Siepmann, Dirk, John D Gallagher und Mike Hannay

Writing in English: A Guide for Advanced Learners

• Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Besseres Englisch für deutsche Muttersprachler. Endlich ein Schreiblehrbuch für Geisteswissenschaftler, das gezielt auf die sprachlichen Probleme und Fehler fortgeschrittener deutschsprachiger Schreiber des Englischen eingeht! Die Autoren arbeiten "typisch deutsche" Schwierigkeiten systematisch auf und bieten konkrete sprachliche Hilfen für die Gestaltung wissenschaftlicher Texte wie Hausarbeiten und Essays an. Die modulare Gliederung des Buches ermöglicht den Nutzern, ihren persönlichen Kompetenzen entsprechend individuelle Lernwege zu gehen.

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This book offers practical advice and guidance to German-speaking undergraduates and academics who aspire to write in English. It also provides valuable assistance to editors, examiners and teachers who conduct English courses for intermediate or advanced students.The work consists of four modules and is rounded off with a subject index and a glossary. Making extensive use of authentic texts written by native speakers of English and German, the authors adopt a contrastive approach and focus on the major problems encountered by Germans writing in English. These problems include overall text organisation, academic text conventions, sentence construction, idiomatic phrasing, argumentation and style. A large number of exercises can be found on the accompanying website.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: UTB
• ISBN-13: 9783825231248
• Artikelnr.: 23835400

Inhaltsangabe

Contents
Preface ... 1
Introduction ... 9
MODULE I: Organizing ideas into text ... 17
Introduction ... 17
Chapter 1: The term paper: gearing up to start writing... 19
1.1 The term paper as an argued text ... 19
1.2 The three processes of planning, writing proper and editing... 21
1.3 Making the plan ... 22
1.4 Using a computer ... 27
1.5 Conclusion ... 33
Chapter 2: Different types of term paper: Two models ... 34
2.1 Term paper as essay or as mini-article ... 34
2.2 Quotation and paraphrase ... 35
2.3 The literary essay ... 41
2.4 The linguistic mini-article ... 47
Chapter 3: Title, Introduction, Body and Conclusion... 57
3.1 The Title ... 57
3.2 The Introduction ... 59
3.3 The Body sections... 62
3.4 Paragraphs within the Body sections ... 64
3.5 The Conclusion ... 71
Chapter 4: Getting the paper ready for submission:
Editing and formatting... 75
4.1 Editing ... 75
4.2 Formal requirements ... 78
Bibliography ... 80
MODULE II: Building effective sentences... 83
Introduction ... 83
Chapter 1: Basic issues in sentence construction... 85
1.1 Sentence construction ... 85
1.2 Information packaging ... 89
1.3 Sentencing ... 92
1.4 Overview ... 96
Chapter 2: Information packaging... 98
2.1 Basic grammatical moulds ... 99
2.2 The order of information in the clause ... 103
2.2.1 The front of the clause ... 103
2.2.2 The end of the clause ... 105
2.2.3 Fitting the sentence into the running text ... 107
2.3 Organizing the starting point ... 109
2.3.1 Clauses with passive verb forms ... 109
2.3.2 Fronting ... . 111
2.3.3 It-clefts... 112
2.3.4 Pseudo-clefts ... 117
2.3.5 The th-wh construction ... 120
2.3.6 Non-agent subjects ... . 122
2.4 Establishing a special kind of starting point: framing... 125
2.4.1 Circumstantial adverbials ... 126
2.4.2 Conjunctive adverbials ... 127
2.4.3 Stance adverbials... 127
2.5 Organizing the end point ... . 129
2.5.1 Extraposition... 129
2.5.2 Discontinuous structures ... 130
2.5.3 Dative shift ... 131
2.5.4 Object postponement ... 132
2.5.5 Presentatives ... 134
2.6 What goes wrong in clause construction ... 137
2.6.1 Frontal overload ... 137
2.6.2 Bad textual fit ... 139
2.6.3 Unclear focus signalling ... 140
2.7 Overview ... 142
Chapter 3: Complex sentences ... 143
3.1 Different kinds of sentence ... 144
3.1.1 Sentence complexity... 144
3.1.2 Sentence shapes ... 146
3.2 Clause combining: the basic forms... 148
3.2.1 Adverbial clauses... 149
3.2.2 Non-restrictive relative clauses ... 150
3.2.3 Non-finite clauses ... 152
3.2.4 Verbless clauses ... 155
3.2.5 Appositions ... 156
3.2.6 Other structures ... 157
3.2.7 Shapes again ... 157
3.3 Foregrounding and backgrounding ... . 160
3.4 Complex framing ... 162
3.4.1 The basic patterns ... 163
3.4.2 Missed opportunities... 166
3.5 Interruption techniques ... 168
3.5.1 Aspects of interruption ... 168
3.5.2 Missed opportunities... 174
3.6 Elaborational techniques ... . 175
3.6.1 Elaboration ... 175
3.6.2 Missed opportunities... 179
3.7 Problems with sentence length ... 180
3.7.1 Long sentences ... 180
3.7.2 Short sentences ... 182
3.8 Review ... 184
Chapter 4: Punctuation ... 186
4.1 Commas 1: the principle of semantic unity ... 187
4.2 Commas 2: optional use... 193
4.2.1 Separating members of a sequence... 193
4.2.2 Separating adverbial clauses ... 194
4.2.3 Separating coordinated clauses ... 196
4.2.4 Separating initial constituents... . 198
4.3 Colons ... 201
4.3.1 The basic functions ... . 201
4.3.2 Advice ... 202
4.4 Semicolons ... 205
4.4.1 The basic uses ... 206
4.4.2 The difference between colon and semicolon as combining
devices... 208
4.5 Dashes and brackets ... 209
4.5.1 Brackets... 209
4.5.2 Dashes ... 210
4.6 Commas revisited: dealing with comma splices ... 212
4.7 Overview ... 214
Bibliography
a) Sources of examples... 216
b) References ... 217
MODULE III: Lexis and Grammar ... 219
Introduction ... 219
Chapter 1: A constructional view of language... 220
Chapter 2: Academic lexis and patterning ... 227
2.1 Nouns and noun patterns ... 228
2.1.1 Complex noun phrases in English and German ... 233
2.1.2 Productive nominal patterns ... . 240
2.1.3 Position and length of complex noun phrases ... 240
2.1.4 General strategies for noun phrase building ... 241
2.2 Adjective patterns... 245
2.2.1 Major groups of adjectives ... 245
2.2.2 Participial and compound adjectives... 247
2.2.3 General strategies for building adjective phrases ... 249
2.3 Prepositions and prepositional phrases ... 250
2.4 Verbs and verb patterns ... 253
2.4.1 Common academic verbs ... 253
2.4.2 Verb patterns ... 255
2.5 The interface between verb patterning and sentence-building ... 259
Chapter 3: From word to collocation... 263
3.1 Words, words, words ... 264
3.2 How words go together ... 271
3.3 Collocation of semantic-pragmatic features ... 277
3.4 Collocational gaps and incompatibilities ... 281
3.5 Making creative use of collocation... 282
3.6 The interplay of collocation and patterning ... 284
3.6.1 A worked example ... . 284
3.6.2 Exemplificatory infinitive clauses ... 285
3.6.3 Summary: Strategies for forming word groups... 286
Chapter 4: Rhetorical moves and their lexical realizations ... 289
4.1 Stating your topics and objectives ... 289
4.1.1 Introducing a topic ... . 290
4.1.2 Excluding a topic from consideration ... 291
4.2 Reporting, summarizing and paraphrasing ... 293
4.2.1 Summaries and abstracts... 293
4.2.2 Strategies for paraphrasing ... 297
4.2.3 Quoting ... 302
4.3 Expressing opinions and criticizing ... . 305
4.4 Enumerating ideas and changing the topic ... 311
4.5 Topicalizing specific items... . 320
4.6 Exemplification ... 321
4.7 Comparison and contrast ... . 327
4.8 Concession ... 357
4.9 Cause, reason and explanation ... 366
4.10 Consequences and result... 382
4.11 Static relations ... 384
Bibliography ... 386
MODULE IV: Style ... 389
Introduction ... 389
Chapter 1: Style and stylistic competence ... 390
1.1 What is style? ... 390
1.2 How to achieve stylistic competence ... 391
1.3 Academic style ... . 393
1.3.1 Vocabulary ... 394
1.3.2 Nominal constructions ... 396
1.3.3 Verbal constructions ... 399
1.4 From non-specialist to specialist text ... 402
1.5 Personal style ... 403
Chapter 2: The principles of style ... 408
2.1 Aptness... 409
2.2 Clarity... 413
2.3 Concision ... 422
2.4 Variety ... 428
2.5 Elegance ... 439
Bibliography ... 446
A final word ... 449
Glossary ... . 451
Index ... 455