Literary Usage in Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie Essay

Throughout Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie provides a fundamental, yet intricate variety of literary usage. These instances of literary usage provide and framework of support for the text which is to follow and to further accentuate the smaller and unnoticeable details of the story in to vital parts which are necessary for better comprehension and understanding of the meaning of the upcoming events. Symbolism is the most commonly used and most imperative literary device used by Rushdie. 'With the land of Chup, on the dark side of Kahani?This looks like the doing of the leader of the Chupwalas, the Cult master of Bezaban.'(H.S.S. Pg 75) This statement from the text has a very symbolic meaning behind it, both in terms of the society featured in the book and of reality during the time, the book was written. This statement is symbolic in the respect that it is a statement, which confirms the presence of the antagonist and the force that is being opposed. The story states that Haroun has traveled to a world in a seemingly other dimension, known as Kahani where there are a people known as the Guppees, from the land of Gup who are very talkative and have a great amount of passion toward speech and words. However, the Chupwalas in the land of Chup are a people who live completely in the darkness, and do not speak as often or at all. It is symbolized as a gloomy place where sadness dwells in the hearts of every citizen. The leader of the Chupwalas, is symbolized as the ?evil? character or antagonist in the book and he is the reason which the protagonist of the story, Haroun, and the Gup, who are symbolized as ?good?, must fight back the evil of the cult master. The presence of a dark side of Gup itself is symbolic by itse... ...ard the other through misinformation or no information at all. This is also same within a single society. A person may put up mental barriers against other people or information on others, and they may judge others even though they have never met or even seen them before. In the book thus far, this metaphorical concept of a wall, has been the single reason for war between the Chup and the Gup. If they had not created this both mental and physical barrier between each other, cultural diffusion would have solved the problem of understanding whom each of the society?s are and how they function. It would have also given both societies a chance to gain a better understanding of the customs of the other side of Kahani, therefore creating more tolerance toward each other. Rushdie, Salman. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Delhi: Penguin, 1990. Second paperback edition 1996.

The Theme Of Death In Mid-Term Break And The Early Purges Essay

The Theme Of Death In Mid-Term Break And The Early Purges The Irish poet Seamus Heaney is renowned for evoking his very personal experiences and feelings throughout his poetry. He frequently calls upon those experiences from his childhood to support his adult feelings over given topics and circumstances. The two poems Mid-Term Break and Early Purges both present two very personal experiences of Heaney's surrounding his juvenile experiences of death. Both poems combine a variation of techniques in miscellaneous manners to present such views. Mid-Term Break concerns itself with Heaney's remorse and suffering over his brother, an unjustified death over which he had no control. Early Purges, alternatively, concerns itself with an inability of Heaney to use such command to prevent an unnecessary death. The titles of both poems are very symbolical to what the poem is all about. 'Mid-Term Break' The word 'break' implies Heaney's break from school, and also the break in his brother's life. 'The Early Purges' The word 'Purge' means to empty, cleanse, purify, and getting rid of unpleasant things (in this poem, the unpleasant things are the kittens). Heaney's use of assonance in the opening lines of Mid-Term Break echoes the ominous noises around him. "Counting bells knelling to a close" The use of the word "knelling" advocates an immediate sense that something is wrong, since a knell is the bell rung at funerals. The repetition of the "ell" sound is almost as if the bells are chiming out. In Early Purges, however, Heaney focuses especially on using alliteration to indicate the atmosphere around him.... ...poem. Heaney finds it difficult to cope with such a loss so young, and thus detaches himself to make things easier. By contrast, in Early Purges, Heaney's attitude changes through the poem, losing his innocence verse by verse. In the final stanza's this is shown. "It makes sense:" Why does it? It is as if Heaney has been conditioned to accept death of 'pests'. The end of the poem is also very effective. Heaney shows contrast between urban and rural views of death. 'Purging' is justified as the animals are referred to as 'pests'. In both poems, Heaney loses something very intimate to him. In Mid-Term Break, Heaney loses his younger brother, in the same way as in Early Purges, he loses his innocence. Mid-Term break is a very emotional and depressing poem whereas Early Purges is very cruel and harsh.

