JAYARAJ ANNAPACKIAM COLLEGE FOR WOMEN (AUTONOMOUS)

II M.A. ENGLISH LITERATURE-

ACADEMIC WRITING AND COMPOSITION (IDC)- 20PEL3GE2
END SEMESTER EXAMINATION
Date: Time: 2 Hours Max.Marks:40
PART-A
I. Answer any four of the following in 100 words each.             (4x5=20)
1. How do you skim and scan a text? Explain plagiarism.
2. What is an argument? Discuss on the different statements of academic
argument.
3. What is the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing?
4. Why editing is important in academic writing?
5. What is the editing stage of the writing process?
PART-B
II. Attempt on any four of the following given below. (4x5=20)
6. How do you create citations? Give examples.
7. Read the passage and answer the questions given below:

Social media, magazines and shop windows bombard people daily with
things to buy, and British consumers are buying more clothes and shoes than ever
before. Online shopping means it is easy for customers to buy without thinking,
while major brands offer such cheap clothes that they can be treated like
disposable items – worn two or three times and then thrown away.
In Britain, the average person spends more than £1,000 on new clothes a year,
which is around four per cent of their income. That might not sound like much,
but that figure hides two far more worrying trends for society and for the
environment. First, a lot of that consumer spending is via credit cards. British
people currently owe approximately £670 per adult to credit card companies.
That's 66 per cent of the average wardrobe budget. Also, not only are people
spending money they don't have, they're using it to buy things they don't need.
Britain throws away 300,000 tons of clothing a year, most of which goes into
landfill sites.
People might not realise they are part of the disposable clothing problem
because they donate their unwanted clothes to charities. But charity shops can't
sell all those unwanted clothes. 'Fast fashion' goes out of fashion as quickly as it
came in and is often too poor quality to recycle; people don't want to buy it
second-hand. Huge quantities end up being thrown away, and a lot of clothes that
charities can't sell are sent abroad, causing even more economic and
environmental problems.
However, a different trend is springing up in opposition to consumerism – the
'buy nothing' trend. The idea originated in Canada in the early 1990s and then
moved to the US, where it became a rejection of the overspending and
overconsumption of Black Friday and Cyber Monday during Thanksgiving
weekend. On Buy Nothing Day people organise various types of protests and cut
up their credit cards. Throughout the year, Buy Nothing groups organise the
exchange and repair of items they already own.
The trend has now reached influencers on social media who usually share posts of
clothing and make-up that they recommend for people to buy. Some YouTube
stars now encourage their viewers not to buy anything at all for periods as long as
a year. Two friends in Canada spent a year working towards buying only food.
For the first three months they learned how to live without buying electrical
goods, clothes or things for the house. For the next stage, they gave up services,
for example haircuts, eating out at restaurants or buying petrol for their cars. In
one year, they'd saved $55,000.
The changes they made meant two fewer cars on the roads, a reduction in
plastic and paper packaging and a positive impact on the environment from all the
energy saved. If everyone followed a similar plan, the results would be
impressive. But even if you can't manage a full year without going shopping, you
can participate in the anti-consumerist movement by refusing to buy things you
don't need. Buy Nothing groups send a clear message to companies that people
are no longer willing to accept the environmental and human cost of
overconsumption.
Questions:-
1. What is an average British’s attitude towards clothes?
2. What does online shopping mean?
3.How did the youngsters in Canada manage money for a year? How much did
they save?
4. How do people celebrate “On buy nothing Day”?
5. Give a suitable title to the passage.
8. Read the passage to complete the table given below:
Arnold lives in a vila in Chiang Mai, Thailand. His house is made of concrete
and it has a tiled roof. It has windows made of glass. There is a large garden
where his mother grows fruit trees. Aziyah lives in a wooden stilt house in
Kampong Ayer in Brunei. Aziya’s house has a zinc roof. It has eight glass
windows. Aziyah’s mother would like to move to Bandar so that she could have a
garden. Jie Jie lives in Hong Hong. Her home does not stay in one place. It is a
boat made of wood with cloth sails. This kind of boat is called junk, it does not
have windows. Hugh lives in a terraced house in Italy. His house is made of
bricks and the roof is made of tiles. When Hugh looks out of his bed room
window he can see his garden. Shiela lives in Mongolia. Her family has a large
tent which they move to other places when the weather changes. The tent is made
of cloth. It has an entrance, but no windows. Shiela’s home does not have a
garden so her mother has to buy vegetables from the market.
Use the above information to complete the table.
Name 1. Hugh 2. 3. Arnold
Country 4. 5. Brunei 6. 7.
Home Junk 8. Stilt house Tent 9.
Made of Wood and 10. Wood and 11. Concrete &
cloth zinc tiles
Windows 12. Yes 13. No 14.
Garden? No 15. 16. 17. Yes
Movable 18. No 19. Yes 20.
?

9. Make notes on the following paragraph:

It’s headache having a headache. Almost all of us have suffered from a
headache at some time or the other. For some headache is a constant companion
and life can be a painful hell of wasted time.The most important step to cope with
headaches is to identify the type of headache one is suffering from. In tension
headaches (two hand headache), a feeling of a tight band around the head exists
along with pain in the neck and shoulders. It usually follows activities such as
long stretches of driving, typing or sitting on the desk. They are usually short-
timed, but can last for days or weeks? A headache is usually caused due to spinal
misalignment of the head, due to poor posture. Sleeping on the stomach with the
head turned to one side and bending over positions for a long time make it worse.
In migraine headaches (one handed headaches), the pain is usually on one side of
the head and may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, irritability and bright
spots of flashes of light. This headache is made worse by activity, especially
bending. The throbbing pain in the head gets worse by noise and light. Certain
triggers for migraines may be chocolate, caffeine, smoking or MSU in certain
food items. The pain may last from eight to 24 hours and there may be a hangover
for two-three days.Migraines are often preceded by an aura—changes in sight and
sensation. There is usually a family history of migraine. In a headache the pain
originates not from the brain but from irritated nerves of muscles, blood vessels
and bones. These send pain signals to the brain which then judges the degree of
distress and relays it at appropriate sites. The pain may sometimes be referred to
sites other than the problem areas. This is known as referred pain and occurs due
to sensation overload. Thus, though most headaches start at the base of the skull
the referred pain is felt typically behind the eyes. Factors causing headaches are
not fully understood but it is known that a shift in the level of body hormones and
chemicals, certain food and drinks and environmental stress can trigger them.
If headaches trouble you often, visit the doctor, who will take a full health history
relating to diet, lifestyle stresses, the type of headache, triggering factors and
relief measures. You may be asked to keep a “headache diary” which tells you to
list the time the headache started, when it ended, emotional, environmental and
food and drink factors which may have contributed to it. The type and severity of
pain and the medications used which provided most relief, are also to be listed.
This helps the doctor in determining the exact cause and type of headache and the
type of drugs to use. Apart from this a physical examination is done to rule out
any serious underlying cause. The blood pressure is recorded, vision tested and
muscle coordination o; the eyes is checked to rule out these as causes. Blood tests
may be done to rule out anaemia, diabetes and thyroid disease. If any of the above
is abnormal or otherwise a CT Scan or MRI may be done to see tissues and
structures around the brain. These will rule out causes such as tumors,
haemorrhage and infection of the brain, this examination gives a clear picture of
the problem to the doctor. Immediate relief can be obtained by certain
medications and a few simple self-care techniques. Using ice against the pain site,
covering eyes with dark glasses, drinking plenty of fluids and lying down in a
dark and quiet room, provide relief in a migraine attack. Pain killers like aspirin,
ibuprofen (brufen) and crocin can be taken and provide relief in different
proportions. These should be used with caution and under medical supervision, if
used for long periods and large quantities as all of them can cause many side
effects. An antiemetic like perinorm can help the nausea associated with a
migraine.

10. Write an essay on “Women Empowerment” with a proper introduction, and

conclusion.