1、English Academic Writing for Graduate Students東南大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院 制作Unit 5 Results & DiscussionUnit Five To understand the function and the major elements of the results and discussion section; To learn how to describe graphic information; To grasp the tips for making comparison and contrast; To learn how

2、 to present the cause and effect relationship; To learn how to strengthen and weaken a claim.Learning ObjectivesUnit Five What is the function of the results and discussion section? What are the major elements included in the results and discussion section? How do you describe graphic information in

3、 the results section? How do you compare and contrast the data presented in the graphs? How do you present a cause and effect relationship? How do you strengthen or weaken the claims?I. Warm-upUnit Five1. Read the first paragraph in the results part and identify the informationelements you find in e

4、ach sentence of the paragraph. II. Sample Reading Sentences Information Elements Sentence 1 Sentence 2 Sentence 3 Sentence 4 Review of the research issueReview of the methodReview of the methodReview of the methodUnit Five2. Some verbs can be used to locate the results of the research, such as “show

5、” and “indicate”. Read the second and third paragraphs in the Results part carefully and think of the question: Which verbs did the authors use for locating the results? 1._3._ 4._5._ 6._2._discoveredshowsfounddisplayedshoweddemonstratedII. Sample ReadingUnit Five3. Read the Discussion part carefull

6、y and match the information elements with the sentences from this section. Put the correct letter before the corresponding sentence. A. possible explanations for the finding(s); B. the new finding which is different from previous studies; C. a reference to the main purpose / research questions of th

7、e study; D. a review of the most relevant/important finding(s);E. the comparison with expected results and other studies;F. a summary of the finding(s).II. Sample ReadingUnit Five_1. The first research question investigated how learners choice of language for thinking influences lexical collocation

8、production._2. Statistically significant results revealed that learners primarily using Chinese mingled with English in thinking had the lowest inaccuracy rate, supporting the assumption that type of language for thinking directly impacts oral lexical collocation._3.This finding accords with Gohs (2

9、002) assumption that translation as a cognitive tactic slows down cognitive processing and distracts learners from some helpful linguistic clues._4.Another crucial implication that may be drawn from our finding on the effect of language for thinking is that metacognitive skill training should be inc

10、orporated into ESL/EFL classrooms. _5.This study indicated an interesting finding: Thinking mainly in English was not beneficial for oral production of lexical collocations, even when learners were at advanced level of proficiency._6.To sum up, although task effect was not significant, comparing the

11、 inaccuracy rates in the three tasks indicates that processing demands of oral elicitation task may influence the quality of talk, including collocational accuracy.D C B A E F Unit FiveA. Comparison and Contrast a. The purpose of comparison: to show similarities b. The purpose of contrast: to show d

12、ifferencesIII. Language FocusUnit Fivec. Some key words and expressions commonly used to express comparison or contrastIII. Language FocusWords and expressions showing comparisonWords and expressions showing contrastlike toosimilar as similarlyboth likewiseas well as alsoin the same way have in comm

13、onthe same as although yet whereas however but whileinstead unlikeunless be different fromthe reverse differcontrary to converselyeven though on the contraryon the other handA. Comparison and ContrastUnit Five d. Tips for making comparison / contrast 1) Not all the information has to be compared or

14、contrasted with each other. 2) When comparing or contrasting information in the graphs, it is not necessary to lay equal emphasis on every change. 3) The comparison/contrast should be supported by concrete and relevant facts or data.III. Language FocusA. Comparison and ContrastUnit FiveComparison an

15、d contrast1. Identify the parts which use the techniques of making comparison and contrast in the following sentences adapted from the sample text. 1) By contrast, if a learner primarily resorts to his or her L1, then oral production in English will depend on direct translation, causing a great deal

16、 of L1 interference at all linguistic levels.2) This finding accords with Gohs (2002) assumption that translation as a cognitive tactic slows down cognitive processing and distracts learners from some helpful linguistic clues.3) Results revealed a higher inaccuracy rate in prepared speech than in pi

