最新研究生学术英语写作教程Unit-8-Key

Unit 8 Writing Abstracts

1. Reading Activity

1.1 Pre-reading Task

What is the purpose of writing an abstract?

It is the first thing people read when they want to have a quick overview of the whole paper.

(for discussion)

What are the basic elements for an academic abstract?

Motivation, problem statement, approach, results, conclusions. (for discussion)

What language problems may you have in abstract writing? (for discussion) (omitted)

1.2 Reading Passage 1.3 Reading Comprehension

1.3.1 What does the abstract talk about What the study does This study examines the impacts of social movements through a multi-layered study of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement from its peak in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. By examining this historically important case, the writer clarify the process by which movements transform social structures and the constraints movements face when they try to do so. The time period studied in this dissertation includes the expansion of How the study voting rights and gains in black political power, the desegregation of does it public schools and the emergence of white-flight academies, and the rise and fall of federal anti-poverty programs. Two major research strategies were used: (1) a quantitative analysis of county-level data and (2) three case studies. What materials are used 精品文档

Data have been collected from archives, interviews, newspapers, and published reports. 精品文档 Conclusion This study challenges the argument that movements are inconsequential. Some view federal agencies, courts, political parties, or economic elites as the agents driving institutional change, but typically these groups acted in response to movement demands and the leverage brought to bear by the civil rights movement. The Mississippi movement attempted to forge independent structures for sustaining challenges to local inequities and injustices. By propelling change in an array of local institutions, movement infrastructures had an enduring legacy in Mississippi. 1.3.2 Decide how many elements this sample includes and how they function. Elements Functions Motivation Why do we care about the problem and the results? If the problem isn't obviously \"interesting\" it might be better to put motivation first; but if your work is incremental progress on a problem that is widely recognized as important, then it is probably better to put the problem statement first to indicate which piece of the larger problem you are breaking off to work on. This section should include the importance of your work, the difficulty of the area, and the impact it might have if successful. problem statement What problem are you trying to solve? What is the scope of your work (a generalized approach, or for a specific situation)? Be careful not to use too much jargon. In some cases it is appropriate to put the problem statement before the motivation, but usually this only works if most readers already understand why the problem is important. approach How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem? Did you use simulation, analytic models, prototype construction, or analysis of field data for an actual product? What was the extent of your work (did you look at one application program or a hundred programs in twenty different programming languages?) What important variables did you control, ignore, or measure? results What's the answer? Specifically, most good computer architecture papers conclude that something is so many percent faster, cheaper, smaller, or otherwise better than something else. Put the result there, in numbers. Avoid vague, hand-waving results such as \"very\\"small\or \"significant.\" If you must be vague, you are only given license to do so when you can talk about orders-of-magnitude improvement. There is a tension here in 精品文档

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that you should not provide numbers that can be easily misinterpreted, but on the other hand, you don't have room for all the caveats. What are the implications of your answer? Is it going to change the world (unlikely), be a significant \"win\hack, or simply serve as a road sign indicating that this path is a waste of time (all of the previous results are useful). Are your results general, potentially generalizable, or specific to a particular case? conclusions 2 Language Focus

2.1 Commonly used verbs in abstracts; tenses in abstracts

Verbs 1. is of .. 2. grow concern in … 3. … are on the increase 4. focus on .. 5. assess 6. understand 7. continue 8. meet the aims through … 9. carry out 10. use 11. produce 12. confirm 13. deal with 14. depend on 15. combat 16. be aware of 17. address 18. localize 19. draw from 20. fail to 21. embrace 22. hinder 23. argue for 24. reduce 25. take … into 精品文档

