Opinnot > T-110.5190 > 2007 > english.html
Lecturer: Roger Munn BA, RSA Dipl.TESL, CTESP
Dates and time: The first meeting is on Wednesday, 31st January; the second is on Wednesday, 28th February. Both meetings run from 16:00-18:00. Don't be late! (Course starts at 4 p.m. sharp, no 16.15)
Place: Lecture hall T5 in the Computer Science building
Course language: English
Contact information: If you have some questions related to the English course, please use the course email address (at the end of the page).
Please mark the dates of the course in your calendar. The English course is compulsory for all students except for those students who completed the same English course during the autumn 2006. This means students who participated the same English course as a part of the courses T-110.6100 Special Assignment in Datacommunications Software, Master's programme version or T-110.5290 Seminar on Network Security. English lectures are still highly recommended for those students as well.
Homework for the first meeting:
On Wednesday, 31st January everybody brings a copy of a typical published paper from the field of their study. As far as is possible, this paper should have been written by a NATIVE SPEAKER/s (from USA, UK, Australia, Canada etc.) If two or more of you are working in the same or a similar field of study, then you may bring the same paper.
Homework for the second meeting:
prepare a short (6-8 min) structured presentation of your paper to give to a partner at the second meeting.
The course staff will deliver your draft papers to the English course lecturer. He will read them and give you some feedback. These drafts will then be returned to you during the second English meeting. Please note that if you want to have some constructive feedback on your writing, the draft of the paper must be more than just notes. Experience from previous courses demonstrates that a series of short sentences is not useful. Moreover, short paragraphs may not be very useful, either.
Therefore, the longer your draft (within reason!), the clearer the picture of your writing skills. The ideal length of the draft will be approximately one and a half sides to two sides (A4) of extended text/s.
Listed below is some important advice on writing your papers.
Using linking words/transition words may be difficult for non-native speakers of English. However, help is widely available on the Internet, for example, Purdue's Online Writing Lab. In addition, have a look at the links below. And this link focuses specifically on link words: http://www.ssdd.uce.ac.uk/learner/writing/transex.htm. But search the Web for other online learning services, too.
Then, choose a typical published paper from the field of your study. The paper should have been written by a NATIVE SPEAKER/s (from USA, UK, Australia, Canada etc.). Read the paper through to see how the native speaker uses the linking words; underline the words you find.
After that, in order to practise structure and using links, choose one of the following two writing tasks (length about 300 words):
Also, make a separate list of linking words you have found on the Net. Try to find as many words as possible. You can use this list later when you write your own seminar paper.
Return your writing task and the list of words to the course email address (suitable format is txt or pdf). The deadline for this assignment is 9.2.2007 at midday. Finally, you must do the homework for the second meeting and remember to be there!
You must do both assignments below:
Print one page of your seminar paper (full text) and mark how your text guides the reader through your paper (sentence by sentence and paragraph by paragraph). Words such as "first" and "second" indicate progress. "As mentioned above" refers the reader back. Articles change from general to specific: "a cell phone the phone"; "a new device the device". And by repeating words and names you guide your reader, too.
Also, have a look at how commas are used in published papers: are you using them correctly in your paper?
Take two main points of your conclusions, and make two slides about these points for your presentation. Note: these should present the "beef" of your paper, not background information etc.
Please return paper versions of the first assignment to Laura's mail box, Room A126 in the computer science building. Slides should be returned using either pdf or ppt by emailing them to the course address. The deadline for this assignment is Wednesday 14.3.2007 midday.
Please check courses at HUT Language & Communication Centre; an Academic writing course could be good for you!
Links given by the teacher:
The responsible author of this page is netsec
staff, <T-110.5290
tml.hut.fi>.
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