Alison Chisholm

1
WELCOME

• Alison Chisholm
• English Language and Study Skills Officer
• Rachel Cole
• English Language and Study Skills Tutor

2
Postgraduate Study in the UK

• If you study in a new academic culture, there may
  be many differences from the academic culture you
  are used to (new country/new level of
  study/returning to study as a mature student).
  These may focus on
• Student expectations
• Tutor expectations
• Study methods and teaching style
• Different extra-curricula activities
• You will find that you enjoy the differences and
  learn from them!

3
Predict the differences

• Try to predict some of the differences you may
  experience. Consider
• moving from Undergraduate to Postgraduate Study
• moving from another countrys academic culture to
  British academic culture
• Returning to study after an absence

4
Predict the differences

• To start your discussion, consider the following
• The role of the tutors and students.
• Your opinion about what you are learning.
• Time and study management.

5
Predict the differences

• What are the benefits of these possible
  differences?
• Being an independent learner
• The tutor/student relationship
• How study time is organised
• Interest in what YOU think, as well as what the
  books and tutor say
• Assessment methods

6
Any Questions?
7
Forms of Address

• If you meet a new tutor for the first time, and
  they do not introduce themselves by name, how
  would you address them?
• 1.      in person
• 2.      in an e-mail
•  
• Do you think this is the same for students at all
  levels? And for faculty at all levels?

8

• You have a tutorial (a meeting) booked for 2.00
  p.m. You get to your tutors room on time, and
  the door is shut, but you can hear voices coming
  from the room. What do you do?
• 1.      walk in
• 2.      knock
  
• 3.      wait

9

• You arrive late for a seminar. How do you enter
  the room and what do you do?

10

• You are expecting an urgent call from home, and
  wish to leave your mobile phone on during the
  seminar. What do you do?

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• What would you say if the tutor kept talking
  after the seminar was meant to be over?

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• What would you say if the tutor made a factual
  error?
•  

13

• The University publishes various rules and
  regulations on its webpages. Whose responsibility
  is it to ensure that you know about and have read
  these pages?

14
Any Questions?
15
Grade A?

• ? Clear English
•  
• ? Good structure
•  
• ? Good grammar and spelling
•  
• ? Presenting a clear critical point of view or
  argument
•  
• ? Following writing guidelines
•  
• ? Good use of literature
•  
• ? Good, accurate referencing
•  
•  
•  
•  

16
What does critical mean?

What is meant by Critical reading? Critical
thinking? Critical writing?
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An example of critical thinking?

• Its true because I believe it!

www.abc.net.au
18
Can you answer these questions?

• How many birthdays does the average person have?
• 78
• 65.5
• One per year
• None

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Can you answer these questions?

• A woman gives a beggar 50p. The woman is the
  beggars sister, but the beggar is not the
  womans brother. How come?
• The beggar is the womans sister
• Not possible
• The beggar is an in-law
• The woman is the beggar

20
Can you answer these questions?

• Why cant a person living in England be buried in
  Scotland?
• The Scottish parliament does not allow English
  people to be buried in Scotland
• The person is not dead yet
• It is a trick question, and the person is a Scot
  living in England
• The person is living on the border
• http//www.cof.orst.edu/cof/teach/for442/quizzes/q
  1003ex.htm

21
How much do you know about cricket?

• How many words do you know to do with cricket?
  List them.
• Can you therefore talk meaningfully about cricket?

22
How much do you know about cricket?

• Can you answer this question from all angles?
• Has the introduction of one-day internationals
  been beneficial for cricket?

23
How do you think critically?

•  
• Persistence consider every issue fully, and more
  than once.
• Evidence evaluate the evidence put forward in
  support of the belief or viewpoint.
• Implications consider where the belief or
  viewpoint leads what conclusions would follow
  are these rational and suitable? If not, should
  the belief be reconsidered?

24
Four principles of Academic Communication

• CLARITYBe clear and direct in your style. Be
  direct about your aims and objectives. Don't use
  more words than are necessary.
• http//www.sussex.ac.uk/languages/1-6-8-2-1.html

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Four principles of Academic Communication

• REALITYExplain what needs to be explained, for
  example, which particular definition of
  patriarchy you are using in your argument, but
  assume your reader has basic knowledge of the
  world.
• http//www.sussex.ac.uk/languages/1-6-8-2-1.html

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Four principles of Academic Communication

• RELEVANCEConsider only that which is relevant to
  the topic, focus and objectives of your argument
  or discussion. Do not include anything that you
  cannot link to your argument or show its impact
  on the topic discussed. Do not put crucial
  information in your conclusion that has not
  previously been discussed in the body of your
  work.
• http//www.sussex.ac.uk/languages/1-6-8-2-1.html

27
Four principles of Academic Communication

• HONESTYState only that which you can support
  with factual evidence. Always acknowledge the
  source of both evidence and ideas.
• http//www.sussex.ac.uk/languages/1-6-8-2-1.html

28
Any Questions?
29
Finding your voice

• How much of what you write should be YOU?
• How much should be OTHER PEOPLE?
• You need to show HOW you have formed YOUR
  ARGUMENT through what you have read or heard in
  lectures and seminars.

