Chapter 8 - Style

1
Chapter 8 - Style

• Group Members Helen 9310001A
• Stan 9310003A
• Sally 9310021A
• General 9310026A
• Judy 9310036A
• Peggy 9310032A

2
8a Aim for a readable style

• Clear Thought
• know and understand your topic
• A readable style mastery of content
• EXCELLENT paper

3
8a-1 Understand your sources

• Reread the difficult part until you totally
  understand.
• Do not pretend to understand!!!!!
• Never quote something youre not clear.
• Paraphrasing author's idea is a useful way to
• test your understanding.

4
8a-2 Be accurate

• Names, dates, and statistics (numbers)
• Ex. The United Nations (UN) officially
• was founded on 24 October 1945,
• increasing its member states to 192
• until 28 June 2006.

5
8a-3 Be exact

• Know well about your topic
• Without being vague or fuzzy
• Use the correct technical terms

6
8a-3 Be exact

• Ex. The European Union (UN) is a political and
  economical community, which was founded together
  by six founding members in 1957.
• Revised. After WWII, in order to guarantee its
• lasting peace, the European Union
  (UN)
• was founded as a political
  (intergovermental
• co-operation and abolition of border
  
• control ) and economical (single
  market
• freedom of movement of people,
  goods,
• services) community together by its
  six
• founding members Belgium, France,
• Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the
• Netherlands in 1957.

7
8a-4 Be concise

• Condense a lot of information in few words.
• Ex. The development level of public
• transportation in European countries is
• high.
• Revised. public transportation is highly
• developed in European countries.
  

8
8a-4 Be concise

• Redundant expressions
• Ex. A bald-headed baby boy asked an
• extra added egg for breakfast at
• 730 a.m. in the morning.

9
8a-4 Be concise

• Meaningless words or phrases
• Ex. In actual fact, they were
• introduced for the first time
• yesterday.
• 
  

10
8a-4 Be concise

• Snobbish diction
• Ex.
• A person desiderative of love is usually
  a solitariness and hollowness person. This kind
  of person will chase love without judgment, so we
  had better recommend him/her to ascertain other
  focus in his/her life.

11
8a-4 Be concise

• Ex.
• A person who pursues love is usually
  loneliness and emotional emptiness. This kind of
  person will chase love blindly, so we had better
  recommend him/her to find out other focus in
  his/her life.

12
8a-5 Vary your sentences

• Bad writers
• Write the same kinds of sentences again and
  again . ? Prepare going to hell!!!
• Good writers
• Combine some sentences or beginning some
  others with a different words. ? Mavis will love
  you FOREVER!!!

13
8a-5 Vary your sentences

• Ex. (BAD ONE)
• Sam comes from America. He will stay in
  Taiwan for 15 days. He said this is his second
  time to visit Taiwan. He plans to visit his
  friends here. He can not speak Chinese. He still
  desires to visit different cities in Taiwan. He
  is so exciting. He can not wait for this trip.

14
8a-5 Vary your sentences

• Ex. (GOOD ONE)
• Sam comes from America, and he will stay
  in Taiwan for 15 days. Besides, he said this is
  his second time to visit Taiwan, so he plans to
  visit his friends here. Although he can not speak
  Chinese, he still desires to visit different
  cities in Taiwan. In fact, he is so exciting, and
  he can not wait for this trip.

15
8a-5 Vary your sentences

• Learn to juxtapose short and long sentences.
• Ex.
• Hualien is the place I like most. It's a
• middle-sized city located in eastern
• Taiwan. People are lucky to appreciate
• a lot of seashore scenes due to its
• location. At the same time, people can
• enjoy the breeze that blew across the
• surface of the ocean.

16
8a-5 Vary your sentences

• Learn to subordinate.
• Ex.
• Coordinate
• I read a book. Suddenly a man
• rushed in.
• Subordinate
• Suddenly a man rushed in
• when I read a book.

17
8a-5 Ways to vary your sentences

• Learn to use parallel constructions.
• Ex.
• Not parallel
• The old man sit on the sofa. Then he
  
• started reading the newspaper. Later
  he
• also drank a cup of coffee.
• Parallel
• The old man sat on the sofa, read
  the
• newspaper, and drank a cup of
  coffee.
• Note All verbs are active and in the past.

