研究生学术英语写作教程Unit3ReviewingLiterature.docx

研究生学术英语写作教程Unit3ReviewingLiterature.docx

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研究生学术英语写作教程Unit3ReviewingLiterature

Unit3ReviewingLiterature

Objectives:

-Learnhowtoformulatearesearchproblem

-learnhowtociteotherpeople’spreviouswork

-Trytobecriticalandrelatedinyourreviewing

-Avoidplagiarism

Contents

-Readinganddiscussion:

sampleintroductionandelementsinliteraturereview.

-Languagefocus:

tenseincitationandcitingverbs

-Writingpractice:

informationprominentcitation,authorprominentcitation,andweakauthorprominentcitation

-Literaturereviewsrelatedtoyourresearch

-Noplagiarism

-Classroomextension:

literaturereviewofthesocialeffectsoftourismondevelopingcountries

1.ReadingActivity

1.1Pre-readingTask

Aliteraturereviewisnotjustasummaryofwhatyouhaveread.Itfocusesonaspecifictopicofinteresttoyouandincludesacriticalanalysisofrelationshipamongdifferentopinionsandthenrelatesthisreviewtotheworkofyourown.Itmaybewrittenasastand-alonepaperortoprovideatheoreticalframeworkandrationaleforaresearchstudytobecomeapartoftheintroductionsection,especiallyintermpapersorjournalarticles. However,inathesisordissertationitwillbeanentirechapter.

Readthesampleintroductionbelowandthinkaboutthefollowingquestions:

Whatisthepurposeofwritingaliteratureview?

Whatelementsdoesanintroductioninclude?

Howdowerelateotherpeople’spreviousworktoourpresentresearch?

Howdoweciteotherpeople’spreviouswork?

1.2ReadingPassage

Introduction

Thepoorhavetraditionallytakenthebruntoftheblameforcausingsociety’smanyproblemsincluding,morerecently,environmentaldegradation.Thereisageneralconsensusthatpovertyisamajorcauseofenvironmentaldegradation.Forexample,inoneoftheconclusionsoftheBruntlandCommissionReport,whichincidentallyhasbeenacceptedastheblueprintforenvironmentalconservation,itwasexplicitlystatedthatpovertyisamajorcauseofenvironmentalproblemsandameliorationofpovertyisanecessaryandcentralconditionofanyeffectiveprogramsaddressingtheenvironment.Followingsimilarlines,Jalal（2010）,theAsianDevelopmentBank'schiefoftheenvironmentdepartmentsays,"Itisgenerallyacceptedthatenvironmentaldegradation,rapidpopulationgrowthandstagnantproductionarecloselylinkedwiththefastspreadofacutepovertyinmanycountriesofAsia".TheWorldBankjoinedtheconsensuswheninthe2011WorldDevelopmentReport,theBankexplicitlystatedthat,“poorfamilieswhohavetomeetshorttermneedsminethenaturalcapitalbyexcessivecuttingoftreesforfirewoodandfailuretoreplacesoilnutrients”（WorldBank2011）.

However,therehasbeenarisingtrendintheeconomicliteraturewhichdisputestheconventionaltheoryandarguesthatsimplegeneralizationsofthismulti-dimensionalproblemareerroneousandthatamorecomplexsetofvariablesareinplay（LeachandMearns,2012）.Thesestudiespointtodemographic,cultural,andinstitutionalfactorsasimportantvariablesinthepoverty-environmentaldegradationnexus.Anintricateweboffactorsplustheexistenceoffeedbackloopsfromenvironmentaldegradationtopovertymakestheprocessofidentifyingcausalitylinks,ifany,betweenenvironmentaldegradationandpovertyadifficultexercise.However,thesestudieshavebeenfewandisolatedanditisinterestingtonotethatuntilrecently,therehasbeenverylittlein-depthcoordinatedempiricalresearchintheeconomicsofenvironmentaldegradation-povertycausalityrelationships.

Thisbringstothepurposeofthisstudy.Bothpovertyandenvironmentaldegradationhavebeenincreasinginmanydevelopingcountries;hencethereisapressingneedfirsttoevaluateandanalyzethepoverty-environmentaldegradationnexus,andsecond,toprescribepolicyoptionstomitigateoreradicatethesetwoproblems.

Theprimaryobjectiveofthepaperistoanalyzecriticallytheexistingliteratureonthepoverty-environmentaldegradationnexusandtrytomake"someorderoutofthechaos"inherentinthiscomplexanddifficultsubject.Forthispaper,ouranalysisislimitedtothefollowingfourmainnaturalresourceswhichareunderseriousthreatofdegradationinmanydevelopingcountries:

i）forests;ii）land;iii）water;andiv）air.Biodiversityisexcludedatthispointbecausethepreliminaryliteraturesearchfoundonlyscatteredandinconclusiveinformation.However,itshouldnotbeinferredthatbiodiversityislessimportantthanthefourresourceschosen;indeeditisanareawhichneedsparticularattentioninthefuture.

Oncethenaturalresourcesectorshavebeenidentified,acause,impactandfeedbackanalysisiscarriedout.Inthismanner,wehopefirsttoidentifythemainagentsandthedegreeoftheircontributiontowardsthedestructionoftheenvironmentandsecond,theincentivesormotivatingfactorsencouragingtheirunsustainableactivities.Theimpactandfeedbackanalysisshouldhighlightthemainimpactsarisingfromthedegradationactivitiesandthesocio-economiceffecttheseimpactshaveacrossthevariousincomegroupsintheeconomy.

1.3ReadingComprehension

1.3.1Listdifferentopinionsonpovertyandenvironmentaldegradation

BruntlandCommissionReport,etc.ontheoneside

LeachandMearnsontheotherside

1.3.2Decidehowmanyelementsthissampleincludesandhowtheyfunction.

Elements

Functions

2.LanguageFocus

2.1Tenseincitation

Presenttense-Authorsmostlyusethepresenttenseverbstoshowtheiropiniononanotherperson'sresearch,relatewhatotherauthorssayordiscusstheliterature,theoreticalconcepts,methods,etc.However,thesimplepastandpresentperfectarealsopossibleverbformsinthiscase.Lookattheseexamplesinthepresenttense:

∙Nelson（1995）remarks

∙Jones（2005）stresses

∙Morison（2000）advocates

∙Zhang（2007）claims

∙Zhambhi（2008）argues 

Pasttense-Whenyouusethepasttense,thereportingverboftenoccursasanintegralcitation. Inotherwords,citationswithpasttenseverbsandnamedresearchersassubjectseemtohavethediscourseroleofprovidingparticularsforrecountingevents,resultsfoundoraprecedinggeneralizationorthebasisforaclaim,etc.Intheexamplebelow,thecitationreportstheresultsofasinglestudy.

CarlsonandBenton（2007）foundthatastheyincreasedtheparticipants’stresslevels,theresultsoftheirperformancedeteriorated.

Commonverbsinthepasttenseare:

investigated,studied,compared,analyzed,found,andexamined.

Presentperfect- Thepresentperfecttensecanbeusedtostatethattheresearchresultsarerecent,expressingwhathasbeenfoundoveranextendedperiodinthepastanduptothepresenttohighlightthedirectrelevanceofpreviousstudiestothewriter'sownresearch.Lookatthefollowingexample:

Althoughtheresultsofperviousstudiesshowedthatfurtherresearchwaswarrantedinthisarea,recentstudieshavedemonstratedthateducationalmethodologyisnowmovinginanewdirection（Jones,2007;Karstal,2008）.

2.1.1Checkthesampleintroductionandcompletethefollowingtable.

Questions

Howmany?

Forwhatpurposes?

Aresomesentenceswritteninpresenttense?

Aresomesentenceswritteninpasttense?

Aresomesentenceswritteninpresentperfecttense?

Whichtenseisusedmore?

Whydoyouthinkthisisthecase?

Howmanysentencescontainreferences?

2.2Citingverbs

Itisimportantthatyoulearnhowtociteinformationinacorrectway.Therearecertainconventionstofollowwhencitingsomeone’swork.Wordslike“say”,“tell”,and“ask”arenormallyusedinoralconversationsbutarenotappropriateinformalacademicwriting.Thefollowingtableillustratessomeappropriatewordstouseforreportingtheworkofothers.

Verbsforsaying

Jalal（1993）

claims

believes

thinks

assumes

indicates

notes

remarks

states

shows

pointsout

that…

MoreVerbsforsaying

Jalal’s（1993）study

suggests

considers

hypothesizes

concludes

comments

emphasizes

illustrates

proposes

establishes

maintains

that…

Verbsrespondingtoothers’opinions

TheanalysisoftheJalal’sreport

accepts

admits

agrees

doubts

denies

argues

comments

that…

Verbsforsayingasecondtime

Jalal（1993）further/additionally

asserts

explains

confirms

maintains

advocates

that…

Poorpatternsshowthatthewriterhasameregraspoftheliterature:

Jalal（1993）saysthat…TheAsianDevelopmentBank（1992）statesthat…LeachandMearns（1995）arguethat…

Bettersampleshowssomecriticalthinkingandsentencevariety:

Jalal（1993）reportsthathisstudyof…shows…ThefindingsaresupportedbytheAsianDevelopmentBank（1992）replicationof…Althoughboththesestudiesfocuson….Theyhaveignored…AccordingtoLeachandMearns（1995）,…

2.2.2Readthreeextractsontheissueofpovertyandcrime.Usetheverbsabovetociteopinionsonpovertyandcrime.

3.WritingPractice

3.1Usingreferences

Usecitationtodevelopyourownargument.

Belowareexamplesofpartsofparagraphsusingthreedifferentcitationmethods

（Thereferencescitedhavebeeninventedfordemonstrationpurposesonly）.Thesemethodscanbecalledinformationprominent,wherethefocusofthesentenceisonlyontheinformationbeingpresented;authorprominent,wherethenameoftheauthoroftheinformationisgivenprominenceinthesentence;andweakauthorprominent,wheretheideasofauthor（s）aregivenprominence,butauthors’namesdonotappearinthemainpartofthesentence.Observehowthedifferentmethodscontributetothewayinwhichthewriter’sargumentisdeveloped.

Informationpromi