Academic skills - week 7: revision of summarising and citation

Task 1

Study the paragraph from an article called ‘The Mobile Revolution’ in the journal Development
Quarterly (Issue 34, pages 85-98, 2009) by K. Hoffman.

● Highlight the the key points

● Look at the summary (a) - does it include all key points?
● Look at the choice of quotation (b) - does it relate to the key point the article discusses?
● Evaluate (c) - the combination of both a & b - is the citation effectively embedded?

Original text

According to recent estimates there are at least 4 billion mobile phones in the world, and the
majority of these are owned by people in the developing world.

Ownership in the developed world reached saturation level by 2007, so countries such as China, India
and Brazil now account for most of the growth. In the poorest countries, with weak transport
networks and unreliable postal services, access to telecommunications is a vital tool for starting or
developing a business, since it provides access to wider markets. Studies have shown that when
household incomes rise, more money is spent on mobile phones than any other item.

a) Summary

Hoffman (2009) stresses the critical importance of mobile phones in the developing world in the
growth of small businesses.

majority of phones are in the developing phones

the poorest countries

“small” businesses

b) Quotation

According to Hoffman , mobile phone ownership compensates for the weaknesses of infrastructure
in the developing world: “In the poorest countries, with weak transport networks and unreliable
postal services, access to telecommunications is a vital tool for starting or developing a business,
since it provides access to wider markets” (2009: 87).

saying smth 2 just provides proof so it s not bad

misquote – compensate

a bit long, but not the length of a block quote

c) Summary and quotation

Hoffman points out that most of the growth in mobile phone ownership now takes place in the
developing world, where it has become crucial for establishing a business: “... access to
telecommunications is a vital tool for starting or developing a business, since it provides access to
wider markets” (2009: 87).
Task 2

Read a second paragraph from the same article by Hoffman.

a) Highlight the key points

b) Write a summary of the main point(s).

c) Find a quotation to show the key point(s).

d) Combine (a) and (b), acknowledging the source.

e) Compare with your partner.

In such countries the effect of phone ownership on GDP growth is much stronger than in the
developed world, because the ability to make calls is being offered for the first time, rather than as
an alternative to existing landlines. As a result, mobile phone operators have emerged in Africa, India
and other parts of Asia that are larger and more flexible than Western companies, and which have
grown by catering for poorer customers, being therefore well-placed to expand downmarket. In
addition Chinese phone makers have successfully challenged the established Western companies in
terms of quality as well as innovation. A further trend is the provision of services via the mobile
network which offer access to information about healthcare or agricultural advice.

In some of the poorest developing countries there has been a significant growth on GDP as a result of
increasing ownership of phones and being able to make calls for the first time. Mobile phone
operators could
Task 3

a) Identify and label the functional sections in this abstract. Remember that the sections may not
always correspond to clause/sentence boundaries.

Gestikulace ve sdíleném prostoru jako kooperativní utváření významu / The use of shared gesture
space in co-operative meaning formation

Eva Lehečková, Jakub Jehlička

Časopis pro moderní filologii (Journal for Modern Philology) 101:2, 2019, pp. 150-169

The present study focuses on strategies which speakers employ when gesturing in a shared
articulatory space. Topic introduction/ Focus on studies Using data from English and Czech
multimodal corpora of spontaneous business meetings, Data we conducted a qualitative analysis of
gestural patterns based on two strategies: alignment and elaboration of gestures representing
abstract/conceptual objects. Focus/Scope of what the analysis/aspects of method We show that
speakers make use of both strategies in the context of co-operative meaning formation (with various
pragmatic functions) Findings/Results and that the notions of alignment and elaboration provide
useful analytic and descriptive tools for the study of human interaction from a multimodal
perspective. Methodological implications, significance, relevance of findings – the findings related to
broader context (EVALUATION IS NOT CORRECT!)

b) Can you suggest more sections which could be added to the abstract? Which other information
might be relevant?

Purpose

more detail on method

the motivation

conclusion

c) Here is one more abstract for dividing into sections and labelling.

A Review of the Literature on Teaching Academic English to English Language Learners

Patricia A. DiCerbo, Kristina A. Anstrom, Lottie L. Baker and Charlene Rivera

Academic English (AE) refers to the language used in school to help students acquire and use
knowledge. Topic intro/backround info/definitions This article reviews current literature Data to
determine what is known about the nature of AE within the context of K—12 schooling. Purpose/aim
It describes how AE is conceptualized in the education research literature, how these
conceptualizations are realized in instructional practices, and the implications of these
conceptualizations for teacher education and professional development. Summary of a literature
review The student population that is the primary focus of the article is English language learners,
but the findings have implications for all students who struggle with learning AE .
Implications/research significance The article raises critical challenges in defining and
operationalizing AE for instruction results/suggested practical applications and suggests areas for
further inquiry. Application for further research/ future research