Research: B2+. Anneli Williams

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ phrase A noun phrase is a noun or pronoun, or a group of words based on a noun or pronoun.

      and less likely to:

      

make claims that are not backed up by evidence

      

make exaggerated claims or categorical statements, that is statements that do not have exceptions (for example ‘everyone likes to have fun’)

      

refer to other authors by their full names or first names, or use titles such as ‘Dr’ or ‘Mrs’

      

use emotive words, for example ‘fantastic’, ‘dreadful’

      

use personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘you’

      

use slang or informal expressions

      

use contractions such as ‘isn’t’ or ‘won’t’

      

begin sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but’

      

use certain punctuation marks such as the dash (-) or the exclamation mark (!).

      

Exercise 5

      Look again at the text in Exercise 4 and identify the features that make it relatively informal in style.

      1 What personal pronouns does the writer use?

      2 How does the writer refer to other researchers?

      3 What forms of punctuation are there that do not normally appear in more formal texts?

      4 What contractions does the writer use?

      5 Which words have been abbreviated?

      6 Does the writer use any vague or imprecise expressions? If so, what are they?

      7 Does the writer use language that is informal or emotive? If so, what examples can you fi nd?

      8 What categorical expression does the writer use?

      Now compare it with the text below, which has been written in a more academic style.

      Altruistic behaviour, that is the offer of assistance to others without the motive of personal gain, is often said to be a characteristically human trait (Carter, 1989; Ericson, 1994). Moreover, it is commonly assumed that children learn to behave altruistically from their parents (Carter, 2004). However, the fi ndings of recent studies of chimpanzee behaviour suggest that altruism may be more instinctive than previously thought. Warneken and Tomasello (2006), for example, have documented numerous instances of chimpanzees assisting other chimpanzees to locate a food source without the expectation of a reward.

       Choosing relevant materials

      The availability of so much information also means that it is important to learn how to quickly identify whether a text is relevant to your research topic. Titles of academic texts are often very descriptive of their contents, so that is a good place to start. For example, the article from Exercise 3 entitled ‘Is altruism a genetic trait?’ is based on a research article which has the longer more descriptive title: ‘Altruistic Helping in Human Infants and Young Chimpanzees’.

      

Exercise 6

      Imagine you are looking for information to answer the essay question Assess the European Central Bank’s response to the 2008 global financial crisis. Your key word search has returned the following items. Which items do you think are relevant? Which are not? Why not?

      Remember to look carefully at the essay question to identify the focus of your research. Notice how the instructions set the limits of your investigation in terms of

      

place

      

time

      

aspect of the topic to be discussed

      1 International financial crises: causes, prevention, and cures

      L.H. (2000) The American Economic Review, 2000 – JSTOR

      2 The aftermath of financial crises

      Reinhart, C.M. & Rogoff, K.S. - 2009 - nber.org

      3 Structural causes of the global financial crisis: a critical assessment of the ‘new financial architecture’

      Crotty, I (2009) Cambridge Journal of Economics. CPES

      4 The regulatory response to the financial crisis

      Goodhart, C.A.E (2008) Journal of Financial Stability. Elsevier

      5 [BOOK] Naudé, W.A. (2009) The financial crisis of 2008 and the developing countries - econ.tu.ac.th

       Using abstracts to choose relevant articles

      Most databases will supply the abstract of articles as well as bibliographic information. Reading abstracts is a very useful way of determining whether an article is relevant to your topic.

      

Exercise 7

      Imagine that you have been asked to research the impact of social networking sites on the psychological health of young people between the ages of 12 and 16. Is the abstract below a useful source of information? Why or why not?

      Facebook, as one of the most popular social networking sites among college students, provides a platform for people to manage others’ impressions of them. People tend to present themselves in a favorable way on their Facebook profile. This research examines the impact of using Facebook on people’s perceptions СКАЧАТЬ