Gathering Data and Writing Summary Notes

When reading papers written by other authors on the subject that is of interest to you, you must write summary notes. There are two kinds of summary notes.

A summary condenses into a brief note the key ideas of a source. It is a concise description of the material without a lot of concern for details. Summary notes are very helpful when you deal with references to source materials, statistical data and all kinds of facts on your spe­cific topic.

A precis is a polished summary that in a few words expresses the key ideas of an entire paragraph, section, or chapter. Writing a precis proves to be very helpful when you review an article, a book or produce an abstract. To produce a precis, condense the original piece of writing, reducing a paragraph into a sentence, an article into a brief paragraph, a book into a page. Preserve the tone and moods of the original (serious, skeptic, doubtful, etc.), do not take material out of context. Always locate the source of your material.

TASK: Do you ever write summary notes? If not, are you going to start? Write a precis of a paper using the instructions given above.

 

Organizing Ideas

Most papers in various scientific disciplines have a similar organi­zation pattern – Introduction, Body and Conclusion (especially papers on theoretical issues). Research papers based on experiments would include Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion/Conclusions.

When you write a research paper observe the following instructions:

Introduction: identify the subject of your research and narrow it to a specific topic, provide background information, state the problem and the hypothesis of research, provide theoretical basics of the study, formulate the thesis statement/sentence.

Method: describe the subjects/participants of your study, the ap­paratus and equipment used, the procedure followed.

Results: report on your findings, support them with statistical data, diagrams, graphs, tables and figures, etc., note whether your findings are consistent with the advanced hypothesis.

Discussion/Conclusions: evaluate and interpret the results obtained, make inferences from the results, discuss the implications of your findings. You can end your paper with some reflections about the topic discussed, some suggestions for further research.

TASK: When you start writing a paper, will you follow the instruc­tions given above? Will you eliminate or add new elements? Have you consulted your thesis supervisor on this issue? If not, are you going to discuss it with him/her?

 

Writing the Paper: Structure, Linguistics and Style

A research paper has physical and structural characteristics.

The physical characteristics consist of the title, the introduction, the main body parts and the conclusion, which you write in indented paragraphs.

THE TITLE

 

When you start reading a research paper, its title is perhaps the most important part, because the key words in the title help you make a decision whether the paper is of interest for you or not. Thus the title should not be very long and general, but rather specific.

To achieve this effect you can first name the general subject followed by a colon, and then:

• add the phrase that renames the subject

• add the phrase that describes the type of study

• add a sentence in a question form

The title should always be relevant to the problem studied, and fit the paper. It should provide code words which identify the main points of research.

TASK:Look through the journals on the subject of your research and find the titles of papers that fit the requirements dis­cussed above. Write down several titles for your paper, discuss them with your fellow-students and choose the best one.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

When you write the introduction, you begin with a broad statement relating to the subject of research and narrow it down to specifics, namely the thesis statement/sentence of the whole paper. It is usually a single declarative sentence, the assertion you make about the main points of your study. The thesis statement helps both the writer and the reader. For the writer, it provides a definite framework to follow in the rest of the paper. For the reader, it provides a guide for a clear understanding of what to expect from the rest of the paper. Express your thesis statement at the end of the introduction.

TASK: Think over and write a thesis sentence for your paper. Show it to your fellow-students. Let them figure out what the sub­ject and the reason for your research are.

 

BODY

 

The body of the paper should provide evidence in support of the thesis sentence, each paragraph explaining one and only one aspect of the thesis. Begin each paragraph with a statement of the key idea in one sentence, which is called the topic sentence, and explain or support it with details and evidence. There are several ways of supporting the key idea and developing paragraphs – by describing, classifying, providing statistical data and scientific evidence, analyzing causes and effects, com­paring and contrasting, etc. The strategies are determined by the point you want to make and the kind of information you have to work with.

 

CONCLUSION

 

The conclusion can be a summary of the introduction and the developmental paragraphs of the body parts, which is usually done from specific to general – this study to larger implications. But more im­portantly it should express your judgment on the research performed and the results obtained, explain the findings and/or make suggestions for further investigation.

***

Structurally, a paper should have unity and coherence. Unity gives the writing single vision, and coherence connects the parts. Your pa­per has unity when it talks about one topic, step by step exploring it in depth. Your paper is coherent if all its parts fit together, talk about the same topic, are connected logically and flow smoothly from one to the other. To obtain this effect use cohesive devices.

Cohesive devices help readers follow a writer's train of thought by connecting key words and phrases through a paper. Among such devices are pronoun references, same-word repetition, synonym repetition, sentence-structure repetition, collocations. Transition words serve as a bridge, connecting one paragraph with another. Transitions help

also, besides, furthermore, in addition – to add more thought;

first, next, finally, later, afterwards, in front, beyond, etc. - to ar­range ideas in order, time or space;

but, still, yet, however, on the other hand, nevertheless –to connect two contrasting ideas;

for example, in other words – to add an illustration or explanation;

in short, in brief, to sum up – to summarize several ideas.

TASK: Read the list of phrases and choose the most appropriate ones to write an introduction of your paper.

 

List of phrases used in writing the introduction:

1. To give the historical background of the investigation and to formulate the problem:

1. During the past decade there has been increasing research into....

2 In some theoretical studies....

3....were able to provide a fully generalized, compact simultaneous solution to....

4. In particular, they employed... for....

5.... is an important and common problem.

6. It has become a canonical problem in the study of..., providing a valuable test for simulation methods or theoretical models.

7. In the previous paper... we used a specific model for....

8. The paper examines a method for....

9. Earlier descriptions of the... assumed that....

10. However, detailed experimental studies of...indicate that....

11. The most rigorous treatments available are restricted to the....

12. Accordingly, we suggest that....

13. To date a number of different interpolation techniques have been used in....

14. In Section 2, the paper continues with a discussion of.... Section 3 overviews..., Section 4 then proposes... and this matter is discussed in Section 5. Finally, in Section 6 we discuss....

15. Several techniques have been used to investigate....

2. To make a brief review of related literature:

1. There is a wide body of literature which suggests that....

2... effects have received much attention.

3. There were the limited numbers of studies conducted on....

4. The listings of the program may be found in....

5. Examples are given in....

6. Extensive field studies were undertaken by the scientists at...

3. To justify the need for your investigation:

1. Thus heat transfer regime has received little attention....

2. It is therefore important to establish the....

3. Studies on the... process have been and still are of interest because of the....

4. In spite of significant recent advancement in the fundamental un­derstanding of... several important aspects of the... still remain controversial.

5....investigations have been proved very valuable in... but they do not give a complete picture of..., since they eliminate....

6. Most of the above investigations concentrated on the general ef­fects of... and did not look carefully at the…

7. There is still lack of knowledge of.... Much further research is needed to understand....

8. There is still no complete knowledge of....

9. There are still many gaps in our knowledge of the problems of....

10. We still know very little about the origin of....

4. To state the purpose of the research:

1. The objective of this study is....

2....is the primary purpose of the paper.

3. The aim of this paper is to investigate the....

List of phrases used in writingthe body of the paper:

 

Methods and Techniques

1. The experiments were performed at....

2. The experimental set-up included....

3. Two array configurations were used.

4. The measurements... were conducted using....

5. The main experimental configuration is presented in Fig. 1.

6. The simulation starts with....

7. The instrumentation and general arrangements were those de­scribed previously....

8. All the experiments were carried out using a...

9. A standard two-compartment electrochemical cell with a volume of 50 ml was used to....

10. The velocity distribution in the... is obtained numerically using the finite element method.

11. The experimental work roll is fitted with an array of..., as shown schematically in Fig.

12. The equation governing the direct problem is obtained by....

13. The direct problem is solved using... method.

14. The following procedure is used to determine....

15. Fig. 3 summarizes the direct model and inverse approach.

16. At any given time... the inverse algorithm determines....

17....was verified by measuring the... at various axial locations.

18. The device was similar in concept to that described by...

19. The probe itself consisted of...

20....was recorded by the computer for a set sampling rate and time.