17、cture-cued tasks.III. Language Focus_ _Unit Five2. The following is a result from a market survey of personal computers. Report the result from a university students perspective. First, describe the students needs in personal computers. Then, compare and contrast the three types of personal computer

18、s in the items listed in the table below. Finally, conclude by stating which computer seems to be the most suitable for the students needs you have described.III. Language FocusTypesPrice (yuan)Hard DiskScreen Size（inch）PC 12850500 GB14PC 266001000 GB15.6PC 339201000 GB14Note: PC: personal computer

19、Table 2 A market survey of personal computers A. Comparison and contrastUnit FivePossible Keys： Nowadays, personal computers are commonly used among university students in research work or dealing with different documents in and out of class. To choose a suitable personal computer is not easy. You h

20、ave to consider many factors such as the price and the functions when comparing different types of personal computers. To most university students who have no income, its necessary to make a market survey before their purchase of a personal computer. Table 2 shows the result from a market survey of

21、personal computers. In the survey, three personal computers, PC 1, PC 2 and PC 3, are compared with respect to the following factors: price, processor speed, size of hard disk and screen size. PC 1 costing 2850 yuan, is by far the cheapest of the three and PC 2 is the most expensive. Regarding the s

22、ize of hard disk, PC 2 has the same hard disk size as PC 3, 1,000 GB, whereas PC 1 is the smallest at 500 GB. Besides, among the three types of personal computers, PC 2 has the largest screen,15.6. The screen size of PC 1 is 14, which is the same as that of PC 3. Among the three types of personal co

23、mputers, PC 1 has the advantage in price. PC 2 functions best however its too expensive for most university students. In general, PC 3 could be a good choice for most university students considering its price and functions. Unit FiveB. Cause and effect1. The following sentences are excerpted from th

24、e sample text. Identify the parts which show causes and effects.Regarding learner errors, we found 263 incorrect collocations among the 2,491 lexical collocations, resulting in an inaccuracy rate of 10.56.2) They possessed less capacity to work out linguistic structures, which resulted in more collo

25、cational errors in prepared speech. III. Language Focus Keys: 263 incorrect collocations among the 2,491 lexical collocations:Showing the cause an inaccuracy rate of 10.56:Showing the effectKeys: They possessed less capacity to work out linguistic structures:Showing the causeShowing the effect more

26、collocational errors in prepared speech:Unit FiveB. Cause and effect A cause-effect relationship is a relationship in which one event (the cause) makes another event happen (the effect).For example: The death rate from cancer is increasing because people are smoking more. The weather was cold. There

27、fore, Sally put on her coat. Many hair problems result from what you eat. The sports meeting was postponed because of/due to the rain. III. Language FocusUnit Five2. Complete the following paragraph by filling in missing causal words. Recurring headaches can have initiate disruptive effects in a per

28、sons life. Firstly, in many cases, these headaches make a person nauseous to the point that he or she must go to bed. Furthermore, sleep is often interrupted (1)_the pain. Disrupted sleep worsens the physical and emotional state of the sufferer. For those who try to maintain a normal lifestyle, drug

29、s are often relied on to get through the day. Such drugs, of course,(2) _ other negative effects. Drugs can inhibit productivity on a job, perhaps even (3)_regular absences. Not only is work affected, but the seemingly unpredictable occurrence of these headaches (4)_ disruption in family life. The i

30、nterruption to a persons family life is enormous: cancelling plans in the last minute and straining relationships with friends and family. It is no wonder that many of these people feel discouraged and even depressed (5)_ the cycle of misery reoccurring headaches cause. III. Language Focusbecause of

31、 can lead to causing causes due to B. Cause and effectUnit Fivea. Introduction of graphs The definition A graph is a diagram, usually a line or a curve, which shows how two or more and sets of numbers measurements are related. The types Graphs usually include bar/column charts/graphs, pie charts and

32、 line graphs. IV. Academic Writing SkillsA. Describing the graphic informationUnit Fiveb. Use of graphs in the results section Prepare the graphs as soon as all the data are analyzed and arrange them in the sequence that best presents your results in a logical way; Describe the graphs well because g

33、ood descriptions can help the readers understand your research better. IV. Academic Writing SkillsA. Describing the graphic informationUnit Fivec. Useful words, phrases or sentence patterns in different situations of graphic descriptionIV. Academic Writing SkillsA. Describing the graphic information

34、Unit Five Situations ExpressionsWhen introducing the graphic information and making a general statementThe chart shows the percentage of The vertical axis shows The horizontal axis compares When referring to a graphAs can be seen/It can be seen from the graph As shown in Graph 3,From the graph above

35、, it may/can be seen/ concluded / shown/ estimated/ calculated / inferred thatThe graph below /The pie chart above shows/ illustratesAccording to Table 1, When describing a graphThere was a minimal (slight, slow, gradual, steady) rise. There was a rapid increase.There was a (an) marked (large, drama

36、tic, steep, sharp, abrupt) decrease (decline, reduction, fall, drop).There was a sudden fluctuation. When describing a curve or a trenda gradual/slight increase; a sharp/steep rise; the peaka rapid/abrupt fall; a slight dip; no change; slow fall It shows an upward trend.It shows a downward trend. Wh

37、en making a conclusionto sum up; in conclusion;It appears thatThe two charts clearly showUnit Fived. Description of GraphsStep 1: Introduce the graphic information briefly and indicate the main trend. Normally it includes the place, time, content and purpose of the graph;Step 2: Describe the relevan

38、t and most important or significant data and make some comparison if necessary;Step 3: Summarize the data/trends.IV. Academic Writing SkillsA. Describing the graphic informationUnit Fivee. Expressions for highlighting significant data in a table/chart Some adjectives such as “apparent”, “clear”, “in

39、teresting”, “obvious”, “revealing” and “significant” IV. Academic Writing SkillsA. Describing the graphic informationUnit Five It is apparent from Table 2 that. Table 5 is quite revealing in several ways. From Chart 5 we can see that Experiment 2 resulted in the lowest value of. What is interesting

40、in this data is that. In Figure 10, there is a clear trend of decreasing. As Table 2.1 shows, there was a great difference between the experimental group and the control group. As shown in Table 6.3, chunk frequency also has significant correlation with the indices of oral proficiency. There was no

41、obvious difference between Method 1 and Method 2. Unit Five1. The following line graph shows an upward trend in the growth rate of Ford car production in 2018. Analyze the line graph and fulfill the following tasks.IV. Academic Writing SkillsA. Describing the graphic information0%1%2%3%4%5%6%7%Janua

42、ryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoborNovemberDecemberThe growth rate of Ford car production0.2%0.3%1.2%4.5%2.8%2.6%3.3%3.1%4.6%4.1%5.5%6.3%Unit Five1) Mark the following positions in the graph.a. The bottom of the lineb. The peak of the linec. The fluctuating part2 ) Describe the gro

43、wth rate of Ford car production in the following months respectively. Try to use the phrases or sentence patterns of graphic description that you learned in this section.a. In January:_b. From March to April:_ _c. From May to September:_ _d. From October to December:_ _in Januaryin Decemberfrom May

44、to September In January of 2011, the growth rate of car production was in the bottom of the whole year. It bottomed out at around 1.2% in March of 2018. Then, the growth rate rose sharply from 1.2% to nearly 4.5% in April of 2018. In the next five months from May to September in 2018, there was aflu

45、ctuation in the growth rate of car production between 2.8% and 4.6%. It reached a level at 4.1% in October of 2018 and then, it increased rapidly in the growth rate of car production and reached the peak at 6.3% in December of 2018.Unit Five3) What does the overall line graph reveal in the growth ra

46、te of Ford car production in 2018?_The graph shows an upward trend in the growth rate of car production for Ford during the period of January in 2018 to December 2018. The graph reveals two important rising periods during the whole year. Unit Five2. The following sentences are taken from the sample

47、text. Underline the expressions that are applied to highlight the significant data of the research.1) Descriptive statistics demonstrated that those who mainly thought in their native language (Mandarin Chinese) produced the highest inaccuracy rate of lexical collocations (M=15.17), followed by thos

48、e who primarily thought in English(M=12.40) and those using a combination (M=8.44).2) Results of a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) further displayed that the difference among these three groups reached a significant level, F(2, 39)=4.07,p0.05._ _IV. Academic Writing SkillsA. Describing the grap

49、hic informationUnit Five3) The LSD test showed that the Chinese-mingled-with-English group had a markedly lower inaccuracy rate than the Chinese or English groups, while the difference between the Chinese and English groups was not significant.4) Statistically significant results revealed that learn

50、ers primarily using Chinese mingled with English in thinking had the lowest inaccuracy rate, supporting the assumption that type of language for thinking directly impacts oral lexical collocation.5) By contrast, if a learner primarily resorts to his or her L1, then oral production in English will de

51、pend on direct translation, causing a great deal of L1 interference at all linguistic levels._ _Unit Fivea. The definition Claims are statements about ideas and data from you and other people. IV. Academic Writing SkillsB. Strengthening or weakening of your statementsb. The function When the proof o

52、f your idea or data is clear, you should strengthen your claim. When the evidence is less certain, you should limit or weaken your claim. Unit Fivec. Expressions for strengthening or weakening the statements1) Possible words for strengthening a claim Nouns: certainty, evidence, the fact that Verbs:

53、show, prove, establish, confirm, conclude, determine, it is clear that, it is obvious that Adjectives: key, central, crucial, basic, fundamental, major, principal, essential, significant Adverbs: very, pretty, quite, clearly, obviously, undoubtedly, certainly, of course, indeed, inevitably, invariab

54、ly, always, literally 2) Possible words for weakening a claim Verbs: appear , argue, doubt, estimate, seen (as), seem, speculate, suggest Adverbs: largely, likely, mainly, maybe, perhaps, possible/possibly, probable/probably, rather, relatively, seemingly, somewhat, sometimes Unit Five1. The followi

55、ng sentences are taken from the discussion section of a research paper. Underline the expressions that are applied to strengthen or weaken claims. Then mark them in the brackets at the end of each sentence. The first one is given as an example.1)We observed borderline statistically significant eleva

56、ted risks for. (strengthening a claim)2) We observed a stronger positive association for. ( ）3) It is possible that the referent group had a smaller-than-expected cancer incidence by chance. ( )4) We observed a suggestion of an elevated risk for advanced prostate cancer with both meat types. ( )_ _

57、_ _strengthening a claimweakening a claimweakening a claimIV. Academic Writing SkillsB. Strengthening or weakening of your statementsUnit Five5) In contrast to our findings, childhood leukemia has been positively associated with intake of processed meats in a case-control study. ( )6) Associations b

58、etween saturated fat and cancer are likely to be related to energy balance in general, whereas iron is thought to contribute to carcinogenesis specifically by generating free radicals and inducing oxidative stress. ( )7) This could explain some of the inconsistencies in the literature as most previo

59、us studies have not specifically addressed advanced prostate cancer. ( )8) It lends strong support to. ( )9) We found a positive association between red meat intake specifically and cancers of the esophagus and liver. ( ) _ _ _strengthening a claimstrengthening a claim strengthening a claimweakening

60、 a claimweakening a claimUnit Five2. The following sentences are taken from the sample text. Try to write down the reasons why the authors weakened the claims.1) Another crucial implication that may be drawn from our finding on the effect of language for thinking is that metacognitive skill training sho