eap, translation services, and outlining
Scientific Writing | Pinkie | September 1st, 2000
In their 1993 book "Writing Science: Literacy and discursive power", Halliday & Martin define and discuss the concept of "packaging nominalization". For example, a text might say that alcohol can induce laughter, and subsequently introduce the packaging nominalization "alcohol-induced laughter". [The concept is I think similar, though not identical, to Francis's "encapsulation"; see e.g. TDA module]. Has anyone come across subsequent mentions of this term "packaging nominalization", by Halliday and/or Martin, or by other authors?
Best,
Pinkie
Spain
Re: Scientific Writing | Simon | September 3rd, 2000
Dear Pinkie,
No I haven't come across this term in the TDA module, but then I'm only up to Unit 3.
Are you on the TDA discussion list? I signed up but nobody's doing much on it, it seems. I got a notice to join with the module, but I had thought that the module discussion lists were defunct in place of the general MSc list. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Pinkie, are you aware that Swales, (1990) quoted Meriel Bloor's "Needs Analysis of Spanish Academics" at the University of Cordoba in which she found many had to write an English abstract from/for their Spanish RA and that because they felt inadequate to the task, they often relied on translation services, despite their anxiety about the accuracy of them? Your book surely caters to their need. Would you agree? I would like to see a similar needs analysis done here in Japan. I'm fairly certain a translation of your text into Japanese would meet similar needs here. What are your thoughts?
Simon
Re: Scientific Writing | Pinkie | September 4th, 2000
Simon:
Are you aware that Swales (1990) quoted Meriel Bloor's "Needs Analysis of Spanish Academics" at the University of Cordoba in which she found many had to write an English abstract from/for their Spanish RA [research article] and that because they felt inadequate to the task, they often relied on translation services, despite their anxiety about the accuracy of them?
Yes, I've got a copy of this interesting (mimeo) report, which Meriel Bloor very kindly sent me on request. If you want a photocopy, I'd be happy to oblige.
A related article is that by Maggie Jo St John "Writing Processes of Spanish Scientists Publishing in English" (1987) [ESP-Journal; v6 n2 p113-120 1987; Abstract: "The English composing processes and products of a group of Spanish researchers at the University of Cordoba, Spain, were studied. The group (1) has a good grasp of the information structure of the English scientific article; (2) rarely undertakes structural revision; and (3) is primarily concerned with precise expression of their thoughts". I particularly like the conclusions of this article: I agree that most NNS scientists have a good (though largely "unconscious") grasp of the rhetorical structure of the RA, so that this aspect is perhaps not a very useful teaching focus, at least not for practicing researchers (cf Swales). Though one might argue that Swalesian moves make a useful framework for teaching precisely because the students have already grasped them. Anyone like to comment on this?]
As you point out, both articles suggest that researchers are typically not happy with commercial translation services, and this accords with my experience: many translators who offer themselves for scientific translation have a) an inadequate ability (or inclination) to get sufficiently to grips with the research in question, and b) inadequate knowledge of the relevant genre conventions (by which I don't just mean Swalesian moves etc, but also word- and sentence-level stylistic norms). And of course, there are lots of complete cowboys who lack basic source- and target-language competences: translation, like TEFL, is a profession with low entry barriers! [I use competences here in a necessarily prescriptivist sense, in that a translator-to-English must be able to write in strict accordance with the basic lexicogrammatical conventions of formal standard English. Spelling errers not allowed!].
Quite apart from this, there's another interesting point here, a subjective judgement on my part: that ESP teachers perhaps tend to regard translation (ie the student's recourse to a translator) as evidence of non-attainment of the teaching goal. I would query this: I think that teaching English-language academic writing makes sense regardless of whether the student subsequently decides a) to write in his/her language for translation, b) to write in English for correction, or c) to write in English and submit to the journal without bothering about correction. I think it's important to note that option © requires an extremely high level of English, perhaps unattainable for many NNS researchers (unless they live in an English-speaking country).
I would like to see a similar needs analysis done here in Japan.
Certainly. Goferit!
Best,
Pinkie
Spain
Re: Scientific Writing | Simon | September 6th, 2000
Pinkie,
Easier said than done! I do think your book, translated into Japanese, would fill a need here, though. Tell me if I'm right; it looks to be designed for researchers to write the whole article in English, not just the abstract. But it could be very useful for those who only want to translate their RA into and English abstract as well. Is that right?
Simon
Re: Scientific Writing | Simon | September 6th, 2000
Pinkie,
I'm very impressed with your grasp of TDA.
As for the TDA discussion list, I think it's rather redundant.
Re: "Swalesian moves making a useful framework for teaching RAs precisely"... I'd certainly agree with you that awareness of these "moves" (Swales, 1990:p 141~) should help student/authors of RAs.
