Instructor: Pai H. Chou
<br>Email: phchou@cs.nthu.edu.tw
<br>
<br>1. Course Desc<x>ription
<br>
<br>This course covers the grammar, vocabulary, st<x>yle, logic, and tools needed for writing and reading 
<br>materials 
<br>on science and technology.  The grammar review part covers sentence construction and common 
<br>mistakes.  
<br>The vocabulary part compares similar but often misused words in technical English.  A large portion 
<br>of the 
<br>course will cover st<x>yle with editing exercises on making the writing concise, precise, 
<br>professional, 
<br>coherent, easy to read, and persuasive.  The logic part deals with the organization of ideas and 
<br>reasoning, 
<br>with a review of common logical fallacies.  The course will be using collaborative writing tools for 
<br>collaborative authoring of such materials.
<br>
<br>2. Textbooks
<br>
<br>- John M. Swales and Christine B. Feak, Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Tasks 
<br>and Skills. 
<br>3rd Edition. The University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-03475-8, available through Crane 
<br>Publishing 
<br>Cl., Ltd. (文鶴出版有限公司)
<br>
<br>- Strunk and White, the Elements of st<x>yle, available online
<br>
<br>- Course reader
<br>
<br>
<br>3. Teaching Methods
<br>    The course will review grammar and st<x>yle rules for technical English.
<br>    The format will be lecture with interactive sessions for the class to
<br>    participate in reading and editing technical English.
<br>    Exercises will be taken from textbooks and provided by instructors.
<br>
<br>4. Evaluation
<br>    30% class participation
<br>    50% take-home assignments
<br>    20% final paper
<br>
<br>5. Tentative Schedule
<br>
<br>Part 1: Approach to Academic Writing
<br>
<br>- Audience, Purpose, Strategy
<br>
<br>Part 2: General-Specific Structure
<br>
<br>- General statement, definition, definition, naming, definite vs indefinite article, restrictive relative 
<br>clause
<br>
<br>Part 3: Problems, Processes, Solutions
<br>
<br>- problem-solution text, mid-position verbs, verbs and agents, active vs passive voices, causality, 
<br>adversative 
<br>connector
<br>
<br>Part 4: Data Commentary
<br>
<br>- Strength of  claim, purpose, location, indicative vs. informative, highlighting, qualification, strength 
<br>of verbs, 
<br>graphs, time, chronology
<br>
<br>Part 5: Summaries
<br>
<br>- summarizing vs copying, headings, points, paraphrasing, reporting verbs vs evaluative verbs, 
<br>mention, 
<br>citation
<br>
<br>Part 6: Critiques
<br>
<br>- purpose, elements, general aim vs specific aim, findings, criticism vs critique, unreal conditionals, 
<br>inverted 
<br>word ordering, agreement
<br>
<br>Part 7: Constructing whole paper
<br>
<br>- types of publications, sectioning, features, methodology, hyphenation, results organizations, 
<br>
<br>Part 8: Refinement
<br>
<br>- thesis statement, rhetorical pattern, basic moves, sentence ordering, opening, answer, centrality 
<br>claim, 
<br>literature citation, tense, quasi-negative vs neutral, contrastive, hypothesis, suggesting extension, 
<br>purposive 
<br>vs desc<x>ription, abstract, acknowledgment
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>6. Course Website
<br>on eLearn To be posted when available
<br>