Lecture Nine Lecture Ten (Renewed)
Lecture Eleven Attachment
Notice
INTRODUCTORY
WORKING NOTES FOR POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS
Australian Lawyer, Writer and Historian
All words or phrases underlined in the text could well be new
vocabulary words to you. If so, look them up, for I will be testing each of the
above classes on them in Lesson 3, next week. Such words have not been chosen
by means of gay abandon, but rather as fairly common everyday English
working words you are likely to come across in the future.
Remember, at times during this course, you may find quite naturally
that I spell words in a classic English way which differs from the more phonetically-based
spelling of our American brethren e,g Oxford English spells ‘disc’, Americans
‘disk’, English ‘endeavour’, American ‘endeavor’.
This should not alarm you, just relax and take the view
that just as speaking accents may be different when English is spoken to
communicate by verbal means by English-speakers from different
western countries, so too the spelling of words in written communication is equally
flexible e.g. the rules as to what is correct spelling, are now much more
flexible than they used to be.
However, because historically it was an American, Bill Gates, who
essentially cornered the market in this new technological era of the computer
and the internet becoming an integral part of our lives, with his
Microsoft software, it is clear that American-English spelling is now more
widely used in academic institutions throughout the world, than
English-English!
So people such as myself, who are inveterate traditionalists, are
forced to simply ‘look the other way’
, when formerly solid English words such as ‘programme’ have now been
re-translated into Americanese to stand as ‘program’. Such is life, one has to
simply view such developments as ‘moving
with the times!’
Course
Introduction:
Welcome to the course. You come from diverse disciplines.
Certainly English studies are not essential, or organic to the
postgraduate degree you are studying, but there are benefits inlaid,
which will hopefully assist in your post-university studies careers. .
We are going to provide you here with a new dynamic approach to
the clear objectives of the course. The primary objective of this comparatively
short 16-lecture course, is to endeavour to expose you, and provide you with
more confidence in the general art of what is known as composition writing.
I realise that some of you may come to these classes initially, with an
ingrained view that such a course bears little relevance to your
core academic majors, and therefore essentially a waste of your time. To that
small sectional group I say … we shall see. If indeed you do not experience a ‘seachange’
in your attitude by the end of it, then I will have failed. Why, because I believe
the Chinese university authorities have demonstrated great foresight in
insisting that all university students both undergraduate and post-graduate
receive further formal tuition in the course of their studies, in both written
and spoken English.
Why both timely and appropriate?
The answer should be obvious to you. In the whole long and incident-rich history of Chinese
society, which spans over 5,000 years of civilization, you are unquestionably
the luckiest of Chinese students in its whole existence. Few would argue
that on the international stage, barring unforeseen calamities, through
its ever expanding trading power, the 21st century belongs to China.
It will become the largest international trading colossus known to man.
With increased trade, comes increased national wealth. If you now add
to this equation, through improved medical technology and living conditions,
the reality that your life expectancy and career opportunities have now
expanded exponentially, then regardless as to whether you are studying hard at
this time to be say an accountant, economist, or market manager, having a good
working-knowledge grasp of English, as the international trading
language of the world, is essential. That is, if you seek quick
promotion in your future jobs, and the chance to be given interesting tasks,
which will allow you to travel widely overseas.
So to close our introduction I make it clear that I intend to work you hard,
both in speaking English in our classes, and make you write hard outside classes,
such that your pens will become a natural extension of your fingers!
I am not going to load you up with a whole host of technical ‘English composition’ jargon contrived by a multitude of mainly American and Canadian academics (interesting as it may be for those who actually major in English), since it is really not necessary and be of little relevance to your future careers as engineers, accountants, economists etc.
Instead you will be given the basics of these concepts in Lesson Two:
·
· keeping your
sentences short and simple, noun, verb, object (KISS),
·
· always be aware
of the audience which will be its recipient (AUDIENCE)
·
· adjusting the
tone and style of your words and word order to suit the audience
and occasion, which has warranted such written communication in the
first place (TONE).
and then we will move on quickly, in what is essentially a very short
course, to actually maximize your practice writing, by concentrating
very much on ‘hands on’ style and purpose, using examples created by
yourselves.
What we want to do is in a small way, in
the time available, to build up your confidence in writing and speaking. For
this reason we have also added some new dimensions to the keynote
lecture program for the semester (refer separate notice this web page), and the
English Corner program (refer separate notice this web page) in the hope that
you will find this essentially casual program, and participate in it
well.
PARTICULARS
OF LECTURES AND ASSESSED WRITTEN WORK
Lectures 1-16
·
· Lecture One was getting to know you
·
· Lecture Two –basic tools and types of
English Composition writing. Hopefully the complete set of typed working notes will
be ready for the day, but if not will be ready on the internet shortly after.
·
· Lectures Three to Sixteen – basically
practical, not theory work; constant reviews of written work completed, and
discussion sessions based on the 21st Century English Current Issues
newspaper each week.
Twenty First Century
Newspaper
Each week I expect before class that all students in all my Writing and Speaking classes to have
read the latest edition of this newspaper, which I understand is readily available
just across the street at the South Gate to the university. We shall be in
particular devoting much attention to the special composition articles found on
the inside back page of the paper each week that are of topical
interest. It will serve as a vehicle for student class discussion
and intra-class debate, in which all students will be encouraged to
participate; not simply the most advanced English speakers.
While the traditional idea of English Corners is to have an environment
as relaxed as possible (so that students are encouraged to express their
views), we will build in this semester -as an experiment.
·
· First, the new
concept of showing some four feature movies during the semester (one each
chosen by the four lowei post graduate teachers) which are shown in the theatre
on the afternoon of the scheduled English Corner and then discussed at the
English Corner later that night, with discussion notes provided beforehand by
the foreign expert who chose it.
·
· Second to split
these English corner sessions into two halves, provided such a concept is well
received by students. Namely, the first part being free-flowing
discussions as before, where the students can talk about any issues arising out
of their work or on any topic they choose. Then second a specified set of theme
topics as published and of which the foreign experts critiques of the movies
they have presented are simply four themes of the 15 English Corner evening
sessions each Thursday night commencing at 7.30 pm at either the badmington
courts opposite the old foreign students dormitory (inside the School of
Foreign Languages if raining)or inside the theatre hall as advised on the day.
·
· Students are
encouraged to have put some thoughts into these evenings if they can spare the
time as to what is their own point of view on matters being discussed, prior to
the meeting, so that they can participate well if they choose to.
There will be a cocktail of six short essays of between 500-600 words to be completed every two weeks and will be marked by me. Likewise the writing of one poem, with a prize for the most romantic one written (and surprisingly the winning poem could well be penned by a young man as against a woman if past experiences hold true!); and a master essay at the close of the semester of a 1000 or 1200 words.
As students you may have forgotten, that as teachers we were once
students also, and would not be imposing such tasks on you, if we did not
professionally believe that regular ‘hands on’ practice is the best and only
way to build your confidence and skill in this area.
Well, they will be due in weeks 3,5,7,9,11,13,15 and 16,and they are purposefully structured to give you practice in the various techniques of composition writing.
Essay
One: On Your Deathbed
Imagine
you are about to die on your bed through old age, aged 82. That much reported tunnel of
white light is coming towards you [it is true I sat on my father’s bed as he
died and he described it to me] and like
a video camera on re-wind your whole life is flashing before you
as your bodily functions close down (as though the lights are being switched
off in a dark room) and you are forced to judge yourself and your actions
during that replay.
As a form of both reflective
and descriptive writing you are to construct[make believe] what your
life might have been like from infancy until then, highlighting along the way
what you consider would have been the highlights in your life, and what would
have been regrets. Seek to make it
as realistic as you can.
Essay
Two: -Witness at an Accident.
You
are standing on the edge of the road at the University’s South Gate waiting for
the traffic to clear. You
are feeling hungry and impatient to cross the road to get a quick snack,
before returning to attend a tutorial. It is late on a Friday afternoon,
and the traffic is very heavy, and the number of people wishing to cross is
also large. There is no policemen on traffic duty. On crossing you observe an
old lady slip and fall on the roadway, because it has been raining. Her ankle
is then run over by a taxi seeking to turn too sharply to pass through the
entrance arch to the university. You rush to the old lady, because you have completed a First
Aid course, and are forced to observe a violent argument between the taxi
driver and the old lady and her adult daughter, who was by her side as she
attempted to cross the road..
A policeman now arrives on
the scene, calls for witnesses and you come forward. He asks you to supply him with a written statement. You do.
Now write that statement as an exercise in narrative/report writing.
Essay
Three -In Chinese culture Life is more important than Truth
Poem
Will be discussed in course
of lecture
Essay
Four The Most Exciting (or
sad/vivid/uplifting/enjoyable/momentous) Event (or
happening/incident/experience/moment), in your Life so far.
Self explanatory mixed exercise of both narrative and description
Essay Five Not so
much an essay as a submission. You are
after a pay rise from
your boss and relate it to the mythical fact situation below.
You graduated from Zhongshan University three years
ago with an MA degree in economics. You like your job, which is a responsible
one with a progressive manufacturing company in your home city Guangzhou. You
are an under-study to the branch manager who has been in the job for many
years, is not computer literate and feels threatened by your up-to-date
business skills. He often leaves
early in the afternoons to go and play cards with his friends leaving you to do
the work but always pretends when the branch is praised by the ‘big boss’ that
the new improvements were at his initiative, when in fact they were your ideas.
You feel your pay is far too low, given the work you
do and believe yourimmediate boss has already resisted you being given a pay
rise as suggested by the big boss. You believe your immediate boss is resisting
out of a sense of pride ( that your salary would be much closer to his, yet you
are half his age) and on the
grounds that in his view you dress too casually in a manner not keeping with
the rest of the staff, and therefore do not earn their respect.
You feel this is totally unfair and unjust and have
decided to sidestep your immediate boss, and write a formal submission/request
to the big boss seeking the pay
rise you believe you richly deserve.
Your task is
to now write this request taking into account that
·
·
generally
you do like your immediate boss (reminds you of your father) and
·
·
do not
want to criticise him too much in this submission for a pay rise, since he is
likely to retire soon
·
·
yet hold
to your personal view that the quality of the work you do deserves a pay rise
given
1.
1. you now have added experience, and
2.
2. really the way you dress has
nothing whatsoever to do with your work efficiency. Especially given you have
in recent months, since that criticism was first brought to your notice,
modified your dress to be more in keeping with other junior managers employed
by the company.
Good luck!
Essay Six Describe and assess what you consider to be the most
endearing
qualities in either your sister/brother/best friend,
best friend/girlfriend/lover or husband/wife or close relative
(aunt/uncle/grandparent), and why and also on the other side of the
coin, their minor habits which despite your love for them you do find
annoying but prepared to ignore!
Self explanatory. Mixed writing exercise as to feeling/analysis,and
narrative
Master
Essay This final essay topic will be decided closer to the
end of the semester.
As students it would be appreciated if you observed the following in-class rules.