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Your voice

• Your voice can (and should) be heard through
• Your grouping of ideas
• Your comparisons
• Your critical evaluation of ideas
• Your application of an existing idea to a new
  area
• You do not have to have a completely new
  approach!
• Nor should you just describe!

31
Example of a fully referenced paper
Kramsch sees language as the expression of
cultural reality the words people utter refer
to common experience. They express facts, ideas
or events that are communicable because they
refer to a stock of knowledge about the world
that other people share (19983) . The
inter-relationship of language and culture is
thus stressed and re-affirmed. Echoing Whorf
(1956), Kramsch (1998) also recognises, though,
that language not only expresses experience, it
also creates it. As noted above, however, Pinker
(1994) among others has taken issue with this
view. For the purposes of my research, I
preferred to take a view located somewhere
between those of Kramsch (1998) and Pinker (1994)
that culture has the capacity to create
experience rather than that it inevitably
does. Adapted from Page 2004
32
Bibliography

• Page, J. (2004) Culture and the Language
  Classroom the Chinese learner in the United
  Kingdom. MA dissertation, University of Sussex

33
Which cake wins the original home-made cake
competition?
www.cakebydsarcy.com
v-recipes.blogspot.com
atkinsfarms.com
www.whatwereeating.com
34
Plagiarism

• Plagiarism is using the work of others without
  acknowledging your sources of information or
  inspiration. This includes
• using words more or less exactly as they have
  been used in articles, lectures, television
  programmes, books, or anywhere else.
• using other peoples ideas or theories without
  saying whose ideas they are.
• paraphrasing what you read or hear without
  stating where it comes from.
• Even if you change words or sentences you have
  borrowed or put them in a different order, the
  result is still plagiarism (Cottrell 2003133).

35
Plagiarism

• using words more or less exactly as they have
  been used in articles, lectures, television
  programmes, books, or anywhere else.
• This is LANGUAGE BASED plagiarism
• using other peoples ideas or theories without
  saying whose ideas they are.
• This is IDEAS BASED plagiarism
• paraphrasing what you read or hear without
  stating where it comes from.
• A paraphrase WITHOUT A SOURCE is plagiarism

36
Read this text quickly to get the gist

• Civilizational Incarceration
• A remarkable use of imagined singularity can be
  found in the basic classificatory idea that
  serves as the intellectual background to the
  much-discussed thesis of the clash of
  civilizations, which has been championed
  recently, particularly following the publication
  of Samuel Huntingtons influential book, The
  Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the
  World Order

37

• Indeed, the thesis of a civilizational clash is
  conceptually parasitic on the commanding power of
  a unique categorization along so-called
  civilizational lines, which as it happens closely
  follows religious divisions to which singular
  attention is paid. Huntington contrasts Western
  civilization with Islamic civilization, and so
  on. The alleged confrontations of religious
  differences are incorporated into a sharply
  carpentered vision of one dominant and hardened
  divisiveness.
• Sen, A. (2006) Identity and ViolenceThe Illusion
  of Destiny. London, Allen Lane Penguin. pp 10-11

38
Paraphrase Exercises

• Original
• A remarkable use of imagined singularity can be
  found in the basic classificatory idea that
  serves as the intellectual background to the
  much-discussed thesis of the clash of
  civilizations, which has been championed
  recently, particularly following the publication
  of Samuel Huntingtons influential book, The
  Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the
  World Order.
• (Sen 200610)
• Paraphrase 1
• Samuel Huntingtons book, The Clash of
  Civilizations and the Remaking of the World
  Order, supports the recently championed idea
  that there is a clash of civilizations, and is
  based on the idea of an imaginary singularity.

Unacceptable language-based plagiarism author
has clearly lifted this part
here
Most importantly, this paraphrase is not
referenced!
39
Paraphrase 2
Acceptable has understood idea, and re-worded
it, giving a reference.

• Original
• A remarkable use of imagined singularity can be
  found in the basic classificatory idea that
  serves as the intellectual background to the
  much-discussed thesis of the clash of
  civilizations, which has been championed
  recently, particularly following the publication
  of Samuel Huntingtons influential book, The
  Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the
  World Order.
• (Sen 200610)
• Paraphrase 2
• Sen criticizes Huntington, among others, for
  attributing singular identities to civilizations,
  thus allowing a vision to emerge of a clash of
  civilizations (Sen 200610).

Okay to keep clash of civilizations, as it is a
widely-used phrase in the public domain
40
Paraphrase 3

• Original
• Indeed, the thesis of a civilizational clash is
  conceptually parasitic on the commanding power of
  a unique categorization along so-called
  civilizational lines, which as it happens closely
  follows religious divisions to which singular
  attention is paid. Huntington contrasts Western
  civilization with Islamic civilization, and so
  on. The alleged confrontations of religious
  differences are incorporated into a sharply
  carpentered vision of one dominant and hardened
  divisiveness.
• (Sen 200610)
• Paraphrase 3
• Sen (200610) suggests that the idea of a clash
  between civilizations derives at least in part
  from the practice of amalgamating the notions of
  a dominant religion and a civilization. Religious
  differences are accentuated, while no other
  aspects of civilization are considered, thus
  leading to a vision of an adversarial
  relationship between civilizations.

Acceptable ideas attributed, absorbed and re-
expressed in authors own words.
41
Paraphrase 4

• Original
• Indeed, the thesis of a civilizational clash is
  conceptually parasitic on the commanding power of
  a unique categorization along so-called
  civilizational lines, which as it happens closely
  follows religious divisions to which singular
  attention is paid. Huntington contrasts Western
  civilization with Islamic civilization, and so
  on. The alleged confrontations of religious
  differences are incorporated into a sharply
  carpentered vision of one dominant and hardened
  divisiveness.
• (Sen 200610)
• Paraphrase 4
• A civilizational clash does not reflect the
  actual tensions between different communities,
  but rather, the practice of defining the
  communities in terms of only one aspect in this
  case, religion.

This is ideas-based plagiarism the author has
understood and re-worded Sens point, but has not
acknowledged where it came from!
42
Paraphrase 5

• Original
• Indeed, the thesis of a civilizational clash is
  conceptually parasitic on the commanding power of
  a unique categorization along so-called
  civilizational lines, which as it happens closely
  follows religious divisions to which singular
  attention is paid. Huntington contrasts Western
  civilization with Islamic civilization, and so
  on. The alleged confrontations of religious
  differences are incorporated into a sharply
  carpentered vision of one dominant and hardened
  divisiveness.
• (Sen 200610)
• Paraphrase 5
• The notion of a clash between civilizations is
  conceptually freeloading on the ultimate power of
  a sole categorisation along civilization lines,
  which happens to match the divisions of religious
  belief, which is considered particularly
  important (Sen 200610).

Unacceptable although the author has attributed
the ideas to Sen, they have simply used a
thesaurus to modify the language- this is not
paraphrasing
43
Paraphrase 6
from here

• Original
• a unique categorization along so-called
  civilizational lines, which as it happens closely
  follows religious divisions to
• which singular attention is paid. Huntington
  contrasts Western civilization with Islamic
  civilization, and so on. The alleged
  confrontations of religious differences are
  incorporated into a sharply carpentered vision of
  one dominant and hardened divisiveness.
• (Sen 200610)
• Paraphrase 6
• Sen disagrees with Huntingtons contrasting
  Western civilization with Islamic civilization,
  as it rests on
• a unique categorization along civilizational
  lines, which in turn follow the all-important
  religious divisions (200610).

Unacceptable source is attributed, but this is
language-based plagiarism the author has only
changed the order of the sentences.
to here
44
Example of a fully referenced paper

• Using Harvard

Kramsch sees language as the expression of
cultural reality the words people utter refer
to common experience. They express facts, ideas
or events that are communicable because they
refer to a stock of knowledge about the world
that other people share (19983). The
inter-relationship of language and culture is
thus stressed and re-affirmed. Echoing Whorf
(1956), Kramsch (1998) also recognises, though,
that language not only expresses experience, it
also creates it. As noted above, however, Pinker
(1994) among others has taken issue with this
view, saying it is somewhat misleading
(199483). For the purposes of my research, I
preferred to take a view located somewhere
between those of Kramsch (1998) and Pinker
(1994) that culture has the capacity to create
experience rather than that it inevitably
does. Adapted from Page 2004
45
Example of a fully referenced bibliography, using
Harvard

• Kramsch, C. (1998) Language and Culture. Oxford
  Oxford University Press
• Pinker, S. (1994) The Language Instinct. London
  Penguin Books
• Whorf, B. (1956) Language, Thought and Reality
  Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf.
  Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology Press

46
So, why do people plagiarise?

• Intentional?
• Unintentional?

47
So, why do people plagiarise?

• Unintentional
• Timing?
• Poor note-taking skills?
• Lack of confidence? (resulting from lack of
  understanding or lack of language)

48
Tips on How to Avoid Plagiarism

• Remember that referring to sources is seen as
  positive in academic writing. It shows you have
  read widely.
• When reading, think about what the author is
  saying, and your reactions, before taking notes.
• Only copy what you intend to quote and put in
  quotation marks. Ensure that you take full
  bibliographic details, including page number!
• The rest of your notes should be in your own
  words. This will save time and worry later.
• Also make notes of your own reactions, but keep
  these separate!

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Remember!

• Before you can paraphrase, you must have fully
  understood what you have read.
• Read, Reflect, Note, and then Write.
• It is easier, and safer, to write a good
  paraphrase from notes than from the original
  text.
• Remember bibliographic details are needed for all
  paraphrases.

50
How to Reference

• For detailed information about referring to
  sources see the University of Sussex library
  on-line tutorial InfoSuss.

51
Any Questions?