Graduate DiplomaReading & Writing Session 22

ParagraphingReferencing

PARAGRAPHING

FEELING IN THE DARK

COLOUR ME DAZZLED

WEB-WIDE WAR

EVEN technology pundits can sometimes be right. Jason

Calacanis, an entrepreneur and noted agent provocateur, recently

argued that there is a simple solution to the woes of both Microsoft

and big media companies. Now a system has been developed to

make it easier for blind people to navigate the internet, use word-

processing software and even trace the shapes of graphs and

charts. The world’s largest software firm should pay Time Warner,

News Corporation and others firms to block Google, the search

giant, from indexing their content–and make it searchable

exclusively through Bing, Microsoft’s new search service.

COMPUTERS have become such an integral part of life, in the rich

world at least, that even social networking is done online. The

blind, however, are often excluded from such interactions. Its

inventors hope it will enable more blind people to work in offices.

He set the auction record for any jewel.

“If you have money to invest, there is no safer haven than

something rare,” says Laurence Graff, the London-born “King of

Diamonds”. If this is sales talk, he is his own best customer. Media

companies would thus get badly needed cash and Bing a chance

to gain market share from Google. In December 2008, during some

of the bleakest days of the credit crisis, Mr Graff paid $24.3m for

the 35.56-carat, 17th-century Wittelsbach blue diamond at

Christie’s in London. But in his opinion, “it was the bargain of the

century.In my life, it is the rarest of them all; it is the supreme

coloured diamond.”

EVEN technology pundits can sometimes be right. Jason

Calacanis, an entrepreneur and noted agent provocateur, recently

argued that there is a simple solution to the woes of both Microsoft

and big media companies. The world’s largest software firm should

pay Time Warner, News Corporation and others firms to block

Google, the search giant, from indexing their content–and make it

searchable exclusively through Bing, Microsoft’s new search

service.

Media companies would thus get badly needed cash and Bing a

chance to gain market share from Google.

EVEN technology pundits can sometimes be right. Jason

Calacanis, an entrepreneur and noted agent provocateur, recently

argued that there is a simple solution to the woes of both Microsoft

and big media companies. The world’s largest software firm should

pay Time Warner, News Corporation and others firms to block

Google, the search giant, from indexing their content–and make it

searchable exclusively through Bing, Microsoft’s new search

service. Media companies would thus get badly needed cash and

Bing a chance to gain market share from Google.

COMPUTERS have become such an integral part of

life, in the rich world at least, that even social

networking is done online. The blind, however, are often

excluded from such interactions. Its inventors hope it

will enable more blind people to work in offices.

Now a system has been developed to make it easier for

blind people to navigate the internet, use word-

processing software and even trace the shapes of

graphs and charts.

COMPUTERS have become such an integral part of

life, in the rich world at least, that even social

networking is done online. The blind, however, are often

excluded from such interactions. Now a system has

been developed to make it easier for blind people to

navigate the internet, use word-processing software and

even trace the shapes of graphs and charts. Its

inventors hope it will enable more blind people to work

in offices.

“If you have money to invest, there is no safer haven

than something rare,” says Laurence Graff, the London-

born “King of Diamonds”. If this is sales talk, he is his

own best customer. In December 2008, during some of

the bleakest days of the credit crisis, Mr Graff paid

$24.3m for the 35.56-carat, 17th-century Wittelsbach

blue diamond at Christie’s in London. But in his opinion,

“it was the bargain of the century.In my life, it is the

rarest of them all; it is the supreme coloured diamond.”

He set the auction record for any jewel.

“If you have money to invest, there is no safer haven

than something rare,” says Laurence Graff, the London-

born “King of Diamonds”. If this is sales talk, he is his

own best customer. In December 2008, during some of

the bleakest days of the credit crisis, Mr Graff paid

$24.3m for the 35.56-carat, 17th-century Wittelsbach

blue diamond at Christie’s in London. He set the auction

record for any jewel. But in his opinion, “it was the

bargain of the century.In my life, it is the rarest of them

all; it is the supreme coloured diamond.”

