task involves the identification of central aspects of study material and relating them with your thoughts, beliefs, or perspective. Your instructor provides a book, video, or an article (material) that you’ll need to read and give you reaction or opinion. Therefore, the writing style involves summing up the material whilst providing your reactions or thoughts on sections that are relevant. Point out the author, the title of the book or article, and publication dates for magazines. Summarize the material by writing down the points that you wish to react to. While writing your main reaction points, use direct quotations from the material as a way of illustrating the key ideas. Ensure your summary remains factual and objective. If there is any specific points that you are required to react to, be sure to have them reflected in your summary. If not, assess whether there’s a relationship between the ideas of the material you’re reacting to and the class discussions. Identify the relationship between the key points and real-world problems. Ask yourself how the article is changing your perspective about the issues discussed by the book or article. It helps you form strong reaction thoughts and opinions. Assess the merit of the material. Check the accuracy of its key points, relevance, organization, completeness, and all that. Share your opinion on recommending the book or article to other readers. The key takeaway point here is that the writing style of the reaction paper is mostly subjective since you share your thoughts on another person’s work. A reaction paper takes an informal approach as the writer expresses a personal opinion.
30 2.5.2 Writing Article Review A review paper is a type of assignment that involves summarizing the existing published writings of a topic. It attempts to highlight the strides made in understanding that topic and its current standing. Its purpose is to synthesize the results observed from numerous literature papers and by that produce clear and concise arguments on a topic. The writing style of the paper review involves majorly discussing the findings that a research paper has on a particular topic. Therefore, here you’re simply processing, summarizing, and then presenting your conclusions of an existing scientific paper. Next, briefly summarizes your review topic or subject. Commonly, it includes the key points of the research paper that you’re planning to discuss. Avoid just summarizing the literature that you are reviewing and instead analyze, synthesize, and interpret it. Form the analysis by studying and presenting the connections that make the paper valid for review. Then synthesize by explaining the significance and relevance of your review ideas to the topic. Lastly, interpret the literature by examining its meaning to the primary concepts of your thesis. Conclude by illustrating the connection between your thesis, main points, and broader discussion. In other words, tell readers the conclusions that you drew after writing your review paper. A paper review is professional, which makes the acceptable tone to be formal. Although you express your conclusions on a topic at the end, you have to be objective. Also, you have to provide evidence of the material that you use to refer to form review opinions.
31 Practice 6: Write a 2-page response to the text ‘Greed, Cancer and Pink KFC Bucket’. Pay attention to the overall tone of the writer. Greed, Cancer, and Pink KFC Buckets We live in a world of profound contradictions. some things are just unbelievably strange. At times I feel like I’ve found a way to adapt to the weirdness of the world, and then along comes something that just boggles my mind. It is ironic that the largest grassroots breast cancer advocacy group in the world, a group called “Susan G. Komen for the Cure,” has now partnered with the fast food chain KFC, known for its high-fat foods and questionable treatment of its chickens, in a national “Buckets for the Cure” campaign. The program began last month and runs through the end of May. KFC is taking every chance it can manufacture to trumpet the fact that it will donate 50 cents to Komen for every pink bucket of chicken sold. For its part, Komen is announcing on its website that “KFC and Susan G. Komen for the Cure are teaming up . . . to . . . spread educational messaging via a major national campaign which will reach thousands of communities served by nearly 5,000 KFC restaurants.” Educational messaging, indeed. how often do you think this “messaging” provides information about the critical importance a healthy diet plays in maintaining a healthy weight and preventing cancer? how often do you think it refers in any way to the many studies that, according to the National Cancer Institute’s website, “have shown that an increased risk of developing colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancer is associated with high intakes of well-done, fried or barbecued meats”? If you guessed zero, you’re right. Meanwhile, the American Institute for Cancer Research reports that 60 to 70 percent of all cancers can be prevented with lifestyle changes. Their number one dietary recommendation is to: “Choose predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, legumes and minimally processed starchy staple foods.” Does that sound like pink buckets of fried chicken? Pardon me for being cynical, but I have to ask, if Komen is going to partner with KFC, why not take it a step further and partner with a cigarette company? They could sell pink packages of cigarettes, donating a few cents from each pack while claiming “each pack you smoke brings us closer to the day cancer is vanquished forever.” Whose brilliant idea was it that buying fried chicken by the bucket is an effective way to fight breast cancer? One breast cancer advocacy group, Breast Cancer Action, thinks the Komen/KFC campaign is so egregious that they call it “pinkwashing,” another sad example of commercialism draped in pink ribbons. “Make no mis- take,” they say, “every pink bucket purchase will do more to benefit KFC’s bottom line than it will to cure breast cancer.” One thing is hard to dispute. In partnering with KFC, Susan G. Komen for the Cure has shown itself to be numbingly oblivious to the role of diet in cancer prevention. Of course, it’s not hard to understand KFC’s motives. They want to look good. But recent publicity the company has been
32 getting hasn’t been helping. For one thing, the company keeps taking hits for the unhealthiness of its food. Just last month, when KFC came out with its new Double Down sandwiches, the products were derided by just about every public health organization for their staggering levels of salt, calories and artery- clogging fat. Then there’s the squeamish matter of the treatment of the birds who end up in KFC’s buckets, pink or otherwise. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has an entire website devoted to what it calls Kentucky Fried Cruelty, but you don’t have to be an animal activist to be horrified by how the company treats chickens, if you lift the veil of the company’s PR and see what actually takes place. KFC, naturally, did everything they could to keep the footage from being aired, but their efforts failed. In fact, the video from the investigation ended up being broadcast by TV stations around the world, as well as on all three national evening news shows, Good Morning America, and every one of the major cable news net- works. Plus, more than a million people subsequently watched the footage on PETA’s website. It wasn’t just animal activists who condemned the fast food chain for the level of animal cruelty displayed at KFC’s “supplier of the Year” slaughterhouse. Dr.Temple Grandin, perhaps the meat industry’s leading farmed-animal welfare expert, said, “The behavior of the plant employees was atrocious.” Dr. Ian Duncan, a University of Guelph professor of applied ethology and an original member of KFC’s own animal-welfare advisory council, wrote, “This tape depicts scenes of the worst cruelty I have ever witnessed against chickens . . . and it is extremely hard to accept that this is occurring in the United states of America.” KFC claims, on its website, that its animal-welfare advisory council “has been a key factor in formulating our animal welfare program.” But Dr. Duncan, along with five other former members of this advisory council, say otherwise. They all resigned in disgust over the company’s refusal to take animal welfare seriously. Adele Douglass, one of those who resigned, said in an SEC filing reported on by the Chicago Tribune that KFC “never had any meetings. They never asked any advice, and then they touted to the press that they had this animal-welfare advisory committee. I felt like I was being used.” You can see why KFC would be eager to jump on any chance to improve its public image, and why the company would want to capitalize on any opportunity to associate itself in the public mind with the fight against breast cancer. What’s far more mystifying is why an organization with as much public trust as Susan G. Komen for the Cure would jeopardize public confidence in its authenticity. As someone once said, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation, but only 15 minutes to lose it. Adapted from: Greed, Cancer, and Pink KFC Buckets by John Robbins
33 2.5.3 Writing Film (and other Audio Visual Materials) Review The film review is a popular way for critics to assess a film’s overall quality and determine whether or not they think the film is worth recommending. Film reviews differ from scholarly film articles in that they encompass personal and idiosyncratic reactions to and evaluations of a film, as well as objective analyses of the film’s formal techniques and thematic content. Preparing to Write the Review While film reviews tend to be fairly short (approximately 600 to 1200 words), they require a lot of preparation before you begin writing. Prior to viewing the film, you may want to get a sense of the bodies of work by the director, writer, or individual actor. For instance, you may watch other films by the same director or writer in order to get a sense of each individual style. This will enable you to contextualize the film and determine whether it works as a continuation and/or disruption within the broad trends of the director’s or writer’s work. Writing a film review often requires multiple viewings of the film. Plan to watch the film two or even three times. During the first viewing, surrender yourself to the cinematic experience; in other words, get lost in the narrative and enjoy the film without worrying about the argument you will eventually cultivate. During your second viewing, try distancing yourself from the plot and instead focus on interesting elements of the film that you can highlight in the review. You may separate these elements into two broad categories: 1) formal techniques such as cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene (setting and context), lighting, diegetic and non-diegetic sound, genre, or narratology, and 2) thematic content that resonates with issues such as history, race, gender, sexuality, class, or the environment. After watching the film a second time, take careful notes on the formal and thematic elements of the film. Then attempt to create a central idea for your review that brings together the film’s formal and thematic elements. If your second viewing does not yield a strong central claim for the review or if you need to take more notes, you may have to watch the film or parts of the film a third time. Writing the Film Review Although there is not a set formula to follow when writing a film review, the genre does have certain common elements that most film reviews include.
