COMPRISING
Edit the following paragraph to make any sentences as short as possible without changing their meaning
Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, proposed a theory in the eighteenth century that has made him controversial ever since. This British economist, who was born in Scotland and educated in England, wrote the first complete study of political economy. The Wealth of Nations was published in the same year that Americans declared their independence from England – that was 1776. Smith’s book pointed out and directed attention to the interdependence of freedom an order, economic processes, and free trade laws. Although his thinking did not really affect economic policies significantly during his life time, its influence in the next century was considerable. Among economist, “the invisible hand” and “ laissez- faire” are synonymous with Smith’s name. History has made Smith’s ideas more controversial. “Adam Smith” to conservative businesspeople, and those same people will smile and make a response with words like “He was a good man – really understood how business works!” “Say Adam Smith” to liberal reformers and they will grimace and mutter something along the lines of “He was a idol man – really sold the average citizen down the river.” Both of these reactions are extreme, but such responses indicate that the controversy aroused by Smith’s ideas is still alive.
Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, proposed a theory in the eighteenth century that has made him controversial ever since. This economist, born in Scotland and educated in England, wrote the first complete study of political economy. The Wealth of Nations was published in the same year that Americans declared their independence. Smith’s book pointed out and directed attention to the interdependence of freedom and order, economic processes, and free trade laws. Although his thinking did not affect economic policies during his life time, its influence in the next century was considerable. Among economist, “the invisible hand” and “laissez- faire” are synonymous with Smith’s name. History has made Smith’s ideas more controversial. Say “Adam Smith” to conservative businesspeople, and they will smile and make a response like “He was a good man – really understood how business works!” Say “Adam Smith” to liberal reformers and they will grimace and mutter something like “He was an idol man – really sold the average citizen down the river.” Both reactions are extreme, but they indicate that the controversy aroused by Smith’s ideas is still alive.
CONCISENESS
Monica has sent her summary to the evaluative committee of the magazine "TESOL QUATERLY" to be considered for future publication. However, it was sent back because the word limit was 115. Help Monica to reduce it and fulfill the demands of the audience to be accepted
(1) This study went through 1,600 marginal and end comments written on 110 first drafts of essays by 47 university ESL students who are advanced, considering both the pragmatic goals for and the linguistics features of each comment. (2) After this, drafts of each individuals essay were examined to observe the influence of the first draft commentary on the students’ revision and assess whether the changes that we made in response to the teacher's feedback actually improved the essays. (3) The author thinks that a really significant proportion of the comments led to substantive students revision, and that there were particular types or kinds and forms of commentary that were more helpful than other commentaries. (4) The final result are suggestive of several important implications for 12 writing instructions and for future studies on a vital but surprisingly neglected topic.
This study went through 1,600 marginal and end comments written on 110 essays drafts by 47 university ESL advanced students, considering both the pragmatic goals for and the linguistics features of each comment. After this, the drafts of each essay were examined to observe the influence of the commentaries on the students’ revision and assess whether the changes made in response to the feedback improved the essays. A significant proportion of the comments led to substantive students revision, and there were particular types of commentaries that were more helpful than others. The final results are suggestive of several implications for 12 writing instructions and future studies on a vital but surprisingly neglected topic.
OUTLINING AND SUMMARY EXERCISES
Exercise 3
WRITE A 100 WORD SUMMARY FROM THE ORIGINAL ESSAY TITLED “STUDENT RIGHTS”
OUTLINE
Thesis: University administrations must include student representatives in the decision-making processes of important issues as Faculty selection, curriculum planning and scheduling.
I (Main Idea): Students should be given permission to examine, or at least meet prospective professors since they are the best judges of a teacher's abilities.
II (Main Idea): Keeping students out of the curriculum planning process is nonsense because their interest and commitment to appropriate curricula is quite obvious.
III (Main Idea): Schedules must be convenient and flexible so that all students have the same opportunities to take the most popular or important classes.
SUMMARY
Students' representatives must be included in decision-making processes of important issues such as faculty selection, curriculum planning and scheduling because they know what the university should do for them and how they should be treated. First, there should be some way students could examine, or meet prospective professors since they are the best judges of a teacher's abilities. Also, keeping students out of the curriculum planning process is nonsense because their interest and commitment to appropriate curricula is obvious. Finally, schedules must be convenient and flexible so that all students have the same opportunities to take the most important classes.
PARAPHRASING EXERCISES
Paraphrasing means rewriting someone's ideas using other words or phrases instead of repeating the exact words the author used. It is necessary to keep the author's main idea; however, the rest of the elements involved are usually changed.
Exercise 1
Paraphrase each sentence. There may be more than one way to rewrite each one. Remember to change vocabulary, phrases and sentence structure wherever you can.
1. Despite their massive size, elephants are known for being agile.Elephants are agile even though they are large animals.
2. Because elephants consume up to 500 pounds of food a day, they are able to strip a forest bare in no time.
Elephants can devour a forest very quickly as they ingest around 500 pounds of food a day.
3. Over the centuries, lions have been used in art to represent power and magnificence.
Power and magnificence are commonly represented in art by using lions.
4. Lions are social animals with one dominant male in each pride.
Each pride has only one dominant male since this species is very social.
5. George Washington Carver was a dedicated teacher; in addition, he was known as a talented artist, musician, and researcher who made valuable contributions to his people and his country.
Very important contributions were made by a well learned teacher, artist, musician and researcher called George Washington Carver.
6. Archibald McLeish, known for his poetry, was appointed head of the Congress by President Roosevelt in 1939.
President Roosevelt assigned the widely known poet Archibald McLeish as head of the congress.
Exercise 2
Read each paragraph and state the main idea in your own words.
1. Main idea: Even though the world has a lot of water, the lack of water fit to be consumed is the reason why many people don't have sufficient water.
2. Main idea: In order to find more oil supplies, oil hunters dig wherever it is considered to be an oil spot but they usually waste a lot of money as the drilling process is very expensive.
3. Main idea: Quakers have imprinted the world with their work for human causes during decades.
