Professional Issues Poor oral presentation skills Poor literary - PDF document

Employers' views of graduates (Remember this?) • Inarticulate and illiterate: Professional Issues • Poor oral presentation skills • Poor literary skills Communicating in English – grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling 1 2 Sources of English Questions • Saxons, Jutes, Angles, Normans (really • How many common words are used Vikings) differently between Britain and the USA? • How has it spread? • NB English-English is a minority dialect – British colonisation, American “Coca Cola- nisation” • How many learn English as a 2 nd • Do Americans speak English? language? 3 4 And the answers are … The Importance of English • 1000 (Bill Bryson) • Quotations taken from Bill Bryson's “Mother Tongue” – “Two thirds of all scientific papers are • 1 - 1.5 billion published in English” (Economist) – 250 million Chinese study English – “Nearly half of all business deals in Europe – Common 2 nd language in 89 countries are conducted in English” – “More than 70% of the world's mail is written and addressed in English” 5 6 1

Such as … • “The teaching of English is Britain's sixth largest • man bilong wokim gaden Q+7 3= source of invisible earning, worth some £500M • Rot M?G )?g per annum” • Kaikai E=+7 #!C • “English is the most studied and emulated • rot bilong kaikai language in the world” C+EG?C!EG • “Many English words have become more or less • Bagarup universal” (airport, passport, hotel, telephone, bar, soda, cigarette, sport, golf, tennis, stop, OK, weekend, jeans, know-how, sex appeal, no problem) 7 8 “Scientists Must Write” … meaning Chapter Titles 1. Scientists must write • Check-in • Farmer 2. Personal records • Hot Dog • Road 3. Routine communications • Snack Bar • Food 4. How scientists should write • Restaurant • Digestive Tract 5. Think - plan - write - revise (includes exam • Disaster advice) • Direct phonetic 6. Choosing words translation into Cyrillic • Papua New Guinea Pidgin 7. Using words (Russian, Bulgarian etc.) 8. Helping your readers 9 10 Unstructured writing 9. Numbers contribute to precision • Implies unstructured thought – Or lack of care or consideration 10. Illustrations contribute to clarity • Is difficult to read and remember 11. Finding information • Is impossible to assimilate and understand 12. How to write a report on an investigation • Is prone to duplication or omissions 13. Writing a report on your investigation • Careless writing (bad spelling or grammar) 14. Talking about science distracts from the message Appendices: – And again, implies lack of care – Punctuation • Every time you communicate, how you do it – Spelling (knowledge of grammar is assumed) conveys a message – Computer Appreciation 11 12 2

Documents Things that irritate markers TITLE • Bad spelling in spell-checkable documents Author name(s), Author affiliation(s), Date • Poor structure (Abstract) • Misused apostrophes • Introduction (What this document is about) • Their / there; here / hear; two / to / too • Sections describing the work • Passivity • Conclusion (What has been achieved, proved, etc.) • References – This report attempts to show a possible … – This report shows a … • machine produced, spell checked • Rambling 13 14 Always redraft it Good discipline • (say for a report) "I have made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.“ • Imagine you are giving it as a presentation – Condense it to (say) 12 bullet points • Or: draw out the structure as a diagram Blaise Pascal, "Lettres provinciales", letter 16, 1657. • Or: Read it aloud • If a tricky point gives you trouble Generally a written passage will get shorter – Say it briefly in ordinary English; write it down and better every time you revise it • A picture is worth 1000 words 15 16 Scientific papers Examinations • Write in “reportese” • Read the rubric and the questions and answer – 3 rd person the questions set, not ones you have invented – “We unplugged the gizmo before it caught • Start your answer to each question on a new fire” becomes page – “The device was immediately unplugged and • Fill in the “questions attempted” column on the thermal damage was avoided” front page (1, 2, etc, not 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b) • But don’t get turgid or timid or pompous • Don't write “you do this” etc, the examiner won't! • Banish anything that breaks the narrative flow to an appendix 17 18 3

Examinations Presentations • Strategy: Use your time wisely; the first 50% of • What are your worst presentation marks for a question are more easily obtained nightmares? than the last 50%. • “A mass of irrelevant verbiage is no substitute for facts” (Professor, Lord Flowers) • Answers from the floor … ? • Third year marks constitute 50% of final degree assessment • Most can be avoided with a little thought • You can lose more marks through poor strategy, panic or misreading the question than through poor knowledge 19 20 Presentation Nightmares 1 Presentation Nightmares 2 • Nervous • Your lose your material / things go wrong – Practice, starting with small groups – Backup copy – acetates, paper even. – Know your material and how you’ll start – Have someone else fix things while you talk – Be yourself, try to relax • Tough question • Lose the place or find material doesn’t work – Have some stock answers – Have cue cards that you can read while standing – E.g. “I’d really need notice of that question…” • Best to know the slide after the one showing – Never, ever, ever, try to read material verbatim • A-V – Take time to think if you need to – If possible check out the venue beforehand – Don’t over-apologise 21 22 Breakout • Why scientists/engineers need to write: • Why do scientists/engineers need to write? • When will they need to write? – To communicate – To remember • What are the consequences of poor communication? – To think – To plan – To organise • 10 minutes but … from “Scientists Must Write” by Robert • This time your spokesperson presents your Barrass results! 23 24 4

Grammar Grammar • Question: Is the following a sentence? • Question: Is the following a sentence? – This is a sentence. – This is a sentence. • Question: Is the following a sentence? • Question: Is the following a sentence? – Whereas this is not a sentence. – Whereas this is not a sentence. • Question: Which of the following is • Question: Which of the following is correct? correct? – The group have decided … – The group have decided … x – The group has decided ... – The group has decided ... √ 25 26 Grammar Grammar • Question: Which of the following is • Question: Are the following sentences correct? grammatically correct? – The amount of people who ... – Me and Jim went down the pub. – The number of people who ... – Between you and I, Jim's drinking too much. – “Try and drink less”, I told him. – “Please return your empty glasses to myself”, said the barman. – “If myself or any of my staff can help you please ...” (GNER) 27 28 Grammar Grammar • The sentences should be: • Question: Which of the following is correct? – Jim and I went to the pub. – Between you and me, Jim's drinking too much. – “Try to drink less”, I told him. – “Please return your empty glasses to me”, said the barman. – “If I or any of my staff can help you, please ...” 29 30 5

• During the day, most of the windows were • During the day, most of the windows were closed. The windows which were open were closed. The (windows which were open) closed at 5.00 pm. were closed at 5.00 pm. • During the day, most of the windows were – i.e. some of the windows were open closed. The windows, which were open, were • During the day, most of the windows were closed at 5.00 pm. closed. The (windows which were open • During the day, most of the windows were were closed) at 5.00 pm. closed. The windows that were open were – a logical impossibility closed at 5.00 pm. 31 32 • During the day, most of the windows were closed. The windows, which were open, • During the day, most of the windows were were closed at 5.00 pm. closed. The windows that were open were closed at 5.00 pm. • Now refers to all the windows, but were they open or were they closed? • Correct. Note the difference using “that” rather than “which” 33 34 Spelling Why verb when you can noun? • Question: Which of the following words are • This product fragrances your house correct? – Separate √ seperate x • YUK! – Behavior us behaviour √ – Travelled √ traveled us – Independant x independent √ – Dependant √ , n. dependent √ , adj. – Recieve x receive √ 35 36 6