scholarly journals Expressing Lesser Relevance in Academic Conference Presentations

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-146
Author(s):  
Diana Yankova ◽  
Irena Vassileva
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Under Five ◽  
Academic Conference ◽  
Conference Presentations ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
Ultimate Objective ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds ◽  
The Way

While marking importance and relevance in academic discourse has been a widely researched topic, markers of lesser significance have so far been understudied. The article therefore focuses on some of the discoursal means of expressing lesser importance in conference presentations. The corpus of the study comprises recordings of 20 presentations in English at international linguistics conferences by speakers of various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The methodology follows Deroey and Taverniers’s (2012) study of lecture discourse, whereby depending on the way lesser importance is expressed, the markers are grouped under five categories. Their methodology is checked against the data provided by the transcriptions of the conference recordings to ascertain the extent to which it is applicable to other spoken academic genres. The ultimate objective is to provide steppingstones for interpreting information and distinguishing between what is important and relevant and less so in conference presentations, as well as for the identification of presenters’ motivation for employing this type of metadiscourse.

Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Scientific Writing ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Senior Scientist ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Conference Presentations ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The Way

Telling people about research is just as important as doing it. But many researchers, who, in all other respects, are competent scientists, are afraid of writing. They are wary of the unwritten rules, the unspoken dogma and the inexplicably complex style, all of which seem to pervade conventional thinking about scientific writing. This book has been written to expose these phantoms as largely smoke and mirrors, and replace them with principles that make communicating research easier and encourage researchers to write confidently. It presents a way of thinking about writing that emulates the way good scientists think about research. It concentrates on the structure of articles, rather than simply on grammar and syntax. So, it is an ideal reference for researchers preparing articles for scientific journals, posters, conference presentations, reviews and popular articles; for students preparing theses; and for researchers whose first language is not English. Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words expounds principles that produce scientific articles in a wide range of disciplines that are focussed, concise and, best of all, easy to write and read. As one senior scientist observed, ‘This book not only made me a better writer; it made me a better scientist’.

The Establishment of the Virtual Performance Space in Rock

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALLAN F. MOORE ◽  
RUTH DOCKWRAY
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Sound Sources ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Performance Space ◽  
Temporal Continuity ◽  
Music Recordings ◽  
Geographical Locations ◽  
The Way

AbstractAnalysis of the spatial elements of popular music recordings can be made by way of the ‘sound-box’, a concept that acknowledges the way sound sources are perceived to exist in four dimensions: laterality, register, prominence, and temporal continuity. By late 1972 producers working across a range of styles and in different geographical locations had adopted a normative positioning of sound sources across these dimensions. In 1965 no such norm existed. This article contextualizes the notion of the sound-box within academic discourse on popular music and explores the methodology employed by a research project that addressed the gradual coming-into-existence of the norm, which the project defined as the diagonal mix. A taxonomy of types of mix is offered, and a chronology of the adoption of the diagonal mix in rock is presented.

scholarly journals Discipline, Level, Genre: Integrating Situational Perspectives in a New MD Analysis of University Student Writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 646-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheena Gardner ◽  
Hilary Nesi ◽  
Douglas Biber
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discourse ◽  
University Student ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Situational Variables ◽  
Procedural Information ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Academic Genres

Abstract While there have been many investigations of academic genres, and of the linguistic features of academic discourse, few studies have explored how these interact across a range of university student writing situations. To counter misconceptions that have arisen regarding student writing, this article aims to provide comprehensive linguistic descriptions of a wide range of university assignment genres in relation to multiple situational variables. Our new multidimensional (MD) analysis of the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus identifies clusters of linguistic features along four dimensions, onto which academic disciplines, disciplinary groups, levels of study, and genre families are mapped. The dimensions are interpreted through text extracts as: (i) Compressed Procedural Information versus Stance towards the Work of Others; (ii) Personal Stance; (iii) Possible Events versus Completed Events; and (iv) Informational Density. Clusters of linguistic features from the comprehensive set of situational perspectives found across this framework can be selected to inform the teaching of a ‘common academic core’, and to inform the design of programmes tailored to the needs of specific disciplines.

scholarly journals Collaborative teaching and learning of interactive multimodal spoken academic genres for doctoral students

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-82
Author(s):  
Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez ◽  
Mercedes Querol-Julián
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Education System ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Collaborative Teaching ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Discussion Session ◽  
Learning Stage ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
Doctoral Programmes ◽  
Teaching Learning

The last teaching-learning stage in the education system is the doctoral programmes, which turn graduatestudents into researchers. This evolution involves writing a dissertation, but also being able to discuss research.However, training on spoken genres has not received much attention, and the interest has been mainly onmonologic prepared speeches. This paper focuses on a genre of interactive speech, the discussion session (DS)that follows the paper presentation, which is particularly challenging for novice researchers. We present alearner-led pedagogy for the teaching-learning of this genre that fosters thinking-based learning and multimodal awareness. It was implemented in a course of academic discourse for doctoral students in order to prove its effectiveness. We propose a process of active and collaborative deconstruction and construction of DSs to identify verbal and non-verbal resources and their interpersonal functions, so that novel researchers reflect on and integrate them in their repertoire.