21. The outside diameter of the tube is taken to be...

22....under steady state conditions.

Results

 

1. The results of... numerical calculations are shown in....

2. Results indicated that....

3. A schematic diagram of the system is shown in Fig. 1.

4. Charts / Tables / Figures show....

5. From the graph it can be seen that there is good agreement between experiment and theory for....

6. The data cover a wide range of... dimensions and operating conditions.

7. When the same data in Fig....were compared to....

8. As shown in Fig., the discrepancy between equation and the data is as much as....

9. The present correlation is in good agreement with most data.

10. We can make several observations.

11. Prior to applying the inverse procedure to experimental results....

12. Two observations can be made from these plots.

13. Fig. 6 shows a scatter plot of....

14. Table 4 summarizes the results....

15. Results of the... are presented in....

16. As expected, the... errors decrease with... more rapidly.

17. The fact that the... errors are larger than the... errors suggest one of two things....

18. Similar observations can be made about the behavior of the mean errors.

18. In general, there is no significant qualitative difference between the... and... cases.

19. The data are plotted in logarithmic form, for ease of comparison with... paper.

20. From Fig. 10 it is estimated that....

21. On the basis of these results it can be observed that....

 

* * *

To describe results use tentative verbs and modals:

It appears / seems / is likely / that.... These results suggest.... It is possible that....

Use past tense.

 

TASK 1: How long did it take you to write the body of your paper? What was the most difficult thing about it?

TASK 2: Read the list of phrases and choose the most appropriate ones to finish your paper.

 

List of phrases used in writing the discussion/conclusion:

1. This research has attempted to....

2. The original assumption was that....

3. The findings of... suggest that... is appropriate to....

4. Analogous results hold for....

5. One reason could be that....

6. These results could be explained by assuming that....

7. It is unlikely that....

8. These findings suggest / imply / provide evidence that....

9. Detailed understanding of... is still lacking....

10. The method becomes even more efficient for the... case.

11. From a computational viewpoint....

12. More significant though is the relative ease of implementing the... model involving....

13. In this context, these results are the same as those obtained from the... method.

14. The methods described here have more general application...

15. It was observed that... does not have a significant effect on the performance of the... equations.

16. The principal results and findings are as follows....

17. Analyses of experimental data obtained during... demonstrate that the inverse procedure is capable of accurately predicting measured... over significant periods of time.

18. The results from... were compared with results from....

19. The model will be useful in the analysis of... processes.

20. A significant advantage of this theory is that....

21. It should be noted that the results recorded here are very prelimi­nary.

22. Finally, an important conclusion follows from....

23. It is a logical consequence of the fact that

24. It would be interesting to...

25. Much further research is needed in the area of....

Unit VII

GRAMMAR REVISION

PARTS OF SPEECH

Части речи

Все слова, входящие в язык, делятся на разряды, называемые частями речи.

Различаются следующие части речи:

 

1. Имя существительное (noun, п)

2. Имя прилагательное (adjective, а)

3. Имя числительное (numeral, пит)

4. Местоимение (pronoun, pron)

5. Глагол (verb, v)

6. Наречие (adverb, adv)

7. Предлог (preposition, prep)

8. Союз (conjunction, cj)

9. Междометие (interjection, interj)

 

1. Именем существительным называется часть речи, которая обозначает предмет. Предметом в грамматике называют все то, о чем можно спросить: кто это? или что это?

Например: Кто это? – a doctor, a man, a boy

Что это? – a house, freedom, childhood и т.д.

Имена существительные имеют два артикля:

a (an) – неопределенный (a room, an exercise) и the – определенный (the room, the exercise).

Имена существительные имеют два числа: единственное – а child, a table и множественное –children, tables.

Имена существительные имеют два падежа: общий – my sister и притяжательный – mу sister's. Причем, как правило, притяжательный падеж имеют одушевленные существительные.

Род существительного в английском языке определяется значением слова. Например: a man (мужчина) – he – мужской род, а woman (женщина) – she – женский род. Имена существительные, обозначающие неодушевленные предметы, относятся к среднему роду, a chair стул, snow снег, a telegram телеграмма, a village деревня-it.