34 1) Introduction o In the opening of your review, provide some basic information about the film. You may include film’s name, year, director, screenwriter, and major actors. o Your introduction, which may be longer than one paragraph, should also begin to evaluate the film, and it should allude to the central concept of the review. A film review does not have to contain a thesis or main claim, but it should focus on a central analysis and assessment. 2) Plot Summary - Remember that many readers of film reviews have not yet seen the film. While you want to provide some plot summary, keep this brief and avoid specific details that would spoil the viewing for others. 3) Description - While the plot summary will give the reader a general sense of what the film is about, also include a more detailed description of your particular cinematic experience watching the film. This may include your personal impression of what the film looks, feels, and sounds like. In other words, what stands out in your mind when you think about this particular film? 4) Analysis - In order to explain your impression of the film, consider how well the film utilizes formal techniques and thematic content. How do the film’s formal techniques (such as cinematography, editing, mise-en-scène, lighting, diegetic and non-diegetic sound, genre, or narrative) affect the way the film looks, feels, and sounds to you? How does the thematic content (such as history, race, gender, sexuality, class, or the environment) affect your experience and interpretation? Also, do the formal techniques work to forward the thematic content? 5) Conclusion/Evaluation - The closing of your film review should remind the reader of your general thoughts and impressions of the film. You may also implicitly or explicitly state whether or not you recommend the film. Make sure to remind the reader of why the film is or is not worth seeing.
35 Examples of Film Reviews Squid Game Series Review Squid Game may appear to have appeared out of nowhere to American viewers. However, it is an unsurprising colossal hit. The show, which Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has expressed is on course to be the streaming company’s most-watched arrangement ever, has overwhelmed charts worldwide, showing a compelling affirmation of the company’s procedure around the world. While it is encouraging that so many people are interested in a project they are watching with subtitles, there is nothing particularly innovative about people flocking to a task that gives them the best of both worlds. Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game describes a competition with 456 participants in which the winner receives unlimited money if they survive a grueling gauntlet of catastrophic occurrences. These levels are based on children’s playground games, which adds a layer of irony to how cruel they become: for example, in the first stage, a variant of “Red Light, Green Light” in which those who move after “Red Light” are gunned down, more than half of the participants are killed (Cho). There are multiple “Squid Games.” There’s Squid Game as a cultural concept, which Joe Adalian of Vulture described as “Planet Squid Game”: the Korean Netflix arrangement that has rapidly gotten to be a worldwide hit and confirmation of the gushing service’s worldwide reach. That “Squid Diversion” could be an amusingly smoothed form of the appearance – it is the “Squid Entertainment” that exists so that Jeff Bezos may retweet “Planet Squid Entertainment” as a complement to Netflix’s “internationalization organization” (Cho). It also is the “Squid Entertainment,” which has compelled Netflix to slap together a hastily put-together merchandising scheme. That adaptation is effective, and the components that uphold it appear outlined to enter popular culture. The course of arrangement maker Hwang Dong-hyuk and Squid Game’s general visual plan is so striking that photos from the arrangement may stand alone on the Internet as visuals with distinguishable implications. A monster doll with a rotating head and an unyielding look appear (Cho). She is an enigmatic fixation, an embodied panopticon, and an ironic image of outsized childishness that haunts the rest. There is a photo of Gong Yoo, calm and quiet, holding up the two ddakji envelopes, one of which is rose and one of which is blue. In showing disdain toward the reality that those photos appear compared to specific beguilement scenarios, memes work by confining the picture from its unique setting (Cho). The inescapability of memes has its sort of meaning, which is now and then but not continuously approximately appearing, but more so almost how its symbolism has been distinguished and circulated so quickly.
