Unit 1:: Introduction To Communication

English for Professional and Academic Communication - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Unit 1:
Introduction to Communication (V 1.1)
English for Professional and

Academic Communication
Dept. Lingüística Aplicada a la Ciencia y la
Tecnología (D.L.A.C.T.)
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros
Industriales (E.T.S.I.I.)
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Unit developed by Ismael Arinas Pellón, lecturer at the E.T.S.I.I.
Los detalles de los términos de esta licencia "Creative Commons" se

encuentran en / The detailed terms of this "Creative Commons" license can be
found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 1

UNIT 1: Introduction to Communication

 UNIT GOALS:
 Become familiar with some online or software tools that can help you while working
on writing or speaking tasks.
 Learn how to combine the concepts of Audience, Purpose and Structure to speak and
write as well as to understand spoken and written communication.
 Learn the relationship between Logical Argumentation, Emotional Argumentation and
Credibility and how these three are used.
 Learn how to write in a More Clear and Concise Style.
 Learn how to structure information in basic descriptions and narrations.
 Learn the relationship between the concept of Genre and predicting either what to
write /say or what to understand (applied to reading comprehension of Journal
Articles).
 Learn some engineering, academic and general language (vocabulary and structures)
commonly used in academic and professional contexts.
 Understand how to plan, structure and assess the quality of oral presentations.
 Suggest the access to some examples on the use of communication techniques that
can be found in films, TV series, literature and popular science.
Unit Contents
1. TOOLS .................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.1. SPELL CHECKING TOOLS & CITATION TOOLS ............................................................................. 4
1.2. GRAMMAR CHECKING TOOLS & STYLE CHECKING TOOLS ....................................................... 4
1.3. PLAGIARISM DETECTION TOOLS AND REFERENCES ................................................................. 5
1.4. BILINGUAL & MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES ........................................................................... 6
1.5. GLOSSARIES, TERMINOLOGICAL DATABASES & LEXICAL SEARCH TOOLS ............................. 9
1.6. ENCYCLOPAEDIAS........................................................................................................................ 9
1.7. CORPORA & CORPUS-BASED TOOLS ......................................................................................... 10
1.8. REFERENCE MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................... 10
1.9. KNOWLEDGE MAPPING .............................................................................................................. 10
2. BASIC CONCEPTS FOR COMMUNICATION ....................................................................................... 11
2.1. AUDIENCE, PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE .................................................................................... 11
2.2. RATIONAL ARGUMENTATION, EMOTIONAL ARGUMENTATION, CREDIBILITY ..................... 13
2.3. SCHEMATA AND FRAMING ........................................................................................................ 14
2.4. TYPES OF TEXT: DESCRIPTION, NARRATION, PERSUASION.................................................... 15
3. STYLE AND ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION ............................................................................. 24
3.1. CLARITY AND LANGUAGE .......................................................................................................... 25
3.2. CONTINUITY AND TEXTS ........................................................................................................... 32
3.3. CONCISENESS AND TEXTS......................................................................................................... 38

3.4. COHERENCE AND TEXTS ........................................................................................................... 40

3.5. CADENCE AND TEXTS ................................................................................................................ 43
3.6. STRUCTURING INFORMATION WITH LANGUAGE - DENSITY vs. SPECIFICITY ....................... 44
4. GENRE: READING COMPREHENSION - JOURNAL ARTICLES ......................................................... 45
4.1. GENRE: THE CONCEPT AND EXAMPLES ................................................................................... 45
4.2. JOURNAL ARTICLES .................................................................................................................. 45
4.3. READING COMPREHENSION, VOCABULARY & LANGUAGE USE ........................................... 47
5. PRESENTATIONS: INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS ........................................ 49
5.1. AUDIENCE ................................................................................................................................... 50
5.2. PURPOSE .................................................................................................................................... 50
5.3. STRUCTURE................................................................................................................................. 51
6. UNIT VOCABULARY .......................................................................................................................... 52
7. REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 53
8. COMMUNICATION IN POPULAR CULTURE .................................................................................... 56
Engineers do not work in isolation, in other words, their academic and professional
activities are mediated by communication with others. According to Darling and Dannels
(2003), translation (basically, adapting technical knowledge to each communication
context), negotiation, clarity and listening are essential skills to succeed in the engineering
profession. In a broader research (Sageev & Romanowski, 2001), recent graduates indicated
that they spent 64% of their working time dedicated to communication activities. The
subjects in this research considered that future engineers should be trained in producing
effective writing, delivering oral presentations, writing e-mails, speaking in meetings,
managing team discussions, improving their listening skills (understanding the logic behind
the words, not just the words themselves) (Riemer, 2007), and improving their reading
skills. Conrad (2017) states that undergraduate engineering students have the following
problems in their writing: complicated sentence structures, inaccurate general word choice,
errors in grammar and punctuation, and non-linear organization. These problems are the
result of poor knowledge of effective writing, unawareness of genre conventions, ineffective
language skills, and the prejudice that only calculations communicate engineering content
(Conrad, 2017).
Non-native speakers of English seem to have these same difficulties in their native
language too. Therefore, neither their native receptive (listening and reading) nor their
productive (speaking and writing) skills can be transferred successfully to a foreign
language (English in this case). This unit aims at providing criteria for our students, on the
one hand, to understand engineering texts as well as oral presentations and, on the other
hand, to produce short descriptions and comments both in speaking and writing (sections 2
through 5).
Additionally, the unit begins with a short review of tools that can be used to improve
and assess the quality of the communication produced by our students. The unit closes with
a list of recommended movies, TV series, novels, popular science books and songs that
associate the criteria made available here to language research and common use.
Obviously, the criteria introduced in this unit do not cover all possible communication
challenges faced in academia and jobs, but they are simple and powerful enough to make
informed decisions about communication (both as receivers and emitters).

1. TOOLS
There are several software tools that can be either installed, used on-line, or added to
your browser to improve your writing. Other tools provide the necessary linguistic and
cultural information that you are lacking when working on a communication project. And
finally, some tools help you with the structuring of your writing and speaking.
1.1. SPELL CHECKING TOOLS & CITATION TOOLS

Spell-checkers have raised the expected standards for documents (presentation
slides, papers, reports, e-mails) as they detect most spelling mistakes. Nevertheless, you
should combine this tool with the ones mentioned in section 1.2 to detect problems such as
these:
You write... But you meant...

Drum *breaks Drum brakes
My *advise is that... My advice is that...
Did you *loose your... Did you lose your...
The cargo is *ensured... The cargo is insured
an *all together new approach An altogether new approach...
The second and third examples are detected by most spell-checkers working in
combination with grammar checkers. Nevertheless, all of them are examples of words
spelled correctly, but used in the wrong context. The following are some available and
reliable spell checking tools:
 on-line websites
https://www.jspell.com/public-spell-checker.html  can differentiate between British
and American spelling.
http://www.reverso.net/spell-checker/english-spelling-grammar/  only uses British
spelling but combined with a grammar check. It offers the possibility of finding
synonyms as well as conjugating verbs.
http://www.online-spellcheck.com/ proofs five different English spelling standards,
suggests grammatical changes and provides possible synonyms.
 Word processing software features standard spell-checkers and grammar
comments, but they lack the statistical database that improves the quality of the
corrections. The new on-line versions of this software are improving this aspect.
Libre Office https://en.libreoffice.org/ (or other Open Source word-processors such as
Apache Open Office https://www.openoffice.org/en, or WPS Office Writer
https://www.wps.com/office-free) include downloadable spell-checkers for many
languages (or localised versions such as British, Australian, Canadian, or US English).
 on-line office packs
Google Docs https://www.google.es/intl/es/docs/about/ has a grammar and spell-
checker that use statistical learning to improve their functions.
Microsoft Office https://www.office.com/ has a PC/Mac version and on-line versions.
The on-line correction tools have a statistical engine that improves its functions over time.
1.2. GRAMMAR CHECKING TOOLS & STYLE CHECKING TOOLS

As you have seen in the previous section, there are tools that perform a complete
analysis of a text. Sometimes, combining the tools in this section with those in sections 1.1
and 1.2 will help you improve your texts. The technology behind these tools combines
statistically informed with ad-hoc rules and can be accessed from these two sources:

 on-line
GrammarCheck https://www.grammarcheck.net/editor/ grammar, spelling and
punctuation mistakes are detected to a certain degree while providing some alternatives.
Grammarly Editor https://www.grammarly.com/signup?page=free you can add it as
an extension to your browser or open a free trial account from the, but the fully-
functional version is expensive. It is the most sophisticated along with Ginger and
Whitesmoke (both below).
SpellCheck Plus https://spellcheckplus.com/ checks the grammar, spelling and
punctuation providing suggestions for correcting your text. It is OK up to a B1 level of
mistakes.
Language Tool https://languagetool.org/ it can be used as a complement for
LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Vim, Emacs, Firefox, Thunderbird and Google Chrome or as a
stand-alone application. It corrects grammar, style, punctuation and spelling. It checks up
to 1,700 error patterns but you can only test 20,000 characters at a time.
Spellboy https://www.spellboy.com/corrector-gramatical/ differentiates between
British and American English and covers other languages.
Scribens https://www.scribens.com/ provides grammatical explanations on the
detected mistakes so you can decide whether the suggested correction makes sense.
Whitesmoke http://www.whitesmoke.com/free-online-checker is similar to
Grammarly and can be used as an extension for your browser or your wordprocessor. The
free version is good enough for B1 level mistakes.
 Downloadable software
Grammar Checker developed by UNED it corrects mistakes to a B1 level. You can
watch this video to see how it works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qC4w1h6jB4 .
Remember, it costs €3.
Ginger Software https://www.gingersoftware.com/ the free version can be opened
with a Facebook or Google account. It corrects your texts, helps you with translations and
has a tutorial to give you the basics. It works as an editor: you write in the software and
then you can copy-paste the edited text in your word processor. You can use it either in
U.S. English or British English mode.
The pay versions of the above tools detect more mistakes and provide more accurate
suggestions. One possible strategy is to pay for a month once a large document is written
(final study project, master's thesis, reports). Alternatively, combining the analysis of 3 free
versions may produce good enough results, but human reviewers should check the text.
1.3. PLAGIARISM DETECTION TOOLS AND REFERENCES

The UPM Moodle platform incorporates the tool Turnitin™. The purpose of this tool is
to identify copy-pasted text in written exercises handed in by students on-line. Turnitin™
shows what text has been plagiarised, where it comes from, and the percentage of the
document that has been plagiarised. The algorithms used do not discriminate always
correctly, but these detection tools are used worldwide to identify plagiarism or breach of
copyright. You can find a selection of such tools on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_anti-plagiarism_software .
An effective way of avoiding plagiarism is to make sure your texts and presentations
include (according to standard conventions) references to all your sources of information.
We recommend using either IEEE1 or MLA2 standards. Your word processor has a
"References" menu to insert references in the text and create a reference section at the
end of each document.
1
http://www.ijssst.info/info/IEEE-Citation-StyleGuide.pdf and https://ieee-
dataport.org/sites/default/files/analysis/27/IEEE%20Citation_Guidelines.pdf inform about IEEE style.
2
https://www.library.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/mla_style_revised.pdf covers MLA style.

1.4. BILINGUAL & MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES

Dictionaries provide information about language meaning, language use and
grammatical features (definitions, formality or informality, special contexts of use, irregular
plurals, irregular verbal forms, pronunciation, word class, etc). Which of the following
characteristics are signs of quality in dictionaries?
a) Include information about b) Include maps. c) Include irregular forms

pronunciation (even audio (verbs, nouns, spellings).
files).
d) Have many pictures and e) Include examples of use f) Explain the origin of
diagrams. in real contexts. words.
g) Include information h) Include tables with i) Present different
about context of use grammar rules. meanings according to part
(formality/informality, of speech (Noun, Verb,
technical/general, etc.). Adjective, etc.).
Bilingual Dictionaries: tend to include fewer dictionary entries and worse

translations for the English/Spanish language pair than for other pairs (English/French or
English/German). Should not be the main reference tool because they promote the habit
of translating word by word.
Advantages over monolingual Disadvantages against monolingual

dictionaries dictionaries
Usually more affordable (paper Difficult to know whether the meaning
versions). found applies to the context we need.
Broader offer (size, types of binding, More difficult to learn vocabulary
adapted to language level) (paper actively because it is easier to
versions). remember the translation.
Many include audio files with On-line versions are either offering
pronunciation (on-line versions). limited information or are becoming
pay services.
The following two tools combine bilingual dictionaries with translations of the
words used in context. The advantage is that you can verify that the translation is used in
the same context as in Spanish:
 https://es.bab.la/diccionario/espanol-ingles/
 https://www.linguee.es/
If you insist in using bilingual dictionaries, the following four offer the level of
quality and features that you will require in your academic and professional
communication:
 https://www.ldoceonline.com/es-LA/ Longman Bilingual Dictionary
 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles-espanol/ Cambridge
University Press Dictionary
 https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-spanish Collins
Dictionary
 https://es.oxforddictionaries.com/ Oxford University Press Dictionary

Now look at these two versions of the same ideas:
Beam3 (noun) [biːm] Beam (noun) [biːm]

Translation: Haz de luz, haz de Translation: Barra, viga, eje
radiofaro
Lead (verb) [liːd], led [lɛd], led [lɛd] Lead (noun) [lɛd]
Translation: Dirigir, conducir, guiar, Translation: Plomo (Pb)
liderar, encabezar
Wind (noun) [wɪnd] Wind (verb) [waɪnd], wound
Translation: Viento, respiración, aire en [waʊnd], wound [waʊnd]
movimiento, rastro olfativo, Translation: Dar Cuerda, arrollar (un
alambre, por ejemplo), devanar
Wound (noun) [wuːnd] Wound (past /past participle) [waʊnd]
Translation: Herida Translation: dió cuerda, arrollado, etc.
A change in pronunciation may change the word category and even the meaning of
a sequence of letters. Do the bold words in the following pairs of sentences have the
same meanings? Do they have the same pronunciation?
 They usually lead their team to a victory.

 Lead is very poisonous and its use should be avoided.
 With help from a laser beam, objects can be scanned point for point without
contact.
 Calculation of the critical rotary natural frequencies of individual shafts on the basis
of a continuous beam model.
 To wind a spool with a thread.
 She lost her wind during the race.
As you can see, context is essential to decide the meaning (and sometimes the
pronunciation) of some concepts both in general and technical concepts. So make sure
that you select from the dictionary the meaning that matches the required context.
EXERCISE: Below, you can read three concepts. Each one is followed by
two very different, though correct, definitions. Which definition
corresponds to the words in bold type in the sentences in page 7?
BEAM (noun)
A1 ... is a directional projection of light energy radiating from a light source. Examples: lasers,
spotlights, car headlights, PAR Cans and LED housings.
A2 ... is a structural element that primarily resists loads applied laterally to its axis. Examples:
automotive automobile frames, aircraft components, machine frames, and other mechanical or
structural systems that are designed to carry lateral loads.
SPOOL (verb)
B1 To store (data sent to a printer) in a buffer, allowing the program that sent the data to the
printer to resume its normal operation.
B2 To wind or be wound on or off a cylinder
SHAFT (noun)
C1... is a rotating rod that transmits motion or power; usually of axial rotation.
C2...is a vertical passage through a building, for a lift or a vertical passage into a mine.
3
In The New International Webster's Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language -
Encyclopedic Edition (1999) it has 13 different meanings most of them either technical or semi-
technical.

