söndag 7 mars 2010

Assignment 1.

1. The style of academic writing has to do with what language, grammar and vocabulary is different text types, knowing which style that is appropriate to which text type. There are different characteristics to the style of academic writing, it is for example important that the text written is formal and it requires use of Standard English. This means that there will not be any abbreviations or contractions in the text, neither will there be slang nor dialects. The writer of an academic text must also be objective and explicit.


2.

Informal

it was actually pretty fun. Thurs night went to a karaoke haha, fri went to a party and sat when to a bar. i was def alot of fun. I wanna come to sweden ahahah


Formal

The inability to move low-cost electricity to consumers because of congestion on transmission lines brings with it costs similar to those associated with traffic congestion. The lack of transmission capacity in the eastern United States is estimated to cost consumers $16 billion a year in this region alone.


These two texts are examples of an informal and a formal text. The first extraxt is informal and this could be recognized as it includes a lot of abbreviations and contractions, the grammar is incorrect, the text has not been edited before it was published. The second extract is part of a formal text. There is no slang, abbreviations, or contractions in this text and it focuses on the issue of it, not on the writer. It is also written in Standard English.


3.

Formal

The television of today is no longer what it used to be. A TV-show that used to be an hour long is no longer an hour, even if the programme listings say that they should be. This is due to the increasing time in commercials. The commercial breaks have increased with approximately three minutes over the last decade.


Informal

Today’s TV is crap if I was to compare it with the past. There’s too much commercials on it, no time left for my favorite shows! There’s no use looking at TV anymore, when the commercial is over I’ve already forgotten what I watched in the first place. Annoying. In two years the TV-shows will be 10 minutes with 50 minutes commercial in between. I hate commercials.

1 kommentar:

  1. Well done Hannah!

    You write well, and you obviously know the difference between formal and informal writing, but you might simplify and restructure some of your sentences for better flow. For instance:

    "The style of academic writing requires writers to know and use language, grammar and vocabulary that is appropriate in relation to different text types."

    "Academic writing style is defined by several characteristics. For example, it requires writers to use formal language and Standard English."

    Very good formal/informal examples and description of differences!

    I couldn't agree more with the argument of your TV commercial texts!

    A couple of things. Formal text: 1. The first sentence seems repetitive somehow. Maybe rephrase: "Television is no longer what it used to be." OR "Television today is not what it used to be." 2. "A TV show that used to be... IT should be." 3. "This is due to the increasing time spent on commercials"? Informal text (nonstandard language is OK here, but some "errors" still seem unlikely in terms of what a native speaker would write): 1. "... is crap compared to what it was like in the past"? 2. "watching TV" (not "looking at", even if it gets repetitive)

    GREAT WORK!
    Anna

    SvaraRadera