Caste Patriarchy and the Dehumanization of Dalit Women in Indian Society: Phoole–Ambedkarite Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 2455328X2110393
Author(s):  
Nibedita Priyadarsini ◽  
Satya Swaroop Panda
Keyword(s):  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Dalit Women ◽  
The Way

Indian society is entrenched in graded inequality with the continuity of Brahminical order among the Hindu caste. The Ambedkarite perspective of graded inequality paves the way towards the possibility of a critical examination of the discourse based on a prospective theorization of the caste patriarchy having its epistemological origin in the ideas propounded by Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole and Dr B. R. Ambedkar. The article seeks to explore the potential of such a theorization emerging from the predominant practices in Indian caste society that are pervasive across the communities with respect to the dehumanization of Dalit women in their everyday life. The article also focuses upon the strength of such a stand-point which would not only form the basis of an alternate academic discourse but also contribute towards the agenda of Dalit women collective in envisaging their role in terms of self-identity embedded with critical consciousness. The multiplicity of vulnerabilities of being a Dalit and a woman reflects the way the Dalit women get dehumanized in a number of cases, and they are often considered a gateway to the caste system. There is an emerging need of such theorization based on experiential learning along with the realization of its importance in defining the base of a radical sociopolitical alternative championing the ideological principles of a Phoole–Ambedkarite perspective.

scholarly journals Genres apart: School and university writing

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Hie Ting
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
University Students ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Writing Students ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Academic Genres

This study examined the types of writing emphasised in secondary school and university. The specific aspects studied were the genres that students write best, genres frequently written in school, and genres frequently required in written coursework assignments in university. The data on school writing were obtained from questionnaires distributed to 235 students enrolled in English courses in two Malaysian universities whereas the data on university coursework assignments were obtained through interviews with lecturers in the two universities. The results showed that there is a mismatch between types of writing emphasised in school and university. Students frequently write recount and discussion in school but university coursework frequently requires assignments to be written in the form of research articles and explanations. In view of the different emphases in school and university writing, students entering university have difficulty coping with academic discourse. The findings suggest that it is beneficial to sensitise university students to textual conventions of commonly used academic genres at university to speed up their learning of academic discourse.

Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Scientific Writing ◽  
Scientific Thinking ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Popular Book ◽  
Grant Applications ◽  
Conference Presentations ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The Prestige ◽  
The Way

Telling people about research is just as important as doing it. But many competent researchers are wary of scientific writing, despite its importance for sharpening scientific thinking, advancing their career, obtaining funding for their work and growing the prestige of their institution. This second edition of David Lindsay’s popular book Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words presents a way of thinking about writing that builds on the way good scientists think about research. The simple principles in this book will help you to clarify the objectives of your work and present your results with impact. Fully updated throughout, with practical examples of good and bad writing, an expanded chapter on writing for non-scientists and a new chapter on writing grant applications, this book makes communicating research easier and encourages researchers to write confidently. It is an ideal reference for researchers preparing journal articles, posters, conference presentations, reviews and popular articles; for students preparing theses; and for researchers whose first language is not English.

scholarly journals “Fanaticism” and the Politics of Resistance along the North-West Frontier of British India

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 717-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Condos
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discourse ◽  
British India ◽  
North West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Religious Extremism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Politics Of Resistance ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
The Way

AbstractDuring the past decade, discussions of religious extremism and “fanatical” violence have come to dominate both public and academic discourse. Yet, rarely do these debates engage with the historical and discursive origins of the term “fanatic.” As a result, many of these discussions tend to reproduce uncritically the same Orientalist tropes and stereotypes that have historically shaped the way “fanaticism” and “fanatical” violence have been framed and understood. This paper seeks to provide a corrective to this often problematic and flawed understanding of the history of “fanaticism.” It approaches these topics through an examination of how British colonial authorities conceived of and responded to the problem of “murderous,” “fanatical,” and “ghazi” “outrages” along the North-West Frontier of India. By unpacking the various religious, cultural, and psychiatric explanations underpinning British understandings of these phenomena, I explore how these discourses interacted to create the powerful legal and discursive category of the “fanatic.” I show how this was perceived as an existentially threatening class of criminal that existed entirely outside the bounds of politics, society, and sanity, and therefore needed to be destroyed completely. The subjectification of the “fanatic,” in this case, ultimately served as a way of activating the colonial state's “sovereign” need to punish and kill. Finally, I deconstruct these reductive colonial representations of fanaticism in order to demonstrate how, despite British views to the contrary, these were often complex and deeply political acts of anti-colonial resistance.

Different ways to express personal attitudes in Spanish and English engineering papers: An analysis of metadiscourse devices, affective evaluation and sentiment analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-67
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Carrió-Pastor
Keyword(s):  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Industrial Engineering ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Engineering Research ◽  
Affective Evaluation ◽  
Personal Attitudes ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
The Way

Abstract The hypothesis of this paper is that writers with similar academic backgrounds express personal attitudes in English and in Spanish differently in research papers. Thus, the main objectives are, first, to study the differences in the use of attitude devices in Spanish and English academic discourse; second, to compare the results in the different sections of articles; and finally to study the positive or negative semantic implications of the lexical items by carrying out a sentiment analysis. To this end, fifteen Spanish industrial engineering papers were compared with fifteen English industrial engineering papers. The results showed that there are in fact differences in the way academic writers communicate attitude, but the sentiment analysis revealed that neutral lexical items were the most commonly used in engineering research papers. Even though engineering researchers share the knowledge of the specialist content and the academic style of expressing their thoughts, personal attitudes were expressed in different ways in Spanish and in English.

scholarly journals Humour in Professional Academic Writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-54
Author(s):  
Krystyna Warchał
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Academic Genres ◽  
Academic Communication

Professional written academic genres are not typical sites of humour, especially in their final, published forms. In this paper, I argue that academic discourse as construed today not only does not preclude humour in written research genres but – in some text segments or in response to specific communicative needs – is perfectly compatible with it. In particular, I focus on these occurrences which engage the reader and contribute to the writer-reader rapport: humorous titles, humorous comments or asides, personal stories, and literary anecdotes. I also suggest that making university ESL/EFL students aware of the fact that “serious” writing tasks do offer some room for humour may draw their attention to the human face of academic writing, that is to the interactive, dialogic, and personal aspects of written academic communication.

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