Scientific English

-- KerstinFischer --

In this course, we want to explore some of the properties of scientific English. A major aim is to understand those factors that contribute to shaping its properties. That is, throughout the course, we are exploring methodological questions that ultimately lead to an understanding of the most common structure of scientific papers. Next, we are investigating what researchers do to mark such structures for their readers and how we can exploit these cues to understand scientific texts better. We are then going to apply our findings to the oral presentation of scientific results. Finally, we shall look at the lexical and syntactic properties of scientific English.

The course aims at familiarizing students with the structure of research papers, enabling them to quickly grasp the contents of such papers irrespective of the subject matter. Furthermore, students will be able to write concise and well-structured abstracts of such texts and possibly also of their own research. They will also be able to orally present such contents appropriately. Finally, they will be aware of the linguistic choices they make according to genre conventions.

Course Schedule

Date	Session	Topic	Relevant Reading/Assignment
Jan. 15th	13-15	Genre and Lexical Choice	Weinberger (1956); Sharp (2002); Sopher (1974); Hughes (2000); Argamon, Koppel, Fine & Shimon (2003)
Jan. 16th	13:30-15:30	The Structure of Scientific Texts	Tyler & Bro (1992); Fontaine & Kodratoff (ms.)
Jan. 17th	13:30-15:30	Text Structure and Scientific Methodology	Chaudron & Richards (1986); sample abstracts
	18-19:30	Using DMs for Text Structure	Degand & Sanders (2002)
Jan. 18th	16:30-18:30	Abstract writing
Jan. 22nd	13-15	Empirical Methods	West & Zimmerman (1983); Taylor & Tingguan (1991); Ashby (2005)
Jan. 23rd	13:30-15:30	Methodology continued	Tannen (1994)
Jan. 24th	18-19:30	Scientific Presentations	transcription conventions
Jan. 25th	16:30-18:30	Transcription