English for Academic Purposes 7

Accuracy in Speaking and Writing (2) Anca Gata

COPYRIGHT TO Andy Gillett
http://www.uefap.com/index.htm

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Prepositions Prepositions are very common in academic writing. They are more difficult to correct, but many mistakes are simply avoided by proofreading. There are some rules you can learn, but it is very useful to remember typical phrases that occur in your subject.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Word Order Many mistakes are simply avoided by proofreading. Whenever you learn a new word, it is useful to learn typical situations in which it occurs. You need to know in which subjects it is used, what kinds of texts it is used in, and which other words it typically occurs with. Look at the example sentences in your dictionary and find examples of the uses of the word in your text-books.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Word Order You can use the Internet to help you with this. Type any word or phrase - use "quotation marks" to search for a phrase - into a search engine and examine the results. You will often find hundreds of examples of the use of the word or phrase. You need to look at the examples carefully to see what kind of writing they are from. There are, though, many examples of academic, business and government texts on the Internet and examples from these sources should be useful.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Nouns 1. Check your plurals. Read the following sentences and notice the plural nouns. There are certain problems associated with the concept of a delinquent subculture. If a student of British politics demanded some precepts to guide his research, the compiler would have little difficulty about the first and most significant maxim in the creed.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Nouns 1. Check your plurals. Nicolson's account is far too discreet, and obscures some of the most important features of the crisis. The three main works are all rather slight when they come to tackle the complexities of the Liberal attitude during the crisis. The first step towards understanding the crisis of 1931 is to distinguish between different types of coalition government.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Nouns 2. Check your countable/uncountable nouns. Read the following text and notice the countable and uncountable nouns. The resources of society consist not only of the free gifts of nature, such as land, forests, and minerals, but also of human capacity, both mental and physical, and all sorts of man-made aids to further production such as tools, machinery and buildings.
An introduction to positive economics. R. G. Lipsey.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Nouns 2. Check your countable/uncountable nouns. Read the following text and notice the countable and uncountable nouns. The resources of society consist not only of the free gifts of nature, such as land, forests, and minerals, but also of human capacity, both mental and physical, and all sorts of man-made aids to further production such as tools, machinery and buildings.
An introduction to positive economics. R. G. Lipsey.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Nouns 3. Check the order of modifiers. When a noun has two or more premodifiers, these tend to occur in a certain order. Read the following phrases and notice the order of the premodifiers before the head noun. Suppose instead we have a horizontal supply curve. There were some very young business students.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

Nouns 3. Check the order of modifiers. McDonald's see this as a way of meeting the demand for relatively cheap and easily available sustenance. Other fragmentary legislation is to be found in recent years. Such a case might still be regarded as a most serious non-fatal offence. There is a short history of interruption in the more fully commercial system of US broadcasting.

Accuracy in EAP (2) Proof-Reading Written English

References Smith, F. (1982). Writing and the writer. London: Heinemann. Wallace, M. J. (1980). Study skills in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

COPYRIGHT TO Andy Gillett

http://www.uefap.com/index.htm