·
· Please feel free at any time to interrupt if you do not understand
the meaning of any key words that I speak, and seek explanation
·
· If through enthusiasm I speak too fast, say so
·
· I expect in return for you all to put a lot of effort into your
essays when you write them so that you get maximum benefit from the course
· · When we go through essay critiques in class or have general class conversation, it is important out of courtesy and consideration for others that those not directly speaking remain quiet so that all can hear clearly what is being said.
·
· Observe the golden rule that when you walk into the classroom you
speak English at all times, even if you wish to speak domestic matters
to your friends before the start of class.
·
· If you are a strong English speaker, encourage those next to you who
have less confidence, to themselves speak out and join in the discussions
· · Feel free at any time to ring me during weekdays or nights if you have a particular problem, but respect the weekends unless previously arranged.
· · Make sure you have read the current week’s back inside page of the 21st Century newspaper before the lecture for that week, so that you can take part in an informed way in the class discussions.
·
· It would be nice if there were sufficient members of each class for the class to go
out on a special outing as a group one Sunday each in the semester to take me
to a special cultural site in the Guangzhou area of your choice, so that we can
have lunch together and the rule being of course that only English is spoken
(otherwise a penalty of additional drinks for classmates are imposed!), and
that the class monitor arranges for someone to plan/arrange the outing
and serve as guide!
Look forward to seeing you in class!
Alex Graeme-Evans BA(Hons) LLB Adel. JP
Australian Foreign Expert
School of Foreign Languages
Zhongshan University
Guangzhou
Ist March 2003
These working notes have been written specifically for Senior Groups 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8, in respect to their ‘Writing and Speaking’ unit this semester. Senior Group 3, which is also being taught by the same teacher, is also requested, for their ‘Reading, Comprehension, and Speaking unit, to simply read the text and note its contents.
Writing is an art form, just
like the specialised craft of the sculptor, sketch artist, and painter.
With writing you paint
pictures,visions and ideas with words. This medium of communication, so
essential to the daily lives of human beings for millennia, regardless of
culture or race, can be the most powerful of all social mediums. It translates
the intangible into the tangible, and by so doing creates permanence to ideas
and concepts that others, apart from the writer, may adopt and take on as their
own.
In such a way revolutions of
thought, which have affected whole civilizations have come to pass through
powerful writings such as: Karl Marx’s criticism of Capitalism (Das Capital) in Russia and elsewhere;
Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in Germany; the Christian English Bible in the vast set of colonies, (and now significant
nations) which historically bore close allegiance to Great Britain due to its
pre-eminence as the crucible of the industrial revolution in the eighteenth
century, the leading international trading nation for most of the nineteenth
century, and out of which the concept known as the British Empire was formed;
the Jewish Talmud; and of course your
own Mao Tse Tung’s Red Book.
Through all these works, these massive tomes of thought and attitudes they advocate as to how we should live our lives have all played their part in over time fashioning the civilisations with which we deal with today at an international level, be it as friends, neighbours, allies, enemies, or trading partners.
In this short course we will
focus on the skill of writing in English, given you are
clearly already well accomplished in this art form in your own language.
Otherwise, surely you would not be here studying for higher postgraduate
degrees.
There is a very pragmatic
idiom in our country, you cannot teach a
skill, it is only learnt by means of demonstration and practice.
So, this is why after this
lecture, the balance of your semester will not commit you to becoming too
involved with the academic theses of American and Canadian Professors in
particular, who have made a living out of creating a whole academic technical
science out of ‘how to’ write good English composition[1], given in practical terms when you leave this
university, you have far more important matters to learn in respect to your own
professions.
Therefore, the focus here
will be to adopt a full ‘hands-on’ practice approach, through the means of
actually writing a whole string [long length/list] of essays for
yourselves. These essay topics have now been set and are now on the internet (www.zsu.edn.cn), in the School of Foreign Languages section, under
the paper entitled Introductory Working
Notes for Students, 2nd March 2003.
In Australia and elsewhere in the western world, there are certain technical phrases which cross all disciplines and active facets [features] of social/community organisation and behaviour[2]. The term the KISS principle is one of them, and is most certainly relevant here for the reasons already advanced in the Introductory Working Notes
Namely, in taking on the challenge of the essays you are about to write; keep the sentences short, complete, consider the nature of the audience to whom you are writing; for what purpose are you writing; and what is the appropriate tone or style to adopt for such a purpose.
Origin of the Meaning and Concept of the English
word Essays
One learned academic tome of great value as a text book from the American schools of composition writing[3], suggests the origins of the word ‘essay’ has its derivation [origins/beginnings] from the writings of a sixteenth century French Attorney (lawyer), Michel Montaigne. Montaigne, upon his early retirement from the law, chose to call his writings and reflections on life (and the state of society as it was then), ‘essais’, which in English translates to mean ‘trials’ [really a legal term meaning formal documented argument or challenge] or ‘attempts’ [to try to do something]
While for many of you, parts of what follows may serve as revision, we will now move on and deal here with some of the basics of simple sentence structure and syntax [grammar], and the generally accepted principles of essay writing structure [writing composition], before we ask you to take off flying solo [alone] into the uncertain skys of starting to draft your own essays, as set for you.
II Basic Ingredients of
English Prose Sentences
A sentence is the basic structural unit of what is known as ‘writing’. It is essentially a group of words that has unity of meaning [e.g. there is a logical connection between all the thoughts or actions described in that sentence].
A sentence is made up of two parts; the first describes a person, name or idea, which is referred to as the subject, the second part says something about the subject and is called the predicate. Every correct sentence must contain both features [elements]. E.g. the dog [subject], barked [predicative]. Subjects are known as nouns , and given the predicative is describing something happening to the noun, it has to have a verb to make logical sense.
Sentences can be either simple or compound in their structure. A simple sentence is made up of essentially one main clause : Example: The bees are located next to the river.
By
contrast, a compound sentence is made up of two or more main clauses. Example:
We were not feeling well that day, most
probably due to something we had eaten the night before, so we decided to
shorten the itinerary of our sight-seeing trip, and return home early.
A phrase: is a group of two or more words
A clause: is a group of words containing a substantive verb and subject. It depends very much on the style and the principal idea a writer wishes to convey, as to how a clause may be finally placed in the overall structure of the planned composition
If a simple clause is graced at its beginning with a capital letter and is closed off with a full stop, it will in fact emerge as a simple stand-alone sentence in its own right, orif added to may become known as what is called a subordinate clause.
Example: the simple clause: …we all went for a walk to cool off, can be a sentence on its own, but in turn it will become a subordinate clause if one then writes before it: It was very hot yesterday,… so we all went for a walk to cool off.
Objects: You do not need in all instances to have an object in a sentence, so long as the sentence makes sense without one. The trick is in more complex [detailed] sentences, you ask of yourself ‘who’ and you will find the subject, and you ask yourself ‘what’ , to find the object.
The fat man[subject] talked loudly in my ear[object].
III Review of the Sub-Units of the Basic
Sentence
Like a bricklayer, who builds a house with bricks by using cement to expand and hold the structure together, we can add greater depth and meaning to a sentence by mixing in [adding] supporting word aids, which tell us more about the character of the subject or nature of the activity going on. These are the white and red ‘corpuscles’, which enable firstly the sentence and then as a whole the written composition expand and grow and take on a life of its own. So in the next few pages we will review the smaller support aids we make a sentence well written and balanced in its presentation.
Difference between Adjectives and Adverbs:
We use adjectives to give more character/description to the noun subject, while adverbs provide more definition to the action verb.
Example: The fat[adjective] man[noun], talked[verb] loudly [adverb].
Pronouns –are designed to replace nouns
Pronouns on the other hand our are language efficiency auditors. For instance take the subject of a boat. The descriptive story would become both lengthy and cumbersome if we kept saying ‘The boat… every time a separate sentence was raised concerning a different idea as to its condition, so this is where words known as pronouns come to the rescue:
Example: The boat is made of wood. The boat has two sets of sails and a rudder.
The boat was moored[parked at] to the
jetty.
With the use of pronouns [best understood to be referred to as replacement nouns], in this case the pronoun ‘it’, a fair crisper/neater sentence presentation, with less words would now read as follows:
Example: The boat is made of wood. It has two sets of sails and a rudder. It is moored close to the jetty.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns refer to specific people, animals and certain inanimate [have no life] objects such as for instance a boat, which is referred to in the feminine gender as a ‘she’. I, you, he she, we, you, they etc. Those pronouns which come before the main verb in a sentence are referred to as subjective pronouns, while me, you, him, her, it, which come after a verb, are referred to as objective pronouns . Pronouns such as mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours and theirs are referred to as possessive pronouns.
Relative Pronouns
Another particularly helpful pronoun in building up efficiently a good story or idea is the use of what is known as relative pronouns .They act as a bridge between two separate ideas and thus enable you to join two unrelated sentences into one.
These pronouns are who, that or which. Hence we could tidy up the two rather disjointed [unconnected] statements about the boat earlier, so that it was now to read:
The boat which moored to the jetty, is made of wood, and has two sails and a rudder.
Interrogative Pronouns
Other helpful replacement nouns [pronouns] you should keep in mind to make the style of your writing flow easily, and therefore maintain the interest of the subsequent reader in your writing, are interrogative pronouns [who, whom, whose which and what] Examples: Which book do you wish to read. What is its subject content. Who do you think will buy it. Whose turn is it to read now? In other words they are used when you are asking questions of someone about something and looking for answers.
Demonstrative and Reflective Pronouns
On the other hand there are what we call demonstrative pronouns, which seek a dramatic focus on the subject at hand. Examples: This lecture is taking too long to prepare! Those cooks in the kitchen are making too much noise and distracting me from my writing! These eyes of mine are getting tired sitting in front of the computer all day! Is that really the time? There are also reflective pronouns, which you will use from time to time to embellish [decorate] your text: I cut myself etc..likewise, itself, yourself, ourselves, herself, yourselves, himself, and themselves.
Types of Adjectives
Briefly you will recall from your earlier studies that there are descriptive adjectives, which tell the reader about the qualities of a person, thing or idea, there are also demonstrative adjectives which point things out [this, those], numeric [fifty, three, five etc], interrogative which ask questions [what, which, whose], distributive [ every house in the street, neither boy had their shoes on, either boat will serve our purposes, each girl shone with a radiant smile, neither policeman thought the incident to be funny], possessive [my, your, its, his, her, their] and indefinite [some children, either way, few pencils, many critics etc).
One rather heavy use of adjectives is in its comparative form, especially when feelings or passion or firm beliefs are involved. They are employed where you wish to promote with your words a dynamic or vivid picture in the mind of the reader. The trick however, depending on the degree of comparison you wish to make, is that the adjective may change its spelling completely [e.g. good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; many, more, most; or change completely altogether, some, more, most; much, more most.]
And,
to make life a little more complicated, some adjectives are in themselves not
capable of being substituted e.g. they are absolute in their descriptive
purpose [cannot be changed in any way]. Three of the most commonly used which
fall into this category are when some thing, person or idea, is regarded as
being unique, flawless, or perfect!
Finally
the front runner [most prominent] of all adjectives, are the words in English
which we very often use to commence our sentences: The, A, and An. The first is referred to in technical
terms as the Definitive Article, and
the other two are Indefinite Articles.