 

2. Именем прилагательным называется часть речи, которая обозначает признак предмета и отвечает на вопрос: какой?

Например:
red, interesting, Russian и т.д.

Имена прилагательные в английском языке не изменяются ни по родам, ни по числам, ни по падежам. Например: a good school, good schools, to the good school.

Имена прилагательные имеют три степени сравнения: положительную –long, interesting, сравнительную –longer, more interesting, превосходную -the longest, the most interesting.

 

3. Именем числительным называется часть речи, которая обозначает количество или порядок предметов при счете. Имена числительные делятся на количественные и порядковые.

Количественные числительные обозначают количество предметов и отвечают на вопрос: сколько? Например: one, two, twenty-five и т.д.

Порядковые числительные обозначают порядок предметов при счете и отвечают на вопрос: который? Например: (the) first, (the) second, (the) twenty-fifth и т.д.

 

4. Местоимением называется часть речи, которая употребляется вместо имени существительного или прилагательного.

Некоторые местоимения имеют отдельные формы для единственного и множественного числа. Например: this этот (ед. число) –these эти (мн. число), that тот – those те.

Одни местоимения имеют формы общего и притяжательного падежей, например: somebody (общий падеж), somebody's (притяжательный); другие имеют формы именительного и объектного падежей, например: I, who (именительный падеж) - me, who: (объектный падеж.).

5. Глаголом называется часть речи, которая обозначает действие или состояние, представленное в виде действия.

We study English. – Мы изучаем английский.

Глагол отвечает на вопросы: что делает лицо (предмет)? или что делается с лицом (предметом)?

 

Формы глагола делятся на личные и неличные. Личные формы глагола выражают лицо, число, наклонение, время, залог. К личным формам относятся формы глагола в трех лицах единственного и множественного числа в настоящем, прошедшем или будущем времени действительного или страдательного залога:

Не lives in Moscow. – Он живет в Москве, (lives – 3 лицо ед. числа, настоящее время, действительный залог)

They were invited to Novgorod. – Их пригласили в Новгород, (were invited – 3 лицо мн. числа, прошедшее время, страдательный залог)

Неличные формы глагола – инфинитив, или неопределенная форма (the Infinitive), герундий (the Gerund) и причастие (the Participle) – выражают действие без указания лица, числа и наклонения.

 

Три основные формы глагола

Глаголы в английском языке имеют три основных формы:

1. инфинитив (неопределенная форма)

2. прошедшее время (Past Simple)

3. причастие прошедшего времени (Past Participle) or Participle II.

 

Эти формы служат основой для образования сложных времен действительного и страдательного залога.

 

I форма глагола	II форма глагола	III форма глагола
Infinitive	Past Simple	Past Participle
go break ask work	went broke asked worked	gone broken asked worked

 

6. Наречием называется часть речи, указывающая на признак действия или на различные обстоятельства, при которых протекает действие (как, где, когда и т.д.):

She walked slowly. – Она шла медленно.

 

Существительное, прилагательное, числительное, местоимение, глагол и наречие являются самостоятельными частями речи. Они обозначают предметы, их качества, действия и т.п. и являются членами предложения.

Предлоги и союзы являются служебными частями речи. Они показывают различные отношения между членами предложения или предложениями.

 

PARTS OF SENTENCE

ЧЛЕНЫ ПРЕДЛОЖЕНИЯ

Предложением называется сочетание слов, выражающее законченную мысль:

 

The car stopped at the gate. – Машина остановилась у ворот.

 

Слова, входящие в состав предложения и отвечающие на какой-нибудь вопрос, называются членами предложения. Члены предложения делятся на главные и второстепенные.

Главные члены предложения: подлежащее и сказуемое; второстепенные члены предложения: дополнение, определение и обстоятельства.

Подлежащим называется член предложения, обозначающий предмет или лицо, о котором что-либо говорится в предложении. Оно отвечает на вопрос кто? или что?