REFERENCING

Torrance and Thomas (1994) describe some of the difficulties that social science postgraduates face in writing their theses. They note:

In addition to lack of appropriate writing skills, students may experience problems when they actually commence writing and become excessively worried by what they perceive to be the demands of the task facing them... Some students may be hindered in their writing not so much by an inability to produce good quality text, but by excessive concern as to whether or not what they write is, in fact, in an acceptable style or sounds sufficiently academic. (Torrance and Thomas 1994: 106)

Torrance , Thomas and Robinson (1994) described three kinds of postgraduate writer. In their research these authors distinguished between:

• planners - students who preferred to have their ideas clear before starting to write, and who produced few drafts;• revisers - students who preferred to start writing first before taking final decisions about content; and• mixed - students who planned but were then forced to change their plans by repeated revising.

Torrance et al. report that the ‘planners’ claimed to write more than the ‘revisers’ and the ‘mixed’ students. Both the ‘planners’ and the ‘revisers’ seemed happy with their writing styles, but members of the ‘mixed’ group reported more difficulties and anxieties about writing than did the other two groups.

Other investigators have commented on similar differences between individual writers. In the study I mentioned earlier Alan Braithwaite and I distinguished between ‘thinkers’ and ‘doers’, and somewhat earlier Lowenthal and Watson (1977: 782) distinguished between ‘serialists’ who proceeded one step at a time and ‘holists’ who thought first about the big picture. It is important to note, however, that people’s styles of writing vary according to the task in hand. And furthermore, these simple labels do not do justice to the variety of writing styles that exist (see Eklundh 1994).

Finally we may note that although most postgraduates now write with word-processors and these have considerable advantages, they can cause additional difficulties. In a recent survey Reese (unpublished) found that, although all of the twenty-six students in his sample currently produced their work on a word-processor, none of them thought that they had got sufficient training and feedback in information technology skills. Reese (1996) also noted that the regulations that most students are currently required to follow in order to submit their theses were woefully out of date in terms of information technology.

Torrance and Thomas (1994) describe some of the difficulties that social science postgraduates face in writing their theses. They note:

In addition to lack of appropriate writing skills, students may experience problems when they actually commence writing and become excessively worried by what they perceive to be the demands of the task facing them.... Some students may be hindered in their writing not so much by an inability to produce good quality text, but by excessive concern as to whether or not what they write is, in fact, in an acceptable style or sounds sufficiently academic. (Torrance and Thomas 1994: 106)

Torrance , Thomas and Robinson (1994) described three kinds of postgraduate writer. In their research these authors distinguished between:

• planners - students who preferred to have their ideas clear before starting to write, and who produced few drafts;• revisers - students who preferred to start writing first before taking final decisions about content; and• mixed - students who planned but were then forced to change their plans by repeated revising.

1. Can you remember any numbers from the text? What do they refer to?

2. How many different punctuation marks did you notice in the text. What was the purpose of each?

Torrance et al. report that the ‘planners’ claimed to write more than the ‘revisers’ and the ‘mixed’ students. Both the ‘planners’ and the ‘revisers’ seemed happy with their writing styles, but members of the ‘mixed’ group reported more difficulties and anxieties about writing than did the other two groups.

Other investigators have commented on similar differences between individual writers. In the study I mentioned earlier Alan Braithwaite and I distinguished between ‘thinkers’ and ‘doers’, and somewhat earlier Lowenthal and Watson (1977: 782) distinguished between ‘serialists’ who proceeded one step at a time and ‘holists’ who thought first about the big picture. It is important to note, however, that people’s styles of writing vary according to the task in hand. And furthermore, these simple labels do not do justice to the variety of writing styles that exist (see Eklundh 1994).

Finally we may note that although most postgraduates now write with word-processors and these have considerable advantages, they can cause additional difficulties. In a recent survey Reese (unpublished) found that, although all of the twenty-six students in his sample currently produced their work on a word-processor, none of them thought that they had got sufficient training and feedback in information technology skills. Reese (1996) also noted that the regulations that most students are currently required to follow in order to submit their theses were woefully out of date in terms of information technology.