Verbs are the Vital Skeletons of a Sentence, if it
is to Make Sense
We will skip issues such as past and present tense, of which you would already be well aware and confident in using, and just make a few refresher [reminder] points.
· Verbs set the scene for the word picture.
· Apart from the main verb which can happily stand on its own in a sentence without further assistance, there are what are known as past and present participles. These are subsidiary verbs who cannot exist on their own in a sentence ,or otherwise the sentence would not make sense:
Example I am hoping [present participle
combining with an auxiliary verb in the present tense] to stop and have some dinner soon.
Now contrast this with:
Example: I had hoped[past participle combining with an auxiliary verb
in the past tense] to have had dinner by
now, because I am very hungry.
· The trick is for the subsidiary verb, which is a past participle, needs the use of auxiliary verbs such as have, had, has or was, went etc included in the sentence, so that it makes sense, while likewise for the subsidiary verb, which is a present participle, one adds to the end of the plain root of a simple verb in that sentence, the letters …ing.
Example: I am going to have a cup of tea very shortly.
· At times you may have observed the term infinitive used, when there has been a discussion about verbs. Please relax, there is nothing magical here. All it means is the word ‘to’ is placed in front of the plain form of the verb being used. e.g. I want to go to the WC right now!
· What is special about infinitives, is that they are very flexible in their use, and can serve as nouns as the subject of sentences, an adverb or an adjective.
· Until recently there used to be a strict rule that no adverb or adverbal phrase [subgroup of words that forms part of a sentence] should be placed between the proword ‘to’ and the verb it was serving e.g. to go, to run, to play, to climb etc[4].
· However the reality today is, that it is left for the writer and the style of the writing being written, to act as the final determiner [judge], as to whether an infinitive should be split from its verb by an adverb or not.
Example: I am going to politely go [split infinitive] down the stairs, so that I do not disturb others, is a far superior and a less clumsy style of writing than, I am politely to go [obeying the rule] down the stairs….or I am to go[obeying the rule] politely down the stairs…
· So, really the best advice I can give you, is to follow your natural instinct as to what you consider sounds the best in the context overall of your writing, and forget the old-fashioned rule that one should not ‘split your infinitives!’
Compound, Main and Auxiliary Verbs
It is important to realise that verbs can be more than one word. Such combinations are referred to in text books as compound verbs or verbal phrases and are made up of a main verb and auxiliary verb.
Example: We had been[auxiliary]
gone [main verb] for hours,
before the police arrived.
Conjunctions -link separate ideas into the One
Sentence
In
the English language we do this by means of what we call conjunctions and are already very commonly used by you when you write
English [and, not, for, yet, but, or, so]
and are called coordinating conjunctions,
in that they join words or
groups of words of a similar kind or class. Example: the banana was big and yellow.
Conjunctions which pair up to create links between separate ideas are referred to as correlative conjunctions, and I am sure you have used them often in the past in a descriptive, comparative or argumentative sense: neither ….nor; either…..or; not only……..but also; whether…….or; not…..but; both……..and.
Example: Not only did the full bottle of wine, when it was accidentally
knocked off the table, seriously stain the brand new carpet, but also
was responsible for the major argument between my father and grandfather, as to
why it had been put there in the first place.
Beware too Free a use of Subordinate Clauses
Not only do conjunctions have the function of joining two disparate [quite different] ideas into the same sentence, but can also force one part of a sentence to be reliant on another part of the sentence.
One of the traps of using conjunctions in this way, is that it can make your sentence structure far longer than it needs to be. If so, you will be in clear breach of the rule stressed earlier. Namely, for safety in style, as non-native English speakers, it is best at least initially, when coming to grips with our language, to keep your sentences as short as possible.
In fact our country’s lawyers, which includes myself as a guilty party are at times the main offenders when dealing with heavy description about a particular idea or set of facts. It is too easy in such circumstances to end up with a whole paragraph becoming simply one long sentence, which a naieve reader will find very difficult to follow. Judges in particular be found to be in fact be the worst offenders. So please, use the main subordinate conjunction offenders very sparingly. Below are shown those most commonly used:
After, than, before, whenever, once, as if, till, if, wherever, so that, because, when, now that, as though, even though, whereas, since, as though, until, in order that although, that, even if, where, rather than, as long as, unless, if only, while.
Other Sentence Connectors
Sentence Connectors is the
other category of connectors you will read about in the texts. The most
commonly used of this class of connector, are in alphabetical order: also, anyway, besides, certainly, finally,
furthermore, hence, however, indeed, instead, likewise, meanwhile, namely,
nevertheless, now, otherwise, still, then, therefore, thus.
Several simple examples rolled up into one paragraph would be:
Example: It was very cold in Jilin in January, namely, some 24 degrees
below freezing. However, there
were compensations, the central heating was excellent, and furthermore,
the evening meals were most lively, likewise the revelry
afterwards.
Prepositions –connect words:
It
suffices [is adequate] to simply state here for our brief purposes, that prepositions are many and varied and also
connect words in matter relating to either time or space e.g.
in, above below, near, onto, beneath, until, etc etc.
IV
-DEFINING THE BOUNDARIES OF YOUR WRITING
You have been previously well taught the structural elements as to the writing of essays in your undergraduate days; introduction summary, beginning, middle, end, and conclusion. So, we will not repeat such issues here. What we will delve into here to assist you in your forthcoming assignments is to look at firstly defining the boundaries as to what constitutes composition writing for current and also future use, and then look briefly at the technical side of the types of collective writing as so labeled by in particular western-culture academics.
Ground Plan:
Before commencing any form of writing the writer needs to make certain conscious decisions which I chose to refer to as the ground plan.
Defining Carefully Content and SubjectMaterial First, you need to define the length and breadth of the subject matter on which you choose to write. What exactly your subject will be.
Exact Purpose of the Writing: Next one needs to define the size of the work, whether it is to be a full book or article (in this specific instance of course this has been decided for you), what assistance you may be able to procure from others in the field, or those associated directly with the subject; how long will it take you and at what cost.
Audience: finally
there is the issue of audience, to whom are you intending to write it for. This is very important, for it will predicate
[dictate] the form and style the writing should take, and the type of language
you will adopt to be interest and satisfy your reading audience.
The Term ‘Purpose’ dictates Format and Style
The act of writing is an all-embracing medium, and has more complexions than the rainbow in its many styles that may be required to be drafted [written], to best suit a particular purpose.
We write in special styles and use of words to fit the particular occasions, and while not exhaustive, such common purposes are: to inform, explain, entertain, describe, recollect, persuade, report, make submissions, stimulate action, provoke, instruct others, submit educational work, and so on.
Each has its own special cadence and style, depending on the form needed, be it fiction, non fiction, novel, short story, essay, report academic thesis and so on, and given it is essentially a skill means that in the end the only way to perfect your needs in this area is get down and practice, and practice frequently. .
Types of Writing:
This of course is where academia has come into its own, particularly in Northern America, with special techniques and a whole range of technical definitions evolved which really it can be argued, are of marginal significance to all but those who either want to teach English themselves in the future, or are pursuing academic majors in English at tertiary institutions.
A general knowledge of the basics of these types however is important for you to note. Having said this, I must then immediately qualify by stating that such textbooks in this field are not really going to solve the issue as to what we are dealing with here. Essay writing (apart from the standard time-worn formula you were taught as undergraduates, is fundamentally a ‘hands-on’ skills challenge, and there is really no substitute for you simply right now picking up your pens after reading this paper, and making a start at least on the first of your eight assignments -that have been now set for you for this semester.
V Quick Definitional Review of
Academic Literature
Notwithstanding,
we do now close with a brief snapshot [quick look] as to how the western
academic authorities, and particularly those in Northern America, have sought
to categorize these important English composition writing skills. They have
done so under the headings of description,
narration, illustration, comparison-contrast, cause-effect and
argumentation-persuasion.
We will now deal with each in turn briefly.
Descriptive Approach:
Can be defined as the
expression, in vivid language, of what the five senses experience. A richly rendered description freezes a
subject in time, evoking sights, smells, surrounds, textures, and tastes and
tastes in such a way that the readers become one with the writers world. [p.147
The Macmillan Writer ibid]
Narration Approach:
Telling a single story or
related stories. The story can be a means to an end, a way to support a main
idea or thesis….Narration lends force to opinion, triggers the flow of memory,
and evokes places, times, and people in ways that are compelling and affecting.
[p. 178 op cit]
Illustration Approach:
Examples are equally
important when you write an essay. It’s not vague generalities and highlighting
abstractions that make writing impressive. Just the opposite is true. Facts,
details, anecdotes, statistics, expert opinion, and personal observations are
at the heart of effective writing, giving your work substance and solidity. [p.209 op cit]
Comparison Contrast:
We frequently try to make
sense of the world by finding similarities and differences in our experiences.
Seeing how things are alike (comparing) and seeing how they are different
(contrasting) helps us to impose meaning on experiences that otherwise would
remain fragmented and disconnected.
[p. 304 op cit]
Cause-Effect:
Cause-Effect writing, often
called causal analysis, is rooted in this elemental need to make connections.
Because the drive to understand reasons and results is so fundamental, causal
analysis is a common kind of writing…Done well, cause effect pieces uncover the
subtle and often surprising connections between events and phenomena. [p.333
op. cit]
Argumentation-Persuasion
Argumentation in writing
uses clear thinking and logic. The writer tries to convince the readers of the
soundness of a particular opinion on a controversial issue. If while trying to
convince, the writer uses emotional language and dramatic appeals to the
readers ’concerns, beliefs and values, then the piece is called
persuasion. [p. 393 op. cit]
Teachers Concluding Comment
While no doubt of value in an academic approach to attempting to categorize writing in a ‘laboratory’ type of style, must conclude that having actually been a writer for close to 30 years, these definitions while interesting, bear little relevance to what most writers actually do when they write.
There is in fact a mixture of all these attributes in any work of major consequence, but it is of value to essay writers all the same to have such elements of writing so focused on, to assist them in the possible techniques they can use or employ in their essays, for academic marking purposes.
Offer of Assistance
As we now move forward quickly into the practical skills writing segment of this course, if any of you consider you are frozen in your chair, and need to be given a helping hand to get started, you can simply give me a ring on 84111873 or mobile 13538984770. If so, I will do my best to get you started. Or, if a group of you desire it, more than happy one evening this week to have a special out-of-hours class, to get people moving in terms of content ideas or explanation.
Good luck with your essays.
Alex Graeme-Evans
Foreign Expert
Zhongshan University
Guangzhou
2/3/2003
Course Update Lectures 3-15
Writing and Speaking
Students
Affected: These working notes have been written
specifically for Senior Groups 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8, in respect to their ‘Writing
and Speaking’ unit this semester. Senior Group 3, which is also being
taught by the same teacher, is also requested, for their ‘Reading, Comprehension, and
Speaking unit, to simply read the text and note its contents.
1. Students have been starting to provide feedback and I welcome this truly.
2. The important thing to realise, is that you as students really own the course. We as teachers are here to simply guide you down the path of practising the skill of writing. We do this by sharing with you the various techniques and writing tools that are available to assist you in these endeavours. Your level of satisfaction will be directly related to the input you put into spending time to write the essays, and if a fair degree of work is done with the first two or three then the later essays will become easier to you.
3. Appreciated in particular the comments last week from student Miao Xueling of Senior Group 8, who wrote in wishing me a ‘good weekend’, then proceeded to give me some interesting homework to do at the weekend, which for means of answer I have broken down into three main questions and one statement which I will share with you now!
Miao Xueling
wrote:
Sometimes, it's difficult for me to tell the difference between
written and verba , formal and informal English. Maybe, you may stress more on
this aspect. The note you gave us should be formal, right? [Question
One]
"dimension" is an annoying word for me, which always makes me confused. It seems to be used in diversified situation, and means different thing. Therefore, I don't know how to use it and can't use it properly in most cases. [Question Two]
Another
question is how to use some similar words, such as tourist and tourism, China
and Chinese. Which is right , China's Bank, Bank of China or Chinese Bank? Some
nouns can also be used in the attributive way. I always have the hard time to
use this kind of words. [Question Three]
Frankly speaking, in such a short period of time, a big step forward is quit difficult to achieve. Writing skills is more likely to be improved if it is based on a lot of reading. The most work we've done now is to copy other's writing, and to see how they make sentences and choose the words.
But, I'd like to thank you for
what you have done so far from bottom of my heart, trying to push us to speak
more and write more. [Statement]
………………………….
Thanks again!
Enjoy the weekend!
Yours sincerely,
Question
One: ‘Verbal’ means when a person is actually
communicating with others by means of speaking out loud and once said no longer
exists other than in the mind of the listener or if recorded on an audio
recording machine. ‘Written’ of
course is the recording of words in a finite (physical) way e.g .written down
on paper, metal, stone or other substances and can be read later by those who
wish to read them for as long as those substances, on which they have been
written, exist.
The terms ‘Formal’ and
‘Informal’ relate to the style of
writing presented, and this in turn relates to the purpose or reason as to
why the written communication is being created for in the first place and to
which audience it is intended. .
Formal
writing: relates to
serious matters and to people who you do not know and therefore covers a type of writing where strict rules of
layout and type of language is expected to be used.
This form of writing is
classed as non-fictional [not make
believe] and can be items such as: biographies and autobiographies; memoirs of
famous people; instruction manuals; text books, reference books; news reports,
journals, diaries, historical accounts, theses, academic essays, reviews,
instruction manuals, government policy decisions, Acts and Regulations of
provincial or central governments or decrees of Governors.
It is a brittle and very focused
type of writing, where the language needs to be precise, very plain in
style, and direct, with the use of
words kept to the minimum without a rich embroidery of description by use of
adjectives or adverbs. Conventions as to correct use of grammar and
spelling is expected and normal standard
English applied, not so much colloquial [everyday language] or slang
words. The style of writing used is by: description, explanation, recount,
procedure, report, exposition, discussion.
Informal
Writing: its audience is
correct for people you do know and for many types of fictional [make believe] writing be it a novel, short story,
a drama, or play, essay, or poem ,where the type of written style will be that of
narrative, explanation, description, or recount. This is a much freer style of
writing which does not follow strict rules or conventions, and may in fact be
so local that only the friends and associates of the writer from a particular
district or common activity may know exactly the meaning of the words or
phrases written.
Purpose: we write for a wide variety of purposes or reasons:
inform, explain, describe, recollect, persuade, entertain, amuse, report,
instruct, remember, record, review, and the list goes on…..
Audience: this means who
is intended to read it; only yourself as a reminder or personal memoir;
your lover or close relative; people who share a common interest with you;
senior managers above you in your company or government office; public at large
of all ages who you do not know; or finally a special age group of people be
they children, teenagers or adults, government officials or court proceedings.
Question
Two: Miao Xueling considers the
word ‘dimension’ to be an annoying
word. Perhaps others of you do too.
Dimension is like a lot of other English words that can have many
different meanings depending on the context [meaning of the words used
with it], in which it is being used. Dimension is often used to refer to
physical space: ‘the dimensions of this
cupboard is 3m x 4m x6m.’ ,or
‘I do not think the dimensions of
this room are large enough to take all the furniture you have just ordered’
or refer to something more abstract, but again relating to the concept of size:
‘the dimensions [size] of this problem
are far larger and more complicated than you can imagine.’
So in short, Miao Xueling do
not be too frustrated with this word, simply use it when you wish to use a
descriptive word which relates to the concept of size, and you cannot go wrong.
Question
Three: China or Chinese, Scot, Scotch or Scottish. Words are powerful tools in your hand mould the way
you want them to be, but if referring to existing nouns or objects that have
been officially described before you must follow their official description so
that everyone else who reads your writing knows exactly what you mean. So of course we refer to the Bank of China, because that is how it
has been officially described by its founding governors and was officially
registered in legal documents that way. But when it was formed, it could have
just as easily been created as the China
Bank, but at that time the Governors chose not to adopt that name, so Bank of China it is. We live in China and you speak Chinese. In western English
speaking countries, locals may say either ‘lets
eat Chinese tonight’ [referring of course to food, not people], or a
pregnant women with a fetish[special liking] for special foods might say to her
husband ‘lets eat in, I would love a
Chinese takeaway’. So the word China normally comes through as a noun, and
Chinese adverb or adjective, but in certain circumstances China can be
adjectival South China Airlines. So my advice is forget the
technicalities and with practice you will get the sense as to what sounds right.
Scot, Scotch and Scottish is another set of words which can cause confusion. The noun referring to the race is
‘Scot or Scots’: ‘The Scots are a hardy
race and have spawned [produced] many famous design and construction engineers
over the past three centuries.’ The adjective: ‘I really like Scotch whisky, no Canadian or American imitation comes
near it for taste!’; ‘Did you hear the bagpipes of that visiting Scottish pipe
band in the middle of the city last week? Gosh they made a strange but stimulating
noise.’
Statement:
Big leap forward, have not
done much in our studies so far, need to read a lot of books. Answer:
really is that fable [story] about the chicken and the egg. I was taught by some very good teachers
from a very early age that the best way to learn to write and increase your
vocabulary base was to read widely and voraciously [with a big appetite
-hunger].
I did so and therefore agree
with you, but your principal disciplines (and in which you are achieving
greatly is not in the field of English majors) so our task is to get you to write physically [which is basically a
physical exercise] and you must in your own time seek to enlarge your
vocabulary by reading -when you can find the time- to increase your word power,
and in the weeks ahead you will be getting lecture notes and examples of the
types of writings defined in the Introductory Paper.
Our major priority though is
to start you writing, and the sooner you do this the sooner you will progress
and grow, albeit shakily at first, rather like attempting to fly solo in an
aircraft for the first time, but once you have written several, you will start
to get the feel for it and it will be less of a mystery to you, so have faith!
Whatever you all do as
students, please resist the urge to copy each other’s writings. Not only I am
likely to pick this up and free to penalise you if I chose to do so. I know
there are major pressures on you in terms of assignments to be handed in, but
you really cheat yourself only if you do this and no one else, for you will
gain less out of the course at its conclusion than you might have done otherwise. And that would be a
shame for I know you are all good students otherwise you would not be here.
Forthcoming
Lectures:
Lecture Three: How to Add Descriptive
Power to Your Writing
Lecture Five: Revision on How to
Build Sentences
Lecture Seven: Getting the Sense
Right
Lecture Nine: Going for Effect
Lecture Thirteen Examples –Contrast/Cause-Effect/Definition
Cause-Effect
Lecture Fifteen Revision
Note:
1. Lectures
4,6,8,10,12,14 will cover discussion on essay returns. The best and those that
needed polish and why!!
2. Format of each of
the forthcoming lectures 3-15, will follow the same formula each week of being
divided into two parts: lecture or discussion essay returns (Part A) and
Discussion Corner focussed on the article of that week out of the inside back
page of the topical newspaper 2Ist
Century.
Look forward to meeting with
you again in your next class lesson.
Alex Graeme-Evans
Australian Foreign Expert
School of Foreign Languages
Zhongshan University
9 March 2003.
How
History Books Come to Be Written
SubTitle: “Never automatically accept everything you see in
print
By Australian Foreign Expert and
Historian –Alex Graeme-Evans JP
Introduction
There is no mistaking the fact that
great books, be they fiction (novels) or non-fiction (histories), are born
generally out of major social events. Events which have often carried with them
individual experiences of great hardship and suffering. It then becomes the
responsibility of those that survived and who possess the drive and motivation
to ‘tell all’, that ensures that the memories of those who lived through such
holocausts are not lost or consumed by the mists of time. So cauterised by real life experiences, such novels or histories by their sheer
descriptive power, may then become household words; not only in the country in
which the events occurred, but also elsewhere in our civilised world, where the
significance of great literatures are valued not decried.
Hence great novels such as Gone With the Wind ,War and Peace, and Pride and
Prejudice, written in relation to separate continents of the globe, have
made their indelible mark, on the canvas of world literature.
Likewise actual histories of
conflict, have their own salutary tale to bring to the conscience and
reflection of current generations. That is, provided the present generation has
the collective wisdom, reading between the lines, to learn of the lessons brought
forward in these books.
However when reading this type of
literature, extreme caution is required, because they may not be strictly
honest. You need to be sensitive to the possibility that they may have been published for strictly
politic purposes. It is therefore up to you as the researcher/historian, to be discerning as to the alleged facts presented, and know as much about why the book was written, as you do in
noting its contents.
For this reason my lecture today is
broken into three parts. The first shares with you some general observations
about the writing of histories.
The second relates to my own sensitivities, developed over some 20 years
of research, when preparing material for a new book (and particularly in one of
my specialist fields, which is military history in the 20th
Century). The third deals in anecdotal form, as to how some of my own
histories, some quite by accident now famous in our country, came to be
written.
Final point by way
of introduction, is that as you go through the text,
you will see some words underlined.
The reason for this is that it is a signal to you to consider that these may be
new words. If so, I want you to note them and look them up afterwards.
SECTION ONE -GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
Need to Appreciate Histories Serve as the Cornerstone of
Our Cultures
However having added those words of
caution, and being an inveterate historian, I sincerely believe that the recording, research and writing
of well researched and written histories, serve as the cornerstone of our cultures. Histories can have great depth, and if written and
researched well in the exploits they record, can be interpreted at many
different levels from the production of heroes or great generals[5] to if you read widely and deeply enough detect certain truisms or common
traits which repeat themselves endlessly, and hence when so sensitised enables the discipline of history to be seen as
much a beacon of the future as it is of the past[6].
The word ‘great’ of course needs to
be quickly qualified, in that alongside those who sought the greater good, such as of course
Lei Feng, whose life and and attitude to life we have very recently been
celebrating on campus, there were those who were also great (in terms of the
impact they imposed on individuals or communities around them) in ultimately
serving as catalysts for great evil.
To name just a few: Rasputin, Stalin, Hitler and more recently Slobadan
Milosovich of Serbia.
What Makes a Good History
A well written and researched history
is one which provides us with a great feel for the times on which it is
focused. By application, it will be selective and well balanced in its
portrayal of key facts. Through discreet detail, it will paint well in words a picture, as to what either life was actually like then and is not
desecrated by politic pressure groups to produce an image of the past that did
not in fact occur: to somehow present in the best possible light, those
currently in power at the time of its publication,.
