A Critique on Stephen Bailey’s (2006) Book on Academic Writing

A Critique on Stephen Bailey’s (2006) Book on Academic Writing

The following is a book critique for Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students, second edition, by Stephen Bailey (2006). This book is aimed at developing writing skills for non-native English speaking students doing a course at university or college. It deals with providing students with necessary tools to write in academic style. According to its author, “Any international student wishing to maximise his or her academic potential will find this practical and easy-to-use guide to writing in English a truly indispensable resource” (Bailey, 2006, p. I). Even though it can be agreed that the book may result useful for students immersing in the world of academic English, it can also be argued that it contains certain weaknesses.

To start with, the smooth internal organization of the book allows readers to easily find and explore the topics. The book is divided into four main sections, with sixty one units and a fifth extra section containing tests, answers to the activities suggested, and source. The first section includes information and practice on, for instance, avoiding plagiarism, planning an essay, the kinds of paragraphs that form the piece of writing, editing it, and so on. The second section copes with skills required to fulfill assignments. For instance, students are presented with activities aimed at developing skills such as comparing and contrasting, providing definitions and examples, explaining cause and effect, among others. The third section deals with helping students to be accurate writers by means of affording remedial activities on common mistakes. Finally, the fourth section exposes students to sample pieces of writing.

Concerning the dynamics of the book, certain advantages and disadvantages can be listed. On the one side, in all the sections, the activities included in them may be characterized as practical, actively engaging the learners. That is, students are provided with sentences and paragraphs to add, analyse, synthesise, select, or discriminate information, as well as tools necessary in academic English for students to manipulate. As Bailey (2006) explains, “The book is organised to provide maximum hands-on practice for students” (p.VII). However, on the other side, it can be maintained that those activities only involve students in short productions, usually no longer than a paragraph. In addition, the author could have included a greater variety regarding the kinds of activities, controlled and free ones. Moreover, some units do not provide necessary details novice learners would find crucial for writing academic English. For instance, when dealing with avoiding plagiarism, different styles for in-text citation and reference lists could have been included.

To conclude, Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students is a useful tool for students to learn how to write in academic style. Nevertheless, it would not be effective enough if learners adopted it as the only source of information to develop academic writing skills. Therefore, readers should bear in mind the possibility of complementing topics dealt with in the book with extra materials which focus on giving more specific information on such topics.

References

Bailey, S. (2006). Academic writing: A handbook for international students. Oxfordshire: Routledge. 

An Outline on MALL

An Outline on MALL

Purpose: to explain main ideas present in the journal written by Ballance, Olive (2012)

Thesis: Stockwell’s (2011) study failed to show importance of mobile phones in education because of obsolete technology and lack of attractive activities.

Audience: Teachers of English.

1.0. Technological devices for education:

    1.1. Computers (CALL)

    1.2. Mobile phones (MALL)

2.0. Stockwell’s study revealed negative results on the use of mobile phones for educational purposes because:

     2.1. The technology involved in the project is obsolete.

      2.2. The activities included could be done with pen and pencil.

3.0. Solution to the problem:

       3.1. The use of new technology.

                   3.1.1. Smartphones

                   3.1.2. App based activities

4.0. Possible result of the use of new technology:

      4.1. Improvement in learning:

                   4.1.1. MALL system is appealing.

                  4.1.2. Students can practise at any moment.

References

Ballance, O. (2012). Mobile language learning: More than just “the platform”. Language Learning and Technology, 16(3), 21-23. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2012/ballance.pdf

Learning Management Systems for Education

The following is an academic summary on a journal written by Robert Godwin (2012). The author lists many tools for teaching language through online systems. He introduces the learning management system (LMS) notion with examples such as the Blackboard Learn or Moodle, as the principal exponent systems, together with their positive and negative aspects.

Concerning LMS, Godwin (2012) explains its origins and functions. He mentions different systems, such as Web Course in a Box, later called Blackboard. Moreover, he explains that the main characteristics of these systems included, for instance, multiple choice quizzes and the opportunity to post in forums. In addition, Godwin (2012) explains how technology has advanced providing learners and teachers with more interactive and easy-to-use tools.

The author also gives details on systems and compares them. He introduces Blackboard Learn and explains that it presents some disadvantages, such as the fact that its activities can be said to be predictable and spoon feeding. In contrast, the author presents Moodle together with several positive aspects of this system. Among other reasons, he states that this system is flexible, free, and interesting. Another system that Godwin (2012) lists is Sakai, which is considered important since it allows for oral assessment.

As regards culture and collaborative working conditions, Godwin (2012) reveals more features related to these topics. Concerning cultural aspects, the author mentions the belief that a negative aspect of the mentioned systems is that they are Western-style, which may not be adequate for some societies. However, he also argues that globalization may allow the acceptance of these Western-style systems. As regards technology literacy, the author presents various reasons why LMS would be useful. The use of the systems exposes learners to tools and services. Moreover, LMS are beneficial for students to work in a collaborative atmosphere.

To conclude, Godwin (2012) presents various LMS together with their pros and cons. Mostly positive aspects of the use of the systems can be identified since they have given rise to new ways of learning and teaching catering for more students’ needs.

Reference

Godwin-Jones, R. (2012) Emerging technologies: Changing hegemonies in online learning. Language Learning and Technology, 16(2), 4-13. Retrieved from http//:llt.msu.edu/issues/june2012/emerging.pdf

Immersing Students into the World of Academic English

Summary

The following is a summary of an article written by Christine Tardy for English Teaching Forum. Its title is Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to academic writing. This article deals mainly with how to guide students into the production of academic writing, using Wikipedia as a tool for such aim. For students’ production to be accepted into Wikipedia website, Tardy (2010) explains what requirements and steps must be fulfilled.

To start with, according to the author, it is essential to raise awareness in learners of the importance of avoiding plagiarism. Writers should be able to paraphrase, summarize, cite and quote in order to successfully write in an acceptable academic style. Moreover, the academic style requires from the students knowledge of the appropriate genres, styles, register and a high level of expertise on the topics dealt with in papers. In addition, for written pieces to be accepted into Wikipedia, not only knowledge is required, but also reliable sources of information.

Furthermore, the writer lists the steps to be followed in order to successfully write in academic English and, thus, to have the written piece admitted into Wikipedia. First of all, students should start by examining Wikipedia to have an idea of what is expected from them. Then, gathering information follows with outlining and paraphrasing so as to organize what is to be written together with the sources where information was taken from. The last steps are concerned with the writing process. Students should be encouraged to draft, revise, format sources, and polish, being revising and polishing better achieved, as the writer suggests, if they are carried out by peer review. Finally, publishing takes place.

To conclude, the author aims at providing the teacher with tools to immerse students into the community of academic English. Students’ productions are accepted into Wikipedia as long as they meet the requirements of academic style. Therefore, as Tardy (2010) asserts, writing to publish in Wikipedia gives students a real purpose and real audience to use academic English, which is assumed to help students gain valuable learning.

 

Reference

Tardy, C. M. (2010). Writing for the world: Wikipedia as an introduction to academic writing. English Teaching Forum, 1, 12-27. Retrieved from http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/10-48-1-c.pdf

Citing Following the APA Style

Plagiarism is considered immoral, and, thus, when mentioning other people’s thoughts, they must be cited. For this reason, rules and procedures for citing have been established by the American Psychological Association (APA), among other associations. For this analytical essay, a paper by Dalvit et al, 2005, has been analysed to study the usage of the APA style. The results reveal that, even though not all these rules are applied, the authors follow many of them.

Concerning the use of in-text citations, it can be stated that they are adequate regarding APA manual. For instance, when the authors paraphrase Boughey’s words they write, “As far as language problems are concerned, the current approach (…) is mainly informed by studies in the Humanities (Boughey, 2002),” (p.73) including the author’s last name and year. Similarly, when citing a group or institution, its name and year of publication are included. Regarding signal phrases, for example in “According to Heugh (2002), little has changed since the end of Apartheid,” (p.72) the authors include only the year of publication in the parenthesis, as suggested by the APA.

As regards the reference list, it shows certain inconsistencies concerning what has been established by the APA. To start with, the layout chosen does not completely coincide with the APA style. For instance, the reference list is not on a separate page, the title “reference” is not centered in the first line, the list is not double-spaced, and, in the titles, not only the first words are capitalised. Furthermore, they use the word “and” instead of “&” when two or more authors are mentioned. For example, in the reference “ Halliday, M.A.K. and Martin, J.R. (1993). Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press,” (p.75) the use of capital letters and the use of the word “and” can be appreciated.

To conclude, it can be said that APA rules and procedures for citing have influenced the authors of the analysed paper up to a certain extent. The influence is mainly seen in the in-texts citations. However, concerning the reference list, its style does not completely coincide with the APA style. This incongruence can especially be seen in the layout and in the capitalization of titles of the reference list.

Reference

Dalvit, L., Murray, S. and Terzoli, A. (2005). Providing increased access to English L2 students of computer science at a South African University. US-China Education Review, Sep. 2005, Vol. 2 (9)

University of Minnesota Center for Writing. (n.d.) Quicktips: APA documentation style: Reference list. University of Minnesota: Student Writing Support. doi: 612.625.1893

University of Minnesota Center for Writing. (n.d.). Quicktips: APA documentation style: In-text citations. University of Minnesota: Student Writing Support. doi: 612.625.1893

Dear colleagues,
My name is Maria Rita Barbalarga. I am from Azul, Bs. As. I am 27 years old and I have been a teacher for 7 years. I studied at Instituto Superior de Formación Docente San José, in Tandil.

I have always been eager to learn and grow professionally. For that reason, I enrolled to study at CAECE University. When faced with studying academic English, we were invited to open a blog where we could work collectively sharing our learning experiences. Hence, this blog deals specially with EAP and ESL.

Please, as learning collaboratively is the main aim, feel free to leave any comment you may consider necessary, I will be anxiously waiting for them. I hope we all enjoy this fruitful experience. Working together, as the huge team we are from now onwards, will surely be one of my unforgettable experiences.
Now, I can only say that I will be looking forward to reading from you!

Kind regards,

Maria Rita Barbalarga