Response to the reading of Swales & Feak(1994)'s unit 2: Writing General-Specific Texts

As I read each chapter of Swales & Feak’s book, I realize how useful this book is for academic writers especially for EFL learners. This chapter introduces how to write “General-Specific texts” (Swales & Feak, 1994, p.33), using sentence definitions because GS paragraph usually begins with sentence definitions.

Having read this paper, I understood that how to define terms using sentences, and that there are various sentence definitions for GS texts such as extended definitions, contrastive definitions, and comparative definitions (Swales & Feak, 1994). Grammatical tips about deletion of relative clauses are very helpful for me. While doing some tasks in this chapter, I felt I do not only improve academic writing skills but also useful grammar skills as well.

Swales, J. & Feak, C. B. (1994). Writing general-specific texts. Academic writing for graduate students: A course for non-native speakers of English (pp.33-55). Ann Arbor, MI: the University of Michigan Press.

Response to the reading of Swales & Feak (1994)'s unit 4: Data Commentary

This chapter introduces how to integrate data in academic writing using ‘data commentaries’ (Swales & Feak, 1994, p.77). I have not used data commentaries in my academic writing because I did not know how to deal with various data in tables, graphs, figures and etc. Therefore¸ when I needed data for my writing, I have usually dealt with data to attach graphs or figures only, or to explain in sentences without the original data form like graphs or figures.

After reading this chapter, I started to understand how I can deal with those data in my writing. It is, of course, still complicated but Swales & Feak (1994)’s practical tips are quite helpful. There are also useful expressions to explain data effectively for academic writing. As long as I apply these practical tips in my writing properly, I may be a better academic writer!

Swales, J. & Feak, C. B. (1994). Data Commentary. Academic writing for graduate students: A course for non-native speakers of English (pp.77-103). Ann Arbor, MI: the University of Michigan Press.

Response to the reading of Anderson & Kanuka (2003)'s E-Research

I use computers a lot for typing, sending e-mails, searching information and reading articles on the internet. I hardly imagine doing anything without using computers and the internet. After reading this article, I realize I am one of e-researchers who use e-research a lot. I do not have time to visit libraries or people for information and discussion because of my multi roles like a mother, worker, wife, and a daughter.

When I was asked to do a literature review for the first time, I had this question in my mind, ‘Do I have to review the literature?’ I could not answer at that time but now I can say, “Yes, I need the literature review to explore topics efficiently and to justify rationale for research topics.”

As Anderson and Kanuka (2003) mentioned, the literature review can be a process and also a product. As a process, researchers get hints and suggestions for ways in their future researches when they read the literature carefully (Anderson & Kanuka, 2003). The more I review the literature, the more I clarify my research way. Whenever I write about the literature, I expect where I will arrive. I also agree with Anderson and kanuka (2003)’s saying, “As a product, the literature review will be a record of and a set of pointers to the research”(p.40). My literature review will be the rationale for my research and so it helps other researchers to understand my intention well.

Since e-researchers get information in ease, they also have more temptations to plagiarize. Anderson and Kanuka (2003) also explained, “The ease of cutting and pasting from the Web has been blamed for an increase in plagiarism” (p.52). As a writer, I must paraphrase or cite sources properly and also as a reader, I need to look through each literature carefully to prevent plagiarism.

In addition, this article introduced various useful tips for finding sources for the literature review. From now on, I will try to find them using those tips. I hope that they will save my time!

Anderson, T. & Kanuka, H. (2003). E-Research: Methods, strategies, and issues. Boston: Pearson (chapter 4 pages 39-55)
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