Such latter histories are by their
nature fraudulent, and should not be contemplated or agreed to in their
development, by historians of good strong moral character. If such ethics are
not observed, not only does it diminish the status and role of historians in
the community, but also provides a major disservice and sense of confusion to
future generations; those who seek the true heritage of their cultural
roots.
Writing of Modern Histories
Written histories perhaps played a
more multi-dimensional role in the
past, than they do now. This is due to the steady development of photo
journalism; to the stage we see living history on our television screens each
evening. Such images and information, with reporters words to match, are either
viewed as highlights in the evening news broadcast ,or a feature of topical current affairs programs; where, the miniturisation of quality video camera equipment (complete with surround sound and
their operators being right up front in the midst of the events as they
happen), has brought immediate direct knowledge of current events to a level of
intimacy with the viewer audience, that was never considered conceivable 75 years ago.
SECTION TWO
NEVER BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ
Beware Major Histories Written Shortly After Conclusion of
Major Conflicts
It is said, to the
victor goes the ‘spoils of victory’. In fact the
spoils of victory go beyond simply the tangible or material gains, but also the intangible e.g. to seek to capture the ideology of the mind of the community, or at
least attempt to do so.
By this is meant the privilege to write the history of immediate past events in a way they wish to see
future generations reflect on it. This is seen as an important initiative by
the victor and they generally seek to do this in great style, and shortly after
the war or conflict is over. Such an initiative is purely defensive, driven by
the for those in power to protect themselves, and their reputations, against
critical examination of their actions later by their successors.
What to Look For
This is particularly so in dealing
with the critical areas in their histories relating to the logic and
credibility of their earlier actions, which led to that war or event of major
social consequence taking place in the first instance. There is always the
great temptation
for those in power, to ensure
self-serving or manufactured sets of circumstances emerge, which while not
strictly true, does make their actions appear better justified to the general
reader; who himself has little knowledge, as to what actually occurred.
If so, and widespread throughout the
work, and such fabrications are presented as official, then the hidden purpose
must be considered to be strictly sinister, since it seeks to seed successfully in the minds of whole communities,
a set of conditions which never existed in the first place.
For those alleged historians who are
put in the position of being asked to draft/craft such documents, I simply
express sadness since, pressured or not, by their actions they denigrate the intrinsic values, integrity, and good discipline of the history
profession.
Biased or Inaccurate Histories Can Damage Good
International Relations for Years
If such ‘doctored’ histories are blatantly and badly written
and published on a wide scale, then it can unnecessarily hamper the return to
relatively normal relations between two previously warring neighbours for many
years, with perhaps hidden resultant suffering to both nations[7].
Why such doctoring of history may be
favoured by those in power, especially in countries where freedom of the press
may be weak, is that they believe they have something to hide: and having come
out as the victorious side, consider they have the power to create a public
relations make-over, to hide such secrets from the conscious eyes of the
public.
They do it in the main, to not only
justify their actions on putting their community under such human and economic
stress in the first place, but also because of the realities of war.
Man’s Inhumanity to Man
In time of war, the concept of
adherence to a code of reasonable behaviour, no longer applies. War is a no-holds-barred affair. There are no intrinsic rights of public safety for the innocent. Straight barbarism can very easily prevail, if soldiers, with the bloodlust of battle singing loudly in their
veins, are not well disciplined.
If the truth be known, in long
protracted wars, through provocation or mistakes in battle orders or otherwise,
the victors’ soldiers and/or combatants, can be as barbaric in their
activities, as are the soldiers of the defeated side. Put it another way we
describe this rather crazed condition, of quite ordinary men and women,
previously living quiet orderly lives now being expected by respective
government decrees to kill each other; as ‘mans
inhumanity to man’.
What Does Not Get Printed by the Victory Side
For instance, by way of illustration,
I believe you may find it hard to locate in any official English history textbook,
designed for secondary school students in Great Britain, a detailed review of
the three following incidents/decisions, which were consciously made by the
British Government, in the course of the Second World War.
Incidents which some would say constitute
barbarism, yet by the very country whose international
persona is rated as being one of the most
civilised and human-rights-conscious countries in the western world.
Example One: Under the Yalta
Agreement in the midst of that war, at a time of high crisis, Great Britain
forged a close partnership agreement with Russia’s bloody totalitarianist
dictator, Josef Stalin. Under that agreement, at the close of the war, the
British Cabinet under the leadership of Sir Winston Churchill, knowingly allowed
White Russian emigrants to be forcibly escorted
under guard, onto British ships to return to their homeland. An d there,
within hearing distance of those moored vessels, those men, women and children
were mercilessly machine-gunned to death, shortly after disembarkation.
Example Two: Likewise it was
the cigar-smoking Winston Churchill, at the height of the Battle of Britain,
when by attrition the British Airforce’s fighter aircraft losses had fast
become unsustainable, deliberately instructed home defence wireless operators, to bend the
direction of the German X ge rat electronic navigation beams. The radio very
transmission beams along which the German Luftwaffe night bombers were
travelling, to legitimate military targets outside of London.
Onto what site did Churchill direct
those German bombs to be dropped? I will tell you.
Over the slums of London, where
countless innocent men women and children were killed.
Why then did he commit, what appears
now to many, with the aid of hindsight, to be such a cold-hearted barbaric act?
Well, as the story is related, he wanted to create an excuse whereby British bombers in return could
demonstrate they could get through and bomb innocent German civilians in equal
measure in Berlin. The idea being it would then divert Hitler’s attention, in a
fit of rage and embarrassment, to switch his night bombing program from
strictly bombing military targets to civilian targets. The aim here by
Churchill being to thus take pressure off the few remaining operational British
fighter aircraft airfields, which the German airforce needed to destroy, prior
to the Germans committing themselves to a full scale invasion across the
English Channel. The ruse worked, but at what cost to the innocent civilians
effected?
So, in retrospect, how should we
judge the famous Sir Winston Churchill? Was he perhaps, in moderated form, a
sort of Gaddafi in allowing deliberately his own innocent people, without prior
warning to be killed by enemy bombers, in the way he made certain cold hard and
merciless decisions, or do we take a softer line and say ‘Oh he was the man
needed for those tough times. Circumstances were different then.’
Even so, it makes you think doesn’t
it. Do all rulers need to be that ruthless, or can at times great leaders
be imbued instead with the spirit of Lei Feng, and not be considered weak? I leave it for you, the reader to judge
Example Three: Likewise in the
closing stages of that war with Germany, it was Air Vice Marshall Harris of the
British Royal Air Force who was charged with using his now, with the aid of the
American air forces, very large heavy bomber force formations to effectively
employ what is referred to as ‘blanket bombing’. This idea was in vogue at that
time, and considered the best way to hasten the end of the war with Germany, by
allegedly through such horrific damage to its established infrastructue (e.g.
roads, bridges, railways, factories, and virtually any large building that
could possibly assist their war effort) as the key to destroying that nation’s
will to resist.
This sort of offensive bombing tactic
was considered the ‘big stick approach’ and continued to be employed until the
advent and deployment of the atomic bombs over Japan. By 1944, through sheer
attrition, the skies over Germany were totally defenceless against these Allied
mass bombing attacks, since due to lack of fuel and earlier successful bombing,
there were no German aircraft left to defend their towns and cities.
Then came that horrific day, that it
was the beautiful and historic city of Dresden’s turn to get what the
euphemistically called the ‘treatment’, by literally hundreds of Allied heavy
bombers. With virtually very
little warning, citizens caught out in the streets, this large scale bombing
began, and with incendiary bombs in high proportion for maximum effect, the
city erupted into one giant fireball. It raised to the ground in a way akin to
the effects of a modern atomic bomb today. By the hundreds of thousands
innocent citizens were caught in the cyclonic firestorm, and reduced to first
flaming funeral pyres in a matter of minutes; and then simply dissipated into
being white ash on the ground.
Reflection
So, I hope I have not shocked you too
much in all of this detail in this section about the need to be very circumspect
in what you actually believe as neatly printed in such histories. All I really
wanted to do here is to demonstrate to you that histories which relate to the happening of great
events, need to be treated with great caution.
Thus you need to appreciate, you will
not get a balanced view of such events or conditions by simply reading just one
account or publication. You need to read widely, and note the discrepancy in
the recording of the same event by different authors, and ask yourself why this
difference has happened. When you do this, you will start to get closer to the kernel of the truth, as to what exactly
happened.
SECTION THREE
HOW MY OWN HISTORIES CAME TO BE WRITTEN
Background
I first started writing histories
when I was at the Royal Military College Duntroon, which is located in
Australia’s capital city, Canberra.
Having come from a military family, whose service in the British and
then Australia armed forced has extended back over 1,000 years, I had a natural
love of history.
My first piece of writing of
consequence was the charge of the Australian Light Horse (a cavalry unit), at a
famous battle in the Middle East at a place called Beersheba, where this
valiant unit, at full charge against Turkish riflemen, who well protected in
prepared trenches, was overrun and the town taken.
On leaving the Royal Military
College, and seeking to take up the profession of law, I needed to earn money
to put myself through the Adelaide Law school, as an undergraduate, in South
Australia. I did this by serving as an infantry officer in the Adelaide
University Regiment, which was attached to the Adelaide University.
The commanding officer was himself in
his full time occupation a lawyer, and knowing of my love for history, in my
final Honours History year, asked me to write a complete history of our
military regiment, and on its completion, I was fully bitten with the bug of
the desire to write further histories.
On completion of both degrees in
Honours History and Politics and Law, I then moved to Tasmania, to where my
parents now were and commenced my apprenticeship as a young lawyer.
Then, one day one of my lawyer
friends, who was a very close friend, indicated his father wanted to speak to
me about a serious matter relating to his wartime Australian Infantry
Battalion, the 2/12th AIF. This was the very battalion which had the
unique experience of being the first Allied infantry unit to defeat the
Japanese Imperial armed services on land at a place called Milne Bay, in Papua
New Guinea; in an action which commenced on the 31st August 1942 and
ended with a complete rout of the Japanese by the 7th September,
forcing the Japanese army for the first time the history of that war to
retreat. .
The end result was, I was asked to
recreate the life of the battalion in detailed form, even though it had then
not been in existance for the last 50 years. It was a tall order, and took me
in total 7 years to complete. It consists of two volumes, and is now regarded
by Australians interested in military history, as the most authoritative
history yet written on an Australian Infantry Battalion in action over the course of that war. The first volume was launched at a civic reception by our
State Premier of Tasmania at that time in 1989, and the second volume by the
State Governor of Queensland in 1992.
From there, I then progressed to
write a series of other major histories which have proved quite popular;
· a three-volume series entitled Tasmanian Rogues and Absconders which
took four years to complete in 1994, and gives you a special glimpse as to what
life was like in Tasmania in the last century;
·
one which
took three years to write on Tasmanian forestry over the last 200 years,
entitled Against the Odds in 1996, again
launched by our State Premier;
· in that year also Built to Last was completed, giving the
complete history of just one local family’s ship-building activities over 150
years and has proved very popular running now into its fourth edition, with the
first edition being sold out in less than three weeks:
· another popular history which is now
running into its sixth edition, is the short history I completed on the Port Arthur nineteenth century convict
prison station
· in 1999 Always a Competitor was launched, which told the story of an apple orcharding
family in southern Tasmania, who also had a great love of sailing
· in 2001 saw the completion of a
business history of a timber company in Hobart, Tasmania, Brewsters,
·
finally, last year in May 2002 the State
Premier for Tasmania again launched my latest major history entitled K&D telling of the activities for a
very large hardware company, which was celebrating its 100th
Anniversary, and within 5 hours of its launch I was on an aircraft to China,
and have essentially been here ever since.
It is foreseeable I will be doing
further research and writing over the next few months, while on the campus here
at Zhongshan University, in concert with others.
This then ends in short form my
history book writing career to the present time, and close by saying that apart
from these major histories, I have also written many and varied articles for
journals on a variety of subjects, and will continue to do so.
Given that by now you have certainly
heard more than enough from me for a while, I will throw open this meeting to
any questions or follow up questions you may have, as to either the writing of
histories, or the process in which they are put together,
I hope you have found the talk to
have been of some interest to you.
Any questions?
Alex Graeme-Evans JP BA(Hons) LLB
Australian Foreign Expert
Associate Professor
School of Foreign Languages
Zhongshan University
Guangzhou
PRC
These working notes have been written specifically for Senior Groups 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8, in respect to their ‘Writing and Speaking’ unit this semester. Senior Group 3, which is also being taught by the same teacher, is also requested, for their ‘Reading, Comprehension, and Speaking unit, to simply read the text and note its contents.
Despite heavy workloads from your core majors areas, all students from
all your diverse disciplines are in my opinion settling down well to completing
our scheduled assignments for this semester.
What has been especially surprising and in fact a delight from a
teaching perspective has been that the accounting, economics and management
majors are putting as much creativity into their work as are the more
traditional writing arts disciplines of law, history and literature. This as a foreigner I find
awe-inspiring and places great credit on not only the dedication and commitment
of students, but also at a deeper level, the Chinese education system itself.
In this short paper we will focus a little further on writing styles.
For this purpose I wish you to re-read Lecture Two –Art of Writing. In
particular, I would like you to focus on the summary definitions laid out for
you on page 10.In particular, the various type-cast writing styles which
American and Canadian academics have developed to serve as a diagnostic system,
as to how best one can perfect a particular writing style, or fit the
particular purpose on which you are intending to write.
II Basic Building Structure of Essays
As we have mentioned previously, sentences
are the basic building blocks of writing, with a sentence defined as a group of
words that have unity of meaning. If your sentence structure is confused and
unclear then so will be the end result of your ‘penmanship’. Further each
competent sentence must be able to make sense on its own, if it is lifted from
the main body of your writings.
By contrast a paragraph is
the basic organisational unit of any piece of complex writing which we may
choose to call an essay. Put simply a
paragraph is a group of inter-locking or related sentences which support a
central theme or idea.
Traditionally, in a technical
sense, a paragraph may consist of say one long single sentence with a string of
supporting clauses making up its structure, or be a veritable ‘wall’ of words
on a single page, of up to a dozen or more sentences all connected with a
single theme. However, it is correct to observe that modern writing today in its many forms, has tended to go for a
short paragraph style; with perhaps –for effect- pure descriptive writing the
exception.
The reason being, in this day and age of fast-pace thinking, we appear
as readers to desire to ‘get to the point’ quickly, and hence in an easy visual
fashion like to focus quickly (speed read), on each point being made. We also
like to see much more visualism mixed in with hard core writing whenever
possible e.g. sketches, photographs, and if technical, diagrams, or an
abundance of tables.
This is not so much mental laziness, but rather with the advent of
computers we live in a much more visual age. Hence I believe modern writing has
in itself also marched with these times and evolved further to meet head on
this new communication medium and bend it to its own purposes. So, some of you
in my comments on your essays would have noted that while appreciative of your
quality of ideas, the thought processes you did generate could be better
presented and understood if laid out in a shorter paragraph style; as against a
more traditional ‘cliff’ of text, without break from top to bottom!
Certainly the general organisational
contributions that a paragraph makes to an essay needs to be observed -topic, supporting and concluding sentences-
but in shorter paragraphs these elements can be represented by clauses not
sentences, to provide the same organisational effect. In this of course transitions play an important role as
either simply a word, phrase or clause so that they can link up the whole
logic-flow of your central theme or string of ideas which make up the main
composition of your essay: like a well greased anchor chain descending with
little friction into the depths of thought below!
III Settling the
Essay Plan
How you arrange your string
of ideas, and in what order you place them of course, is central as to how the
quality of your essay will be judged by others: whether it presents as being
easy to read, or confused. That is why you need to plan the organisational structure of your essay
before you write it. It is best done by taking time out in a quiet place, when
your mind is freshest, be it early in the morning if you have a free period,
just after a sleep, or after a dinner break. At that time, in summary form, you
write down on a single piece of paper, the key aspects you wish to raise to
cover the topic, and then use that
summary sheet as a checklist as you write out the essay in full.
The advantage of taking such an approach, is that in the enthusiasm
generated along the way, in writing (fleshing) out in full certain aspects of
the essay, you are able to stand back
from time to time to survey the boundaries of the subject matter you need
to cover; not leave out any major theme or other aspect, which is required to
be dealt with to ensure your essay is fully comprehensive.
IV Difference Between Essay Structure and Style
Many American and other text books of course ‘make a meal’ out of advising you as to the various ways in which
you can develop the structure and or style of your essay, and how best to
organise and categorise it.
This field of literature has been developed into a special ‘how to’
science, with academically contrived technical words such as pattern of organisation and method of approach now having their own
special meanings.
However this paper will not cover such aspects in great detail here for
an audience such as yourselves as non-English majors. We simply state that, as
already well developed researchers in your own right, it is left to you to
determine out of class, how deeply you wish to drink from such ‘draughts’ of
thought.
But, if you have any particular queries in relation to same, and which
you believe the answers to which will be of interest to classmates as well,
most welcome to raise them in any future lesson. What is important from all this literature[8]
from your perspective, is to simply summarise the main themes of these
textbooks as to how they have categorised essay development[9]
into the following general organisational categories, or structures.
·
chronological order or
narrative (directions, instructions, processes, procedures, stories,
recollections, histories and incidents)- a form of sequential writing;
·
space (order of location
and relationship to each other) – a sort of written descriptive form without
direct imagery of say a video camera slowly scanning a place placing everything
in context in word form, and how it all locks together;
·
cause and effect (block or chain structure)
–either all the causes detailed together first and then resultant effects all
together (block) afterwards or each cause and effect individually focussed on
one by one (chain);
·
comparison and contrast (block and point-by-point) –all
the similarities together and then the differences together (block), or discuss
each element of comparison and contrast separately (chain);
·
example/illustration (specific
examples);
·
classification/definition (providing clear
definitions according to a stated quality/feature of object or thing really a
subset of compare and contrast).
We now come to the issue of style, whose definitions are clearly stated on page 10 of Lecture Two.
How
you structure an essay is one thing, what style you use is another issue
entirely. For instance, within a
narrative structure, be it a history or story or whatever, as a matter of
style, you may choose to use the pattern of
an argumentative, illustrative, descriptive or compare and contrast approach at
various stages in the development of the essay, depending on the subject matter
being handled.
This is a key issue you need to fully understand, that style of approach can and does vary within the structure of an
essay that has length and depth to it. You should not worry about this at all, and just focus not
so much on the academically-contrived terms, but rather the basic practical
effects of getting down on paper what you want to write about, and use this
simple check list:
·
the structure of the essay follows a logical pattern
·
has an appropriate opening, main body and conclusion which lends well
to the topic being written about
·
is economical in the use of words
·
covers the main issues which need to be covered which relate to the
topic
·
reads easily and possesses a fast moving reader-friendly style
·
has applied the various style-writing techniques available to best
effect to make the work precise and authoritative
·
by way of illustration and example can be seen to be well researched
·
has a powerful opening be is special quotation or otherwise, and a
concise well reasoned conclusion which relates directly to the key points
highlighted in the main body of the essay.
To illustrate this point, laid out below, is a piece of writing drafted yesterday, which is designed, for an audience in Tasmania, Australia for readers who wanted to know what life was like to be a foreign teacher in north-east China, where the temperature regularly drops to minus 28 degrees centigrade!
Your task and we will discuss it next lesson, is for you to consider
what the basic structure of the essay is, and what various forms of writing
style are contained within it; and to identify same using a high-lighter pen,
so you can hold up your paper in class to see if your classmates agree with
your assessment!
Anyway here goes, and if you happen to download this from the
university website, you can also download the photographs and lay out the
article the way you think the article should look with the photographs
included, and the lead heading changed to whatever you consider appropriate
Essay Task
PHOTOGRAPHS
For those who wish to be adventurous, with the article on the website you will find the following photographs:
· group photograph of Chinese English teachers with lowei
· photograph taken from the sideline at the match
· students asleep over their books during a lunchtime break
· headshot of lowei showing the special frosted trees behind special feature of Jilin
· street shot showing blizzard conditions at Jilin in that extreme cold
Purpose of this sub-exercise for those who wish to attempt it, is to demonstrate that in this day and age effective presentation of your work now plays a major role in everyday life. And, if you are asked to present papers at international conferences in the future as leaders in your field, it pays to make your papers look as smart as possible, quite separate from adopting the right nomenclature rules.
It was minus 28 degrees centigrade outside, and feeling like a teddy bear with three sets of clothes on, I walked across the room to the table to pick up a whistle.
Today, being towards the close of a school teaching semester, it was a rare one in the school calendar for my Chinese middle school students. It was a general sports activities day for these very hard working young people. I was located, in the middle of winter, close to Mongolia, at Song Hua Jiang Middle School, Jilin City, northeast China.
The students were very excited to be not seated all day at their desks in their classrooms. It needs to be understood that here in China, in direct contrast to our school timetables in Tasmania, secondary students have to arrive at their school by bike or bus by 6.30 am each morning with reading commencing at their desks at 6.45 am. Study at school Saturdays and even on Sundays if a national day or days set aside for examinations interfere with their normal weekday schedules. They do not leave until 6.15 pm each evening, and after a short break for dinner, its back to the books between 7.30 to 9 30 pm each evening and for the senior grades up to midnight. Their only breaks during the day are short ones, with a sleep for one hour at their desks, flopped over their books, at lunch time.
So on this day there was a lot of energy and joyous enthusiasm in the air, the prospect of freedom for a short time, temporary absence away from heavy rote-style study confined to desks, and teachers at the blackboard.
Just as I reached the table and took off a glove, the mobile rang. ‘Great’, it concerned advice that a suitable fully inflatable, complete with pump, missing football had been located. The intended knock-out competition between several classes of students could now commence almost on schedule! This was good news and by reflecting on it, I did not glance properly at which whistle I actually picked up off the desk. Simply grabbed one, put it into the pocket of my Australian bushwalking parka, and literally ran down several flights of stairs to the ground floor.
On passing through the double glazed doors (and the cloth matting that serve as a buffer against the cold), came out into the glare of the snow outside. The cold wind cut through onto the face immediately. It was in fact exhilarating. I mentally checked off, as I walked in fur lined boots towards the sports field, that I had everything needed for the days matches.
It was my job as the only lowie (foreigner) there, and an Australian to boot (one who had previously spent much time before involved in the training of school children in soccer in Tasmania) to referee these football matches, and then award prizes at days close. Meanwhile, the far more astute Chinese teachers were inside supervising the net ball, and basketball matches! Even so, it was pleasing to note, a fair sprinkling of particularly Chinese class teachers on the football sidelines, to watch their classes play their class matches.
It was time for the matches to start, and having moved quickly across the snow and ice to the playing field, which really was just another expanse of snow and ice, with the only difference being goalposts as metal fixtures at either end, rubbed my hands, tightened the hood on my thin-skinned parka around the face, which was in stark contrast to the fur lined coats of the Chinese teachers, who had braved the cold to stand on the imaginary sidelines.
By motions of the hand indicated to the students in broken Chinese and English that we would now start. Then walked to what seemed to be the centre of the trampled snow and ice as would serve as the playing pitch, lined up the opposing teams so that they might shake hands in the traditional western manner, and inspected their boots. I inspected the boots for reasons perhaps opposite to what we do in Tasmania.
This time it was
to see that there were no special sprigs in their footwear, since such a player
might have an unfair advantage of superior grip over the others in the snow and
ice or injure someone. One of the
goalees was caught out and so we delayed, amidst hoots of laughter from the
opposing team, and argumentative protests from the team of the clever thinking
goalee!
We were off, the whistle was blown and the match was under way. Very much a run and slide exercise but great energy exhibited by the students, and shouting and good natured merriment in which the Chinese as essentially very well mannered and caring people, excel.
Now by this time, and in part due to the cold dry wind my lips were very dry and so I had without thinking moistened them with my tongue. Shortly after, there was an exciting segment of play and a lead forward from one of the teams was getting over physical, and a penalty award was due. I put the whistle to my lips in the normal manner and blew a long authoritative signal to the players that the game must stop immediately!
That was fine, but the problem became a personal one. The whistle I had picked up without close scrutiny from the teachers table was in fact metal, not plastic, and I now paid the price. The whistle was now affixed to my lips and seeking to free it of course, it was not only the whistle that parted from my lips, but due to the extreme cold, my skin also!
Anyway the day ended very well, a good exercise in cross cultural relations, with perhaps some Chinese teachers thinking that some Australians must be quite mad in going out in such thin-skinned jackets for such a long period of time! Their way of repaying that compliment came that evening, when at a rather rowdy and enjoyable dinner table, at which again the Chinese are consummate masters, I was subjected to more than a normal number of rounds of ‘gumbei’ toasts. This involves being forced to down a large quantity of what they refer to as ‘white spirit’. A clear distilled spirit, which in terms of octane rating I believe, rates close to aero fuel. It certainly burns the back of the throat of westerners such as myself, who have not been conditioned at an early age to its merits!
Such is the frontiership of China and I love it!
Alex
graeme-Evans
Australian
foreign EXPERt
INTRODUCTORY
WORKING NOTES FOR POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS
Australian Lawyer, Writer and Historian
All words or phrases underlined in the text could well be new vocabulary
words to you. If so, look them up, for I will be testing each of the above
classes on them in Lesson 3, next week. Such words have not been chosen by
means of gay abandon, but rather as fairly common everyday English
working words you are likely to come across in the future.
Remember, at times during this course, you may find quite naturally
that I spell words in a classic English way which differs from the more phonetically-based
spelling of our American brethren e,g Oxford English spells ‘disc’, Americans
‘disk’, English ‘endeavour’, American ‘endeavor’.
This should not alarm you, just relax and take the view
that just as speaking accents may be different when English is spoken to
communicate by verbal means by English-speakers from different
western countries, so too the spelling of words in written communication is
equally flexible e.g. the rules as to what is correct spelling, are now much
more flexible than they used to be.
However, because historically it was an American, Bill Gates, who
essentially cornered the market in this new technological era of the computer
and the internet becoming an integral part of our lives, with his
Microsoft software, it is clear that American-English spelling is now more
widely used in academic institutions throughout the world, than
English-English!
So people such as myself, who are inveterate traditionalists, are
forced to simply ‘look the other way’
, when formerly solid English words such as ‘programme’ have now been
re-translated into Americanese to stand as ‘program’. Such is life, one has to
simply view such developments as ‘moving
with the times!’
Course
Introduction:
Welcome to the course. You come from diverse disciplines.
Certainly English studies are not essential, or organic to the
postgraduate degree you are studying, but there are benefits inlaid,
which will hopefully assist in your post-university studies careers. .
We are going to provide you here with a new dynamic approach to
the clear objectives of the course. The primary objective of this comparatively
short 16-lecture course, is to endeavour to expose you, and provide you with
more confidence in the general art of what is known as composition writing.
I realise that some of you may come to these classes initially, with an
ingrained view that such a course bears little relevance to your
core academic majors, and therefore essentially a waste of your time. To that
small sectional group I say … we shall see. If indeed you do not experience a ‘seachange’
in your attitude by the end of it, then I will have failed. Why, because I
believe the Chinese university authorities have demonstrated great foresight
in insisting that all university students both undergraduate and post-graduate
receive further formal tuition in the course of their studies, in both written
and spoken English.
Why both timely and appropriate?
The answer should be obvious to you. In the whole long and incident-rich history of Chinese
society, which spans over 5,000 years of civilization, you are unquestionably
the luckiest of Chinese students in its whole existence. Few would argue
that on the international stage, barring unforeseen calamities, through
its ever expanding trading power, the 21st century belongs to China.
It will become the largest international trading colossus known to man.
With increased trade, comes increased national wealth. If you now add
to this equation, through improved medical technology and living conditions,
the reality that your life expectancy and career opportunities have now expanded
exponentially, then regardless as to whether you are studying hard at this time
to be say an accountant, economist, or market manager, having a good working-knowledge
grasp of English, as the international trading language of the world, is essential.
That is, if you seek quick promotion in your future jobs, and the chance to be
given interesting tasks, which will allow you to travel widely overseas.
So to close our introduction I make it clear that I intend to work you hard,
both in speaking English in our classes, and make you write hard outside
classes, such that your pens will become a natural extension of your
fingers!
I am not going to load you up with a whole host of technical ‘English composition’ jargon contrived by a multitude of mainly American and Canadian academics (interesting as it may be for those who actually major in English), since it is really not necessary and be of little relevance to your future careers as engineers, accountants, economists etc.
Instead you will be given the basics of these concepts in Lesson Two:
·
keeping your sentences short and simple, noun, verb, object (KISS),
·
always be aware of the audience which will be its recipient (AUDIENCE)
·
adjusting the tone and style of your words and word order to
suit the audience and occasion, which has warranted such written
communication in the first place (TONE).
and then we will move on quickly, in what is essentially a very short
course, to actually maximize your practice writing, by concentrating
very much on ‘hands on’ style and purpose, using examples created by
yourselves.
What we want to do is in a small way, in
the time available, to build up your confidence in writing and speaking. For
this reason we have also added some new dimensions to the keynote
lecture program for the semester (refer separate notice this web page), and the
English Corner program (refer separate notice this web page) in the hope that
you will find this essentially casual program, and participate in it
well.
PARTICULARS
OF LECTURES AND ASSESSED WRITTEN WORK
Lectures 1-16
·
Lecture One was getting to
know you
·
Lecture Two –basic tools and
types of English Composition writing. Hopefully the complete set of typed working
notes will be ready for the day, but if not will be ready on the internet
shortly after.
·
Lectures Three to Sixteen – basically
practical, not theory work; constant reviews of written work completed, and
discussion sessions based on the 21st Century English Current Issues
newspaper each week.
Twenty First Century
Newspaper
Each week I expect before class that all students in all my Writing and Speaking classes to have
read the latest edition of this newspaper, which I understand is readily available
just across the street at the South Gate to the university. We shall be in
particular devoting much attention to the special composition articles found on
the inside back page of the paper each week that are of topical
interest. It will serve as a vehicle for student class discussion
and intra-class debate, in which all students will be encouraged to
participate; not simply the most advanced English speakers.
While the traditional idea of English Corners is to have an environment
as relaxed as possible (so that students are encouraged to express their
views), we will build in this semester -as an experiment.
·
First, the new concept of showing some four feature movies during the
semester (one each chosen by the four lowei post graduate teachers) which are
shown in the theatre on the afternoon of the scheduled English Corner and then
discussed at the English Corner later that night, with discussion notes
provided beforehand by the foreign expert who chose it.
·
Second to split these English corner sessions into two halves, provided
such a concept is well received by students. Namely, the first part being free-flowing
discussions as before, where the students can talk about any issues arising out
of their work or on any topic they choose. Then second a specified set of theme
topics as published and of which the foreign experts critiques of the movies
they have presented are simply four themes of the 15 English Corner evening
sessions each Thursday night commencing at 7.30 pm at either the badmington
courts opposite the old foreign students dormitory (inside the School of
Foreign Languages if raining)or inside the theatre hall as advised on the day.
·
Students are encouraged to have put some thoughts into these evenings
if they can spare the time as to what is their own point of view on matters
being discussed, prior to the meeting, so that they can participate well if they
choose to.
There will be a cocktail of six short essays of between 500-600 words to be completed every two weeks and will be marked by me. Likewise the writing of one poem, with a prize for the most romantic one written (and surprisingly the winning poem could well be penned by a young man as against a woman if past experiences hold true!); and a master essay at the close of the semester of a 1000 or 1200 words.
As students you may have forgotten, that as teachers we were once students
also, and would not be imposing such tasks on you, if we did not professionally
believe that regular ‘hands on’ practice is the best and only way to build your
confidence and skill in this area.
Well, they will be due in weeks 3,5,7,9,11,13,15 and 16,and they are purposefully structured to give you practice in the various techniques of composition writing.
Essay
One: On Your Deathbed
Imagine
you are about to die on your bed through old age, aged 82. That much reported tunnel of white
light is coming towards you [it is true I sat on my father’s bed as he died and
he described it to me] and like a video
camera on re-wind your whole life is flashing before you as your
bodily functions close down (as though the lights are being switched off in a
dark room) and you are forced to judge yourself and your actions during that
replay.
As a form of both reflective
and descriptive writing you are to construct[make believe] what your
life might have been like from infancy until then, highlighting along the way
what you consider would have been the highlights in your life, and what would
have been regrets. Seek to make it
as realistic as you can.
Essay
Two: -Witness at an Accident.
You
are standing on the edge of the road at the University’s South Gate waiting for
the traffic to clear. You
are feeling hungry and impatient to cross the road to get a quick snack,
before returning to attend a tutorial. It is late on a Friday afternoon,
and the traffic is very heavy, and the number of people wishing to cross is
also large. There is no policemen on traffic duty. On crossing you observe an
old lady slip and fall on the roadway, because it has been raining. Her ankle
is then run over by a taxi seeking to turn too sharply to pass through the
entrance arch to the university.
You rush to the old lady, because you have completed a First Aid course,
and are forced to observe a violent argument between the taxi driver and the
old lady and her adult daughter, who was by her side as she attempted to cross
the road..
A policeman now arrives on
the scene, calls for witnesses and you come forward. He asks you to supply him with a written statement. You do.
Now write that statement as an exercise in narrative/report writing.
Essay
Three -In Chinese culture Life is more important than Truth
Poem
Will be discussed in course
of lecture
Essay
Four The Most Exciting (or
sad/vivid/uplifting/enjoyable/momentous) Event (or happening/incident/experience/moment),
in your Life so far.
Self explanatory mixed exercise of both narrative and description
Essay Five Not so
much an essay as a submission. You are
after a pay rise from
your boss and relate it to the mythical fact situation below.
You graduated from Zhongshan University three years
ago with an MA degree in economics. You like your job, which is a responsible
one with a progressive manufacturing company in your home city Guangzhou. You
are an under-study to the branch manager who has been in the job for many
years, is not computer literate and feels threatened by your up-to-date
business skills. He often leaves
early in the afternoons to go and play cards with his friends leaving you to do
the work but always pretends when the branch is praised by the ‘big boss’ that
the new improvements were at his initiative, when in fact they were your ideas.
You feel your pay is far too low, given the work you
do and believe yourimmediate boss has already resisted you being given a pay
rise as suggested by the big boss. You believe your immediate boss is resisting
out of a sense of pride ( that your salary would be much closer to his, yet you
are half his age) and on the
grounds that in his view you dress too casually in a manner not keeping with
the rest of the staff, and therefore do not earn their respect.
You feel this is totally unfair and unjust and have
decided to sidestep your immediate boss, and write a formal submission/request
to the big boss seeking the pay
rise you believe you richly deserve.
Your task is
to now write this request taking into account that
·
generally you do like your immediate boss (reminds you of your father)
and
·
do not want to criticise him too much in this submission for a pay
rise, since he is likely to retire soon
·
yet hold to your personal view that the quality of the work you do
deserves a pay rise given
1.
you now have added
experience, and
2.
really the way you dress has nothing whatsoever to do with your work efficiency.
Especially given you have in recent months, since that criticism was first
brought to your notice, modified your dress to be more in keeping with other
junior managers employed by the company.
Good luck!
Essay Six Describe and assess what you consider to be the most
endearing
qualities in either your sister/brother/best friend,
best friend/girlfriend/lover or husband/wife or close relative
(aunt/uncle/grandparent),
and why and also on the other side of the
coin, their minor habits which despite your love for them you do find
annoying but prepared to ignore!
Self explanatory. Mixed
writing exercise as to feeling/analysis,and
narrative
Master
Essay This final essay topic will be decided closer to the
end of the semester.
As students it would be appreciated if you observed the following in-class rules.
·
Please feel free at any time to
interrupt if you do not understand the meaning of any key words that I speak,
and seek explanation
·
If through enthusiasm I speak too
fast, say so
·
I expect in return for you all to put
a lot of effort into your essays when you write them so that you get maximum
benefit from the course
· When we go through essay critiques in class or have general class conversation, it is important out of courtesy and consideration for others that those not directly speaking remain quiet so that all can hear clearly what is being said.
·
Observe the golden rule that when you
walk into the classroom you speak English at all times, even if you wish to
speak domestic matters to your friends before the start of class.
·
If you are a strong English speaker,
encourage those next to you who have less confidence, to themselves speak out
and join in the discussions
· Feel free at any time to ring me during weekdays or nights if you have a particular problem, but respect the weekends unless previously arranged.
· Make sure you have read the current week’s back inside page of the 21st Century newspaper before the lecture for that week, so that you can take part in an informed way in the class discussions.
·
It
would be nice if there were sufficient members of
each class for the class to go out on a special outing as a group one Sunday
each in the semester to take me to a special cultural site in the Guangzhou
area of your choice, so that we can have lunch together and the rule being of
course that only English is spoken (otherwise a penalty of additional drinks
for classmates are imposed!), and that the class monitor arranges for someone
to plan/arrange the outing and serve as guide!
Look forward to seeing you in class!
Alex Graeme-Evans BA(Hons) LLB Adel. JP
Australian Foreign Expert
School of Foreign Languages
Zhongshan University
Guangzhou
Ist March 2003
REVISED
PROGRAM UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS
For Senior Groups 2,3,4,5,7
and 8
Australian Lawyer, Writer and Historian
Subject Creative Writing
Senior Groups 2,4,5,7, and
8
Reading and Speaking
Senior Group 3
1.
Due to the SARS virus, and the precautionary measures now put in place,
with effect from tomorrow, Monday 27th April and until further
notice, students are free to make their own decisions as to whether they attend
the Creative Writing, reading and Speaking lectures, or not.
2.
Lecture times will be as before, with the May Break commencing on the
Ist of May 2003 and lectures resuming on the 6th May2003, and have
been advised there will be no mid-semester examinations now on in English as
previously arranged on the 10th May 2003.
3.
For the creative writing group the main task will be for you in your
own dormitories, or wherever, to ensure that the essays as set and referred to
in the Course Outline Lecture notes, are completed on time for marking. (refer
listing overleaf)
4.
Completed essays, with your name, class, and student number on the top
right corner must be in to Ms Zhang (Lisa), Professor Zequan Lin’s secretary,
by 4pm on the dates specified.
5.
Should students have any problems at any time in respect to any of the
tasks set, they should feel perfectly free to telephone me on 84111873 at night
or 13538984770 or email alexgraeme-evans@yahoo.com.au
6.
Once the SARS pressures have eased sufficiently to resume a full
lecture schedule again you will be notified further.
Good luck in your studies,
and be confident in the knowledge that all staff appreciate the efforts you are
making to continue on in pursuit of knowledge and skills, under very
challenging circumstances.
Alex Graeme-Evans
Australian Foreign Expert
Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen)
University
Guangzhou
The following page references relate to the pages of the hardcopy you
have of the initial paper entitled Introductory
Working Notes for Postgraduate Students.
·
Poem: (refer page
5)
due week commencing
6th May
·
Essay Four: (refer page
5)
due week commencing 12th May
·
Essay Five: (refer page
5) n
due week commencing
19th May
·
Essay Six: (refer page 6)
due week commencing 2nd June
·
Master Essay: (refer page
6)
due week commencing 16th June
·
Great Debate: at
3.00 pm Wednesday 25th June
Please Note Also:
1.
The Great Debate between the Groups on the title of which you are
familiar In Chinese Culture, is life more
important than truth?, as defined under the terms for Essay Three, will be
held in the Foreign Language Schools major lecture theatre on Level 5 at 3 pm
on Wednesday the 25th June 2003.
2.
There will be two grades of debate, the two Ph D groups competing
against each other for one prize and then a knock out competition between the
MA classes including Group 3 e.g Group 2:Group3: and Group 4: Group 5, with the
winner of those rounds competing for the Grand Master prize.
3.
At the conclusion of the debates all students, either contestants or
audience, are warmly invited to a large group dinner at a nearby restaurant at
special prizes.
4.
Method of judging will be by myself proclaiming why I believed a
certain side won and the reasons. Then it will be put to the vote of the
audience to either accept or reject that view! In other words the students will ultimately determine the
winners.
5.
The grand master debate topic will be a complete surprise with the
final contestants given just ten minutes to prepare prior to the final round.
So, it should be great fun.
6.
Over the next few weeks I will help the classes determine who are the
best three English speakers to represent their class in the Great Debate!
A.L.Graeme-Evans
Australian Foreign Expert
School of Foreign Languages
[1] Has generated quite bewildering concepts for non native speakers such as, Pre-Writing, Description, Narration, Illustration, Division Classification, Process Analysis, Professional Selections Illustration, Activities Illustration, Additional Writings Illustration, the list goes on and on and on!
[2] Note here the difference here between English-English and American-English. In English-English you will find that certain words end with …our, while in American-English such word endings are shortened to ..or [ e.g endeavour v endeavor,and behaviour v behavior]. Simply a matter of personal style as to which you prefer. Either nowadays, in terms of thesis writing, is considered acceptable.
[3] The Macmillan Writer –Rhetoric, Reader, Handbook, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York 1991, by Judith Nadell, Linda McMeniman and John Langan.
[4] Was always an issue with me for many years when my mother in proof reading my work would with glee, being of the old school of writing, would pounce on a particular sentence and with unconcealed glee proclaim, as though she had just found a gold coin under the bed, that I had split an infinitive!
[5]While of course by no means exhaustive, icons of history which come readily to mind are: Charlemaine, Boadicia, William the Conqueror, Joan of Arc, Richard the Lion Heart, Cromwell, Admiral Nelson, Napoleon Bonaparte, Duke of Wellington; and of course much closer to Chinese people’s heart your Emperors, their dynasties and Mao Tse Tung.
[6] What history does teach you, when you consider and distill its application to the bare bones, is the realisation that the one constancy (over the various millennia since man was able to communicate effectively, form communities and thus require leadership qualities in some for the good of that community), is that in each of us there is and can be a mixture of good and evil. In some the alchemy of seeking good prevails, in others not. So some of us seek: to be our own version of Lei Feng and help others; some crave for naked power by controlling others; some seek to cheat and gain wealth quickly in such a manner; others are simply bullies or sadistic or cruel to those less strong or weaker than themselves. So, in the end, it is the dynamics of strong personalities of those in power, when coupled to the environment of their times, which tend to create history and the living environment around them and their local communities. Sometimes through pre-existing economic or cultural conditions, the ‘good guys’ may be on top and intelligent conduct and fair play may flourish, and conversely at times the ‘bad guys’ are on top; who tend to shore up their power by harsh dictatorships and bloody rule of the sword.
[7] For instance as a young historian I would become very annoyed at reading publications put out both fictional and non-fiction about the nature of Germans, their culture and attitudes to life, shortly after the Second World War.
Having had the experience in our family of my father as a young British fighter pilot not only being shot down in battle, when on his own and outnumbered by German aircraft in the Middle East fighting in 1941, and then because he kept trying to escape, being sent to Germany to serve as a Prisoner of War for the next four years; then having living in our home a German nanny to care for me from the age of 3 to 10 years and generally accompanying her to Germany for her summer holidays, it used to distress me greatly to see popular cheap novels depicting German soldiers as mean barbaric and stupid. In fact they were not and it was ridiculous for them to be portrayed as such. The reality of war is that young people who have no power in themselves to determine anything are engulfed by such a holocaust, and there is very little difference, apart from the language they speak, for say on the one side a young boy by government regulation recruited from school in Great Britain and now aged 18 wearing a khaki British army uniform, and on the other a similarly recruited boy from Heilbron in Germany in the Wehrmacht, wearing a grey uniform: both had been taught good manners by their parents; a wholesome set of ethics to live by; both loved dearly by their respective relatives and both sets of families equally fearful as to their boy’s welfare and fears as to whether they would survive the war.
[8] To make academic theory a littler difficult here theorists have chosen to define their own terms in places at variance to one another, yet mean to say the same thing so have included such terms together in this brief summary analysis.
[9] The definition of an essay here understood to mean in the broad sense; a set of writings with several related paragraphs, which are written about a specific discreet topic.