Understanding the Holocaust through Art Spiegelmans Maus Essay

The experience of being in the Holocaust is hard to imagine. The physical pain and fear that a survivor of the Holocaust felt could never fully be understood by anyone other than a fellow survivor. The children of survivors may not feel the physical pain and agony as their parents did, but they do feel the psychological effects. For this reason Artie and his father could never connect. The Holocaust built a wall between them that was hard to climb. Artie makes an attempt to overcome the wall between him and his father by writing the comic Maus about his father’s life in hopes to grow closer to him and understand him better, yet he struggles in looking past his father’s picky habits and hypocritical attitude. Artie’s father, Valdek, as he knew him growing up was stingy. He was stingy with money, food, matches, and even toothpicks. All the food on his plate had to be eaten, or it would be served to him the next night and the night after that until it was gone. Valdek’s obsessive behavior about not wasting anything aggravated Artie to no end. "He grabs paper towels from restrooms so he won’t have to buy napkins or tissues," vented Artie to his stepmother. Once Artie used an extra match and Valdek yelled at him for his wastefulness. His life could never compare to how hard Valdek’s was, and this bothered Artie. At the very opening of the story, Artie cries because his friends leave him when he falls off his skates and his father tells him that, "If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week then you could see what it is, friends!" All things relate to the Holocaust for Valdek and this makes Artie feel guilty for not having such a hard life and fo r that feeling of guilt Artie becomes angry and distances himself fr... ...in his life still plagued him. As a result he wrote Maus. It not only allowed him to enter into his father’s world, but also gave him an objective view of his relationship with his father. He spent many afternoons with his father in his pursuit of understanding. He became aware of the events in his father’s past, but still could not comprehend why his father could not put it behind him. He could not understand why other survivors of the Holocaust could move on, but his father could not. Artie is overwhelmed by the events of his life. He is dealing with the death of his mother, and a father who can’t let go of the past. He longs to understand the world of his father and talk to him once without arguing, but the walls have been built up too high that even after his father’s death, although more enlightened, he is just as confused as to who his father was.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

John McPherson, which resulted in his wife getting out of bed and unfortunately causing her death. The next day at school, Mr. John McPherson shows up under the influence of alcohol, completely drunk and starts to insult the Jews and making extremely racist comments. This is Just a small example of Anti-Semitism during Duddys childhood. Another idea I found important in the text was selfishness as well as ambition and greed. Even though Duddy was making more money than a 17 year old should, he always wanted more.Nothing was more important to him than making money. When he heard that the last piece of land in Lac St. Pierre was up for sale, he took all the money he had, but still came up short. Duddy decides to forge a cheque from Virgil's chequebook. Virgil was a man who Duddy met in New York and helped him make money illegally by smuggling pinball machines. After Virgil and Yvette found out about what Duddy had done to them, they never spoke to him again. Discuss the author's style. Describe 2 iterary elements the author uses successfully and give a clear example of each. The author used a few techniques to deepen our understanding of the story. One of the techniques was using a teenager as the main character of the novel. I think this showed us the ambition of the young man because all teenagers want to make money and dream about becoming rich one day, but it's not all 17 year olds that want it as bad as Duddy Kravitz. Another technique used by the author was making the main character a Jew.As we all know, Jews have a reputation for wanting money so ad and I think that the fact that Duddy is Jewish makes the whole story about a young man chasing money more meaningful. Did you enjoy the book? Why or why not? I enjoyed this novel a lot and recommend it to everyone living in Montreal and who likes a story that may have many things in common with their own personal lives. I think it is an important part of Montreal history in our generation. I also think it's good for Jewish people to read this novel because we also see how racism has stronger racism against Jews was in the 1940s

IT and HR Department Case Study and Analysis

Based on my observation security at Cenartech is high risk. I base this off of the security practices that are in place. What companies fail to realize is you can protect your network technically but you also have to protect the network physical. There are firewalls in place to protect the network from the outside but no policy to protect the network from the inside. â€Å"A security policy is a document that defines the scope of security needed by the organization and discusses the assets that need protection and the extent to which security solution should go to provide the necessary protection.†(Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p221)Although the company IT structure is solid, most of it was created by out consultants and the IT department did not have any leadership that was IT smart. The IT department was ran by the Director of Finance. Cenartech has already been establish for a few years before Brian the IT manager came on board. There was no Standard Operating Proce dures. â€Å"Procedures are the final element of the formalized security policy structure.† (Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p221)Within a year of being at the company he wrote a draft outlining duties and responsibilities for each staff member. Since his IT department was small he gave each staff member some security responsibilities. His staff members did not have any experience looking at security logs. Any time he had the chance he would train them. He knew the importance of looking at the logs regularly and maintaining Audit Trails. Audit trails are a set of records or events that record activity on a system. (White, 2003)As Brian was viewing the logs he found that there were repeated failed log-in attempts on a few different accounts, but not enough to cause a lockout. But there were too many to failed log-in attempts to just ignore. He also found out someone was attempting to access the accounts from other location within the engineering department. According to policy he had to report this to leadership in Human Recourses. The leadership was not technical and did not understand the issue and how server the problem was. Given what the case has presented the attacker wanted to gain access to the  network.After the presenting his case to HR leadership he decided to work on an IT project at the top of the list. He setup virtual private networks (VPN) for the sale staff to have remote access. A VPN is a communication tunnel that provides point-to-point transmission of both authentication and data traffic over an untrusted network. (Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p221) He setup the VPN on the financial network. Once the software was loaded on employee’s systems he started to monitor the security logs. He found more incoming connection then what he installed.â€Å"When he followed up on a few of the originating IP addresses in the security log, He found that a number of the connections originated from a local cable Internet Servi ce Provider (ISP)† (Whitman and Mattord, 2011, p. 27). The attacker was using shared accounts from employee in the company. When someone would leave they would pass the account down. Accounts were not being deleted or disable. Removing or disabling accounts should be a standard best practice for any system. Accounts need to be deleted as soon someone leaves.  (Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p231)Some of the things he could have done differently was to review his IT security policies from day one. The events that took place were events that were easy to miss. HR should have had a policy on how to handle terminated employees. There should be a lock out policy since the engineering employee was able to try many attempts on the account before it was locked out. The good lockout policy is three attempts then the user has to go through their IT department to get the account unlocked. A password policy should be implemented as well.At least 8 characters with a combination of lower case, upper case, one number, and one special character, this is DOD standard. If these were in place the attacker would not have been able to attack the network. The IT department needs to be trained to Monitor Security logs once a week. He would face a big challenge trying to recommend these changes to the Leadership. He try to explain this to the HR Director. â€Å"His explanation required substantial effort as Jim had minimal IT experience. † (Whitman and Mattord, 2011, p. 26). It took another incident for the HR Director to take him serious. IT and HR Department Case Study and Analysis Based on my observation security at Cenartech is high risk. I base this off of the security practices that are in place. What companies fail to realize is you can protect your network technically but you also have to protect the network physical. There are firewalls in place to protect the network from the outside but no policy to protect the network from the inside. â€Å"A security policy is a document that defines the scope of security needed by the organization and discusses the assets that need protection and the extent to which security solution should go to provide the necessary protection.†(Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p221)Although the company IT structure is solid, most of it was created by out consultants and the IT department did not have any leadership that was IT smart. The IT department was ran by the Director of Finance. Cenartech has already been establish for a few years before Brian the IT manager came on board. There was no Standard Operating Proce dures. â€Å"Procedures are the final element of the formalized security policy structure.† (Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p221) Within a year of being at the company he wrote a draft outlining duties and responsibilities for each staff member. Since his IT department was small he gave each staff member some security responsibilities. His staff members did not have any experience looking at security logs. Any time he had the chance he would train them. He knew the importance of looking at the logs regularly and maintaining Audit Trails. Audit trails are a set of records or events that record activity on a system. (White, 2003)As Brian was viewing the logs he found that there were repeated failed log-in attempts on a few different accounts, but not enough to cause a lockout. But there were too many to failed log-in attempts to just ignore. He also found out someone was attempting to access the accounts from other location within the engineering department. According to policy he had to report this to leadership in Human Recourses. The leadership was not technical and did not understand the issue and how server the problem was. Given what the case has presented the attacker wanted to gain access to thenetwork. After the presenting his case to HR leadership he decided to work on an IT project at the top of the list. He setup virtual private networks (VPN) for the sale staff to have remote access. A VPN is a communication tunnel that provides point-to-point transmission of both authentication and data traffic over an untrusted network. (Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p221) He setup the VPN on the financial network. Once the software was loaded on employee’s systems he started to monitor the security logs. He found more incoming connection then what he installed.â€Å"When he followed up on a few of the originating IP addresses in the security log, He found that a number of the connections originated from a local cable Internet Service Provider (ISP)† (Whitman and Mattord, 2011, p. 27). The attacker was using shared accounts from employee in the company. When someone would leave they would pass the account down. Accounts were not being deleted or disable. Removing or disabling accounts should be a standard best practice for any system. Accounts need to be deleted as soon someone leaves.(Stewart and Chapple and Gibson, 2012, p231) Some of the things he could have done differently was to review his IT security policies from day one. The events that took place were events that were easy to miss. HR should have had a policy on how to handle terminated employees. There should be a lock out policy since the engineering employee was able to try many attempts on the account before it was locked out. The good lockout policy is three attempts then the user has to go through their IT department to get the account unlocked. A password policy should be implemented as well.At least 8 characters with a combination of lowe r case, upper case, one number, and one special character, this is DOD standard. If these were in place the attacker would not have been able to attack the network. The IT department needs to be trained to Monitor Security logs once a week. He would face a big challenge trying to recommend these changes to the Leadership. He try to explain this to the HR Director. â€Å"His explanation required substantial effort as Jim had minimal IT experience. † (Whitman and Mattord, 2011, p. 26). It took another incident for the HR Director to take him serious.

