Subject – verb agreement in your literature review

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When students stop making subject – verb agreement mistakes I will stop bleating on about them! Subject verb agreement is an easy thing to check for. Here are some typical student mistakes:

Smith (2007) point out that the real cost of motoring has fallen lover the last decade.

and

Harley et al (1995) argues that the cost of public transport has risen faster than the cost of travelling by car.

Of course the correct forms are:

Smith (2007) pointS out that the real cost of motoring has fallen lover the last decade.

and

Harley et al (1995) argue that the cost of public transport has risen faster than the cost of travelling by car.

When you were first learning English all those years ago didn’t you learn things like:

Mr Brown gets up at seven thirty and travels to work by car. ?

Now, the grammar is the same but all those years later many students are making the same mistake forgetting about the ‘third person s’ which is the bane of English teachers around the world. When you are editing your work circle the subject and circle the verb in each sentence. Do they agree??

If you not sure what the rules are take a look at this handy explanation about it all from the University of Melbourne.

The nature of academic English

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I was working with a student the other day who had written a really really long sentence! There were so many clauses and commas, and there was so much information between the subject and the verb that I just couldn’t hold that much information in my head! Put in a few grammar mistakes because the student is not a native speaker and you can imagine my distress!

Here’s a paragraph from a journal article which I’ve used with some students recently:

It is generally agreed that overseas students are at a severe disadvantage in coping with a new education system.  From various aspects, many studies reported the difficulties experienced by overseas students with their academic progress. Elkerton (1985) highlighted the extent of thesis supervision for overseas students. His research showed that, in general, overseas students require more intensive supervision than the native students. Barker et al (1991) reported the difficulties faced by a sample of Chinese students with tutorials. Felix and Lawson (1994) found that overseas students often expoerience stresses and problems not only with tutorials (including lectures, seminars, but also with laboratory work and essay writing up.

Li , R and Kaye, M (1998) Understanding Overseas Students’ Concerns and Problems, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol 20, No 1, 1998

Read it? Fine. It’s not very difficult to understand because the sentences are quite short and easily structured. In most sentences you can see quite simply:

In fact it is remarkable how simple the structures are here! If you are writing a literature review look no further for how to do it! Looking at sentences like this – subject – verb – and the rest – can help you check for agreement between the subject and verb and can also help you understand complex sentences when you are reading. Keep it simple!

As usual I will leave you with a link to read around the subject a bit more. Today’s link is to Napier University in Edinburgh with some useful comments about academic writing style.

Paraphrasing

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One of the most important things in Academic English is to be able to refer to other people’s writing without copying. In fact, it is one of the essential skills at university.

I am interested in how universities can help students to adapt to university life and I found an article about how one university did some research into supporting students by texting them on their mobile phones. Think about that for a moment – would you like your teachers, tutors and administrative support staff to text you on your phone saying things like: “Don’t forget to hand your essay in!” or “Tomorrow’s lecture is in room 113″ ?

Here is a paragraph from that article:

“Our findings show that text messaging is the dominant mode of electronic communication amongst our student sample and that text messages from university staff, if used sensitively and sparingly, are viewed positively by students. We also found that text messaging is integral to students’ every day social relationships and provides peer support in two areas: support to help them negotiate administrative structures and emotional support. However, the interviews also show that, in both areas, during the period of transition to university, students need more support than that which peers are able to provide. ”

Harley D, Winn S, Pemberton S, and Wilcox P (2007) Using texting to support students’ transition to university, Innovation in Education and Teaching International, Vol 44, No 3, August 2007, pp229-241

I want to use these ideas in my writing so I need to paraphrase this material.

Step one: understand the material thoroughly before you paraphrase it. Sounds obvious to me, but I find sometimes that students write down some things that they don’t actually understand! You cannot put something into different words if you do not understand the original. Use a dictionary, make an appointment with your language support teacher and ask them questions. Ask a friend.

Step two: make notes. This means that you will isolate the important points. A paraphrase is usually shorter than the original, so it is often like a summary of the main points in your own words.

My notes from the paragraph above look like this:

1. texting = dominant mode of elect. comm. for sts

2. sts like texts fr staff

3. texting = integral to sts social relationships

4. texting = peer support = 1. in administrative structures 2. emotionally

5. sts need more support than just from peers

Step three: Look at your notes and try to put them into sentences. This is my first attempt:

Harley et al (2007) found that texting is the main way students communicate electronically and that students generally like getting texts from staff. Texting is essential for personal relationships and provides peer support for administrative and emotional matters. Students need more than peer support.

Step four: Compare your writing with the original. I wrote

text messaging is essential for personal relationships

the original was:

text messaging is integral to students’ everyday social relationships

Oops! Too close to the original – the sentence structure and many of the words are the same. I need to think again. Actually now I look at my writing I see that these ideas:

texting is the main way students communciate electronically

and

texting is essential for personal relationships

are very similar. In fact both these sentences are talking about how important texting is in students’ friendships. So, put these sentences together to get the idea:

Harley et al (2007) found that texting plays a vital role in students’ social lives.

Now we are getting somewhere! That’s a paraphrase – the essential meaning is drawn out but the words are totally different because I am not paraphrasing sentence by sentence.

Step five: Write your paraphrase again! This is my next attempt:

Harley et al (2007) found that texting plays a vital role in students’ social lives and that students generally welcome texts from university staff. Texting provides peer support for administrative and emotional matters. Peer support is not sufficient.

Step six: Check your paraphrase against the original again. I find that I am still unhappy with my phrase:

Texting provides peer support

because the original is:

text messaging….provides peer support

so I am going to try again:

Harley et al (2007) found that texting plays a vital role in students’ social lives and that students generally welcome texts from university staff. Students support each other in administrative and emotional matters through texting but this peer support is not sufficient.

Step seven: go and have a cup of tea, job well done.

I am a native speaker and it took me that long to get it right! It is a case of understanding, drafting, checking and redrafting. Slow and steady wins the race!

For more great input and further paraphrasing exercises visit that fantastic site The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University here.

Paraphrasing – keep it simple!

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Whatever your subject you are going to have to read books and articles at university and refer to them in your work.  I’m going to spend the next few posts saying some things about how to paraphrase well and my first piece of advice is to learn a few standard phrases to introduce your paraphrasing, get them right, and keep using them! You don’t win any medals in academic writing for being creative! If you read through academic texts you see the same phrases again and again. For paraphrasing these might be:

As Smith (2007) points out, November is the worst month of the year in the UK.

According to Smith (2007), November is the worst month of the year in the UK.

Smith (2007) claims that November is the worst month of the year in the UK.

As far as Smith (2007) is concerned, November is the worst month of the year in the UK.

In fact, depending on your level of English those four patterns might be enough! Students often get into problems because they have seen so many of these phrases that they start mixing them up and come up with things like:

According to Smith (2007) states that November is the worst month of the year in the UK.

which is not only wrong but horrible too! The student has mixed up two different patterns. If your English is very good then you will know that this is grammatically impossible, however there are plenty of students who produce sentences like this. I know it is natural to make mistakes while you are learning but one thing you can do to cut down on mistakes is to make use of common academic phrases. Learn those four phrases above to introduce your paraphrase. Learn which ones use a comma and which ones don’t and use the same few all the time. If you vary the verb that you use in the same pattern this will not look too repetitive. Keep it simple!

On the theme of simplicity here is a simple list of reporting verbs from Glasgow Caledonian University.

(Did you guess that I’m fed up with the weather??)