36 Seong Gi-hun, a down-on-his-luck character in Squid Game, is heavily in obligation, separated, attempting to interface with his girl, and remorseful over his disappointment to help his elderly mother. He features betting enslavement. His obligation is colossal, inconceivable to reimburse, and his banks are closing in on him. So, in a meme-worthy arrangement in which he plays ddakji, an envelope-flipping diversion, Gi-hun is selected within the Squid Game, a bad dream office cut off from the rest of the world where players play essential childish diversions with the chance to win a fortune of 45.6 billion Korean won. Compared to a Hunger Games-style setting, the ties to current capitalism and money-related edginess are more direct in Squid Game. There is no enchanted polish or a softly modified place title to make watchers believe Gi-hun’s despair is set in a small invented universe. Gi-hun is interested in the amusement since giving himself up to a stranger for the plausibility of money sounds more secure than proceeding with his life because it is, and in this way, since indeed the bad dream of the Squid Game gives more choices than the life he had been pursuing. The show’s stunning, powerful graphics work best early on when the mystery is still fresh, when the terrible doll’s eyes see everything, and there is no way out. The ending of Squid Game becomes less shocking and aesthetically spectacular as it searches for answers and a future. It is not the kind of apocalypse fiction that celebrates human tenacity; instead, it focuses on financial despair and weaponized nostalgia (Cho). All of this casts a pall on Squid Game as a successful blurb child for social dominance around the world. The appearance that the whole world needs to observe presently is at its finest when it is around understanding that the end of the world has, as of now, arrived. We are all getting a handle on straws to divert our attention away from how horrible things are already. That is a bit depressing, but it is precisely how Squid Game wants it.
37 Practice 7: Choose a movie that you have watched and write a short review on the film. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________
38 References McLean, S. (2012). Successful Writing. Retrieved 4 September, 2019, from 2012books.lardbucket.org McWhorter T, K. (2015). In Concert: An intergrated Approach to Reading and Writing. New Jersey: Pearson. Tompkins, G., & Jones, P. D. (2019). Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. New York: Pearson Education. Reference guide on paraphrasing. (2023, May 20). Retrieved from excelsior online writing lab: https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc Strategies to improve summary writing. (2023, May 20). Retrieved from Your dictionary: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/style-and-usage/strategies-to-improve-summarywriting.html Is it normal to talk to yourself. (2023, June 3). Retrieved from TedTalk Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNyUmbmQQZg Antony, W. (2022, December 20). Reaction Paper vs Article Critiques vs Paper Review. Retrieved from Help for assessment: https://www.helpforassessment.com/blog/reaction-paper-vsarticle-critique-vs-paper-review/ An Overview of the Reading Process (with Writing) sample chapter. (2023, June 4). Retrieved from MyLab Education: https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dotcom/us/en/higher-ed/en/products-services/course-products/mcwhorter-2e-info/pdf/samplechapter--ch01.pdf