Today's CALL class
First, I have to apologize to all my tutors for my rudeness in email I sent before.
In today’s CALL class, we learned how to write email politely. Then I noticed how my mails were terrible. Sandra sent us a document which had 11 examples of email from student to Sandra. Some of them were enough polite and others were not acceptable. Then, I compared the emails I have sent to my tutors before with the examples labeled as non-acceptable. Unfortunately, they were quite similar. I decided to pay more attention when I send email to my tutors.
The Reconstruction of Greek Economy
Summary
According to the article written by Chris Morris from BBC News, European Union asked Greece to expedite its reconstructing process of economy the process of reconstructing the economy..
As a clue key to reconstructing the Greek economy, privatisation programmes are regarded as the most efficient solutions. It aims to raise 50 billion euros and it may also become a clue key to reduce its debt. However, privatization programmes are also seemed to also seems to contain some problems. For example, although selling Greece’s land is regarded as one of the preferable privatization projects, it is expected to cause problems because of its land registry system.
My Opinion
In this article, I found a lot of new words such as ultimatum, unfold, rebel, expedite, cautious… and the most remarkable phrase was “the cream of Europe's financial elite.” First I totally could not imagine what the cream of Europe’s financial elite was. However, thanks to the Longman dictionary, I could understand what it meant finally.
I always enjoy reading your blog, Tamami, and I haven’t noticed any rudeness in your emails (yet!)
ReplyDeleteIt’s great to see the progress you have made through regular writing practice. A key improvement is that way that you now make it very clear for your reader exactly where the ideas and information you report come from. It’s worth noting, however, that in UK academic conventions, we refer to writers simply by their surnames. In the case of this article, you should be referring to “Morris” and not “Mr Morris”. A few other language points that you could look at:
ARTICLES: English articles (a, an, the) are naturally problematic for speakers of languages which don’t have an equivalent (like Japanese). You might like to try addressing the issue through vocabulary. Before you start writing, think about key phrases you will need (e.g. Greek economy, economic growth) and then look through your source material to see if other writers usually use the, a, an, or no article with these phrases. By doing so in this case, you would see that it’s THE GREEK ECONOMY and ECONOMIC GROWTH (no article) and you can therefore avoid mistakes in your own writing.
NOUN PHRASES: As you try to produce academic writing, you’ll find it is often necessary to pack lots of detail into noun phrases. When you do so, just be careful that word order reflects the meaning you wish to communicate. Can you see a difference between:
a) Reconstructing process of economy
b) The process of reconstructing the economy
c) Economic reconstruction process
SENTENCE STRUCTURE: In academic writing, as the ideas you express become more complex, so your sentences are likely to become complex. This is a good sign, but be careful with long sentences. Check that for every verb in your sentence, there’s a clear subject. Equally, if you have more subjects than verbs, you’ve probably got an error to fix. Can you see the problem with the following two sentences from your summary:
a) Mr Morris suggests that not only an internal situation.
b) He refers to the opinion of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in order to show readers the external factors which preventing Greece from recovering its economy
SEEM: Like “consist” in a previous post, you’ve used “seem” in the passive voice (e.g. privatization programmes are also seemed to contain some problems). Can you see a problem with doing this?
CLUE: You use the term “clue” a couple of times but I’m not sure it’s quite what you mean. Can you think of any better alternatives.
Thank you for your comment, Mark先生.
ReplyDeleteActually, how to use ARTICLES is my problem. I always forget to put articles and my GVD teacher, Dave, always points out my mistakes.
However, the advice of thinking about key phrases I will need is very helpful. Next time, I will do so.
As for noun phrases, I cannot understand the difference between a) and b).
(Moreover, I am not sure about c).)
a) Reconstructing process of economy
b) The process of reconstructing the economy
c) Economic reconstruction process
I would really appreciate if you could tell me the difference among three.
Think about the meaning of "process". We talk about, for example, the process of applying to a university or a university application process, and this would be very different in meaning to "the process of university"
ReplyDeleteB and C have the same meaning (process of reconstructing and reconstruction process), but A seems to be referring to another process - "the process of economy" (which doesn't actually have a meaning for me). Also in A, it is the "process" that is being reconstructed. In sentences B and C, the economy is being reconstructed.
Can you see the difference?
Thank you for your answer.
ReplyDeleteSo, if I say "reconstructing process of economy," does it mean that it is not economy but process which is being reconstructed?
I am so sorry to ask you too many times. But, I would really appreciate if you could tell me which is appropriate, B or C.
Yes, your original sentence suggests that there is a "process of economy" and that this process is being reconstructed.
ReplyDeleteB and C are both correct! Just two ways of expressing the same thing.
I finally noticed that I had made a terrible mistake.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.
It's not a terrible mistake Tamami! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDelete