The Run-on sentence exercise

Dear all,

Just to clarify what you have to do, here goes an example and a definition.

A run-on sentence is a sentence in which two or more independent clauses are written one after another with no punctuation. A comma splice is when two independent clauses are incorrectly joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction (adapted from Oshima, A & Hogue A. (2006). Writing Academic English. Pearson Longman.)

Example: 1. A newly arrived international student faces several challenges. For example, he or she has to cope with a new culture.

Hope the former is helpful, (also take a look at the following post and check the comments made on your blogs).
See you tomorrow,
Claudia

Suggestions to improve your second draft

Dear all,

First of all, I wish to remind you to bring the grammar exercises due this Friday. The idea is to check them together, so bring them ready.

Additionally, I have read and corrected all the abstracts and have made comments on each person´s blog. Take a look at the suggestions and upload the second corrected version of your draft Thursday at midnight the latest:

See you then,

Claudia

Question samples

Dear all,

As promised here go some sample questions adapted from a version that Dr. Leyton uses in her seminars. Take a look so that you use them after each talk.

How does this compound/protein work?

What does this compound/protein do?

How long did it take you to obtain these results?

How much medium/drug did you use?

Why didn't the first experiment work?

How many researchers were involved in this study?

What do you expect to do next?

Have you tried the same experiment with different proteins?

Hope these examples are helpful.

See you tomorrow,

Claudia

Task 2

Dear all,



I'm happy to see that most of you have managed to create your blog. The first post was an introduction, which most of you have done already. Those of you who haven´t completed the task yet, please catch up. Now, you should improve your introductory post having in mind all the corrections that we discussed on our last session. But, please do NOT delete the original introduction. Also, you should write your first draft of the abstract and upload it the latest on Thursday at 13.00. This is because you´re expected to write 3 comments on somebody else´s draft, so you need some time for that too. The comments are meant for you to express your opinions about what your classmates have written both in terms of content and form.



The first draft of your abstracts should be about 250 words long. I recommend you to follow these guidelines (adapted from Swales, J. and Feak, C. 2009. Abstracts and the Writing of Abstracts. The Michigan Series in English for Academic and Professional Purposes):



1. Write the title and keywords (even if you are not writing the full article now, it would be useful to refer to the title and keywords as reference).



2. Write a clear introduction, one or two sentences, in which you refer to what is known about the topic or field (use the Nature and the perinatology sample abstracts as examples or any other that you may find appropriate). (What do people know about this topic?)

3. Write the purpose of your research (What is your study about?)

4. Describe the methods/materials/procedures/informants etc. (How was your study done?)

5. Results/findings (What was discovered?)


6. Discussion, conclusion, implications and or recommendations (What do the findings mean?).

We will discuss and analyse some of the drafts in class.

Finally, I expect to upload some model questions that can be used as reference to ask the Professors after their talk.

Best,
Claudia

Your blogs

Dear all,

This is to remind you to write your first introductory post the latest at midnight. And, please remember to send me the link to your blog so that I can link it to mine.

See you on Friday,
Claudia

Welcome!!

Dear all,

Welcome to the course. This blog is meant for you to develop different written tasks that will be explained to you each session. The blog will also serve the purpose of recording authentic written samples designed and created by you which will be used for our discussions in class.

The first thing you have to do is create your blog and send the link to me. After that, please write a short introduction including information such as:

* who you are

* what you study and where

* what your research topic/field is

* Why your research is of interest, to whom?

* What your future gols are

* Your expectations of this seminar

* Anything else that you may want to say or share

Deadline to post is Wednesday 21 at midnight.

Enjoy!!

Best,

Claudia