1. What is genre
English 112 Final Exam Review Questions Chapter 1 (genre) 1. What is genre (how does Giltrow define it?) and how is it related to cultural situations? 2. How do cultural situations imprint language? 3. Identify 3 examples of cultural situations that have specific kinds of writing associated with them. What are the features of these genres? 4. What are the salient (distinguishing) features of the research genres? Identify as many characteristics as you can think of, and describe their purpose. (Flip through Academic Reading if you need to find some examples). Chapter 3 (citation/states of knowledge) 1. What is citation? Is it unique to scholarly writing? Identify several ways in which an academic paper might cite a source. 2. What are reporting expressions? 3. Why do scholars use citation? 4. Define state of knowledge and knowledge deficit. Chapter 4 (summaries) 1. What is a summary? What are some of the characteristics of a summary? 2. How do reporting expressions help to identify a summarizer's position? 3. What is reporting reporting? (Sometimes called double reporting). What is its value to scholarly conversation? Chapter 5 (summaries cont'd) 1. Pretend you are explaining to a student who hasn't yet taken English 112 how to summarize a passage that remains at "high levels of generalities" (i.e. consists mostly of abstractions). (Remember to define abstraction). 2. Explain how to summarize a passage that contains mostly lowerlevel details. 3. What is narrative, and why can it be especially difficult to summarize? Chapter 6 (orchestrating voices) 1. What is meant by the phrase orchestrating voices? 2. What special arrangements do you need to make to introduce nonscholarly voices into an academic paper? Chapter 7 (definitions) 1. Why are definitions important characteristics of research papers? What work do they do? 2. Why do we need to go further than a dictionary when defining a term for an academic paper? 3. What is an apposition? List the mechanical techniques for introducing an apposition. 4. Define formal definition. How would you develop a formal definition? (Select one of the abstractions we've looked at to date as an example). 5. Define sustained definition. Again, what techniques could you use to develop a sustained definition? (Select one of the abstractions we've looked at to date as an example). 6. Giltrow describes knowledge as "the product of social activities" (85). This is reflected in the ways abstractions are developed and used in different disciplines. Briefly explain the social profile of abstractions, as this subject is discussed in the textbook.
Chapters 9 & 10: Scholarly Styles 1. What is genre violation and how is it connected to common sense and uncommon sense? 2. Why does scholarly expression often use big noun phrases? 3. What are the two ways in which big noun phrases challenge readers? 4. What are some of the benefits of using big noun phrases? i.e. Why do academic writers use big noun phrases if they create cognitive difficulties? (Identify three benefits: hint: taxonomy, integration, textual coherence) 5. Giltrow writes, "Cognitive cost at the level of sentence and phrase brings a profit at the level of textual coherence" (181). What does she mean by this? 6. How can an academic writer make corrections to the sociocognitive difficulties created by big noun phrases? 7. What is the discursive 'I'? Identify two or three characteristics of the discursive I. 8. What are forecasts? What work do they do in an academic essay? (i.e. What is their function?) 9. What is a statement of emphasis? What is the cleft form of a sentence? 10. What is the difference between presupposing and asserting? 11. Is academic writing elitist and difficult to understand? Can you defend the characteristic features of academic writing that are outlined in this chapter? Chapter 11 & 12: Making and Maintaining Knowledge 1. Define state of knowledge and knowledge deficit. 2. Explain what a qualitative method is. Explain what a quantitative method is. 3. Identify several key distinctions between a qualitative and a quantitative approach. 4. Method sections often include agentless expressions—what are these? Identify two explanations for why agentless expressions appear so often in method sections. 5. Briefly outline feminist criticisms of socalled objective research practices. Do you agree with these criticisms? Why or why not? 6. What is meant by a subject position (also called the fullsubject I). What might you choose to introduce your subject position into an academic paper? 7. What are the differences between a discursive I and a fullsubject I? 8. What is the knowledgemaking I? 9. How is the knowledgemaking I linked to modality? 10. Seems, must, might, could, maybe, all modalize statements. What are the functions of modalization in academic writing? (Identify 2). 11. Define generalization. 12. List 4 or 5 words that can be used to limit generalizations. 13. What is the role of a limiting expression? 14. Identify several agentless expressions that mark the obviousness of something. 15. What is the connection between agentless expressions and presuppositions? 16. What is the most common tense for reporting expressions in the research genres? 17. What is the role/effect of the simple present and the present progressive tenses in academic writing? 18. When is the presentperfect used? When is the past tense used? 19. In general, what do the various tenses tell us when used in academic writing? Chapter 13 & 14: Introductions and Conclusions 1. What are the characteristic features of introductions? of conclusions? 2. What is a tradition of inquiry and how would you establish one in your introduction?
3. Why is the reader you address in your conclusion different from the one you address in your introduction?
Chapters 9 & 10: Scholarly Styles 1. What is genre violation and how is it connected to common sense and uncommon sense? 2. Why does scholarly expression often use big noun phrases? 3. What are the two ways in which big noun phrases challenge readers? 4. What are some of the benefits of using big noun phrases? i.e. Why do academic writers use big noun phrases if they create cognitive difficulties? (Identify three benefits: hint: taxonomy, integration, textual coherence) 5. Giltrow writes, "Cognitive cost at the level of sentence and phrase brings a profit at the level of textual coherence" (181). What does she mean by this? 6. How can an academic writer make corrections to the sociocognitive difficulties created by big noun phrases? 7. What is the discursive 'I'? Identify two or three characteristics of the discursive I. 8. What are forecasts? What work do they do in an academic essay? (i.e. What is their function?) 9. What is a statement of emphasis? What is the cleft form of a sentence? 10. What is the difference between presupposing and asserting? 11. Is academic writing elitist and difficult to understand? Can you defend the characteristic features of academic writing that are outlined in this chapter? Chapter 11 & 12: Making and Maintaining Knowledge 1. Define state of knowledge and knowledge deficit. 2. Explain what a qualitative method is. Explain what a quantitative method is. 3. Identify several key distinctions between a qualitative and a quantitative approach. 4. Method sections often include agentless expressions—what are these? Identify two explanations for why agentless expressions appear so often in method sections. 5. Briefly outline feminist criticisms of socalled objective research practices. Do you agree with these criticisms? Why or why not? 6. What is meant by a subject position (also called the fullsubject I). What might you choose to introduce your subject position into an academic paper? 7. What are the differences between a discursive I and a fullsubject I? 8. What is the knowledgemaking I? 9. How is the knowledgemaking I linked to modality? 10. Seems, must, might, could, maybe, all modalize statements. What are the functions of modalization in academic writing? (Identify 2). 11. Define generalization. 12. List 4 or 5 words that can be used to limit generalizations. 13. What is the role of a limiting expression? 14. Identify several agentless expressions that mark the obviousness of something. 15. What is the connection between agentless expressions and presuppositions? 16. What is the most common tense for reporting expressions in the research genres? 17. What is the role/effect of the simple present and the present progressive tenses in academic writing? 18. When is the presentperfect used? When is the past tense used? 19. In general, what do the various tenses tell us when used in academic writing? Chapter 13 & 14: Introductions and Conclusions 1. What are the characteristic features of introductions? of conclusions? 2. What is a tradition of inquiry and how would you establish one in your introduction?
3. Why is the reader you address in your conclusion different from the one you address in your introduction?
