Keep calm and enjoy writing: English for Special Purposes

IN TEXT CITATION ANALYSIS In order to analyze the in-text citations included in the article entitled What’s the Score and Game Plan on Teaming in Schools , A Review of the Literature on Team Teaching and School-Based Problem- Teams (Welch, Brownell and Sheridan, 1999, p 35), it was taken into account the sixth edition of the  Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association  (APA, 2010), for documenting sources stating the most frequently used style within the social sciences. The revision was written according to the mentioned style. (Welch, Brownell and Sheridan,1999, p 35). The use of direct quotes to cite the exact words of another author with less than 40 words, written between double quotation marks, mentioning the surname, the year of publishing and the page number is shown as follows: “ Qualitative research is “multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter” (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p. 2).” Wel...

AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY      In this  review on specialized articles related to team teaching and School-Based problem, Problem Solving Teams (SBPSTs), the authors analyze the articles published from 1980 to 1997 in this field. A five-step study to categorize SBPST’s is provided, as well as the types of the published articles on team teaching and SBPSTs, a review on articles in refereed journals, a summary of the conclusions correspondent to published articles and conclusions regarding the current research trends.       Readers are invited to deepen research work in teams in schools. The authors start their work by writing a brief description of team teaching and SBPSTs detailing the steps of the reviewing process. Tables are included to show results and to conclude that most of the reports cited are anecdotal or consist of technical guides to both models as they lack experimental designs reflecting student-based outcomes. REFERENC...

AN ANNOTATED BIOGRAPHY   Chang, C-Y. and Lee, G. (2010). A major e-learning project to renovate science learning environment in Taiwan. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, January 2010, Vol. 9 (1), pp. 7-12. Summarizes an e-Learning project funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan and envisions some of the future research directions in this area. Intends to initiate the Center for excellence in e-Learning Sciences (CeeLS) and proposes to develop an innovative science learning environment integrating modern technologies. Aims to create an intelligent classroom embedded with interactive learning materials and assessment tools and proposes three interrelated research directions conducted by three major projects: (1) Project Classroom 2.0; (2) Project Mobile 2.and (3) Project Testing 2.0, to pioneer new technologies on assessment and to assist the CeeLS to carry out program evaluations for the project.       ...

AN OUTLINE A Mayor  E-Learning  Project to Renovate Science Learning Environment in Taiwan   §   Purpose: to share important information about a major e-Learning project recently funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan       §   Thesis: develop an innovative science learning environment which integrates various modern technologies      §   Audience: EAP students and teachers, Science Education researchers, computer science and computer engineering researchers.   I.               Learning environments A.   Traditional 1.   Objectivism/expository learning environment 2.   Teacher centered B.     Modern 1.      Constructivist learning environment 2.      Student centered II.         ...

ANALYSIS ON AN  ANNOTATED  BIOGRAPHY Sample Annotated Bibliography in APA Style (Based on Publication Manual, 5th ed. 2001 and APA Style Guide to Electronic References, 2007) Karin Durán, Ph.D. karin.duran@csun.edu “ Provides a focused perspective on the role of the Chicana in the workforce and education through the use of historical documents.   Includes relevant evidence about the contributions of Chicanas to the Chicana/o movement throughout Southwest history with examples from education, politics, and the economy.  Addresses pertinent social justice issues and responses by both the Chicana/o and the anglo populations.” I agree with all of the entries which have already been written by my mates. Absolutely, this bibliographic entry follows APA style as the annotation is written in the third person, the vocabulary chosen is formal and it is also academic. Besides, whole sentences have been included. This annotated biography is descriptive as it reports ...

THE PURPOSE OF  RECOMMENDATIONS Personally, I get recommendations from my friends, family, colleagues, and the Internet. I love surfing the Internet and getting information or watching videos or tutorials. From the point of view of academic writing, it is a report that compares two or more choices or solutions providing a piece of advice about which is the best option so I believe that the purpose a recommendation is perhaps the conclusion or last part of a report that describes a suggested course of action.

SUMMARY WRITING TIPS I have read wonderful tips so far but I think there is still enough room for some more, so I would suggest the following tips: - Focus on your reader and context as both will determine the register, style and specific language you will use to put through your ideas. - Prepare a draft about the topic you will write an academic summary, extract the main concepts of the text, paraphrase them  to avoid plagiarism, use rich carefully chosen vocabulary, structures and grammatical categories, then organize your sentences and paragraphs wisely to make your summary appealing. I believe that the effective use of empathy  together with exquisite language, hooks your reader in academic writing.

THE OUTSIDER OBSERVER Vignette on the article “The History Lesson” by Angelides, P. and Gibbs, P. (2006). Supporting the continued professional development of teachers through the use of vignettes. Teacher Education Quarterly, Fall, 2006, pp. 111-121. The cited vignette reminded me of my history teacher from 1st to 3rd year at high school. She used to study “Historia by José Cosmelli Ibañez (1982) Editorial Troquel” textbook by heart and repeat it in class. We all knew that attending her class did not help us develop any learning competence, it was the same as pressing the play key in a tape recorder. The effect was that we lost motivation and hated history. So was the experience described in the vignette under analysis.  Students were not taken into account, the teacher did not make a diagnosis of the group for the planning neither a students’ learning follow up. Besides, she adopted a teacher-centred style as if she were the owner of the knowledge. She would rather get to know ...

PERSONAL NARRATIVES As far as I know, a personal narrative is a form of writing in which the writer describes an event or experience from his or her personal life. Therefore, the writer writes it in the first person, sharing part of his or her life with the reader who is involved in the story as a direct "witness" who has the chance to appraise the writer's thoughts, reactions, feelings and sensory perceptions through the writing piece. I experienced the personal narrative genre when I attended an immersion course some years ago. I wrote about a frightening experience I had during a fire at work. I remember that I used complex sentences, nouns, noun phrases, adjectives and adjectival phrases to describe it because I felt I had to "paint" a detailed picture of the story I lived. In order to involve the reader, I asked him or her questions about what he or she would do in a similar situation. I tried to maintain the reader's interest providing some funny ...

FUNCTIONAL  LITERACY Functional literacy aims at helping us to respond sufficiently well to the requirements of academic life. We should also be able to promote a change in our students’ academic writing, providing them with the necessary writing tools, fostering their self-esteem and criticism and giving them freedom to create new literacy pieces. Schleppegrell and Colombi (2002) say that literacy goes beyond learning to read and write so as to fulfill a given task. Our aim in class is building, training and motivating students. As far as they are exposed to meaningful friendly tasks in the form of projects, games and problem solving activities they are immediately involved in using the language for a communicative purpose and they feel the "extra value "of learning. To conclude, literacy should be learned through doing and developing reading and writing skills.