_______ Some cables are so large that a single spool of cable will weigh twenty-six tons and require a
giant truck and a sixteen-horse team to haul it to its resting-place.
______ The archaeologists began clearing the debris that filled a deep shaft in the middle of its burial
chamber
______ Other issues that can force your transmission to pop out of gear are too much play in the
countershaft and output shaft assemblies.
______ Doctors scan the tumor using the proton beam spot-by-spot and layer-by-layer.
______ While documents are lined up in the spool they can be paused, canceled or assigned a higher
or lower place in line.
______ VBrace can not have an angle of less than 10 degrees with respect to the beam or the column.
At times, the information in the dictionary is insufficient to understand the

implications that the concept has in a specific context. Take a look at the following two
examples:
Example 1: PROPINA  TIP
Example 2: NOTAS  GRADES
If you were paying your meal at a restaurant in the U.S.A., would the amount of your tip
be the same as in Spain? Why? ___________________________
______________________________________________________
In your current studies, is a grade of 7.5 a good grade? What is the equivalent of this grade
for U.S.A. universities4? It is a good grade for students there? Why? ______________
______________________________________________________
The dictionary translations of examples 1 and 2 do not include the necessary cultural
information to assess the implications of using some concepts in specific contexts.
EXERCISE: Translate the following concepts into Spanish (not a literal

translation but a concept that is equivalent)
 Grade Point Average (GPA): ____________________________________________
 Chartered Engineer: ___________________________________________________
 Licensure: ____________________________________________________________
 Apply for a fellowship: _________________________________________________
Monolingual Dictionaries: There are two types of dictionaries in this category. First,
conventional dictionaries and, second, Thesauruses. In English, a Thesaurus is a
dictionary of synonyms and antonyms.
EXERCISE: Look at the definition of gantry crane below. Look at the list
of synonyms for the underlined words in the definition. How do we
decide which synonyms are adequate for each of the underlined
words?
A gantry crane is a crane built atop a gantry, which is a structure used to straddle an object
or workspace. (source of the definition: Wikipedia, 2018)
on top of, over, upon, higher than
span, cross, bridge, vault, traverse, range over, extend across, arch across, cover,
bestride, mount
4
To calculate equivalences between systems you can use https://www.unco.edu/cie/study-abroad/pdf/for-
students/grade-equivalencies.pdf or https://www.scholaro.com/gpa-calculator/

Table 1 presents the advantages and shortcomings of Thesauri compared to monolingual

dictionaries.
Advantages over Non-Thesauruses Disadvantages against Non-

Thesauruses
 Provide many meanings.  Usually not adapted to different
 Provide also antonyms. language levels.
 Sometimes, organises synomyms  More expensive (paper versions)
according to different meanings.  Require a good English knowledge
 Sometimes, includes words from  Usually lack examples in context, so
same semantic field. it is difficult to choose a meaning
Table 1: Comparison between Thesauruses and Monolingual Dictionaries
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ it presents the definitions of several renowned paper

dictionaries; it provides synonyms; it features an acronym dictionary; it contains
definitions of idioms; and it gives access to specialised dictionaries as well as an on-
line encyclopaedia.
http://oxforddictionary.so8848.com/search1?word=solution the Oxford Online Collocation
Dictionary.
http://www.ozdic.com/ OZDIC collocation dictionary
https://prowritingaid.com/Free-Online-Collocations-Dictionary.aspx ProWritingAid
Collocation Dictionary
Collocation dictionaries present each word with a collection of words that have a high
statistic probability of co-occurring in the same sentence.
1.5. GLOSSARIES, TERMINOLOGICAL DATABASES & LEXICAL SEARCH

TOOLS
Glossaries are collections of translations of technical terms. Terminological databases are
repositories compiled by state or multi-state organisations. They contain lists of
standard terms with their standard translation into some other language. Finally,
search tools can be used to find specific examples of the previous two.
Lexicool: https://www.lexicool.com/diccionarios-en-linea-por-tema.asp here you can find
dictionaries, glossaries and databases by topic.
IATE: https://iate.europa.eu/ this is the official terminological database of the European
Union. You can find terminology for those engineering topics covered by the
activities of the European Union.
WordNet: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn is a terminological database for
general English with synonyms for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
FrameNet: https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/fndrupal/framenet_search it is useful to
understand how to write sentences as it explains the grammar and semantics of
words.
1.6. ENCYCLOPAEDIAS
Which of the following describes the main type of information provided by encyclopaedias?
a) Knowledge about b) Knowledge of the world c). Knowledge about

meaning grammar
The Wikipedia is constantly updated and covers a broader range of topics than other
encyclopaedias. It is a good starting point to find references to the information that
you need. Unfortunately, the information contained may be incorrect or biased.

Therefore, used as a point of departure in your search for information, not as a main
source.
In section 1.4 above, you can find reliable monolingual dictionaries that include
encyclopaedias. Alternatively, the paper version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is a
very reliable source of information, although not updated with the same speed as the
online ones. Here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_encyclopedias and
here https://www.refseek.com/directory/encyclopedias.html, you can see lists of
online encyclopaedias.
1.7. CORPORA & CORPUS-BASED TOOLS

Collections of millions of words from real texts (transcriptions of spoken and written texts)
combined with a search interface allow you to identify possible language patterns. In
other words, when your questions are "Can I write this in English? or Can I say this in
English?", these are the tools you need.
https://corpus.byu.edu/ includes a collection of corpora and query tools (with instructions).
Among these corpora, the following are the most useful: Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA), iWeb, GloWeb, and the British National Corpus. This video
provides an introduction to the use of the search tools https://youtu.be/R-
5EACZjqiM?list=PLtNiAqRdUDP4HixTNlXw0ExisWwZHRnh-
You can also create your own corpus. In this case, you need a tool to search for patterns in
your corpus. It can be useful for writing letters, emails, reports, university papers, etc.
You compile a collection of real examples and look for useful patterns in your writing.
Antconc, http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/ , is the easiest of such
tools. This tutorial provides the basics for its use: https://youtu.be/O3ukHC3fyuc
For academic communication, you can use the MICASE corpus with transcripts from
lectures, tutoring sessions and other communications among students and
professors. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micase/
1.8. REFERENCE MANAGEMENT

Your writing must be backed by the sources of your information and you probably will use
several times some of those references. Each writing assignment might require
different citation formats, so having a tool that allows you to organise these
references alphabetically and by topic or other criteria is going to save you lots of
time. Furthermore, these tools allow you to retrieve your references in different
citation formats. The most popular ones are the following four (tutorials for all of
them are available on YouTube):
RefWorks, see https://www.proquest.com/about/
Zotero, see https://www.zotero.org/
Mendeley, see https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager
EndNote, see https://endnote.com/
1.9. KNOWLEDGE MAPPING

One useful way of organising your vocabulary, information for presentations and
information for written documents is having a tool that creates diagrams where you
can organise concepts according to categories and keep links to where this
information comes from. Here you can find a list of 39:
https://financesonline.com/mind-mapping/ (Freemind and Edraw are free an user-friendly).
We also recommend CMapTools, https://cmap.ihmc.us/ ,which allows to share your maps
on-line and it allows to create maps linked to images, documents, media files and web
sites.

2. BASIC CONCEPTS FOR COMMUNICATION

2.1. AUDIENCE, PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE
Aristotle (2012 / 367-322 B.C.) proposed, over 2,300 years ago, that to understand
communication, you had to understand the relationship among audiences, communication
purposes and the structure
Audience
Figure 1: Factors configuring communication
Let's apply the system illustrated by Figure 1 to a common situation. Descriptions are
frequent in technology related communication, but a description has to be adapted to what
you want to achieve (purpose), what the audience needs to know and all that affects the
choice of contents and its organisation. Imagine that you are writing the Final Graduation
Project (TFG).
What is the purpose of your TFG (beyond getting a good grade)?
Who is assessing the contents of your TFG?
What does de intended audience expect to find in the TFG?
How do all the previous answers affect the contents of your TFG?
Your answers to these questions, should have led to identifying a direct relation among the
the three factors considered: you communicate with the purpose of affecting an
audience and to achieve this purpose you must structure the contents of your
communication according to audience's needs and expectations. Therefore, before
you start working on your communication you have to identify as precisely as
possible who the audience will be, what do they expect to receive according to the
context and genre (conventional format) and what reaction do you anticipate from
the audience.
Figure 2 (adapted from Maton, 2014: 30) graphically presents useful criteria to identify
audiences and their expectations. The axes of the graph represent stronger or
weaker relations of expected contents to knowledge and social aspect. In the top left
hand corner, we find audiences expecting clear, standard methodologies, quality
data, expert knowledge and the credibility of the communicator depends on logical
argumentation, not prestige (scientist audiences). In the top right hand corner, the
audience expects the communicator to have the right kind of knowledge and the

Figure 2: Audience identification diagram. Adapted from Maton, 2014: 30.

adequate qualification to elicit that knowledge (élite messages). In the bottom left
hand corner, you find communication outside standards, expert knowledge is not
explicit and prestige is irrelevant (relativist audiences). And finally, in the bottom
right hand corner, credibility of the communicator is based on a combination of
knowledge and prestige, in other words, reputation of quality knowledge and skills
allows for the use of combinations of emotional and rational arguments (knower
messages).
Let us look at one example in chemistry provided by professor Blackie (2014: 465). There
are several ways that the dilution of salt in water can be explained. For example: one
approach could be describing the manner in which salt dissolves in water (scientist
audiences); another strategy could be using this standard notation to illustrate what
we are talking about NaCl(s)  NaCl(aq) (élite message); alternatively you can mix
table salt and mix it into a glass of water until it disappears (relativist audiences); or
present aqueous sodium chloride by using a submicro diagram" (knower message).
EXERCISE 1: This video describing the Otis ReGen2

https://youtu.be/hcN7pbpujMk technology can help us practice the criteria
to identify audiences. Answer the following questions:
1) Who are the potential audiences of this promotional video? _________________________
2) What can be key information issues that these audiences need? ______________________
3) What are the features highlighted in this video to persuade potential customers? _______
4) Mention, at least, 4 advantageous technical features mentioned. ____________________
5) Does the video contain the relevant information that its audience and purpose require?
To close this section, take a look at Figure 3. What we have seen up to now is integrated
into a communication model. There are several communication theories (see Windahl
et al. 2009) each with their corresponding model, but Figure 3 is relevant for the
purposes of this course. In your case, the production of messages is carried out

according to the set of texts (written and spoken genres) available within the
academic (university) and professional (company hiring you) ecosystems of which
you are a member. You will be e-mailing, presenting, handing in, etc. (circulating
using mass media) your text. This text genre is produced and consumed according to
a set of either academic or professional practices.
Figure 3: Semiotic Textual Model of Communication5
2.2. RATIONAL ARGUMENTATION, EMOTIONAL ARGUMENTATION,

CREDIBILITY
Aristotle also proposed a set of strategies to communicate and persuade. He
explained the relationship between emotional argumentation (Pathos), rational
argumentation (Logos) and the dynamic level of credibility (Ethos) that the communicator
achieved (Figure 4). The more credibility, the less logical argumentation needed and
viceversa.
EXERCISE 2: Watch Steve Jobs' iPad presentation until he introduces the

iPad (https://youtu.be/jj6q_z2Ni9M) and answer the following questions:
1) How much credibility does he have? When do you know that?

2) Provide five examples of emotional argumentation used in this
presentation. _________________________________________
3) Provide five examples of rational argumentation used in this
presentation. _________________________________________
4) Is it always clear whether his arguments are emotional or
rational? _____________________________________________
5) What information does he present before actually
presenting the new product? ____________________________
Steve Jobs uses two types of arguments in his presentation: those appealing to emotions
and those based on data (unless they are manipulated, they correspond to facts). In
some cases, it is not clear whether his arguments are emotional or rational. Are sales
figures emotional or rational arguments? What is being expressed with these figures in
the context of this presentation? According to Gass & Seiter (2011: 271) frequently
what is perceived as logical depends on who is hearing it
In this other video https://youtu.be/gtuz5OmOh_M, you can see Mr. Jobs in a different
situation. Now he is asking Cupertino's City Council to modify the urban plan so Apple
Computers can build its headquarters in only one large building.
5
Taken from https://www.comunicologos.com/english-version/theories/semiotic-textual-model/

EXERCISE 3: After watching the video, answer the following questions:

1) How much credibility has Mr. Jobs in this occasion? Why? ____________________________
2) Why does he tell a story about his job for Hewlett Packard as a teenager? _______________
3) Is a veiled threat an argument? What type? ______________________________________
4) What is the threat that Mr. Jobs issues? What would be the consequences? ___________
5) Provide four examples of rational argumentation in this presentation. ________________
Emotional Credibility
Arguments
Logical
Arguments
Figure4: Relationship between credibility and types of argument
2.3. SCHEMATA AND FRAMING

For social psychologists, Schemata are intuitive models of how the world works as used by
people to attribute meaning to their daily experiences (Carr, 2003: 239; Hogg &
Vaughan, 2005: 50). Let us look, for example, at an exam at the ETSII. Which of the
following do you expect to be part of the examination procedure and setting:
A date for the exam. Sofas to sit on. Helmets for protection
Taking notes from A specific room where the Bringing your ID with you
professor during the test. exam will take place to identify yourself
Doing sit-ups, crunches Sending e-mails to other A grade published after
and weight lifting. test-takers the exam
Schemata are also applied to people. That is why some scammers wear uniforms to deceive
their victims more easily. They assume that a person wearing a police or a pilot
uniform must be the "real thing". Unfortunately, when applied to people and
nationalities they tend to be stereotypes. In international interactions, stereotypes
result in miscommunication.
Kahneman (2011: 88) explains that "[d]ifferent ways of presenting the same information
often evoke different emotions." That means that, for instance, when presented with
an option or use of schemata can be altered. To test this, Kahneman studied the
reactions of people to the same choices presented with different wordings. One
example (Kahneman, 2011: 329): when people were told that "a disease kills 1,286
people out of every 10,000" they considered it more dangerous than when told "a
disease that kills 24.14% of the population." This changes in phrasing to make certain
information related to risk and cost more acceptable is what is called framing.

EXERCISE 4: Several of the choices analysed by Kahneman (2011: 334-335)

are appear below. Make your choices and then see the feedback.
1A choose between:
(A) getting for sure €240
(B) 25% possibility of getting €1,000 and 75% possibility of getting nothing.
2A choose between:
(C) losing for sure €750
(D) 75% possibility of losing €1,000 and 25% possibility of losing nothing.
Now choose between:
(E) 25% possibility of getting €240 and 75% possibility of losing €760.
(F) 25% possibility of getting €250 and 75% possibility of losing €750.
If your choice has been (F) in the last pair, be aware that your pick is a combination of
choices (B) and (C), which you most likely rejected before. So rephrasing the options
has changed the results. Now, apply this strategy to the following real situation:
In an Icelandic lab, the workers wanted to buy a coffeemaker or coffee machine.
Unfortunately, the management did not want to pay for it. How did they rephrase the request
to get the machine? ________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
EXERCISE 5: For the following three contexts, what vocabulary are

professionals trained to use, that in group A or that in group B?
CONTEXT6 Word Group A Word Group B

Providing information to "Your destination" "Your final destination"
airplane passengers "Departure from gate 64" "Departure from terminal 1"
"our used car variety" "our choice of pre-owned
"second-hand cars are an cars"
Selling used cars economic approach to "these almost brand new cars
owning high range cars" have an unbeatable price"
Information on Technology "our services provide a fast "the cost of our services will
sales return investment" pay for itself in a short time"
What we have seen in the previous exercise is an example of how framing works. Using
words to modify what is associated to an object, argument, or person, can also
modify how this object, argument, or person is perceived. Now answer the following
questions:
EXERCISE 6: the following are examples of framed concepts. What do they
refer to and what perception are they trying to achieve?
 Human Resources:
 Collateral Damage:
 The Cold War:
 "We are letting you go" (said by your boss):
 Inserted into a car ad in Spain the sentence "German Technology":
2.4. TYPES OF TEXT: DESCRIPTION, NARRATION, PERSUASION
Producing or understanding text (spoken or written) implies that you know what types of
text can be produced. In this course we are adopting a top-down approach in which
we show you the types of text with which we will work. For each of these text types,
audiences have expectations about form (see style in sections 3.1, and 3.2 below) and
information structuring (section 3.3 below).
6
The exercise is based on the research reported by Cialdini (2016: 109).

MATERIALS IN ENGINEERING
Metals Ceramics7 Polymers
Ferrous Alumina Thermoplastic
Iron Diamond ABS Acrylic
Cast iron Pig iron Magnesia Nylon Vinyl
Stainless steel Silicon Polyethylene Polystyrene
Non-Ferrous Tungsten Carbide Thermosets
Copper Magnesium Zirconia Epoxy
Zinc Aluminium Platinum Clay Phenolic resins
Lithium Nickel Tin Porcelain Polyester
Lead Titanium Tungsten Stoneware Fluorocarbon polymer (Teflon)
Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Alloys Elastomers
Carbon steel Argentium Butyl rubber
Brass Electrum Neoprene
Bronze Amalgam Rubber
Cupronickel Solder Silicone
Duralumin Nichrome
Composites Electronic Bio-Materials Advanced / Smart
Materials Materials
Carbon fiber composite Silicon Artificial Proteins Shape-memory Alloys
Ceramic matrix composite Germanium Artificial Bacterium Piezoelectric ceramics
Glass fiber composite Photonic materials Biosensors Magnetostrictive
Metal Matrix composite Solid-state lasers Amber Materials
Reinforced concrete LEDs Wool Optical fibers
Saphire Cotton Electrorheological fluids
Cellulose Nanomaterials (graphene,
Leather stanene, silicene,
Silk plumbene)
Most documents combine several types of text, but descriptions in engineering are
extremely frequent. You will be describing processes and devices or the relations
between the former and the latter.
2.4. 1. Descriptions
Typically, descriptions start with general ideas and these develop into further details in later
paragraphs. This is further explained in section 3.3.4 below. The focus of descriptions
is presenting an object, a place, a process, an accident, a concept or operation. What is
described can be presesented through the enumeration of its properties, qualities, or
its parts. It can also be presented in reference to time, relative space relations, or in
relation to other elements, actions or concepts. Metaphors, comparisons and
constrasts are useful for describing.
Function / Author's
Can be found in... Grammatical & Lexical Features
intention
In technical contexts, it is usually
Warnings, reports, lectures, a general description: the
Describe. Generate an journal articles, present, present continuous,
image that can be presentations, some present perfect, future (to express
imagined: a place, a dictionary and outcomes), modals of probability
process... encyclopaedia definitions, (to indicate possibilities); words
etc. indicating relative postion,
comparisons, metaphors.
7
Used to produce ceramic materials

Questions to consider for drafting a descriptive text: What is described? Where? When?
How? Why?
Exercise 7: Select the best option to complete the gaps in the text below.
What is the likely context into which this text was produced?
Except for cesium, __1__, and __2__, metals have a neutral, silvery color. Not all metals
have these properties. __3__, for instance, is liquid at room temperature, Lead, is very soft,
and heat and electricity do not pass through __4__ as well as they do through copper. Some
metals, like __5__, can be made sharp and stay sharp, so they can be used to make knives,
axes or razors. __6__ is very heavy and dense and can be used as ballast in boats to stop
them from turning over, or to protect people from ionizing radiation. Many things that are
made of metals may, in fact, be made of mixtures of at least one metal with either other metals,
or with non-metals. These mixtures are called __7__.
1.- a) steel b). amber c) copper d) clay
2.- a) gold b) iron c) steel d) tin
3.- a) Titanium b) Mercury c) Bronze d) Tungsten
4.- a) silver b) gravel c) gold d) iron
5.- a) gallium b) mercury c) steel d) lead
6.- a) Lead b) Steel c) Titanium d) Gold
7.- a) non-alloys b) composites c) alloys d) polymers
Exercise 8: Complete the table below with properties applicable to each

material. Use as reference Figure 6 below.
Cast iron
Steel
Gold
Reinforced
concrete
Aluminium
Sapphire
Silk
Rubber
EXERCISE 9: Describe the usefulness of the materials in exercise 8 for the

following applications:
 SOS integrated circuits:
 Engine blocks and Gear boxes:
 Outside layer for hand tools:
 Columns:
 Hammers:
 Electrical connectors in Computers:
 Parachutes:
 Packaging:

Figure 6: Some material or device properties
Although formability and joinability are related to material properties, the ability of forming,
joining, and fastening materials is an important consideration in material selection. The
material must be able to be formed, joined, or fastened into the desired shape by shearing,
blanking, piercing, bending, spinning, drawing, peening, welding, brazing, soldering,
threading, riveting, stapling, or adhesive bonding. Appendix C-22 shows how materials affect
joinability. (Juvinall & Marshek, 2012: 122)
EXERCISE 10: Classify the manufacturing processes in the previous

paragraph according to the criteria expressed in the following two tables.
Forming procesess Joining Processes
Forming processes: Classify them according to main operation
MAIN TYPE OF OPERATION Specific process examples

Cutting
Applying pressure
Repeated impact
Exercise 11: Complete the following sentences either with properties
describing a material or process, or with the material.
1) _______________________ does not rust, but other types of steel do.
2) _______________________ breaks easily.
3) _______________________ resists tensile stresses because it contains steel bars.
4) Plastic containers ___________________________________________________________
5) Shearing __________________________________________________________________
6) Peening ___________________________________________________________________

Exercise 12: Answer the following questions on the descriptive text below
ABB Ability™ Smart Sensor for motors (https://goo.gl/opk6Nk)
1) Which verbs in the text can be related to "improvement"?
_______________________________________________________
2) Which verbs in the text can be related to "capacities"?
plan, enable, identify _____________________________________
3) Which verbs in the text can be related to "collecting"?
___________ ____________________________________________
4) Does the description repeat information? Where?
______________ _________________________________________
5) Does the product improve the main function of a motor or
something else? What? ________________________________________________________
EXERCISE 13: Group exercise. Write two short descriptions

(approximately 90 words each) one with commercial purposes to
purchasers working for a company and the other one for engineering
students. You can either describe elevators or mobile phones
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
2.4.2. Narrative texts

Long narrative texts are typically structured into five stages: initial situation, triggering
factor, events, outcome and closing situation. Reports may skip the last ones.
Function / Author's Grammatical & Lexical

Can be found in...
intention Features
Narrate / Report. It
Mostly in the present, past
relates an event or Reports, journal articles,
perfect, simple past and
incident to time and presentations, lectures,
occasionally in past
space. Presents its stages motivational speeches,
perfect; linkers indicating
and fixes its duration. It explanations about the
time and space sequences;
frequently includes evolution of a
actions, events, actors,
embedded descriptive or technology...
point of view (focus).
argumentative fragments.
Questions to consider for drafting a narrative text: Who does what? Where? When?
How? Why?
EXAMPLE 1 OF NARRATIVE TEXT

About 12:20 p.m. (local time) on Thursday, August 30, 2018, a 2016 Freightliner truck-
tractor in combination with a 2017 Utility refrigerated semitrailer, was traveling east in
the right lane of Interstate 40 (I-40) near Thoreau, in McKinley County, New Mexico,
when the driver lost control of the vehicle, entered the 33-foot-wide depressed earthen
median, jackknifed, and continued into the westbound lanes—striking a 2015 MCI
motorcoach. The combination vehicle, operated by Jag Transportation of Fresno,
California, and occupied by the 35-year-old driver, was transporting produce to
Memphis, Tennessee. The motorcoach, operated by Greyhound Lines and occupied by
the 50-year-old driver and 48 passengers, was traveling west in the left lane of I-40. In
this area, I-40 is a four-lane controlled-access highway. The posted speed limit is 75
mph8.
8
See PRELIMINARY REPORT HIGHWAY HWY18MH016 at
https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HWY18MH016-preliminary-report.pdf

EXERCISE 14: Complete each of the gaps in the text below with the most
adequate option (a, b, c, or d):
The mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1964 and consisted of a wooden shell, circuit
board and two metal wheels __ (1) __ the surface it was being used on. It was 8 years __ (2)
__ that Bill English developed the design further by inventing what is known as the "Ball
Mouse" that we know today. The ball replaced the wheels and was capable of monitoring
movement in any direction. The ball came into contact with two rollers that in turn spun wheels
with graduations on them ___ (3) ___ electrical pulses representing direction and speed.
___ (4) ___ Bill English was working for Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre) the research
and development centre set-up by Xerox to 'design the future of computing'. The mouse became
part of the ground breaking Xerox Alto computer system which was the first minicomputer
system to offer a graphical user interface.
(a) at the time
(b) later in 1972
(c) that came into contact with
(d) that could be turned into
It would be ___ (5) ___ the mouse would be developed any further. An optical mouse was
developed in around 1980, eliminating the ball which often became dirty from rolling round
the desktop, negatively affecting its operation. In 1988, US patent no. 4751505 was issued for
an optical mouse invented by Lisa M. Williams and Robert S. Cherry, ___ (6) ___
commercially with Xerox products, such as the Xerox STAR. This mouse was produced for $17
and sold for $35. ___ (7) ___ it wasn't until around 1998 that optical mice became a
commercially viable alternative to the ball mouse and infiltrated the mass consumer market,
thanks to the increase in microcontroller processing power and the reduction in component
costs. ____ (8) ___ the optical mouse has completely replaced the ball mouse, being supplied
as standard with all new computers.
(a).- which was to be sold
(b).- another 8 years before
(c).- despite this,
(d).- today,
EXERCISE 15: Group exercise. Find the basic facts about the Challenger
accident in 1986 and write a short narration (approximately 100 words).
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
2.4.3. Persuasive - Argumentative Texts

Argumentative texts present opinions, hypotheses and their purpose it to persuade. It uses
rational arguments (data, standards, logical reasoning, etc). They can be embedded
in presentations, reports, although their natural place are conclusions.
Function / Author's Grammatical & Lexical

Can be found in...
intention Features
Linking words / connectors to
structure the logical sequences:
Argue. Convince, hypothesis, cause, consequence,
Editor's letters, lectures,
persuade, sustain a point concession, opposition;
presentations, reports,
persuasive strategies; abstract
of view. journal articles,
concepts; verbs indicating
opinion; passive, ergatives,
impersional style.
Questions to draft an argumentative text: What is the question? What? (hypothesis even
implicitly). Occasionally: pros and cons? Who has to be convinced? Where?
When? How? Why?

EXAMPLE OF ARGUMENTATIVE TEXT (1)

Issues concerning to constraints in manufacturing or feasibility of manufacturing,
popularly referred to as “manufacturability concerns” or “ergonomic constraints” are
very difficult and highly expensive to rectify once the plant, work flows and processes
are established. A prior validation would help companies identify such concerns at the
earlier stage of planning and would hence save the time and cost of rectification.
Because digital manufacturing solutions create and present the plant planning in the
virtual 3D environment, it becomes easy for the companies to validate and evaluate
their designs to identify such concerns before hand and address them at the planning
stage. Apart from virtual validation of plant and processes, these technologies also help
the companies to plan and allocate their resources and also make optimum use of their
available plant space. The human ergonomic simulation helps companies to identify the
ways and means of carrying out a task manually which would cause minimum possible
physical stress to the people working on shop floor. This reduces chances of accidents
and occupational hazards. It thus helps Companies to build plants that are more
efficient yet secured, safe, and worker friendly. (DesignTech, 2018)
EXAMPLES 2 & 3 (ARGUMENTATIVE): The following two fragments are part of the movie
"Other People's Money". Two people argue in a stockholder meeting, first, against selling
the New England Wire & Cable Company and, then, in favour of the sale.
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechotherpeoplesmoneypeck.html
and
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechotherpeoplesmoneydevito.html
Listen to both fragments in order and answer the following questions:
Fragment 1: Andrew Jorgenson argues against selling the company.
a)
______________________________________________________________________
b)
______________________________________________________________________
c)
______________________________________________________________________
d)
______________________________________________________________________
e) Are the arguments of this speech mainly rational or emotional? Why?
______________________________________________________________________
Fragment 2: Larry "the Liquidator" argues in favour of selling the company.
a)
______________________________________________________________________
b)
______________________________________________________________________
c)
______________________________________________________________________
d)
______________________________________________________________________
e) Are the arguments of this speech mainly rational or emotional? Why?
______________________________________________________________________
While we have not found clear, simple strategies for teaching the writing of descriptions
and narrations, but The Minto Pyramid Principle9 (Minto, 2009) does provide a clear
and simple strategy to tackle argumentative texts. The letter below illustrates how to use it
inductively (from particular examples to general hypotheses / conclusions)
9
Adapted from: http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/staff/gatter/work/051104_The_Minto_Pyramid_Principle.pdf
(Wolfgang Gatterbauer, 2005) for this unit.

E-MAIL TO A COLLEAGUE:
Dear Paquito,
Do you remember last Wednesday when I asked you for your class notes and you said that you
couldn’t lend them to me because you had a contagious disease?
And that other occasion when you lent me some class notes that contained errors on purpose
and because of that I flunked one exam?
Not to forget yesterday when you insisted on me paying for your lunch at the bar because I
should be grateful for everything that you do for me?
Well, for these and several other reasons, I cannot stand you and would appreciate you avoid
any further contact in the future.
Manuela Main statement / Governing thought
Dear Paquito,
Get lost! These are my reasons:
1. You seldom share your class notes with me under preposterous excuses.
2. When you share your class notes, you introduce errors on purpose so I flunk
exams.
3. Your free-rider attitude and arrogance are insulting to me.
Question: Why did Manuela write this letter to me?


Answer: Because She wants me to get lost

Why?
Answer Reason 1 Reason 2 Reason 3
DEDUCTIVE STRUCTURING of arguments

Studying a Master’s Degree in Germany
LAURA SHOULD STUDY IN GERMANY
Studying there is more It is easier to get a job in the It is easier to get trainee
practice oriented. engineering industry. positions in the
industry.
Studying in German universities is more practice oriented. Additionally, German

industries frequently recruit recent graduates from nearby universities. Eventually, it
would be very easy to get professional experience as a trainee there. Therefore,
studying a Master's degree in Germany seems the most convenient choice for Laura's
plans.
Unless she wants to follow a riskier approach, Laura has to study in Germany
Let us apply this strategy to replying to requests or complaints. But before seeing some
examples, it is important to consider what will make these replies credible. First,
when giving a solution to a request/complaint, the audience needs to know that
there is a commitment with that solution. Therefore, establishing a justified deadline
will give it more credibility. Second, seldom are solutions perfect. Therefore, a brief
explanation of what motivates the proposed solution improves its credibility. Below,

three problem solution situations are presented as former students proposed during
class.
The context was always the same: the respondent was the Dean of Students and the
audience student representatives. Additionally, the answers followed the procedure and
structure illustrated immediately below this paragraph.
Procedure:
1. Think of a solution (or solutions)
2. Think of several reasons that justify your solutions (feasibility, within a reasonable
time frame, within available budget, number of people benefited, etc.) (I advise
that you make a diagram)
3. Write a paragraph starting with the solution proposed followed by the
justifications.
Possible structure
Problem   Solution


Because 1 + 2 + 3 +… + n
EXERCISE 16: Reply to the 3 complaints after the 3 examples.
List of problems analysed
 Reliability of the information found on UPM websites
(Proposed solution) On-line guidelines available through University’s website.
Justifications
1. Homogeneous criteria (for students and professors)
2. Accessible to everyone
3. Speed of solution
Presented as a text
Regarding the first problem mentioned, we have agreed to provide you with some official
on-line guidelines. We consider that this solution has the following three advantages:
it provides homogeneous criteria for the academic community; it is universally
accessible; and it is fast. We estimate that the on-line document can be available by the
end of June.
 Scarce choice of Final Study projects (FSP)
(Proposed solution) Students find an external FSP, propose it and if approved by
department, carry it out
Justifications
1. Increases student satisfaction with project topic
2. Links project to industrial activities
3. Opens job opportunities for students
Presented as a text
As far as the second problem mentioned is concerned, the academic board proposes that
students can look for FSPs outside the School. If the department and the project
supervisor agree, then they can officially carry the proposed project out. We see this
solution as very convenient for both the school and the students. On the one hand, the
students will be more motivated as the project is relevant for them. On the other hand,
companies satisfied with the project work are likely to hire the students developing it. In
any case, the number of available project options will increase simplifying the process
for the faculty.
 Inadequate teacher to student ratio
(Proposed solutions)
1. Blended-Learning
2. Limiting the students per group (more groups)
3. Hire more teachers (reducing students per group and increasing groups
available)
4. More shifts, more groups

Justifications
Learner autonomy increases and attention is similar to better ratios
Within budget and therefore feasible if you agree
Presented as a text
After consulting with the vice-rectorate for academic affairs, there are two possible changes:
first, the budget for the next two academic year allows an increase in the number of
professors, so we can increase the number of student groups reducing the ratio; and
second we can adopt a blended learning structure for the studies. The first approach can
be completed in two academic years and can be either permanent (if the budget is
sustained) or temporary. The second measure requires the approval of the education
ministry as it implies changing the structure of the studies so it cannot be implemented
in the next two academic years. If we all agree on this second measure, it would need to
be permanent. We can arrange a meeting to discuss in further detail the options opened
by these possible changes.
 Little tolerance to error by some team members
Justifications
Presented as a text
 Lack of specific information depending on the type of FSP
Justifications
Presented as a text
 Lack of scheduled stages before the deadline for the FSP
Justifications
Presented as a text
3. STYLE AND ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION

The most important issue when writing and speaking is that the message is clear;
then you can focus on other aspects. Clarity is about understanding the ideas and
conciseness is about making the processing of the message as easy as possible by using only
the necessary words. Both clarity and conciseness can be influenced by the structure of the
message. Therefore, once the audience is identified and the communication purpose is
clear you should also pay attention to continuity, coherence, and cadence. These five
aspects (Douglas, 2015) can be better coordinated by selecting the density or specificity of
the vocabulary according to the purpose of paragraphs, document sections, or even whole
documents. (See figure 7).
Clarity Continuity
Figure 7: Combination of style factors to improve readability (Douglas 2015).

3.1. CLARITY AND LANGUAGE

Clarity refers to texts that both require little effort to process and lack ambiguity. For
example the first sentence in this sequence https://youtu.be/NfN_gcjGoJo from the
movie Animal Crackers (1930), Captain Spalding (Groucho Marx) utters an ambiguous
sentence:
"Last night I shot an elephant in my pyjamas" (Later in the scene Spalding clarifies which
meaning he intended). The sentence has at least three meanings:
Meaning 1: I was wearing my pyjamas and I shot an elephant.
Meaning 2: I shot an elephant that was wearing my pyjamas.
Meaning 3: I shot an elephant that was inside my pyjamas. (The one chosen by Spalding)
Let us look at another example of possible ambiguity due to the misplacement of an
adverb. Which of the following two sentences indicates that everyone in the class failed
the exam?
(a) Almost everyone in the class passed the statistics exam.
(b) Everyone in the class almost passed the statistics exam.
In the case of non-native speakers problems of clarity are related to a combination of
incorrect grammar and bad choice of vocabulary (false friends, general vocabulary,
deletion of information, overgeneralisation / simplification, distortion, inadequate
organisation of the information, and abuse of metaphors.
EXERCISE 17: Analyse the following paragraph from a former student's
report on Tesla cars (the problematic text from the point of view of
clarity is shaded in grey):
"The battery can be really heavy but really powerful at the same time. They are
selfmade so they can trust that the durability of them is guaranteed. It is obviously
rechargeable. The recharge time is one of the points where the electric car loses against the
usual diesel car, as you have to wait a few minutes, close to half an hour to get your Tesla fully
charged."
EXERCISE 18: Analyse the following paragraph from a former students

report (the problematic text from the point of view of clarity is shaded in
grey):
"Generators: In complex devices, as generators, is normal to found mechanical and electrical
faults, as overheating or short circuit. Protection of generators is done by thermal and
overcurrent relays that response to the mentioned faults."
EXERCISE 19: Analyse the following paragraph from a former students report (the
problematic text from the point of view of clarity is shaded in grey):
"To avoid overconsumption by the heating system the entire facility will be thermally
isolated using the cover made out of expanded polystyrene, a widely used material for thermal
isolation of buildings."
EXERCISE 20: The following paragraph was a winner of the 2016 Golden Bull
awards10. It is a job offer from the British Council. Please, explain what are the
project manager tasks and expected results in a clear way.
"Project Manager: Regional English Language Policy Project Manager is responsible
for the successful implementation of a 30-week project in two regions of Peru. The project aims
to establish a replicable model for English policy implementation at regional level. This
directly impacts regional leaders and influencers who need to strengthen their English
language skills in order to empower themselves to build commitment and action plans that
allow them to implement the policy successfully. The project also aims to collate key baseline
information that allows the UK education sector to engage effectively with regional leaders,
influencers and stakeholders to offer continuous partnership and support for bilingualism
targets."
10
See http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/campaigning/awards/2016-awards/golden-bull-awards.html

3.1.1. False Friends

Very frequently, we find English words that formally seem to have the same meaning as
similarly sounding Spanish words. Unfortunately, they are not equivalent. Table 2
displays some of the most frequently misused ones.
False Friend Meaning Do not confuse with Translation

Actual Real, verdadero Current Actual, presente
Actually Realmente Currently Actualmente
Agenda Orden del día Appointment book Agenda
Application Solicitud Implementation Aplicación
Argument Discusión, debate Reasoning Argumento
Articulate Bien formulado Articulated, jointed Articulado
Billion (US English) Mil millones Trillion Billón
Career Carrera profesional University studies Carrera universitaria
Compass Brújula, alcance (pair of) compasses Compás
Comprehensive Detallado, exhaustivo Understanding Comprensivo
Concrete (n) Hormigón (sustantivo) Concrete (adj) Concreto (adjetivo)
Consistent Lógico, consecuente Firm, solid Consistente
Crude Bruto, sin refinar Raw Crudo
Currently Actualmente Commonly Corrientemente
Directions Instrucciones Ways, addresses Direcciones
Editor Jefe de redacción Publisher Editor
Engine Motor Talent, factory Ingenio
Eventually Finalmente Por un tiempo Eventualmente
Facilities Instalaciones Instalments Facilidades
Hazard Riesgo, peligro Chance, random Azar
To ignore No tener en cuenta To be unaware Ignorar
Lecture Conferencia, lección Reading Lectura
Pliable Flexible, maleable Folding, collapsible Plegable
Quarter Trimestre One fourth Un cuarto (1/4)
Résumé (US English) Curriculum Vitae Summary Resumen
To resume Reanudar To summarise Resumir
Surname Apellido Nickname Sobrenombre, mote
Poner fin (a un contrato),
To terminate To end Terminar, acabar
delimitar (una región)
To traduce Calumniar Translate Traducir
Ultimate Definitivo, esencial Last, final, latter Último
Variance Desacuerdo Variation Variación
Table 2: Common false friends
One famous example is the Spanish translation in Mexico of Parker's English ad: "It won't
leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The localised version read as "No te manchará
el bolsillo y te embarazará."(Haig, 2003: 174).
3.1.2. Choice of Meaning

This affects from spelling [colour (BrEng) - color (AmEng)11] to having different names for
the same concept in different parts of the English-speakng world (see Table 3).
Nevertheless, meaning problems are more frequent in two cases: (a) choice of
general language (non-technical concepts such as nouns and verbs), and (b) choice of
words according to context (the meaning is right, but it does not work in the used
context).
11
For guidelines on British and American English spelling differences, please see
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/spelling/british-and-spelling this unit mixes both standards.

British English American English

First floor - Second floor -
Ground floor - First floor -
Indicator - Blinker -
Lift - Elevator -
Lorry - Truck -
Mobile phone - Cell phone -
Motorway - Highway -
Post - Mail -
Programme - Program -
Timetable - Schedule -
Torch - Flashlight -
Underground - Subway -
Windscreen - Windshield -
Table 3: Examples of different words for same concepts
You may have heard of some hilarious examples in the case of international brands. For
example, car names have had some problems in Spanish speaking countries as the
following models will attest: Chevi Nova (Chevrolet), Mitsubishi Pajero, Toyota Fiera
(old hag in Puerto Rican Spanish) (Haig, 2003: 175). Slogans have also had their share
of bad choice of meaning in context. The Scandinavian Electrolux initially
commercialised their vacuum cleaners in the U.S.A. with the slogan "Nothing sucks
like an Electrolux" (Haig, 2003: 176). And as a last example, the American Airlines
slogan "Fly in leather" became "Vuela en cuero" in Mexico (Haig, 2003: 181).
The following are examples taken from reports of former UPM students (in some cases,
grammar problems affect the clarity):
Example 1: "*Following we can view of schematic of the process"
"Following" should be substituted by "Below"; "view" should become "see"; and what we
see in the document is a diagram not a "schematic". A clear version could be: "Below
we can see a diagram that explains the process."
Example 2: "We asked for a construction budget to three suppliers."
In English, the money available for carrying out a project (the budget) is different from the
information about the cost of a service (a quotation). A reviewed version is: "Three
suppliers provided quotations for the construction."
Example 3: "Like explained in the above, at the first stage the water will be heated up to 65 ºC"
Reviewed becomes: As explained above, during the first stage, water will be heated to 65 ºC.
EXERCISE 21: Choose the word that best completes the gap.
1) The results from experiment A and B are __________
related / relationed
2) Adding lime to the mixture ________ its PH in the cement kiln.
acidificates / acidifies
3) We are trying to ________ the cold fusion experiment
replicate / reply
4) AENOR __________ those appliances which meet the regulations.
certifies / certificates
5) This robot can _________ spare parts according to shapes.
classificate / classify
6) The managing director was __________ in a fraud scandal.
implicated / implied
7) I would like you to ________ in the next two weeks.
replicate / reply
8) The results __________ that the whole structure suffers from severe material fatigue.

implicate / imply
9) The Toronto office will ________ the contract meeting for next week.
organisate / organise
10) Among your tasks you will have to _______ the works and make sure the specifications are
met. supervise / supervisate
EXERCISE 22: Detect the meaning / grammar problems in the following

sentences from student reports and correct them.
1) "The storage by liquid air stands out for storing energy in form of cold ."
________________________________________________ ______________________
2) "The principle foundation is to reduce pressure distillations elevating temperatures, at least
about 50-60° C which can lead to condensate flavour degradation.."
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3) "One important aspect that usually leads to problems with onshore wind farms is that the
turbines in the landscapes are unattractive for a big part of the society."
_________________________________________________________________________________
4) "This document is focus on both types of clients, what they need to know about 3-D printers
and where can they find it"
________________________________________________________________
3.1.3. Deletion, Generalisation and Distortion

Neurolinguistic Programming or NLP (Bandler & Grinder, 1975)12 provides three useful
concepts to identify why our communication may not be clear: inadequate selection
of information or deletion, oversimplification or generalisation, and stressing the
importance in some cases while diminishing it in others or distortion. Obviously,
deleting some information may be due to time and space restricitions; simplifying
complex concepts for non-expert audiences, and stressing the danger in some
situations are all good communication practices. Nevertheless, remember that in this
section we are focusing on avoiding mistakes such as the use of stereotypes
(generalisation), biases and lack of rationale (distortion), and assuming your audience
knows exactly the same as you (deletion).
Basic examples of problematic deletion:
(1) "Some experts have also argued that 3D printing will significantly reduce the advantages of
producing small-lot sizes in low-wage countries via reduced need for factory workers."
(2) Your proposal is not acceptable.
(3) "This requires a significant amount of money which would be wasted if the prototype does
not work as expected."
Basic examples of problematic generalisation:

(1) "To keep up with today's globalized world, we think that having a website is essential."
(2) "We believe branding can make the difference between a mediocre and a successful
product."
(3) "Every salesperson lies to make more money on a sale."
Basic examples of problematic distortion:

(1) The competing managers agreed to a ceasefire over the bonus allocation.
(2) "Twin towers of debt threaten to implode13".
(3) We are letting you go. (Instead of: "You are fired.")
12
Unfortunately, research indicates that the communication techniques based on NLP are not reliable. For
furher details, see Roderique-Davies, 2009 or Witkowski, 2010.
13
See https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10534419

3.1.4. Parallel Structure and Clear Organisation of Texts

Using grammar to create symmetric structures helps in the achievement of clarity through
the organisation of jnformation. Compare how lists (a) and (b) are written:
(a)
"Several factors govern the choice of disposal method:
 The amount of original fluid.
 The quality of the waste fluid.
 The level (and type) of contamination.
 The calorific value, if the mineral oil is to be used as a fuel.
 The general type of fluid -i.e. mineral oil or synthetic fluid.
 The local regulations and legislation.”
(b)
"Several factors govern the choices of disposal method:
 How much fluid will be disposed of.
 Waste fluid quality.
 The level (and type) of contamination.
 When mineral oil is used as fuel, its calorific value.
 The general type of fluid –i.e. mineral oil or synthetic fluid.
 Local regulations and legislation.
While list (a) begins always with the same structure (article + noun + of), list (b) uses five
different structures. Grammatically, this is correct, but disorganized from the point of
view of reading. Human brains process symmetric structures faster than asymmetric
ones (Meyer et al. 1988). The following examples illustrate that parallel structures can
be used also beyond lists and within paragraphs.
Examples:
(1)"Fees and HECS liability are payable by semester. If you enrol in a program and then
withdraw, the following refund policy applies:
 Withdrawal from first semester course by 31 March: full refund.
 Withdrawal from whole year course by 31 March: full refund.
 Withdrawal from second semester course by 31 August: full refund.
If you discontinue a course after these dates and before the end of lectures in each semester,
then you will be liable to pay the fees/HECS for that semester."
(2)"In this paper, the power dissipation limit of the TWPD is explored. A small-signal steady-
state model is developed that includes the effects of electrical propagation losses along the
detector. Fabrication details are presented and experimental data show a 3 x 1250 mm 2
detector with 4.8 GHz bandwidth." (Hietala et al., 1995)
“Key R&D investments will include:

• Development of modular civil engineering to allow off-site manufacturing.
• Development of standardized modules to maximize efficiency.
• Development of a site assembly facility that will allow 24/7 construction. 14”
EXERCISE 23: Transform the following sentences by using the parallel

structure to make them more clear.
a) It is a fact that engineers select an appropriate variable and the transformed
observations are treated as though they are normally distributed with a constant
variance. _______________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
14
See https://analysis.nuclearenergyinsider.com/rolls-royce-smr-use-site-factories-hit-60-poundsmwh

b) Those methods neither require previous knowledge of how the variables are distributed
nor are the censored data stipulated to be available.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
c) The Taguchi approach provides a combination of experimental design techniques with

quality loss considerations and that the average quadratic loss is minimized.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
d) The conventional approach happens to be cumbersome, complicated and wastes too

much time.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
e) Conventional approaches offer an explanation of this phenomenon and providing

alternative strategies to solve the problem.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
3.1.5. Metaphors15 and clarity

Metaphors are used commonly for the following three communicative purposes:
1. to clarify new or complex concepts. New and complex ideas are successfully
explained in science and engineering by resourcing to metaphors (Thibodeau &
Boroditsky, 2011; Gentner & Gentner, 1985) (by deletion and generalisation).
"These phenolics are approximately half the weight of aluminum and their physical
toughness resists abrasion, friction, impact and material fatigue.16"
2. to shape emotional arguments (Ervas & Gola, 2016 )(by distortion)

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price,
bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to
17
assure the survival and the success of liberty."
"However, this is still new technology, and Adidas isn't leaping two-footed into the
3D-printed future just yet. Only 5,000 pairs of Futurecraft shoes will go on sale. "
3. to hide our intentions, some information or our lack of arguments. Focusing on one
aspect by using a metaphor will hide other aspects (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 10-13)
(by distortion and deletion)
"Head hunters and human resources professionals"
In the first case, engineer audiences are aware of what material fatigue is; in the other
caseses, the meaning of the metaphors relies on the individual interpretation of each
audience. In other words, metaphors can be useful for your communication purposes. The
table below contains metaphor examples whose purpose is to introduce new concepts.
Four of them are presented in context.
 Air knife   Power bank  Store data in the cloud

 Artificial intelligence  iPod (brand names)  Dirty money
 Butterfly valve  desktop (computers)  Laundering money
 Caking (chemistry)   material fatigue  Black market
15
For a list of metaphors in common use today go to https://chacocanyon.com/essays/metaphors.shtml#TheList
16
Found at https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=121104
17
John Fitzgeral Kennedy's inaugural speech at https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkinaugural.htm

 Cascade controls  black holes  Negative growth

 Gas scrubbing  neural networks  Cash flow
 Electrical current  inheritance (programming)  Smart phone
 Electric field  firewall (computing)  Dashboard (car part)
 Fuel cell  carbon footprint  Troubleshooting 
 Wind farm  bulk temperature   Spark plug
 Machine downtime  rack and pinion steering  Tail light
"Sonic Air Knife Systems, powered by Sonic Centrifugal Blowers, will deliver high velocity,
warm, dry air with no pressure fluctuations for reliable consistent results. If your
objectives are to increase throughput, eliminate quality problems associated with other
methods of drying/blow-off, or significantly reduce energy costs, Sonic will engineer a
cost effective system for you with guaranteed results.18"
"Many products from the pharmaceutical, food or chemical industry are sold in the form of
powders. These powders are susceptible to caking, which affects their usage and
quality. In most of the cases, caking of powders is caused by absorption of moisture
from the environment. By using powder rheometers, we can study the caking rate in
powders and find out the factors that contribute to caking at various stages."19
"Figure 5.115 shows that the friction, bulk temperature, and wear rate are a function of the pv-
parameter, with a linear decreasing trend for the coefficients of friction and a linear
increasing trend in wear rates and temperature for increasing pv-values." (Wypych 2017:
176)
"Below is a listing of commonly asked computer questions and answers and basic
troubleshooting steps for operating systems, software, and computer hardware. Keep
in mind that this is a select few of the thousands of questions and answers in our
database.20"
EXERCISE 24: Identify the metaphors used in this video fragment:
Nevertheless, metaphors can also interfere with the clarity of your messages. Let us look at
some examples that illustrate the clarity limitations of metaphors:
1. [...] I concluded New Zealand is the best country to live in. [...] It is neutral, would have
the least amount of damage from a nuclear war (unlike Sweden and Switzerland
which would suffer collateral damage from nuked countries like Norway and
France).
2. Gladwell looks at examples of female achievement and how it should have broken a
glass ceiling, but instead they remained a one-off.
3. Step out of your comfort zone, think out of the box, and, together, let's change
the world.
4. [...] genes are said to carry information that constitutes a ‘‘blueprint’’ for the
organism.
5. Brainstorming is meant first of all to trigger off new ideas, but it cannot be
expected to produce ready-made solutions
6. Our reach metric is not an approximation or estimated ballpark figure, nor is it
total impressions or exposure; it’s the real size of the potential audience.
7. The victims were executed in cold blood.
8. Technology is in our DNA
18
https://www.sonicairsystems.com/air-knife.php (Seen 15th of July 2019)
19
https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5669 (Seen 15th of July 2019)
20
https://www.computerhope.com/basic.htm (Seen 15th of July 2019)

9. Franco-German dysfunction makes it impossible to clear Europe’s roadblocks.21

10. Pump more oil! López Obrador’s tall order to Pemex.22
11. China’s Economy Slows Sharply, in Challenge for Xi Jinping23
12. A taylor-made solution.
13. To climb up the career ladder.
14. We need to cut out deadwood. He is holding our recovery plans back.
15. "Red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global
economy24"
16. ‘the green shoots of economic recovery’
EXERCISE 25: Identify the metaphors in the following sentences and

clarify their meaning.
(a) At this point in time, we do not see an easy solution. _____________________________
(b) This trail-blazer project brings unforeseen technological solutions. __________________
(c) We want to send a clear message to our competitors. ____________________________
(d) But this isn't Thorne's first foray into discussing this kind of mind-bending science with the
public25. ____________________________________________________________________
(e) This seems very appealing, but it is all Greek to me. __________________________________
(f) We need our workers to get outside of their comfort zone. ____________________________
(g) We have invested too much capital to throw in the towel. _____________________________
EXERCISE 26: What do the following metaphors mean for non-experts?

In the context of nuclear power plants:
(a) Energetic disassembly
(b) Rapid oxidation
(c) Normal aberration at the reactor
In the context of business:
(e) Import surplus of the US
(f) The inflation rate is no longer accelerating
(g) Economically challenged country
(h) Cyclical downturns
(i) Hopes of stronger profits
(j) Fears of higher interest rates
For a list of metaphors commonly used in spoken language, please take a look at:
https://chacocanyon.com/essays/metaphors.shtml
EXERCISE 27: Mention 3 metaphors describing objects or concepts in your

field of engineering. Mention 3 metaphors that you heard on a TV series.
3.2. CONTINUITY AND TEXTS

Where does information go in sentences? How is the information of one sentence
related to the information of other sentences in the same paragraph? How are paragraphs
structured in a text section? These questions illustrate the type of answers we are providing
when we understand the concept of continuity.
In English, information is organised within sentences and from sentence to sentence
according to a consistent strategy (see Figure 8).
21
https://goo.gl/N8HyN8
22
https://www.ft.com/content/7ea673b8-ff0b-11e8-aebf-99e208d3e521
23
https://goo.gl/86yZDa
24
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-30208476
25
https://www.space.com/27970-whats-new-black-holes-kip-thorne.html

Known/Less
New/Important
important + Verb +
information
information
Figure 8: Structure of information in English sentences.
What was new information in the first sentence becomes old/known information in the
second sentence. A paragraph can begin with a sentence introducing a concept and
subsequent sentences may locate that same concept at the beginning achieving a
superior topic continuity (Table 4). There are several topic categories in a text. The
one covering a whole text (for example: applying for a scholarship) identifies the
schema (see Section 2.3) covered by the text (Downing & Locke, 1992: 222-226).
Old / Less Important Information New / More Important Information

(1) In this context, some of the agreements
...are significant achievements.
relating to particular types of armament...
(2) Biological weapons... ...have been forsworn.
...have been banned from outer space, the
(3) Nuclear weapons...
seabed and Antarctica.
...have voted for the resolutions which
(4) Within the UN, nations... envisaged the eventual elimination of all
nuclear weapons.
Table 4: Example of topic continuity in a 4-sentence paragaph.
EXERCISE 27: Rearrange the information in the following paragraph so

they are written according to the prototypical English structure.
"As a result of the widespread effects of the growing oil slick, numerous stakeholders were
involved. Firstly, the damage to thousands of people and the resulting financial losses
disappointed BP shareholders who felt the company did not deserve their investment.
Additionally, shareholders would not receive the expected benefits of a high profiting firm
because it was understood that BP would need a large sum of money to fix the disaster.
3.2.1. Passive Sentences

The strategy of using passive verbs usually works against clear communication. More
particularly, when you are describing what people do or what happens to them,
passive sentences tend to eliminate persons from the descriptions and focus on the
processes. This is a disadvantage in social sciences, but it is very convenient for
technical communication where processes are usually the relevant topic of
communication. The following four situations justify the use of passive sentences:

1) When the process, not the agent is the known information (what we are describing)
(a) Approximately, 80% of the quantity collected for recycling is exported to countries
such as China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana,
etc. (Gaidajis et al., 2010: 196)
(b) ... because it is distilled continuously in Coffey-type patent stills... (Lyons, 2003: 137)
2) When the agent is not known and cannot be guessed even by generalising
(a1) All lab lights must be turned off at the end of the working day (Notice on a Lab wall).
(a2) The last person to leave the lab must turn the lights off at the end of the day.
(b) My laptop has been stolen.
3) When you want to hide the agent (you do not want to attribute responsibility)
(a1) The container dispatch was delayed and will arrive after the contractual deadline.
(a2) The manager's son has caused a two-day delay on the dispatch of the containers.
4) When the style has to be impersonal

(a) This Security Instrument is given to BAC Florida Bank which is organized and
existing under the laws of THE STATE OF FLORIDA (First sentence of a mortgage
document).
(b) As seen from this discussion, new, innovative, safe, efficient and inexpensive energy
storage facilities for gas and liquids are urgently needed. (U.S. Patent 9,045,209)
EXERCISE 28: For each of the following sets of 3 sentences, you must
decide whether option (a) or (b) provides better topic continuity with
(X#). Circle the correct option.
(X1) The GMAT Registrant Survey was designed to include at least two waves of data collection
from a large random sample of test registrants.
a) The Survey designers limited the sample to registrants living in the USA.
b) The sample was limited to registrants living in the USA.
(X2) It takes an average driver a fifth of a second to move her foot from accelerator to brake.
a) At 50 kph that adds three meters to the braking distance.
b) Three meters are added to the braking distance at 50 kph by that.
(X3) Simulation is an essential engineering tool used by both students and practitioners to
gain knowledge of a system’s behaviour.
a) Simulation tools allow students to model a system.
b) Students are allowed by simulation to model a system.
(X4) These sensors employ a sensing mass which is set into motion by the deceleration of
the vehicle and the degree of displacement determines whether the sensor fires.
a) We can constrain the motion by the use of a bias force as is provided by a spring
or magnet, or a damping force induced by a fluidic or magnetic effect.
b) The motion can be constrained by the use of a bias force as is provided by a
spring or magnet, or a damping force induced by a fluidic or magnetic effect.
EXERCISE 29: Rewrite the following sentences using the active voice.
a) Minimization of total operating costs is achieved by a planning horizon.
____________________________________________________________________________
b) The project manager can be assisted by the proposed model so that the order size can
be precisely determined. _____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

3.2.2. Sentences with Ergative Verbs

Ergative verbs are useful because they allow you to write active sentences omitting or
including information. Consider sentences "a", "b", and "c":
a) *The added load broke the beam (standard active sentence)
b) *The beam was broken by the added load (standard passive sentence)
c) The beam broke (standard use of the ergative by omitting information)
In the following 5 situations, the ergative use is preferred to the passive (Celce-Murcia &
Larsen-Freeman, 1999: 351-352):
1) When the important information is the change of state. What or who causes the change is
irrelevant.
a) *The staff closes the lab at 5 P.M.
b) *The lab will be closed after 5 P.M.
c) The lab closes at 5 P.M.
2) When you want to present the action as happening without any external intervention.
a) Exports boosted during the current semester.
b) *The lower exchange rate is boosting exports during the current semester.
c) *Exports have been boosted by a lower exchange rate during this semester.
3) When you are referring to something that is very fragile or unstable; it can easily break,
explode, dissolve, etc. without a visible intervention of an agent.
a) *Static electricity made them burst in flames.
b) *They were burst into flames by static electricity.
c) They burst in flames.
4) When the process mentioned is the expected result of physical, chemical, social or
psychological "laws".
a) The rock shattered into tiny pieces.
b) *The steam shattered the rock into tiny pieces.
c) *The rock was shattered into tiny pieces (by the steam).
5) When the number of possible causes (agents) for a change of state is so large that
mentioning only one would be misleading.
a) "The results indicate that Alaskan crude oil prices increased between $0.98 and $1.30
on the West Coast spot market..."26
b) *The results indicate that the relationship between the offer and the demand increased
the crude oil prices between $0.98 and $1.30...
c) *The results indicate that crude oil prices were increased between ...
Tables 5 to 12 include several categories of ergative verbs:
Boil Cool Dry Harden

Blacken Cool down Dry out Melt
Whiten Dissolve Fade Soften
Redden Drain Fill Toughen
Cook Freeze Fill up Warm up
Table 5: Ergative verbs presenting physical or chemical change
26
Bausell Jr., Charles W.; Rusco, Frank W.; & Walls, W. David (2001) Lifting the Alaskan Oil Export Ban: An
Intervention Analysis in Energy Journal 2001, Vol. 22 Issue 4, p81

Blow up Burst Mark Snap

Break Crack Rip Split
Break down Crash Separate Split up
Burn Divide Shatter Splinter
Burn down Explode Shred Tear
Burn up Fracture Smash Wear away
Table6: Ergative verbs presenting breaking, damage or destruction
Alter Drop Loosen Stretch

Bend Double Shrink Swell
Contract Expand Spread Tighten
Decrease Grow Straighten out Weaken
Diminish Increase Strengthen Widen
Table 7: Ergative verbs presenting changes in size, degree, or shape
Boost Downgrade Enhance Restore

Brighten Ease Improve Upgrade
Develop Ease off Mend Worsen
Deteriorate
Table 8: Ergative verbs presenting abstract changes
Blow Lift Settle Stick

Bounce Move Shake Stir
Break off Open Shift Squeeze
Close Open up Shut Tilt
Close down Pass Slant Tip
Close up Pile up Slide Tip up
Dig Rock Splash Turn
Drop Roll Spill Turn around
Float Rub Spin Turn over
Table 9: Ergative verbs presenting some change of position.
Accelerate Halt Sail Slow

Back Land Stall Slow down
Back up Launch Start Speed up
Cut out Reverse Start up Stop
Table 10: Ergative verbs presenting movement of vehicles.
Blow Lock Slam Snap

Bolt Shut Slide Swing
Table 11: Ergative verbs presenting closing and opening
Change Convert Form Turn

Table 12: Ergative verbs presenting general change
EXERCISE 30: Rewrite the following sentences so the subject of the new
version is the underlined word.
1) Neither of the proposals pleased the members of the commission.
_________________________________________________________________________________
2) The dramatic increase in the number of factory accidents is alarming the management.
________________________________________________________________________________
3) Cooling solidifies silicon. ______________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
4) He filled the bucket in two minutes.
________________________________________________________________

3.2.2. Continuity and Collocations

Browsing a collection27 of environmentally-related patents, we find that the noun "battery"
and the verb "to overcome" are statistically more frequent than expected in general
language texts. Now, if we look for the words co-occurring with an unexpected,
statistic frequency to the left and right of these concepts we get Table 13:
BATTERY TO OVERCOME
Pack Problem
Backed Pressure
Charger Present
Middle Disadvantages
Embedded Solar
Powered Order
Tray Forces
Fixtures Deficiencies
Cells Associated
Modular Used
Backup Therefore
Rechargeable System
Charge Stress
Sized Process
Life Problems
Vehicle Power
Charging Heat
Wireless Expensive
Table 13: Collocates for "battery" and "to overcome" in an environmental technology patent corpus
Nothing strange in the results obtained, but they show that because we have schemata, we
have expectations about the language that most likely follows certain concepts. In
the case of native speakers they also have expectations about the structures that
follow certain words. For example the pattern auxiliary verb + cause + (adjective) +
noun is a combination that native speaker would identify as prototypical (see Table 14
for examples).
Auxiliary verb Verb (adjective) + noun
Can + disadvantages
May + cause + associated deficiencies
Could+ stress problems
Table 14: Example of a syntactic collocation.
Exercise 31: Combine the following expressions with the words they
collocate  (feedback  easily replaced without significant  potential  information 
resulting in vehicle  health  amounts of data  avoid the)
___________________________________
___________________________________ downtime
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________ hazard
___________________________________
meaningful ___________________________________
___________________________________
27
Available at the department (DLACT, Aula 14)

3.3. CONCISENESS AND TEXTS

How do you communicate to your audiences with no more words than necessary? Is
there a more economic way (using less words) to express clearly your message? Why a
weak style makes your communication wordier? Writing for professional and academic
purposes is not an artistic task, but an instrumental one. In other words, people will not
read your texts or listen to you for amusement. Simply put, it will be a job requirement (find
information that can be used to carry out a professional or academic task).
3.3.1. Weak Style and Wordiness

Weak style is the result of not expressing ideas with direct, straight-to-the-point
expressions. It is always the less concise option when expressing an idea
a) Please make sure that a reservation has been made for a separate dining room, all
the guests have been given notification of the date and place of the meeting, and an
adequate reference to the clients is made in the speech. (Weak Style)
b) Please make sure that a separate dining room has been reserved, all guests have
been notified the place and date, and the clients are adequately referred to in the
speech. (Strong Style)
c) They have plans to develop a new design during the course of this year. At this
point in time, notification must be given to all the departments involved. They
should take into consideration this plan in order to achieve good international
co-ordination. (Weak Style)
d) They plan to develop a new design during this year. Now, all the departments
involved must be notified. They should consider this plan to achieve good
international co-ordination. (Strong Style)
There are many wordy expressions that are typically used and whose substitution by
shorter expressions is highly recommended. Table 15 presents some of the most
common examples:
WORDY PHRASE CONCISE PHRASE WORDY PHRASE CONCISE PHRASE

a considerable amount much in order to to
a majority of most in regard to regarding, about
a number of some, many in the event that if
are of the same opinion agree in view of the fact that because
at an early date soon it is often the case that often
at the conclusion of after, following it is our opinion that we think that
at the present time now it is our understanding that we understand that
it is worth pointing out in this
at this point in time now note that
context that
based on the fact that although make reference to refer to
due to the fact that because of the opinion that think that
during the course of during on the grounds that because
during the time that during, while prior to before
first of all first relative to regarding, about
having capability to can so as to to
in connection with about, concerning subsequent to after
in many cases often through the use of by
Table 15: Examples of wordy phrases and their concise equivalents.

Exercise 32: The verb phrases in column “A” are examples of weak style.
Use column “B” to provide one word equivalents. The first two have been
done as an example.
A B
Effect a reduction in reduce
Accomplish a modification of modify
Put emphasis on
Come to the conclusion that
Provide with information
Increase by a factor of two
Give an explanation of
Have a deleterious effect upon
Create an improvement in
Do an analysis of
Make a recommendation that
Conduct an investigation of
EXERCISE 33: Rewrite the following paragraph eliminating or

transforming those expressions which are redundant into more
concise ones.
This is to inform you that we are taking into active consideration your application for the
unfilled vacancy of Research Assistant. There are alternative choices closely been scrutinised.
In order to reach a consensus of opinion among the department members, we will do an
analysis of the past experience of all the candidates. We wish to accomplish a modification of
the research strategies in our department, therefore it is crucial that the selected candidate has
a sufficient quantity of published articles in relevant journals. Unfortunately, those candidates
who lack this requirement will be left out of consideration. At an early date, we will
communicate the end result of our selection process. We will provide with information about
the reasons for application refusals.
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
3.3.2. Meaningless "It" and "There"
Some structures in English have only a grammatical meaning and their use is
therefore redundant unless they are used for stylistic reasons. Normally these stylistic
reasons are circumscribed into the area of literary creation. Technical English writing is
usually more clear and concise when it avoids these structures.
In English you will find two such expressions: “There is / are” and “It”. The following
examples illustrate how these expressions can be eliminated to improve sentence
conciseness.
a) After all, it was subsidies that once nursed Japanese and, later, South Korean and
Taiwanese chip makers to global dominance.
b) After all, subsidies once nursed Japanese and, later, South Korean and Taiwanese chip
makers … 
c) It is possible that the price of a laser printer is higher than that of an ink jet printer.
d) A laser printer may cost more than an ink jet printer. 
e) There is a need for limitation of the number of users by the systems manager.
f) The systems manager must limit the number of users. 
g) There is a necessity for an agreement on the delivery terms by both parties.
h) Both parties must agree on the delivery terms. 

Exercise 34: Take a look at examples 1, to 5 below. Rewrite them as

more concise and clear sentences:
Example 1: "There are many educational courses one can take to engage with 3D printing ."
___________________________________________________________________________
Example 2: "It is considered that implementation of a range of measures should lead to a
reduction of the emissions."
______________________________________________________________________________
Example 3: " There are many aspects of the problem that have not yet been considered."
________________________________________________ ______________________________
Example 4: "It is probable that we should measure the wind characteristics at the site."
_______________________________________________________________________________
Example 5: " It is true that there is now widespread acceptance that there is a solid market for
our company's goods, but there is now increased competition for our products."
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
3.3.4. Style Issues and Conciseness

"After the research we have reached the conclusion that more information would be
required to be able to carry out the project in a more efficient way."
Formality and lack of precision produce sentences similar to the one immediately
above. This version is processed faster and delivers, essentially, the same information:
"We conclude that to carry out the project more efficiently, we need more information."
With nominalisation and passives communicator can avoid mentioning who is doing
the action (Billig, 2013: 139). These two strategies can be useful when describing processes,
but are less clear when referring to people.
EXERCISE 35: Rephrase the following sentences from former students so
that they are more concise.
1) "In terms of the requirements of knowledge that an engineer has to fulfill to work in
manufacturing industry; the ideal engineers are manufacturing system engineers. They
manage and improve production systems that allow converting raw materials into finished
products. They work in all phases of the production system, from the initial design to the final
phase of the product. But the different engineering degrees cover 9multiple aspects so different
types of engineers can work in manufacturing like industrial, mechanical, automatic,
electronic, and other engineers."
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
2) "Thus, since we are using water that comes from a higher altitude per se, we can simply let
gravity follow its natural course to fill up the soaking depot and draining it afterwards. "
____________________________________________________________________________
3) "Nevertheless, there are problems with cable connections and wind and wave damage to the
foundations and to the wind farm's power train."
_________________________________________________________________
4) "Floating structures are the used ones from 40 to 9oo metres deep."
________________________________________________________________________________.
3.4. COHERENCE AND TEXTS

The three examples below present in bold type the basic "devices" used to achieve
coherent texts: conjunctions, linking expressions, pronouns and verbal sequencing.
Conjunctions and linking expressions clarify how sentences should be understood in
relation to one another. Pronouns refer to previous information in the sentence, the
paragraph or the document. Finally, the logic of the text is easier to follow if the sequence
of the actions (expressed mainly by verbs) is consistent timewise.

Example 128: "But, on the other hand, we have some other projects that are more
difficult, for example, the ones related with medicine, mechanical projects or
anything that requires more specific knowledge."
Example 229: "[...] To make this possible, we have reached two possible solutions: the
former is designing and creating a specific robot for this process; the latter implies
doing some research on the existing robot models and choosing the one that best meets
our requirements."
The expressions "the former" and "the latter" in example 2 would work better if they
referred to explicitly mentioned ideas, but they are used here to introduce the two ideas
themselves. Some readers will have to read the sentence twice as their meaning
expectations are somewhat contradicted. Sequencing works with a careful choice of
words.
3.4.1. Link Words and Logical Sequencing

The logical structuring of texts (written and spoken) is achieved by a combination of
conjunctions and linkers (phrases used to refer to previous information, to advance
information, or simply to establish sequences, add comments, etc. Table 16 is by no means
exhaustive, but provides a range of possibilities that should allow you to establish
relationships between sentences both in your written report and your presentation.
Summing up Concluding Introducing facts Condition

In a nutshell ... Last but not least ... If …
All things considered ... As a conclusion ... First, … second, … Unless …
To sum up ... Finally ... To begin with ... Provided that …
To summarize ... To conclude ... Whether …
Choice Introducing Example Reformulating Emphasising
Neither…nor ...
Either…or ... Namely ...
Or… For example ... In other words ... As a matter of fact ...
Whatever ... For instance ... That is to say ... Indeed ...
Whenever ... Such as ... To put things differently In fact ...
Wherever ...
Whoever ...
Sequencing Deducing Consequence Contrasting Adding Ideas
But ...
As a consequence ... …as opposed to…
Also ...
After / Afterwards ... Therefore ... However ...
Besides ...
As / As soon as ... As a result ... Nevertheless ...
Furthermore ...
Next ... Consequently ... Yet ...
In addition ...
Suddenly ... Eventually ... Unlike ...
Moreover ...
Then ... Thus ... While ...
What’s more ...
Since ... So ... Whereas ...
Not only … but also ...
That’s why ... On the one hand ...
On the other hand ...
Personal Opinion Explaining Cause Concession Goal / Purpose
In my opinion ... As ... In order to…
As far as I’m concerned Because (of) ... Although …
To…
... In so far as ... Even though…
So as to…
To my mind ... Since ... Though …
It seems to me that ... The reason why …is ... So that…
Table 16: Examples of link words organised by categories30.
28
This is from a report drafted by former students. It needs punctuation and word choice corrections.
29
This is a partially amended version of a report text drafted by students from previous years.
30
For more complete lists and a downloadable PDFs visit https://www.smart-words.org/linking-words/transition-
words.html and https://www.smart-words.org/linking-words/conjunctions.html or these two webs
https://msu.edu/~jdowell/135/transw.html and http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/trans1.html

EXERCISE 36: Complete the gaps in the text below with the connecting
words in the box.
Firstly  Also  Additionally  In order to  As a result of 
Consequently  Also
The spill _______ posed health risks for the local residents, with approximately
143 spill-exposure cases reported in Louisiana alone. Of the 143 cases, 108 were of
workers who were helping with the major clean-up efforts. Louisiana residents
reported an additional 35 cases from merely being exposed to the spill.
______________ the widespread effects of the growing oil slick, numerous

stakeholders were involved. ________, shareholders of BP Oil were thoroughly
disappointed that they had invested in a company that had caused so much
damage to thousands of people and resulted in massive financial losses.
______________, it was understood that BP would need to spend a large sum
of money ____________ fix the disaster, and ____________, shareholders
would not receive the benefits of a high-profiting firm as they had expected31.
EXERCISE 37: Link the following pairs of sentences using the connectors
between parentheses.
(a) Michael is not a skilled negotiator. Paula is not a skilled negotiator either. (neither ... nor)
____________________________________________________________________________
(b) Sometimes the orders reach us in two days. Sometimes they take over a week. (either... or)
____________________________________________________________________________
(c) This container can transport frozen goods. It can also transport live plants. (both ... and)
____________________________________________________________________________
(d) You won't be able to start the engine unless you fill the tank. (otherwise)
____________________________________________________________________________
(e) They were negotiating the budget. Meanwhile, we were purchasing supplies. (while)
____________________________________________________________________________
3.4.2. Time Sequences and Descriptive/Narrative Coherence

Verbs not only provide meaning to the actions, but also organise a logical time
sequence that orders the chain of actions. Therefore, writers must make sure that the time
sequence is consistent with logic and that the point of view (the subject of the verbs) does
not fluctuate (between "we" and impersonal sentences, or "you" and "we", or other
possible combinations.
EXERCISE 38: Choose the right option to complete the text.
Eighteen minutes after the fuel leak __ (1) __, and just before __ (2) __ the 30° west position
check at 04:56 UTC, the automatic center of gravity (CG) control function of the horizontal
stabilizer Trim Tank Transfer System __ (3) __ a two-minute transfer of 300 kg (661 lbs.) of
fuel __ (4) __ the horizontal stabilizer trim fuel tank to the left and right wing inner fuel tanks
in order to maintain center of gravity within the aft CG target.
1) a. have begun b. began c. was beginning d. had begun

2) a. reach b. reaching c. reached d. to reach
3) a. have started b. could start c. starting d. started
4) a. within b. on c. from d. of
31
Cholan, Johtika; Makin, Tyler; & Smith, Samantha (2013). The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill A Case Study about the
Development of an Evolving Communication Strategy. Case Study for U.S.C. Marshall, page 1.


Following our phone conversation this morning I confirm that a forklift truck has hit our IPS15
unit. The impact __ (1) __ a large hole in the main panel on the side of the machine. Our
technician who __ (2) __ to carry out routine adjustments on the machine has made an
external visual inspection. He has advised me that the mechanisms for adjusting the precise
alignment of the cutting blades __ (3) __. Liquid lubricant is also leaking out from under the
machine and a crackling sound can be heard inside the unit when it is switched on - presumably
due to earthing / short-circuiting __ (4) __ from electrical damage. I confirm my request for
intervention by your service team.
1) a.- had made b.- will make c.- has made d.- made
2) a.- had trained b.- will train c.- was trained d.- is trained
3) a.- had been damaged b.- have been damaged c.- were being damaged d.- will be damaged
4) a.- resulting b.- to result c.- have been resulting d.- results

 to thereby eliminate  described  is accommodated  comprises  formed  sandwiched 
might normally create  nests  are formed  has
The present invention ___________ a structure for an electrochemical cell having an
anode cavity, a cathode cavity, and an electrolyte _______________ between the anode
cavity and the cathode cavity and in contact with catalyst electrodes. The anode cavity or the
cathode cavity, or both, ______________ from stacked conductive members, such as
metal plates, suitably __________ to provide all the functionality needed for cell operation
such as ___________ in Titterington et al. (US. Pat. No. 5,316,644). Each conductive
member of the present invention ______ at least one protrusion that ________ within a
corresponding oversized volume, or groove, of an adjacent conductive member. In the seal
area of each conductive member, the adhesive _______________ in the oversized volume.
Accordingly, during the assembly process, excess adhesive that ____________________
a gap between the conductive members flows into the oversized volume of the adjacent
conductive member _____________________ any bonding gap. (U.S. Patent )

 had until then been reserved  had already made  had began  brought  was reported  were
already being felt
This offensive ____________ to the surface tensions that _________________ between
the non-free software and the free software worlds. By 2000, it ____________ that
Microsoft ________________ several critical statements in the so called "Halloween
documents" against GNU/Linux, an operating system that ________________ to acquire a
share of the market that ________________________ to Microsoft (Windows) and
several other companies distributing various non-free versions of Unix (IBM AIX, Oracle-
Solaris). (Bain et al. 2010: 5).
3.5. CADENCE AND TEXTS

Cadence relates to creating a rhythm in the text. Take a look at the following two
paragraphs:
(a) "Metaphors frame and assist the designers in defining the design problem. Metaphors are
commonly used to map users' understanding, activities and reactions to a product. They help
make sense of customer needs or physical attributes from the source of inspiration. Metaphors'
exceptional communication ability provides meaning to a design situation; a cafeteria when
seen as an oasis for its visitors becomes a different place entirely. (Hey et al., 2008: 285)
(b) Metaphors frame and assist the designers in defining the design problem. They can be used to map
user's understanding, activities and reactions to a product as well as make sense of customer needs or
physical attributes from the source of inspiration. Additionally, metaphors communicate meaning to a
design; picture a cafeteria as an oasis and the experience becomes memorable.
Do you see any problems in paragraph "a" compared to paragraph "b"? What are
these problems? Topic continuity is perfect, but the only explicit linking among sentences is

the pronoun "they" and the sentences are essentially the same length. Paragraph "b"
combines different sentence lengths and uses explicit linkers.
According to (Douglas, 2015: 143, 155 and 160) the following three criteria should
create rhythm in your texts:
1) Link sentences so you have variation in their structures (See section 3.4.1)
Example :
"As a result of the widespread effects of the growing oil slick, numerous stakeholders
were involved. Firstly, shareholders of BP Oil were thoroughly disappointed that they
had invested in a company that had caused so much damage to thousands of people and
resulted in massive financial losses. Additionally, it was understood that BP would
need to spend a large sum of money in order to fix the disaster, and consequently,
shareholders would not receive the benefits of a high-profiting firm as they had
expected." (See footnote 27)
2) Use sentences of different lengths.
Example:
"The UK has been forced to re-evaluate its nuclear build plan after Japan's Hitachi and
Toshiba recently walked away from key large-scale nuclear build projects. The
government wants new nuclear power capacity to replace coal-fired plants and ageing
reactors. On January 17, Hitachi shelved its project to build the 2.9 GW Wylfa nuclear
plant in Wales after it failed to come to an agreement with the UK government (see
below). Last year, Toshiba abandoned the 3.8 MW Moorside nuclear new build project
in Cumbria following a strategic restructuring. EDF's 3.2 GW Hinkley Point C EPR
project is the only nuclear plant currently under construction and is expected online
from 2025. Further projects at the Sizewell C and Bradwell nuclear sites are advancing
and "small modular reactors can have a role to play," Energy secretary Greg Clark said
in a letter published in the FT on January 23 32."
3) In lists, series of phrases, or complete sentences place the shortest, syntactically
simplest element at the beginning and the most complex one at the end.
Example A: *REIN specializes in project management of decommissioning and
dismantlement (D&D) projects, their design, and tooling.
Example B: REIN specializes in the design, tooling and project management of
decommissioning and dismantlement (D&D) projects 33.
3.6. STRUCTURING INFORMATION WITH LANGUAGE - DENSITY vs.

SPECIFICITY
Sociolinguistic research (Maton, 2014: 122-123, 145-147) indicates that different
audiences and purposes (see section 2.2 above in relation to audiences) require choosing
language according to two criteria: words whose meaning depends heavily from context
(specificity - experience) and words with a very dense meaning (abstraction - theory).
Specificity vocabulary needs the context to acquire a meaning beyond the dictionary
definition. On the other hand, abstraction vocabulary encloses in itself meaning which
extends beyond the text. For example, the word "sandwich" in this sentence: Would you
like this sandwich? The context determines that it is a specific sandwich in a precise
situation; its meaning is located in time and space. Alternatively, consider the word
"thermodynamics" in the following sentence: "From the sudden expansion of a cloud of gas
or the cooling of tea, to the unfolding of a thought in our minds and even the course of life
itself, everything is governed by the four Laws of Thermodynamics ." (Atkins, 2010). This word
has a complex meaning that is not determined by the context in which appears.
Example A:
Students who watch movies in the original version without Spanish subtitles improve
their listening comprehension. Frequent exposure to close-to-natural spoken English
enhances phonetic discrimination. Also, the range of accents available in films and TV is
32
See https://bit.ly/2RtKknm
33
See https://bit.ly/2MIJum2

much broader than that found in a class or even a city in an English-speaking country. In
addition, actors tend to speak more clearly than spontaneous speakers. This reduces the
effort needed for comprehension, thus increasing motivation. This is why watching films
on a regular basis improves listening comprehension.
Example B:
Frequent exposure to a foreign language through media steepens its learning curve. The
reason is that it is both meaningful and enjoyable. For example, watching everyday one
chapter of your favourite TV series is more motivating than attending evening language
courses after work. Several options are available nowadays for these practice activities
such as YouTube channels, subscription based streaming, DVDs, conventional HD
broadcasting with original version soundtracks, etc. The repeated contact with accents
and somewhat stereotyped cultural schemata has a positive effect on language learning.
Therefore, this type of meaningful activities will result in an accelerated learning rate.
Example A is a standard paragraph, essentially correct, but why would authors

(Maton, 2014; Ingold & O'Sullivan, 2016) say that Example B is better. In the first example,
experience and theory vocabulary is more or less mixed in sentences, while in the second
one we see a pattern that begins with theory moving towards more specific vocabulary and
then again progresses towards theory words. Blackie (2014: 465) indicates that the
vocabulary choices move across four vocabulary quadrants (+theory, +experience),
(+theory, -experience), (-theory, +experience), (-theory, -experience). Each one would be
related to the four quadrants described in Section 2.1. Nominalisations, generalisations,
metaphors and conversion into a verb tend to be carried out through theory-leaning
vocabulary, while experience-leaning vocabulary is not marked by any meaning
densification strategy.
EXERCISE 42: Decide whether the following words are theory

vocabulary or experience vocabulary (or somewhere in between).
Exposure Learning curve Chapter schemata

Steepen Reason TV series Learning rate
Choice Meaningful Course Activity
Media Watch Work Effect
4. GENRE: READING COMPREHENSION - JOURNAL ARTICLES

4.1. GENRE: THE CONCEPT AND EXAMPLES
Swales (1990: 58) defines Genre as a type of communication that involves a group of
people who understand both the purpose of the communication and the expectations of
the audience. This understanding is based on a knowledge of the schema that structures
the contents and style of the genre. Exemplars of a genre can be identified because they
share many features: structure, style, types of contents, audience. Can you mention
examples of genres in films, novels, or music? Are you aware of any genres in technical
communication? Which ones?
4.2. JOURNAL ARTICLES

In academic communication, the genre of Journal Articles constitutes an important
source of quality information. At post-doctoral levels, this genre plays an important role in
the assessment of professional performance, but we are focusing here on reading

comprehension and not writing. At undergraduate level, you are expected to use Journal
Articles as a quality source of information.
Journal Articles are (compared to textbooks, Professional Publications, and patents)
aimed at academic audiences ranging from university undergraduates to post-doctoral
experts. Therefore, each journal selects its audience by the depth of expertise required to
understand its contents. The articles, normally called papers, are written by non-academic
experts and academic researchers and play a role in the assessment of the professional
performance of their authors.
Genre as Level of Assumed

Degree of
source of Field Purpose Audience's
Novelty34
information Knowledge
Journal Prove or disprove a
Academic Very high Very High - High
Article hypothesis
Teach consolidated
Textbook Academic Intermediate Intermediate
knowledge
Periodicals Introduce new products
Professional High Intermediate
for Engineers and technologies
Fulfil an IP legal
requirement disclosing
Patents Both Very high Very high - High
as little information as
possible
Table 17: Comparison of different genres.
The structure of Journal Articles is presented in Table 18.
SECTIONS CONTENTS COMMENTS

Identifies the topic of the paper It usually tries to attract the
TITLE
attention of potential readers
Summary of field and scope, Most audiences decide whether
ABSTRACT methodology used, and basic results or to read or not the paper based
conclusions on this section
Establishes gaps in previous research in The problem analysed should be
relation to a problem; states issues clear. The parts of the article
INTRODUCTION addressed in paper; and presents the should be described. In review
information to be found in each section articles, the quality of the
of the paper. sources described
DATA / RESULTS / The methods used are introduced, what This is the part from which
DISCUSION / data is obtained and the results are conclusions are extracted
METHODOLOGY commented
Logic is applied and consequences and May describe limitations of the
CONCLUSION recommendations are inferred from the study and propose future
data analysed in the previous section research
Provides the necessary information to Very important in relation to
find the sources of information used in copyright issues and credibility
REFERENCES the paper. There are different standard of paper authors. Be careful
formats. with the quality of these
sources.
Table 18: Structure of Journal Articles.
Let us use the following Journal Article: "Gaidajis, G; Angelakogiou, K; & Aktsoglou, D.
(2010). E-waste: Environmental Problems and Current Management in Journal of
34
Assuming that all the specific examples of the genres compared in this table are published within
approximately the same time frame.

Engineering Science and Technology Review, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 193-199." at

http://www.jestr.org/downloads/volume3/fulltext342010.pdf
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1) What are the field and scope of this article?
____________________________________________________
2) What is the methodology used in this article?
____________________________________________________
3) Why is e-waste relevant?
____________________________________________________
4) What are the sources used by the authors to determine the
amount of e-waste per year? ____________________________
____________________________________________________
5) What are the useful materials recycled from e-waste?
_________________________________________________________________
6) Why isn't most e-waste recycled?
_________________________________________________________________
7) What 3 measures have been implemented to reduce the effects of e-waste'
______________________________________________________________________
4.3. READING COMPREHENSION, VOCABULARY & LANGUAGE USE
In this unit, we are going to approach Periodicals or Professional Publications in
engineering. We will look at their structure (what information do they contain and in what
sections can we find it)
Table 19 is a simplified representation of what you can expect to find in a Periodical
article for Engineers.
1. Who is doing what 1 paragraph presentation of product and producer

2. Reason for product / service 1 paragraph describing the problem to solve
3. Outstanding features Several paragraphs pinpointing useful features
4. Further developments 1 or 2 paragraphs mentioning expected uses
5. Potential Customers 1 paragraph describing current purchasers and why
6. Limitations and reaction 1 paragraph describing shortcomings and remedies
Table 19: Structure of Periodical Articles.
Download this text for the reading exercises (https://goo.gl/HYTFq2) "Toolset Enables
Connected Vehicle Applications" By Nitin Dahad, 18th October
2018
EXERCISE 43: Identify in the text eight metaphors that

are also technical terms.
The following paragraph explains part of the vocabulary in the previous

text.
Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm in
which computation is largely or completely performed on
distributed device nodes known as smart devices or edge devices as opposed to
primarily taking place in a centralized cloud environment. The eponymous "edge"
refers to the geographic distribution of computing nodes in the network as Internet
of Things devices, which are at the "edge" of an enterprise, metropolitan or other
network. The motivation is to provide server resources, data analysis and artificial
intelligence ("ambient intelligence") closer to data collection sources and cyber-
physical systems such as smart sensors and actuators. Edge computing is seen

as important in the realization of physical computing, smart cities, ubiquitous

computing and the Internet of Things35.
EXERCISE 44: Match each of the concepts in bold type from the previous
paragraph with its corresponding definition / description below.
1) ____________________ a device responsible for activating a mechanical device, such as one

connected to a computer by a sensor link.
2) ____________ is an interconnection point on a computer network such as printer or a PC.
3) ________________ are devices with signal-conditioning electronics such as analog-to-
digital converters on a single silicon chip to form integrated microelectromechanical
components that can process information or communicate with an embedded
microprocessor.
4) _________________________ interconnection via the Internet of computing devices
embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.
5) __________________ electronic device, connected to other devices or networks via
different wireless protocols, that can operate partially interactively and autonomously.
6) _____________________ enables analytics and knowledge generation to occur at the
source of the data. This approach requires leveraging resources that may not be continuously
connected to a network such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and sensors.
7) ____________________ integrations of computation, networking, and physical processes.
Cloud computing consists of shared pools of configurable computer system

resources and higher-level services that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal
management effort, often over the Internet. Cloud computing relies on sharing of
resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale, similar to a public
utility36.
EXERCISE 45: Match each of the concepts in bold type with its
corresponding definition below.
1) _______________________ Any communal supply available for use by a group (resources,
services, funds, etc).
2) ___________________________ Reduction in the cost per unit of output as the production
dimension increases.
3) ___________________________ Model of computer use in which services are available via
the internet and are provided on a temporary basis.
4) ___________________________ An enterprise concerned with the provision to the public
of services such as water, electricity, transportation, or communication.
EXERCISE 46: Answer the following reading comprehension questions.

a) Who is the audience of this article? _____________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
b) What can you do with Reneses product that you couldn't do before?
______________________________________________________________________
c) Does the product depend from third party products? Which ones?
______________________________________________________________________
d) What are out-of-the-box applications? ______________________________________
e) With what data types is it compatible? ______________________________________
35
(Source: Wikipedia https://goo.gl/vSOe3K accessed on November 2019)
36
(Source: Wikipedia https://goo.gl/Yl2Rn accessed and adapted on November 2019)

EXERCISE 46: Working in small groups. Write approximately 90 words

describing the potential consequences of applying IoT, edge computing and
cloud services to industries in your specialisation. The audience would be
engineering students and the purpose of your text is to motivate this
audience to work in those sectors. The text should function as a general
overview that is (in a potential context) developed later in a text or
presentation.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
5. PRESENTATIONS: INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL

CHARACTERISTICS
Let us apply the concepts from sections 2 and 3 now to the process of developing an
oral presentation. Then, we will consider additional factors that are important in spoken,
multimedia communication.
STYLE FACTORS WHAT IS BEING ASSESSED COMMUNICATION

ELEMENTS ASSESSED
Slang is avoided, vocabulary adapts to Vocabulary, Grammar,
audience knowledge, no grammar Graphs, Images,
Clarity errors, no ambiguity, no vagueness,
letter types are big enough, letter
types are clear, structure is explicitly
indicated
Conciseness Tags are avoided, weak style is Sentences, Graphs, images
avoided, redundant information is
avoided, slides contain only
information needed to help speech.
Coherence Link words are used to structure the Intonation, structuring
presentation, sentences are vocabulary
connected logically,
Continuity Verb tenses, sequencing Explicit structure, point of
view
Voice volume, intonation, vocalisation, Intonation, pronunciation,
Cadence explicit transitions between ideas, body language, style
conversational but formal style,
variation in sentence length and
speech speed, all of these create
rythms
Meaning Density Technical concepts Vocabulary
Meaning Weight General vocabulary Vocabulary

5.1. AUDIENCE
At this point in your training, your potential audiences are typically the following five: fellow
students, professors, employers, investors and customers. Using the information
from section 2.2 above, identify what information is relevant for each of these five
different audiences in a specific context (class presentation, oral exam, job interview,
funding meeting, trade fair presentation)
Peer students
Your professors
Employers
Investors
Customers
Thus, audiences in different contexts have different information expectations. As a

consequence, you have to adapt the contents and structure to these expectations.
5.2. PURPOSE
We can reduce the purposes of your presentations to three categories: selling, teaching, or
reporting. What information are audiences expecting when you are selling? (Watch
this video containing an elevator pitch: https://youtu.be/i6O98o2FRHw) Which of the
following options represents the argumentation used in the video:
Option A Option B Option C

New advertising Channel Usefulness New idea
Exposure time Investment Competitors
Exclusivity Cost Customers
Costs Returns Costs
Turnover Returns
Now watch this lecture https://youtu.be/A-QgGXbDyR0 (Why don't perpetual motion

machines work). Which of the following options represents the structure of the
information?
Option A Option B Option C

 Examples of what he  Historical precursor  General examples
describes  Definition  Description of the
 Relevant problem  General examples functional problem
discussed  Causes of failure  Specific examples and
 Reasons of failure  Newer examples and causes of failure
illustrated with examples causes of failure  Laws of thermodynamics
 What is missing in general  Second Law of  Conclusions
 Theoretical reasoning Thermodynamics
 Conclusion  Hope
You may have a first job in a customer service solving problems for technology users. So
look at this tutorial on "How to Fix a Car That Cranks But Doesn't Start" by Scotty
Kilmer https://youtu.be/064Ilsz8Fzg . Mr. Kilmer always starts his repair videos by
stating what is the problem that he is going to solve, then he performs the necessary
steps to identify the cause of failure and concludes by indicating what the corrective
actions are. Answer to the following questions on this instructional video:

1) What have cars lost when they don't start? _________________________________

________________________________________________________________
2) What is the first test that he performs to find the cause of the failure? ________________
___________________________________________________________
3) What is the diagnose if the engine starts and then shuts off? _____________________
________________________________________________________________
4) What do you do then? _______________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
5) If the fuse is not the problem, what is the next step to find the problem? ___________
_____________________________________________________________
6) What should you do is the fuel pump is bad? _______________________________
_________________________________________________________________
7) How do you check whether the ignition system is working? _______________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
8) What has to be replaced in older cars to repair the ignition? _____________________
_________________________________________________________________
9) What system controls ignition in later model cars? ____________________________
_________________________________________________________________
10) What is the first thing to check in a late model car if you have no spark? ________
_______________________________________________________________
If you want to know what a Coil On Plug (COP) ignition system is, watch this video by an
Australian engineer: https://youtu.be/6o4C1M_yqlU . Notice how each of the videos in
this section is structured differently depending on the different purposes and
audience expectations. This leads to section 5.3. where you will find criteria both to
select the contents of your presentation and organise these contents to meet your
purposes as well as the information needs of your audience.
5.3. STRUCTURE
Nancy Duarte is a consultant specialised in creating presentations. In the following three
videos she provides advice on how to structure your presentations to persuade your
audiences to do what you expect from them. In this first video Ms. Duarte proposes
five rules to consider when working on your presentation
https://youtu.be/hT9GGmundag . Watch the video and first identify the five rules.
Then relate those rules to the information learnt in Sections 2 and 3 of this unit.
First Rule Relates to sections 2 or 3 because...
Second Rule Relates to sections 2 or 3 because...
Third Rule Relates to sections 2 or 3 because...
Fourth Rule Relates to sections 2 or 3 because...
Fifth Rule Relates to sections 2 or 3 because...
In this second video Ms. Duarte gives advice on how to choose the formats of what is being
presented (handouts, screen, speech).

According to https://youtu.be/so9EJoQJc-0 what goes into each slide?