Sentence patterns 1. Cybercrime is of growing concern in the business community. 2. Despite …, cyber attacks are on the increase. 3. This dissertation focuses on ways …. 4. This dissertation met these twin research aims through …. 5. The latter was carried out through a Case Study with…. 6. This research produced a number of key findings: … 7. … recent surveys confirm a significant increase in 8. … organizations lacked the security expertise to deal with cybercrime … 9. Organizations were not aware of Government recommendations on how to address internet-based security issues … 10. Governments and law enforcement agencies tended to localize cybercrime, allocating scant resources to contributing to a global solution. 11. The main conclusions drawn from this research were that… 12. … current approaches to fighting cybercrime are deficient because they fail to embrace an holistic approach, … 13. This research argues for a multi-pronged model to reduce incidences of cybercrime. … 精品文档 account … 2.2 Categories Background Aim Verbs review， summarize, present， outline， describe, ... attempt， purpose， aim, ... Sentence patterns The theory comes/stems/emerges/originates from… The theory is obtained/provided/furnished from… This paper develops a theoretical framework to… This paper presents an approach to… This report(thesis, presentation, document, account…) explains (outlines, summaries, evaluates, surveys, develops, investigates, discusses, focuses on，…) the results of… This article addresses the following questions：… This paper has three main objectives：… This research project is devoted to… The objective of this paper is… One goal has been to develop… This paper describes… The purpose of this study is… The chief aim (main purpose, primary object, major objective, principal goal) of the study is… Research focus(es) Research process method study, present, include, focus, emphasize, ... test， study， investigate, examine, experiment, discuss, consider, analyze, ... measure, estimate, calculate, They put forward ( developed, proposed) this theory, which is based (advanced, suggested, created, constructed, formulated, elaborated) on.../ rests on, ( proceeds from)... The curative effect (sensitivity, function) of certain drug (kit, organ) was observed (detected, studied). 精品文档

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... Research result show， result， present, ... Conclusion It has been found(observed, proved, shown)that… These experiments indicate (reveal, show, demonstrate) that… The approach (method, framework) promises to be.. The results show (indicate, suggest) that... It is shown (concluded, proposed) that... This could imply that... These studies are of significance to... These results have direct application to... The results indicated that... The results show that... The results demonstrated that... The results reveal that... It was shown that... It can be seen that... It was found that... It was discovered that... It was concluded that... It has been demonstrated that... It was clarified that... It was revealed that... It is considered that... It was confirmed that... It is suggested that... It was supposed that... It has become apparent that... summary， This causes (results in, leads to, brings about, gives introduce， rise to)... conclude, These data lead us to a conclusion (conclude)that... ... These data enable us to conclude that… On the basis of these data, one (we) can conclude that... From these data, it can be concluded that... 2.2 Verb tenses in abstracts Elements Verb tenses Element 1 Simple present Motivation, 精品文档

Examples This dissertation focuses on ways to assess the effectiveness of current preventative measures to cybercrime and to understand why 精品文档

organizations continue to be vulnerable to cybercrime. This dissertation met these twin research aims through an extensive study of relevant literature and the implementation of practical research. The latter was carried out through a Case Study with Company XXX using semi-structured interviews with key I.T. security personnel. Element 4 results, Element 5 conclusions Simple past 1. Simple present 2. Simple past This research produced a number of key findings: … 1. This research argues for a multi-pronged model to reduce incidences of cybercrime. 2. The main conclusions drawn from this research were that current approaches to fighting cybercrime are deficient because they fail to embrace an holistic approach, … Element 2 problem statement Element 3 approach Simple past Simple past

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4 Writing Practice

3.1

A review of groundwater remediation in use today shows that new techniques

required solve the problems of pump and treat, containment and in-situ treatment. 3.2

The use of a funnel and gate system via a trench has been examined in detail 3.3 精品文档

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The modeling involved an analysis of the effect of changing the lengths of the walls and gate, varying the permeability, and varying the number of gates. 3.4

An important factor in designing the walls is the residence time of the water in the gate or the contact time of the contaminant with the reactive media. 3.5

The results of the modeling and sensitivity analysis are presented such that they can be used as an aid to the design of permeable treatment walls.