Your area of interest is rather focused on scientific articles. I glossed over many of the scientific journals in our library here (my uni has a huge medical department) and got an idea of the status of English. I'll go into details for anyone interested, but the upshot of it was that there are a lot of competent English articles in the field here, and yet probably still a great need for skills. (Note; I'm not sure to what extent translators or proofreaders are used).
However, the discussion is rather stuck on science, isn't it? I'm interested in academic compositions & reports in other disciplines (such as our own) as well as students' under-graduate and graduate reports. I'm interested in the role outlining plays. I have found VERY LITTLE to do with outlining anywhere in the literature, so if anyone knows of anything please tell me!
There's an awful lot of work that can be done here, but as always, I aim to do something useful. It seems to me that outlining could be a key skill in the composition process with regard to lengthy articles and the writing of abstracts whether or not they involve translating from the original. Authors of scientific RAs, I suspect, rely on the IMRD format for an outline. (Swales, 1990, describes Knorr-Cetina's, 1981 detailed study of the construction of an RA - nowhere is an 'outline' or 'outlining process' mentioned).
I think my TDA assignment might be an analysis of abstracts from non-science journals (or at least, non so-called 'hard science' journals).
Simon
Re: Scientific Writing | Pinkie | September 6th, 2000
Simon:
1 Re: "Swalesian moves making a useful framework for teaching Ras precisely"... I'd certainly agree with you that awareness of these "moves" (Swales, 1990:p 141~) should help student/authors of RAs.
I think you're rather misquoting me! I wrote "...this aspect [Swalesian moves] is perhaps not a very useful teaching focus, at least not for practicing researchers [...]. Though one might argue that Swalesian moves make a useful framework for teaching precisely because the students have already grasped them."
2 Your area of interest is rather focused on scientific articles. [...] the discussion is rather stuck on science, isn't it?
You're quite right, my (professional) interests are entirely focused on scientific writing; more specifically, the writing of scientific RAs and related texts (posters, "replies to reviewers", etc). Note that this is a subcategory of scientific writing, which can also be considered to include other genres (such as student essays); and note also that scientific writing is a subcategory of academic writing (which includes writing from the arts and the humanities). One point I'd like to make is that perhaps it's dangerous to draw conclusions about scientific writing on the basis of the study of other types of academic writing (e.g. TEFL research). The language of a biomedical research article clearly differs in numerous respects from that of a TEFL research article, not least because most TEFL researchers have an arts/humanities background, not a science background. And isn't there something rather incestuous and circular about linguists studying the language of linguistics research?- If you want a softish field within the sciences, I'd suggest psychology, preferably the more empirical end thereof.
3 I'm interested in the role outlining plays. I have found VERY LITTLE to do with outlining anywhere in the literature [...] It seems to me that outlining could be a key skill in the composition process with regard to lengthy articles and the writing of abstracts [...].
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean that you're interested in assessing the extent to which academic writers actually use "outlining" as a writing strategy? Or that you're interested in teaching "outlining"? I guess that much here hangs on your definition of "outlining", no? I mean, I'd guess that nearly all writers progress through a series of drafts (particularly now we've got word processors), and early drafts will very often show approaches that might be described as "outlining" (eg you temporarily leave a subsection out, with only its title; or you write a paragraph in note form); and at the other end of the spectrum, of course, some writers (my guess would be not many) may use a rigid planning approach that we might call "formal outlining". Certainly, the question of how writers progress from blank page to final draft is interesting, and I think that there has been extensive research on this. Perhaps the type of thing you call "outlining" is discussed under different names? I'll have a look at what I've got: if I come across anything relevant, I'll let you know. [ANYONE ELSE LIKE TO COMMENT ON THIS?]. By the way, I can see the relevance of outlining and other draft-planning strategies to whole-article construction, but I'm a bit more dubious about its relevance to abstract writing, since an abstract is I think generally written last, as a CONDENSATION of a whole text: in other words, isn't it more of an exercise in summarizing than in outlining?
4 I do think your book, translated into Japanese, would fill a need here, though. Tell me if I'm right; it looks to be designed for researchers to write the whole article in English, not just the abstract. But it could be very useful for those who only want to translate their RA into and English abstract as well. Is that right?
Yes, the book's aimed at NNS researchers who want to publish in English, regardless of whether they choose a) to write in their own language for translation, b) to write in English for correction, or c) to write in English for submission direct to the journal. Of course, in some cases only the abstract needs to be in English. As for getting my book translated to Japanese: it's not good enough! In a few years time I'd like to write another one, much improved: maybe then I'll think about translation!
Pinkie
Spain
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