A Case Study of Hong Kong’s Financial Crisis

The Asian Financial Crisis was a result of massive speculative attacks in the foreign exchange market on local currencies, specifically on East Asian currencies. The problem started with the devaluation of the Thai baht in 1997 which then spread to speculative attacks on other Asian currencies. This resulted in economic crises in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Korea, Singapore, China, and Hong Kong. (Kawai, 1998)The reasons for the spread of economic decline in the countries were easily traced and the resulting effects were similar although varying in the degree of intensity. A clear difference between Hong Kong and the other Asian countries affected by the 1997-1998 economic crisis, however, was in the way that Hong Kong handled the threat to its economy.Compared to the other Asian countries, Hong Kong was able to maintain its peg when the financial crisis first broke out. This was, however, maintained at a great cost. Monetary authorities of the country spent approximately US$ 1 billion in order to defend the currency. Although other countries also undertook mass efforts to defend their currencies, Hong Kong was the only one to be able to maintain its peg. This, however, was only short-term.The economic attack continued and Hong Kong found itself needing to increase its inflation rates. Other countries such as the Philippines resorted to this strategy as well in order. What made Hong Kong different in its strategy, however, was the government’s role reversal from being a passive regulator to an active market participant.The government ended up using approximately US$15 billion in buying shares, blue-chip shares, in various companies. This active intervention insured the relative stability of the Hong Kong market as compared to the other Asian markets during that time.2) Hedge funds, by their very nature, utilize opportunistic trading strategies on a leveraged basis. For a market with a limited liquidity, such as that of Hong Kong’s, a small g amble on the part of a large hedge fund could result in a large transaction that could have large-scale effects on the said market.For Hong Kong’s economy, there have been numerous instances wherein hedge funds have tried to exploit the local market. This is not to say, however, that Hong Kong has not put up a valiant effort to protect and maintain the stability of its vulnerable market – owing to its small size and low liquidity status.According to Kara Tan Bhala (1998), the mechanism employed by hedge funds to try and make money out of Hong Kong involves two steps. Initially, Hong Kong equities and stock-index futures are sold short by speculators.Next, the speculators resort to short-selling the Hong Kong dollar. Short-selling the dollar will force the Hong Kong Monetary Association to try to maintain the peg of the Hong Kong dollar to the US dollar. This would mean resorting to an increase in interest rates and to buying the local currency.Share prices on the stock market thus decrease in value. In these instances, it is clear that all that hedge funds aim to do are to gain profit for themselves rather than to contribute to the greater scheme of advancing Hong Kong’s economy. They gain profit first from the short selling of the equities and stock-index futures.They gain the difference from the higher priced short-selling of the instruments and the resulting lower cover prices. Hedge funds gain profit secondly from a probable depreciation in the Hong Kong dollar. Again, the difference between the short and cover prices. (Bhala, 1998)Although not all hedge funds are to be frowned upon, as the presence of hedge funds is not an absolute evil on the market, these instances serve as a warning to the fact that there are markets that can be put under great threat as a result of the presence of hedge funds.ReferencesKawai, M. (1998). The East Asian currency crisis: causes and lessons. Contemporary Economy Policy, 16, 157-172Bhala, K. T. (1998). In Praise of Intervention. Far Eastern Economic Review, 9

Elc1013 Unit 1

ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Unit 1 Achieving an Academic Writing Style Learning Outcomes By the end of this unit, you should be able to: †¢ †¢ use appropriate language to demonstrate academic style in writing express ideas and views in tentative rather than assertive language where appropriate Introduction This unit is divided into three sections providing reference and practice material on various aspects of academic writing style. Section 1 Features of academic writing style Section 2 Improving the style of your writing Section 3 Hedging in academic writingReferencing note: This unit uses IEEE referencing style for all in-text referencing. Pre-Unit 1 IndiWork Activities Go to eLearn (http://elearn. elc. polyu. edu. hk/) and complete the Pre-Unit 1 IndiWork Activities. IndiWork 1 Academic Style Go to eLearn and complete the What is Academic Style? Activity. Section 1 The features of academic writing style What do you think are the differences between the essays that you wrote at secondary school and the essays that you will need to write at university? Make sure you think about style* when considering these differences. Style often refers to level of formality. For example when writing to a friend you would use an informal style.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 1 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 1 Reading How do the language choices in this first essay draft below create a non-academic / inappropriate style? Read the passage and identify (highlight / circle) the style problems. Note down your ideas at the end of the passage. Be prepared to share your observations with the rest of the class.How often do PolyU students use English outside the classroom? Because many people think PolyU students don’t use English much outside of class, I wanted to find out the answer to this question so I decided to do a survey. I worked out a questionnaire and then handed it out to lots of students from eight 5 departments. The students filled in the questionnaire and then gave it back to me. I did the survey in April 2011. A total of 707 students took part in the survey, which is a really huge sample. In fact, this is the biggest survey of its kind ever done in Hong Kong which is terrific!And when I got the questionnaires back, I looked closely at the data and put it into a number of figures. Grandparents Parents Domestic helper Social functions Brothers / sisters Situations Private tutors Restaurants / bars PolyU friends Part-time jobs Relatives Non- PolyU friends Overseas holidays 0 0. 5 1 1. 05 1. 32 1. 69 1. 95 1. 95 1. 99 2. 11 2. 12 2. 4 2. 45 2. 55 2. 72 1. 5 Mean 2 2. 5 3 Figure 1: Speaking in English outside university 10 The first area I’d like to look at is speaking in English. Basically, what I wanted to know was how ofte n students speak English outside the classroom.The questionnaire asked the students to say how often they use English when they talk to friends, parents etc. When they filled in the questionnaire, the students had to circle a number from 1 (never) to 6 (very often). If they circled 15 the numbers 1-3, it means that they don’t use English very much. If they circled the numbers 4-6, it means that they use English fairly often. As you can see, I’ve put all the data about speaking in English in Figure 1. Let’s now talk about the data in Figure 1. First and foremost, it’s crystal clear that students don’t have many opportunities to speak English outside the 20 classroom.You can tell this because all the means are under 3. 00. Clearly, PolyU students don’t have any need to speak to parents etc. in English. This is undoubtedly because their family members are Cantonese speakers.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2 E LC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Obviously, there’s no point in speaking English when everyone can speak C a n t o n e s e . A s yo u c a n s e e , Po l y U s t u d e n t s n e v e r s p e a k t o t h e i r 25 grandparents in English.This is not surprising because, as we all know, old people in Hong Kong can’t speak English. That’s because the education system wasn’t very good in the past. But, you can see that there are a few situations (overseas holidays and so on) where students do get a golden opportunity to use their English, even though this is not really very often. In a 30 nutshell, then, the data in Figure 1 prove that PolyU students don’t speak English much outside the classroom. Note down the style problems you found in the box below. For each problem you identify, write an appropriate solution.Problem (inappropriate language) Solution (appropriate language) 1. 2 . 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 3 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Section 2 Improving the style of your writing In this section you will learn how to improve the style of your academic writing. Read through the following twelve subheadings and complete Activities 2 to 7. 1. Avoid informal verbs Use formal (i. e. ingle-word verbs) such as examine rather than phrasal / multi-word verbs such as look at. This report looks at ? [examines] ? the problem of juvenile delinquency. Hong Kong has got over ? [recovered from] ? the latest recession. University-linked companies have not taken off ? [been successful]? in recent years. Activity 2a Formal verbs Fill in the blanks with five of the following formal verbs. Make sure that you put the verbs into the correct form / tense. discover conduct fluctuate establish devi se increase investigate assist reduce discuss ) The team (came up with) _____________________ an imaginative solution to the problem. b) In this essay, I will (talk about) _____________________ the issue of genetic engineering. c) The study was (carried out) _____________________ between May and July 2012. d) A research associate was appointed to (help out) __________________ with the analysis of the data. e) Researchers (found out) __________________that the chiller was the source of the problem. Activity 2b Formal verbs With a partner, write five sentences using the unused formal verbs from Activity 2a. )†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ b)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ c)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ d)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ e)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 4 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) 2. Avoid Colloquial expressions Avoid informal or colloquial expressions such as a lot of in your written assignments. ? a lot of research ? a great deal of / a considerable amount of lots of studies ? numerous / a large number of / myriad / a plethora of a really interesting study ? very / extremely / particularly a bit disappointing ? somewhat / rather / fairly it is a must ? essential / necessary / crucial / vital 3. Avoid Cliches Cliches are expressions that have become overused. The expressions below are dull and unoriginal. In addition, the meaning of some cliches, such as ‘in a nut shell’, may not be clear to a global audience as the words and meaning may not be closely related.Avoid using them in your written work. ? ? ? hot topic heated debate last but not least every coin has two sides all in all as we all know first and foremost crystal clear golden opportunity In a nutshell†¦ financial tsunami a double-edged sword 4. Avoid vague, everyday language Avoid common, informal everyday words. Use more precise words instead. Adjectives Pollution has been a big ? [major] ? problem in Hong Kong in the past thirty years. The facilities in the lecture theatre are bad ? [inadequate]?. The students felt she was a good ? [organised / enthusiastic] ? instructor. Verbs Bonny got ? [obtained] ? er degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Chan [1] says ? [comments] ? that the English standard of students is improving. Others This issue has raised the attention of everyone ? [the public]. ? There are many things ? [elements] ? to a successful presentation. 5. Be objective As well as being impersonal, academic writing should be as objective as possible. Subjective and strongly emotional language should be avoided. Do not use words such as: fantastic, wonderful, lovely, absolutely, totally, terrific, excellent! Objectivity can also be boosted through hedging techniques (see section 3). English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 5 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 3 Academic style Change the underlined words in the following sentences to improve the style. a) The student did a presentation last week. c) The results of the survey were shockingly bad! e) Freedom of the Internet is a double edged sword. 6. Avoid Repetition Repeating the same words and phrases in your written assessments may make your work appear boring and unsophisticated to the reader.To make your writing more interesting, use appropriate synonyms. For example: findings inquiry ? ? results investigation appear argue ? ? seem contend b) It is a good essay. d) It was a poor presentation. f) The analysts obtained a lot of data. Tip: When using Microsoft Word, if you right click on a word it will give you a list of synonyms that you could use. Note that not all the words will be suitable to use in a particular sentence, so you should ensure that the alternative language choices convey the meaning you intend to express. Academic writing should be easy to follow. 7.Avoid contractions Avoid using contractions such as it’s and they’re in academic writing. won’t ? will not don’t ? do not I’ve ? I have It’s ? [It is] ? widely acknowledged that English plays an important role in Hong Kong’s business sector. 8. Avoid personal references Avoid directly referring to yourself as ‘I’ or ‘we’, or to the reader as ‘you’. Academic writers generally avoid using the personal pronoun ‘I’ because it makes their work seem too subjective. You can see the findings in Table 1. ? I have presented the findings in Table 1. ? As you can see, the findings are in Table 1. We can see the findings in Table 1. ? The findings are presented in Table 1. ? The passive voice is useful for this and achieves a more impersonal, action-focused style appropriate for academic writing.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 6 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) 9. Avoid informal sentence starters Starting sentences with And, Because, or But is considered poor style in academic writing. Use a more formal alternative instead. For example: And ? In addition, Apart from But ?However, Because ? Due to, This is because 10. Avoid rhetorical questions Avoid using rhetorical questions as they can make your writing appear unsophisticated. In my report, I will answer the following question: What are the causes of stress? ? This report examines the causes of stress. ? Whether exams cause stress is examined in this report. ? The above analysis concludes the first part of my essay regarding the problems of teenage drug abuse. Now, how about the solutions? ? The next part of my essay examines some solutions to teenage drug abuse. ? Activity 4 Academic styleImprove the style of the following sentences. a) Has China been af fected by the financial tsunami? She’d appear to be managing quite nicely. b) And it’s high time we started to think about the wealth gap. c) Some business leaders make some bad business decisions. 11. Avoid ‘Run-on’ expressions Limit the use of ‘run-on’ expressions such as etc. and and so on in academic writing. Use the term such as to inform the reader that not all possible examples are given. Professionals often need to write reports, memos etc. at work. ? Professionals often need to write documents such as reports and memos at work. ? 12.Use positive forms Avoid informal negative forms such as not much and not many. Use the positive (without ‘not’) forms little and few. Not much ? [Little] ? research has been conducted into job stress in universities. Not many ? [Few] ? studies have investigated Hong Kong society in the 19th century.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 7 ELC1013 English for Unive rsity Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 5 Academic style There are style errors in the sentence below. Identify the error and change the language to improve the style of the sentences.Then match the error to the style issues in the box below. Most sentences have more than one problem. emotional / subjective colloquial expressions vague/everyday cliche contraction / negativity personal reference sentence starter a) The problem of air pollution has become more and more serious in recent years. b) In the past decade, a lot of research has been done into indoor air quality. c) The results let everyone see that the quality of service in Hong Kong restaurants is bad. d) Hong Kong companies value employees who have good communication skills. ) And language policy in secondary schools has been a hot topic for many years. f) We all know that students learn better when they are taught in their mother tongue. g) The students didn’t e ncounter many problems finding good data for their project. h) Ensuring a big sample of subjects for a questionnaire survey is a must. i) j) Researchers got their data by doing telephone interviews. Tong’s [2] interpretation of the data is totally wrong.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 8 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 6 ReadingThe following essay is a more appropriately written academic essay than the draft analysed in Activity 1. Discuss with a partner the ways in which this passage is more academically appropriate than the earlier Activity 1 version. Students’ use of English outside university (A) This essay investigates the perceived problem of Hong Kong students’ lack of English use outside university. The data reported below were derived from a questionnaire survey of a substantial sample of first-year undergraduates from eight departme nts at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. (B) The survey was conducted between 12 and 23 April 2011.The subjects completed the questionnaire during their English for University Studies classes under the supervision of a research assistant. A total of 1,283 questionnaires were distributed and 707 correctly completed copies were returned and subsequently analysed. The questionnaire required the respondents to indicate the frequency with which they speak, listen, read and write in English outside the formal setting of the English-medium classroom. (C) The first section of the questionnaire asked the subjects to indicate on a six-point scale how often they speak in English in a range of nonacademic situations.On the evidence of the findings presented in Figure 1, it would appear that tertiary students in Hong Kong generally have little need to speak in English outside the classroom. (D) The evidence suggests that undergraduates rarely communicate with their parents or grandparents in English. This finding is perhaps not surprising as census data indicate that the overwhelming majority of people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese [1]. In the intimate family domain, young people understandably have little need or desire to speak English, apart from special circumstances such as preparing for English language examinations. E) The results indicate that the situation in which tertiary students use English least is in interactions with their grandparents. When interpreting this finding, it is worth noting that recent surveys have revealed that English is less widely known among Hong Kong people in their sixties and seventies than among those in the 4060 and 20-40 age groups [2]. This largely stems from the fact that the provision of Englishmedium secondary education was limited in the 1940s and 1950s [3]. The majority of citizens in the 60-70 age group are likely to have received only a Chinese-medium primary education [4]. F) While the data in Figure 1 suggest that tertia ry students tend not to speak English very frequently outside class, there are apparently several situations where spoken English has some degree of importance in the subjects’ lives. As might be expected, the situation where the subjects need to speak the language most is on overseas holidays. As Cantonese is not widely spoken outside China, it is perhaps understandable that students need to communicate in English on trips to Europe, North America and other parts of Asia. (G) As noted above, students rarely talk to their immediate family members in English.However, it is interesting that some of the subjects apparently have some need to communicate with their relatives in English. One possible factor behind the use of English in this situation is that their relatives live in an Englishspeaking country. In the case of younger relatives (e. g. cousins), it is possible that they have no knowledge of Cantonese, while older relatives (e. g. uncles, aunts) may feel more comfortabl e using their adopted language.