3.2

The informative abstract version: The purpose of this paper is to establish the importance and approaches in securing an organization’s legitimacy from the network community of customers, suppliers and manufacturers, including private investors and state-owned institutions when marketing their products. The paper presents an inductive interpretative approach complimented by action-based research founded on inquiry and testing. The paper finds that the key to legitimacy success involves using legitimacy orientations to demonstrate commitment to the interests of constituents, acquiring legitimacy from them, but concurrently considering the central government’s influence on a firm’s legitimacy performance. The multiple interactions proposed in this paper remain untested and might have to be modified pending further empirical testing and analysis. In China’s telecommunication market, a company’s legitimacy emanates first and foremost from the development and commercialization of innovative and creative technological solutions. This requires good, creative management of technological resource and activity links, connecting the company’s technology to network constituents which include local manufacturers, carriers, software developers, investors. This is the first published paper that examines the proposed interactions among legitimacy orientations, alignments, and performances from a “market-as-network” perspective in a dynamic, transitional Chinese 精品文档

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telecommunication market. 4.3 Writing keywords

Sample abstract Sample abstract 1 Sample abstract 2

Keywords cybercrime, preventative measures, business community social movements, Civil Rights Movement, Mississippi, voting rights, desegregation 4. Writing project

4.1 Get prepared for writing an abstract 4.2 Outlining an abstract Motivation In 1950, 30% of the world’s population lived in cities. In 2000, (background it was 47%. By 2010 more than half of the world’s population will statement) be living in cities. The total may even reach 60% by 2030 and possibly 85% by the middle of this century. Such rapidly increasing urbanization, particularly in developing countries, creates many opportunities and challenges. …… Mega cities are the focal points of globalization as well as the driving forces for development; they harbor a wide spectrum of human skill and potential, creativity, social interaction and cultural diversity. Problem Aspects of sustainable master planning that impact carbon and statement energy implications need to be understood to help inform (aims) concepts at the earliest stage of the design process. For example, the full benefits of reducing operating energy demand of buildings can only be realized if the energy supply can respond to the reduced demand, which includes the additional benefits of reducing the energy supply infrastructure, which in turn reduces its embodied energy. Likewise, if a low (or zero) carbon energy supply is to be used, for example, renewable energy, this is easier to achieve if first the energy demand is reduced. …… Approach Hanoi in 2110 will feature super tall skyscrapers, elevated (method) connectors and railways, nodal communication networks, as well 精品文档

精品文档 (procedure) (methodology) as electrical and energy corridors. Vertical neighborhoods, where people live, shop, relax and work, are built on and above this surface. Built structures are not just individual towers standing independent from another but instead are interlinked and inter-dependent to form an urban spatial organization that allows for vertical connectivity. …… Whether or not 1 million people are appropriate for a 1 km2 super cluster remains to be seen. The optimum density for sustainability, land use and quality of life may be less and will vary with global location. The above approach is essential to inform the design of high rise high density Megacities if they are to realize their full potential for providing sustainable healthy zero carbon cities of the future that can co-exist in a sustainable way with their neighboring rural areas. Mega cities have to be designed to use resources efficiently and produce a good quality of life for its inhabitants. They should be designed around the zero inhabitants. They should be designed around the zero carbon approach, designed to use the minimum amount of energy and then generating what energy they need from renewable sources. These renewable energy supplies could be integrated into the building design, into the neighborhood or developed outside the city specifically to serve the new development. …… Results (findings) (product) Conclusions (Implications) 4.3

Abstract:

“Megacities” are defined as urban areas with more than ten million inhabitants. By 2015 it is estimated that Asia (where much of the worldwide process of urbanization is taking place) may contain as many as 60 Megacities housing more than 600 million people in total. This number will dramatically increase over the next decades with more than 2 billion people living in Megacities by the end of this century. Low carbon performance is a fundamental aspect of the sustainable planning of a new urban development. Sustainable master planning has four components, namely operating energy use, embodied energy associated with buildings, energy supply infrastructures, other infrastructures such as transport, waste, water, sewage, etc. These aspects need to be understood to inform the concept design at its earliest stage, especially if designed to cater for the needs of global megacities where ramifications of poorly integrated planning could result in profound and long-lasting impacts on carbon and energy intensity. This paper describes how these aspects of low carbon planning and

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design can be assessed by using urban scale modeling, namely the Energy and Environmental Prediction model (EEP-Urban), at a whole city and building plot level.

Keywords:

Urban planning, High density, Urbanization, Energy modeling, Low carbon

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