18
8a-6 Use the active voice

• active
• passive
• Dont use passive voice because
• Objective myth
• Textbookish
• Stilted
• Avoid sexism

Verbs
19

• Passive
• The most influential theory in 20th century,
  Relativity, is proposed by Einstein. And the
  development of new energy, nuclear power was
  influenced by this theory.

20

• Active
• Einstein proposed the most influential theory in
  20th century, Relativity. And this theory had
  influenced the development of new energy which is
  nuclear power.

21
8a-6 2 exceptions call for the passive voice

• For an occasional change of pace
• For the sake of focus
• Tip Using active voice tends to reduce wordiness.

22
8a-7 Use an appropriate point of view

• In the past, most instructors insisted that
  research papers be written only from the
  third-person point of view, and keep the writing
  objective.

23

• Today many prestigious journals have relaxed
  their rules. Authors routinely use the I or
  we point of view to report research data or
  draw attention to their findings.

24
Whats first-person point of view and
third-person point of view?

• First point of view use I, we, and my
  those kind of words in your research paper.
• Ex. In my research I found that the most
  extreme negative criticism of Jefferson Davis
  places the full weight of the southern defeat on
  his head.

25

• Third-person point of view use kind of
  objective words in sentences.
• Ex. Research indicates that the most extreme
  negative criticism of Jefferson Davis places
  the full weight of the Southern defeat on his
  head.

26
Use first-person point of view re third-person
point of view?

• Ask you instructor
• Expressing your personal comment or judgment
  first-person

27
8a Aim for a readable style 8a-8 Avoid sexist
language

• In writing, watch for language that reflects the
  values and biases of a male-dominated society.
• ex. A doctor should always look after the
  best interest of his patients.
• his their

28
Use plural nouns and pronouns

• A doctor should always look after the best
  interest of his patients.
• their
• his or her
• A doctor should always look after the best
  interest of patients.

29
avoid the use of gender-biased words

• mankind, chairman, congressman, poetess, woman
  surgeon, actress.
• human or humankind, chair, member of congress,
  poet, surgeon ,or actor.

30
thon- sort for that one

• use in place of he or him when the persons
  gender is not identified.
• Example
• when a police officer comes, I will ask him.
• when a police officer comes, I will ask thon.

31
Use passive voice

• Original passage
• As soon as the doctor arrives, the nurse will
  notify him.
• passive voice
• Upon arrival, the doctor will be notified by the
  nurse.

32
8b - Make your introduction clear

• Clearly explain what your paper
  proposes to argue, assert, or do.

33
8b-1 Strategies for lively introductions

• A. Use a quotation
• B. Ask a question
• C. Present an illustration

34
a. Use a quotation

• Help readers to plunge into the topic.
• Applicable to the topic
• Ex. "Liberty means responsibility. That is
• why most men dread it."  
• (George Bernard Shaw)

35
b. Ask a question

• Attract your reader into your topic.
• Ex. Would you have more children
• because of the welfare?

36
c. Present an illustration

• Use anecdotes or examples to let your readers
  willing to read your paper.
• Arouse readers desire of reading.
• Ex. P.150

37
8c. Write an effective conclusion

• 1. Summarize your main point
• 2. Suggest what the reader should do
• 3. End rather than stop

38
8c-1 Summarize your main points

• Review the major ideas in your paper
• Avoid more explanation, last- minute asides, and
  detail analysis

39
8c-2 Suggest what the reader should do

• Ex. We have to educate our younger because when
  we put the idea of how to help the environment,
  when they grow up, they will have a different
  thinking. We need to put three ideas in our mind,
  reuse, reduce and recycle. As we have these three
  ideas in mind, we can do a lot more to help our
  environment.

40
8c-3 End rather than stop

• To stop is simply to place a period at the end of
  your paper
• Ex. So, as you have read in this paper, the
  television footage of combat was simply
  inadequate.
• Revise. Because time constraints allowed only a
  tiny part of the action associates with combat in
  Vietnam to be aired on television because the
  mechanics of television reporting (need for
  camera, sound equipment, film) handicapped field
  reporting and because Americans refused to watch
  scenes depicting battlefield suffering, what
  Americans saw on television during the Vietnam
  War was cinema, not reality.