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 9 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 7Improving academic style Use the academic writing advice above to complete the following exercises. 1. Skim through the Activity 6 essay and find formal verbs with similar meanings to the following informal phrasal verbs. The paragraph is given in brackets to help you. filled in (B) handed out (B) ____________________ ____________________ looks into (A) ____________________ found out (E) ____________________ 2. Find words in the Activity 6 passage which have similar meanings to the following vague, everyday words: done (B) ____________________ later (B) ____________________ big (A) ____________________ got (A) ____________________ . To avoid repeating the words students and findings, the writer uses a number of synonyms. List the synonyms used. students: findings: _ __________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ 4. How does the writer avoid using informal negative forms? Underline one example in the passage in Paragraph D. 5. The draft that you read in Activity 1 included the following inappropriate sentences: This is not surprising because, as we all know, old people in Hong Kong can’t speak English.That’s because the education system wasn’t very good in the past. How does the writer revise this part of the report? ‘Li Wei falls to Hong Kong’ reproduced with kind permission of Li Wei  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 10 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 8 Writing This activity gives you the chance to apply the features of academic writing style covered so far. By being able to write in an appropriate academi c style, you will be more able to successfully complete assignments at university.Situation For a course that you have been doing at university, you have been researching whether the consumption of organic produce can affect the health of a population. You are also interested in whether a subject’s positive opinion of their well being* has an effect on their general level of health. The area that you are investigating for an assignment is whether Hong Kong subjects also feel better about themselves after consuming organic produce. In Table 1 below, the results of two surveys are presented.First, a large scale survey was conducted by Wallace and Welbeck [1] among 4619 students in the UK about consumption of organic produce and self health ratings. The questions were adapted by your group to survey 89 students in the Polytechnic University. In the survey, subjects were asked to say whether they felt the following illnesses would increase or decrease on a scale from 0 (increase a great deal) to 3 (no effect) to 6 (decrease a great deal) after the consumption of organic produce. XuanXuan 13’ reproduced with kind permission of Li Wei *Note: â€Å"well being† describes the state of feeling healthy and happyIn pairs, discuss the data in Table 1. How would you explain the findings? When you have completed your discussion, write a short text of 3 or 4 paragraphs in which you describe and discuss the data. Table 1: Reduction and increase of illnesses after consumption of organic produce Features Headaches Colds Coughs Aches and pains Skin complaints UK students 4. 9 3. 1 2. 2 4. 5 3. 4 Polytechnic University students 5. 5 4. 1 5. 4 3. 2 4. 5 Source: Figures for UK students from Wallace and Welbeck [1]  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 11 ELC1013 English for University StudiesUnit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Section 3 Hedging in academic writing One of the main problems in the Act ivity 1 text is the writer’s use of assertive (overly strong or sure) language when discussing the data. Examples of assertive language are highlighted below. Let’s now talk about the data in Figure 1. First and foremost, it’s crystal clear that students don’t have many opportunities to speak English outside the classroom. You can tell this because all the means are under 3. 00. Clearly, PolyU students don’t have any need to speak to parents, etc. n English. This is undoubtedly because their family members are Cantonese speakers. Obviously, there’s no point in speaking English when everyone can speak Cantonese. As you can see, PolyU students never speak to their grandparents in English. This is not surprising because, as we all know, old people in Hong Kong can’t speak English. That’s because the education system wasn’t very good in the past. You can see, though, that there are a few situations (overseas holidays and so on) where students do get a golden opportunity to use their English, even though this is not really very often.In a nutshell, then, the data in Figure 1 prove that PolyU students don’t speak English much outside the classroom. Expressing opinions or making claims in overly strong language leaves you open to attack by critical readers. Such statements will often be doubted by readers thereby reducing your power and authority as a writer. A reader who does not believe a writer will rarely read on. To avoid such a situation, when stating ideas or discussing data you should use tentative rather than assertive language. You should avoid expressions such as: clearly ndoubtedly obviously definitely without a doubt there is no doubt that certainly absolutely Be very careful about using words like always (very common in Chinese), never, every and all because these suggest absolute certainty, which is inappropriate, and often incorrect, in many situations. Compare the following sentenc es: 1. The Hong Kong economy will grow next year. (Too strong! The writer is open to criticism if the Hong Kong economy does not grow next year) 2. The Hong Kong economy might grow next year. (Ok. The writer is hedging by using the modal verb ‘might’) 3.Some economists believe the Hong Kong economy will grow next year. (Ok. The doubt is transferred to a third party (economists). This means that the readers' confidence in you is not reduced) Techniques used in the sentences two and three above are known as hedging.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 12 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Hedging Techniques Activity 6 illustrated a number of hedging techniques. These are summarised below: 1.Use hedging verbs The following ‘hedging’ verbs are often used in academic writing: suggest indicate estimate imply The results indicate that the situation in which te rtiary students use English least is in interactions with their grandparents. The verbs appear and seem are used to ‘distance’ the writer from the findings (and therefore avoid making a strong claim and be subject to criticism from readers). On the evidence of the findings presented in Figure 1, it would appear that tertiary students in Hong Kong generally have little need to speak in English outside the classroom.Note that the writer also ‘protects’ himself / herself by using the phrase on the evidence of. The following expressions are used in a similar way: according to, on the basis of, based on. 2. Use modal verbs Another way of appearing ‘confidently uncertain’ is to use modal verbs such as may, might and could. In the case of younger relatives, it is possible that they have no knowledge of Cantonese, while older relatives may feel more comfortable using their adopted language. 3. Use adverbs The following adverbs are often used when a wri ter wishes to express caution. robably apparently possibly seemingly perhaps presumably arguably conceivably This finding is perhaps not surprising as census data indicate that the overwhelming majority of people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese [1]. 4. Use adjectives Another technique is to use an adjective. probable possible arguable unlikely likely One possible factor behind the use of English in this situation is that their relatives live in an English-speaking country.  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 13 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) 5.Use nouns The following nouns are often used to hedge:: probability possibility evidence likelihood indication The evidence suggests that undergraduates rarely communicate with their parents or grandparents in English. 6. Softening generalisations There are several ways in which you can soften and hedge a generalisation. (i) Use the verb tend or the noun (have / be a) tendency (to). While the data in Figure 1 suggest that tertiary students tend not to speak English very frequently outside class, there are apparently several situations where spoken English has some degree of importance in the subjects’ lives. ii) Use an adverb such as: generally predominantly largely mainly primarily usually for the most part to a great extent This largely stems from the fact that the provision of English-medium secondary education was limited in the 1940s and 1950s [3]. (iii) Use a hedging expression such as most or the majority of. The majority of citizens in the 60-70 age group are likely to have received only a Chinesemedium primary education [4]. (iv) Identify exceptions by using expressions such as except for or with the exception of.In the intimate family domain, young people understandably have little need or desire to speak English, except for special circumstances such as preparing for English language examinations. 7. Avoid negative words You should also avoid direct, negative words such as lies, cheat, false, rubbish, cheap, useless and worst. Try to use cautious, indirect language when expressing negative ideas. Without a doubt, the worst aspect of Dr Wong’s teaching is the lack of feedback. ? Giving feedback is perhaps the least successful aspect of Dr Wong’s teaching.?The president told lies to the media during his rubbish handling of the crisis. ? The president may have misled the media during the less than satisfactory handling of the crisis. ?  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 14 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 9 Hedging Choose the most appropriate option below. a) Everybody knows / It is generally accepted that all / the majority of English people always / often fail to learn any language other than their own. ) Perhaps / clearly the world will / is like ly to face major / total environmental destruction in the next fifty years. c) Without a doubt / It is widely believed that assertive writing is never / unlikely to be positively regarded by most / all readers. Activities 10a and 10b gives you an opportunity to practise the hedging techniques outlined in Section 3. By being able to use hedging techniques while writing in an appropriate academic style, you will more be able to successfully complete assignments at university. Activity 10a WritingIn 2011, the English Language Centre of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University surveyed 978 Form 7 school leavers about their preferences when studying in higher education. A summary of the results is presented below. Table 1: First Choice of University Hong Kong University The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The Hong Kong Polytechnic University City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Baptist University The Open University of Hong Kong Lingnan Univer sity Hong Kong Shue Yan University 21% 17% 15% 14% 11% 11% 8% 7% 4% A pause for humanity 3’ reproduced with kind permission of Li Wei Read what the writer said about the reason why Hong Kong University and Chinese University were the most favoured. Note the underlined language. The survey results indicate that the preferred universities were Hong Kong University and Chinese University. A probable reason for this is their long history, and the preference of employers for employees who graduate from these institutions. Write two or three paragraphs giving possible reasons for the ranking of the other universities. Use the hedging techniques from Section 3. English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 15 ELC1013 English for University Studies Unit 1 – Achieving an Academic Writing Style (IEEE / Vancouver) Activity 10b Writing The school leavers were asked a similar question regarding their first choice of course when applying for University. Examine Table 2 below giving the results, and write two more paragraphs providing some possible explanations. Table 2: First choice of course when applying for University Engineering Law Nursing and Health Sciences Design Business Computing Textiles Construction Logistics Others 15% 4% 8% 12% 20% 15% 4% 7% 16% 5%Further Learning Materials Besides IndiWork, you are also strongly encouraged to complete the Further Learning Materials found at the end of each unit. By doing so, so will be able to perform better in this subject’s assessments. Go to eLearn (http://elearn. elc. polyu. edu. hk/) to complete the following activities. 1. Unit 1 Review of learning 2. Unit 1 Further Learning Materials  © English Language Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 16