When you feel you need to use lots of text, what should you do in the presentation?
In her third video https://youtu.be/1nYFpuc2Umk she explains how to structure a
presentation according to a story. What are the basic ideas developed in this
presentation? ___________________________________________________________
You can base your presentation structure in one of the following eight (Salehzadeh, 2006:
75):
 information-driven, facts are presented first and then explained in further detail;
 problem/solution, a problem is presented, then alternative solutions and their
advantages and limitations (this could lead to further problems and solutions);
 comparative, two options, theories, etc. are compared and contrasted;
 thesis/point driven, a thesis is presented and later illustrated by examples, or
viceversa;
 cause and effect, sequences of relations between causes and effects are presented;
 data against theory, data and theory are compared to highlight agreements and
disagreements;
 sequential, information is presented chronologically or according to steps in a
process;
 classification/description, organise concepts according to classification criteria and
describe their common features.
Watch this presentation by Mark Sullivan on his generator. (https://vimeo.com/53804608 )

1) Indicate three moments where his presentation fails. ______________________________
2) Why some of his answers failed to match his purposes? ____________________________
3) What is the structure of the short presentation at the beginning? ____________________
4) Why do you think this presentation was successful? _______________________________
Now, watch Michael Pritchard presenting a water purification system for emergency
situations. https://youtu.be/rXepkIWPhFQ
1) What is the purpose of this presentation? ________________________________________
2) How does he make this presentation relevant for the audience? _____________________
3) Indicate 2 examples of emotional argumentation used. ____________________________
4) Indicate 2 examples of rational argumentation used. ______________________________
5) What is the structure of this presentation? ______________________________________
6. UNIT VOCABULARY
The following word puzzle contains 9 metals, try to find them.
Y Y M N G C E T Z L H F E M I
T R E H E O N L E E U E J T R
I B U N I R L K C C L E A D O
L Y S C M A C D E C E R O M N
R X D L R I D B H C Z K E I D
E S E N N E N E T S G N U T Z
V Z F X Y H M U S E V R Y I A
L V J G K C R D P F G T N Y Y
I D B I Y R C N S Q P C D V Q
S N I T T J J U J P P N E O Z
U H M J L H S I X B I B Z D J
G A N V E K F M H B M K X L A
B C O U Q Y M P M Z A H W W L
A B K S W O Q X U Q L V J A C
X N Y H F U P L D I G W U X K

The following word puzzle contains 9 alloys, try to find them.

M R G V G S S B E U L D O Y G
F B N B J K Q L L E E U A H M
N E J S G G E F K I E R A K S
G M R O T C W C O Y T A F A S
T Z K R T B I T J D S L C X B
F E R R O N I C K E L U U L N
U I U A O C J Q R E I M Q I S
Q M C R G N H D U F J I N S J
I S P E Z N O R B Y G N A R Z
I U M X V G P L O D Q R U J A
C U C J M D Z G L M B K Q U B
Q L O S D W L U V I E C H X Y
T N Q I W L L R B K B F X C N
O A L Q B E H K V U W S J G Q
F O N G K F F J O K Y W I J Q
The following word puzzle contains 10 materials, try to find them.

M M I S T R H A B U S Q C Y A
O R A F E P F V R A S P W M V
U N T B U H M S P X Y Q F R F
D M B Z W L P P L F I M L J Q
G U Z H L O H N U A T F I V J
R Q P F C I U X T T S S X Z I
E F O M R L U C J H R Q J D M
S C R E U D A N F A Y G N O X
X V C X T Y L Y F H Z B Q O X
T E E S L N I A T E F U U W X
P B L I Y W X A R U D M A Y S
Y T A L N N T A D E T Y V L T
C S I K M A V C U B M Z E P D
K G N E T E R C N O C E X P D
G L A S S N S S P K S X R H Y
7. REFERENCES37
Aristotle (2012). The Art of Rhetoric. London: Harper Press. [4th Century B.C.]
Aronson, Elliot; Wilson, Timothy D.; & Akert, Robin M. (2010). Social Psychology. Boston:
Prentice Hall.
Atkins, Peter (2010). The Laws of Thermodynamics: a very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Bain, Malcom; Gallego, Manuel; Martínez Ribas, Manuel; & Rius, Judit (2010). Legal Aspects
of the Information Society. Barcelona: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
Bandler, Richard & Grinder, John (1975). The Structure of Magic. Palo Alto: Science and
Behavior Books, Ltd.
Billig, Michael (2013). Learn to Write Badly: How to Succeed in the Social Sciences. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Carr, Stuart C. (2003). Social Psychology: Context, Communication and Culture. Milton,
Queensland: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Celce-Murcia, Marianne & Larsen-Freeman, Diane (1999). The Grammar Book An ESL/EFL
Teacher's Course (2nd Edition). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
37
Numbers between square brackets indicate the original publication date. Numbers between parentheses indicate
the publication date of the edition mentioned in this document. This applies to novels and popular science
books in section 8 too.

Cialdini, Robert (2016). Pre-Suasion: a Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade.

London: Random House Books.
Conrad, Susan (2017). A Comparison of Practitioner and Student Writing in Civil Engineering,
in Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 106, Issue 2, p. 191-217. DOI:
10.1002/jee.20161
Darling, Ann L. & Dannels, Deanna P. (2003). Practicing Engineers Talk about the
Importance of Talk: A Report on the Role of Oral Communication in the Workplace in
Communication Education, Volume 52, Issue 1, p. 1-16.
DesignTech (2018). Advantages of Technology in Manufacturing (Latest Trends and Current
Scenario) in https://www.designtechsys.com/articles/advantages-technology-
manufacturing accessed October, 2018.
Douglas, Yellowless (2015). The Reader's Brain: How Neuroscience Can Make You a Better
Writer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Downing, Angela & Locke, Philip (1992). A University Course in English Grammar. Hemel
Hempstead: Prentice Hall International (UK), Ltd.
Ervas, Francesca & Gola, Elisabetta. (2016). Argueing by Metaphors in Rivista Italiana di
Filosofia del Linguaggio, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. . [Online]
https://iris.unica.it/retrieve/handle/11584/202588/289733/Arguing%20by%20metaphors.pdf
Francis, Gil; Manning, Elizabeth; Hunston, Susan (eds.) (1997). Verbs: Patterns & Practice.
London: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Fludernik, Monika (2009). An Introduction to Narratology. New York: Routledge.
Gass, Robert H & Seiter, John S. (2011). Persuasion: Social Influence and Compliance Gaining.
Boston: Allyn & Bacon, Pearson.
Gentner, Derdre & Gentner, Donald R. (1983). Flowing waters or teeming crowds: Mental
models of electricity. In D. Gentner & A. L. Stevens (Eds.), Mental models, pp. 99-129.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [On-line]
http://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/gentner/papers/GentnerGentner83.pdf
Gillespie, Marie & Toynbee, Jason (2006). Analysing Media Texts. Berkshire: Open University
Press.
Gregory, Jane & Miller, Steve (1998). Science in Public: Communication, Culture, and
Credibility. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
Haig, Matt (2003). Brand Failures. London: Kogan Page.
Hall, Sean (2007). This Means This. This Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics. London:
Laurence King Publishing.
Hey, J.; Linsey, J.; Agogino, A.M.; & Wood, K.L. (2008). Analogies and Metaphors in Creative
Design in International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp 283-294.
Available on-line:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e594/f88075e5e301b3c733cb0733e393f86ef9fd.pdf
Hietala, V.M.; Vawter, G.A.; Brennan, T.M.; & Hammons, B.E. (1995). Travelling-wave
photodetectors for high-power, large band-width applications, in IEEE Transactions
on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 43, Issue 9, pp. 2291-2298. Available:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/414580
Hogg, Michael A. & Vaughan, Graham M. (2005). Essentials of Social Psychology. Harlow:
Pearson Education Limited.
Ingold, Richard & O'Sullivan, Daniel (2017). Riding the Waves of Academic Success in English
for Academic Purposes, Volume 26, Issue 2, p. 39-43.
Juvinall, Robert C. & Marshek, Kurt M. (2012). Fundamentals of Machine Component Design.
John Wyley & Sons.
Kahneman, Daniel (2011). Thinking Fast and Slow. London: Penguin Books.
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors We Live by. Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press.

Lyons, T.P. (2003). Production of Scotch and Irish whiskies: their history and evolution in
The Alcohol Textbook. Nottingham, U.K.: Nottingham University Press, pp. 137-168.
Maton, Karl (2017). Code Legitimation Theory: Building Knowledge about Knowledge
Building in Maton, Karl; Hood, Susan; & Shay, Suellen (eds.) Knowledge-Building:
Educational Studies in Legitimation Code Theory. London & New York: Routledge, pp.
1-23.
Maton, Karl (2014). Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education.
London & New York: Routledge.
Meyer, Bonnie J.F.; Young, Carole J.; & Bartlett, Brendan J. (1988). Memory Improved:
Reading and Memory Enhancement across the Lifespan through Strategic Text
Structures. New York: Pshycology Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Minto, Barbara (2009). The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking. Harlow: Pearson
Education Limited [1991].
Nussbaumer Knaflic, Cole (2015). Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for
Business. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
O'Connor, Joseph (2001). NLP Workbook: A Practical Guide to Achieving the Results You
Want. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
Rajashekara, Kaushik; Wang, Qingchun; & Matsuse, Kouki (2016). Flying Cars: Challenges
and Propulsion Strategies in IEEE Electrification Magazine, March 2016, pp. 46-57.
Riemer, Marc J. (2007). Communication Skills for the 21st Century Engineer in Global Journal
of Engineering Education, Vol. 11, No. 1 [on-line]
http://www.wiete.com.au/journals/GJEE/Publish/vol11no1/Riemer.pdf
Roderique-Davies, Gareth (2009). Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Cargo Cult Psychology? in
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 57-63 [on-line]
http://jahre.research.glam.ac.uk
Sageev, Pneena & Romanowski, Carol J. (2001). A Message from Recent Engineering
Graduates in the Workplace: Results of a Survey on Technical Communication Skills in
Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 90, Issue 4, p. 685-693. DOI: 10.1002/j.2168-
9830.2001.tb00660.x
Salehzadeh, Julia (2006). Academic Listening Strategies: A Guide to Understanding Lectures.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Seddon, Tony (Gen. ed.); Pennover, Andrea; Hampton-Smith, Sam; Woodward, David; and
Galan, Ambar (2015). How to Choose & Use Typefaces. London: Flame Tree Publishing.
Stanton Rogers, Wendy (2003). Social Psychology: Experimental and Critical Approaches.
Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.
Swales, John M. (1990). Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thibodeau, Paul H. & Boroditsky, Lea (2011). Metaphors We Think With: The Role of
Metaphor in Reasoning in PLoS ONE Vol. 6, Issue 2: e16782. [on-line]
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016782
Windahl, Sven; Signitzer, Benno; & Olson, Jean T. (2009). Using Communication Theory. Los
Angeles: Sage Publications.
Witkowski, Tomasz (2010). Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration? in Polish
Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 58-66 [on-line] DOI - 10.2478/v10059-010-0008-0
Wypych, George (2017). Atlas of Material Damage (Second Edition). Toronto: ChemTech
Publishing.

8. COMMUNICATION IN POPULAR CULTURE

(1) Movies
In the Loop (2009) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226774/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Up in the Air (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_26
The Great Debaters (2007). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427309/?ref_=kw_li_tt
Thank You for Smoking (2005). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427944/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Wag the Dog (1997). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/?ref_=nv_sr_1
(2) TV
Ballot Monkeys (2015) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4624644/ and its spin-off Power

Monkeys (2016) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4624644/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Boston Legal (2004-2008) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402711/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Mad Men (2007-2015) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Spin City (1996-2002) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115369/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Yes, Prime Minister (1986-1988) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086831/?ref_=nv_sr_1
(3) Literature (Novels)
Asimov, Isaac (2013). I Robot. HarperCollins Publishers [1950]

Carroll, Lewis (2015). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. MacMillan [1865]
Greene, Graham (2004). The Quiet American. Vintage Books [1955]
James, Henry (2008). The Europeans. London: Penguin Classics [1878]
Orwell, George (2013). 1984. London: Penguin Books Ltd. [1949]38
Swift, Jonathan (1992). Gulliver’s Travels. Wordsworth Editions [1726]
(4) Popular Science Books & Textbooks
Baggini, Julian (2010). The Pig that Wants to Be Eaten: And Ninety Nine Other Thought
Experiments. London: Granta Books.
Booker, Chistopher (2004). The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. London:
Continuum.
Cialdini, Robert (2009). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Harper Collins [1984]
Jansen, Sue Curry (2017). Stealth Communications. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kuhn, Thomas Samuel (2012). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press [1962]
Levitin, Daniel (2017). A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics. London: Penguin Books.
Popper, Karl (2002). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Abingdon: Routledge [1959]
Sagan, Carl (2000). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random
House USA [1995]
38
This TED Ed video https://youtu.be/6a6kbU88wu0 comments on similar novels. This other video, in a
simplified manner, clarifies how these type of books is relevant to learn about communication
https://youtu.be/4K-_ccYsBI0 (applicable to stories in songs, films and series too). One more on
dystopian literature: https://youtu.be/7Q_BqMQOFho

(5) Songs
The underlined words correspond to the group or singer and the rest is the title of the
song.
Animals - Oh Lord, Please Do Not Let Me Be Misunderstood
Beatles - Help!
Blondie - Hanging On The Telephone
David Bowie - Space Oddity
Five Man Electrical Band - Signs
INXS - Communication
Joe Cocker - The Letter
Led Zeppelin - Communication Breakdown
Madness - The Communicator
Pink Floyd - Is There Anybody Out There?
Spandau Ballet - Communication
T. Rex - Telegram Sam
The Box Tops - The Letter
The Greenhornes - There Is An End
Unit developed by Ismael Arinas Pellón, lecturer at the E.T.S.I.I.
Los detalles de los términos de esta licencia "Creative Commons" se

encuentran en / The detailed terms of this "Creative Commons" license can be
found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode

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Unit developed by Ismael Arinas Pellón, lecturer at the E.T.S.I.I.

Los detalles de los términos de esta licencia "Creative Commons" se

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 1

UNIT 1: Introduction to Communication

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 2

3.4. COHERENCE AND TEXTS ........................................................................................................... 40

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 3

1.1. SPELL CHECKING TOOLS & CITATION TOOLS

You write... But you meant...

1.2. GRAMMAR CHECKING TOOLS & STYLE CHECKING TOOLS

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 4

1.3. PLAGIARISM DETECTION TOOLS AND REFERENCES

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 5

1.4. BILINGUAL & MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES

a) Include information about b) Include maps. c) Include irregular forms

Bilingual Dictionaries: tend to include fewer dictionary entries and worse

Advantages over monolingual Disadvantages against monolingual

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 6

Now look at these two versions of the same ideas:

Beam3 (noun) [biːm] Beam (noun) [biːm]

 They usually lead their team to a victory.

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 7

At times, the information in the dictionary is insufficient to understand the

EXERCISE: Translate the following concepts into Spanish (not a literal

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 8

Table 1 presents the advantages and shortcomings of Thesauri compared to monolingual

Advantages over Non-Thesauruses Disadvantages against Non-

Table 1: Comparison between Thesauruses and Monolingual Dictionaries

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/ it presents the definitions of several renowned paper

1.5. GLOSSARIES, TERMINOLOGICAL DATABASES & LEXICAL SEARCH

a) Knowledge about b) Knowledge of the world c). Knowledge about

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 9

1.7. CORPORA & CORPUS-BASED TOOLS

1.8. REFERENCE MANAGEMENT

1.9. KNOWLEDGE MAPPING

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 10

2. BASIC CONCEPTS FOR COMMUNICATION

Figure 1: Factors configuring communication

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 11

Figure 2: Audience identification diagram. Adapted from Maton, 2014: 30.

EXERCISE 1: This video describing the Otis ReGen2

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 12

Figure 3: Semiotic Textual Model of Communication5

2.2. RATIONAL ARGUMENTATION, EMOTIONAL ARGUMENTATION,

EXERCISE 2: Watch Steve Jobs' iPad presentation until he introduces the

1) How much credibility does he have? When do you know that?

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 13

EXERCISE 3: After watching the video, answer the following questions:

Figure4: Relationship between credibility and types of argument

2.3. SCHEMATA AND FRAMING

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 14

EXERCISE 4: Several of the choices analysed by Kahneman (2011: 334-335)

EXERCISE 5: For the following three contexts, what vocabulary are

CONTEXT6 Word Group A Word Group B

2.4. TYPES OF TEXT: DESCRIPTION, NARRATION, PERSUASION

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 15

EPAC- UNIT 1 DLACT - ETSI Industriales 16

Exercise 8: Complete the table below with properties applicable to each

EXERCISE 9: Describe the usefulness of the materials in exercise 8 for the

 Engine blocks and Gear boxes:

 Outside layer for hand tools: