CAMBRIDGE
ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE ADVANCED
UNIT 79
Academic writing: making sense
A
|
Presenting
arguments and commenting on others’ work
If you advocate something, you
argue in favour of it: He advocated capital punishment.
If you deduce something, you
reach a conclusion by thinking carefully about the known facts: Look at these sentences and see if you can deduce
how the imperfect tense is used.
If you infer something, you
reach a conclusion indirectly: From contemporary accounts of his research, we
can infer that results were slower to come than he had anticipated.
If someone’s work complements someone
else’s, it combines well with it so that each piece of work becomes more
effective: Elswick’s (2016) research complements that of Johnson
(2012).
If someone’s work overlaps with
someone else’s work, it partially covers the same material.
You might call someone’s work: empirical
[based on what is observed rather than theory], ambiguous [open to
different interpretations], coherent [logically structured], comprehensive
[covering all that is relevant], authoritative [thorough and
expert].
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
B
|
Talking about figures and processes
If
figures are referred to as arbitrary, they are based on chance or
personal choice rather than a system or data that supports them.
Figures
that deviate from the norm are different from what is typical.
If
statistics distort the picture, they give a false impression.
If
you refer to the incidence of something, e.g. a disease, you are
talking about how often it occurs.
If
something, e.g. the incidence of brown eyes, is predominant, it is the
largest in number.
If
things, e.g. stages in a process, happen in sequence, they happen in a
particular order.
If
you want to say that something happens in many places or with many people,
you can say that it is widespread, e.g. widespread outbreaks of an
illness, widespread alarm.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
C
|
Words typically used in academic
contexts
|
EXERCISES
79.1
|
Which
of the five verbs in A opposite best fits in each sentence?
|
||
79.2
|
Which
of the five adjectives in A best describes each of these things?
|
||
79.3
|
Answer
these questions which use vocabulary from B opposite.
|
||
79.4
|
Use
items from C to rewrite the underlined parts of the sentences in a more
formal academic style.
|
||
79.5
|
Rewrite
this paragraph. Change the bold words and use words from C opposite to make
it sound more academic.
|
ANSWER KEY
79.1
1
overlap, complement(s)
2
deduce
3
advocates
4
inferred
79.2
1
authoritative
2 empirical 3 ambiguous 4 coherent 5 comprehensive
79.3
1
b
2 49, 64 (they are square numbers: 7 squared and 8 squared) 3 Ulla’s mark was either much higher or lower than 68%. 4 c 5 No, they select their subjects in a random fashion.
79.4
1
The information resides in archives that must not be opened until
2050.
2 He conceived his theory while still a young man. 3 Each of the symbols in the phonetic alphabet denotes a sound. 4 This study contradicted what was previously held to be true, and so triggered a great deal of discussion amongst specialists in the field. 5 Details of the experiment have been appended to the report. 6 Jelowski’s book reflects upon the rise and fall of great Empires over two millennia. She perceives the Roman Empire as an instance of a pattern that has repeated itself in other times and other parts of the world.
79.5
The
present study was initially conceived in order to validate a new
method of enquiry whereby
genetic information could be utilised to predict disease. The study contradicts the findings of Hill (2009); indeed it would appear to demonstrate/indicate the converse of what he claimed. It presents a somewhat different view of the genetic factors which trigger disease. Notwithstanding, the study does not negate Hill’s, as his studies served the crucial purpose of devising symbols to denote certain tendencies, thereby facilitating further research. |
No comments:
Post a Comment
thank you for visiting my blog and for your nice comments