Transcript 复旦大学本科生(非英语专业)外语能力培养方案

学术英语 社科
Academic English for
Social Sciences
4
The Study of Society and People
We live in a world today that is increasingly
more complex. Why are the living conditions
of our times so different from those of earlier
times? How will our lives change in the future?
These are the questions that lead us to the
study of sociology.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Unit Contents
Lead-in
Text A
Text B
Listening
Speaking
Writing
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Lead-in
Task Listen to a talk twice and complete the following notes.
1 The questions the speaker raises in the talk are:
need an SUV ?
a Why does everyone ___________
b Why can’t people carpool
______?
lottery tickets
c Why is she spending her money on
_____________?
d Why doesn’t the government invest more in public transportation
____________________________?
running a lottery
convenience store
e Why is the statecup
_____________in
a _______________?
of premium coffee
you bought
f What about that ___________________________?
social patterns that many people share
2 Sociologists
_______________________________,
root causesstudy
of such
social patterns in the way society is look
for _____________________________________________
organized
and governed
____________________.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
• Text A
– Critical reading and thinking
– Difficult sentences
– English language for
academic purpose
• Specialized vocabulary
• Collocations
• Formal and informal English
• Signpost language
Text A
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
How do the authors develop the text?
1 Introduce the topic of sociology by using the example.
• Tragic mass murder at Columbine High School
• Ethnic cleansing
• War in Kosovo
• How do the authors describe the world we live today in?
awash with change, marked by deep conflicts, tensions, social
divisions; marked by the destructive onslaught of modern technology
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
How do the authors develop the text?
2 Explain what is sociology, including definition, scope,
nature& objectives, content, and functions.
What is sociology?
•
Definition: the study of human social life, groups, and societies.
•
Wide scope of sociological study: ranging from the analysis of
passing encounters between individual on the street to the
investigation of global social processes.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
How do the authors develop the text?
2 Explain what is sociology, including definition, scope,
nature& objectives, content, and functions.

Using the example of love to illustrate the nature and
objectivities of sociology.
→ Love expresses a mutual physical and personal attachment
two individuals feel for one another.
→ Falling in love is an experience arising from universal human
emotions.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
How do the authors develop the text?
2 Explain what is sociology, including definition, scope,
nature& objectives, content, and functions.
However falling in love is not an experience most people across
the world have; and having no connection with marriage.
e.g. In the Middle age and for centuries after ward (Para. 6)
Romantic love (Para 7)
Among both rich and poor, the decision of whom to marry was
made by family and kin.
e.g. India (Para 8)
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
How do the authors develop the text?
2 Explain what is sociology, including definition, scope,
nature& objectives, content, and functions.
Content:
Sociology studies human life and social and historical influences
on it.

Sociology shows the need to take a much broader view of why we
are as we are, and why we act as we do.
Text A
Unit 4
Critical reading and thinking of Text
The Study of
Text Analysis
Society and
People
How do the authors develop the text?
A
2 Explain what is sociology, including definition, scope,
nature& objectives, content, and functions.
e.g. comparison between common people and sociologists in
explaining the mass murder.
Common people
•
•
•
The two teens were obsessed
with the video game.
Many commentators
denounced the easy
availability of weapons.
Others saw the tragedy as a
symbol of the emptiness of
suburban life.
sociologists
•
•
•
Look beyond the surface of
their actions;
Study the social context;
Compare this tragedy with
other mass murders to see if
there was a pattern in the
group characteristics (social
class, race, gender, age, or
cultural background);
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
How do the authors develop the text?
2 Explain what is sociology, including definition, scope,
nature& objectives, content, and functions.

Functions sociology serves:
→ show us the need to look beyond the surface of people’s
actions and study the social context;
→ teach us to try to identify general patterns of behavior and be
systematic in explaining the social influences on these
patterns.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Critical reading and thinking of Text A
Text Analysis
How do the authors develop the text?
3 Explain how to think sociologically
How to think sociologically?
→ cultivate the sociological imagination.
That’s to say: “Think ourselves away from the familiar routines
of our daily lives in order to look at them anew.”
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People

Text A
Difficult sentences
passing encounters (Para. 3)
→ a short accidental meeting

The opinions of prospective marriage partners
are quite often taken into account, but by no
means always. (Para. 8)
→ In India, when parents arrange marriages they
often listen to the opinions of their children, but
sometimes they just do not consider their
children’s wishes.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People

Text A
Difficult sentences
Neither romantic love, then, nor its association
with marriage, can be understood as “given”
features of human life. Rather, it has been
shaped by broad social and historical
influences. (Para. 9)
→ Nowadays the idea of romantic love and its
association with marriage is taken for granted as
if it has always been like that. In fact it is not
always the case and has suffered changes
throughout history.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People

Text A
Difficult sentences
A sociologist is someone who is able to break
free from the immediacy of personal
circumstances and put things in a wider
context. (Para. 13) (结合最后一句理解)
→ A sociologist must learn to detach himself/herself
– to ‘think ourselves away’ — in order to observe
things in a context wider than his/her own
personal situations and arrive at fresh
understandings.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
English language for academic purpose
Specialized vocabulary
•social division
•social being
•intellectual life
•human emotion
•social class
社会分工
社会人
精神生活
人类情感
社会阶级
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
English language for academic purpose
Specialized vocabulary
•人类社会生活
•全球社会进程
•婚姻幸福
•公共场所
•社会环境
•行为模式
•文化背景
human social life
global social process
marital happiness
public places
social context
patterns of behavior
cultural background
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
English language for academic purpose
Collocations
•be awash with
•control our destiny
•shape our lives
•be skeptical of
•in the form of marriage
•keep property in the hands of family
•in private
•in the aftermath of
•easy availability of sth.
•a wide array of evidence
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
English language for academic purpose
Signpost language
Listing
It presents a list of items in no specific order.
Words that signal a listing pattern:
Words that predict a listing pattern:
and, also, another, in addition to, first,
second, third, firstly, secondly, finally,
lastly
categories, kinds, types, ways,
examples, groups, parts, etc.
Do the task on Page 76.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
English language for academic purpose
Formal and informal English
See Page 76.
Text A
Unit 4
Suggested answers
The Study of
Critical reading and thinking
Society and
Task 1 The tree diagram below shows how the authors
People
develop the text about the study of sociology. Fill in the
blanks according to the text.
The study of sociology
Introducing the topic of sociology
Using the example of ________________________________.
mass murder at Columbine High School
Text A
Unit 4
Suggested answers
The Study of
Critical reading and thinking
Society and
Task 1 The tree diagram below shows how the authors
People
develop the text about the study of sociology. Fill in the
blanks according to the text.
The study of sociology
What is sociology
Sociology is the study of
human
social life, groups,
____________________
___________.
and
societies
love to
Using the example of ____
illustrate the
nature and objectives of
__________________
sociology.
Text A
Unit 4
Suggested answers
The Study of
Critical reading and thinking
Society and
Task 1 The tree diagram below shows how the authors
People
develop the text about the study of sociology. Fill in the
blanks according to the text.
The study of sociology
What does sociology study?
social historical influences.
Sociology studies _____________
Text A
Unit 4
Suggested answers
The Study of
Critical reading and thinking
Society and
Task 1 The tree diagram below shows how the authors
People
develop the text about the study of sociology. Fill in the
blanks according to the text.
The study of sociology
What function does sociology serve?
Sociology shows people the need
look beyond the surface of
to _________________________
people’s
actions
_____________.
Sociology teaches people to
identify
general patterns of behavior
_____________________________
and be systematic in explaining
the social influences on these
_________________________
behavioral patterns
________________.
Text A
Unit 4
Suggested answers
The Study of
Critical reading and thinking
Society and
Task 1 The tree diagram below shows how the authors
People
develop the text about the study of sociology. Fill in the
blanks according to the text.
The study of sociology
How to think sociologically?
Cultivate _____________;
the imagination “think ourselves away” from
the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at
____________________________________________
_________.
them anew
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 2 Answer the following questions.
1 How does the author describe the world we live in today?
The author describes that the world we live in today is intensely
worrying, yet full of the most extraordinary promise for the future.
2 Why does the author raise the three questions in Paragraph 2?
The author wants to show us what is the prime concern of sociology.
3 Why do people fall in love according to the authors?
Because love expresses mutual physical and personal attachment
two individuals feel for one another.
4 Why did men and women marry in the Middle Ages?
Mainly in order to keep property in the hands of family or to
raise children to work the family farm.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 2 Answer the following questions.
5 Where did romantic love make its first appearance?
Its first appearance made in courtly circles.
6 How were the relations between husband and wife among
aristocratic groups?
The relations are cool and distant.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 2 Answer the following questions.
7 What is basic to the sociological outlook?
Understanding the subtle yet complex and profound ways in
which our individual lives reflect the contexts of our social
experience is basic to the sociological outlook.
8 What are the differences between ordinary people and sociologists
in explaining the mass murder at Columbine High School?
Ordinary people’s explanations focus on the social causes of
violence in the United States, whereas sociologists can bring an
even deeper understanding. For example, sociologists might study
other mass murders and consider if there was a pattern in the
group characteristics.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 3 In Paragraph 12, the authors roughly explain how
a sociologist would study the Columbine High School
massacre. Suppose you were a sociologist, work in pairs
and examine the case. You may:
1 Search the Internet for more information about the mass
murder, the U.S. young generation, their living conditions etc.
2 Explore the case like a sociologist.
3 Have a discussion about it with your partner.
4 Report your findings to the class.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 4 Consider the simple act of a Chinese drinking a
cup of coffee. Work in pairs and explore the behavior
from a sociologist’s view. Think about:
• What is coffee? What does it symbolize?
Coffee is not just a refreshment. It possesses symbolic
value as part of our day-to-day social activities. Often the
ritual associated with coffee drinking is much more important
than the act of consuming the drink itself. Two people who
arrange to meet for coffee are probably more interested in
getting together and chatting than in what they actually
drink.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 4 Consider the simple act of a Chinese drinking a
cup of coffee. Work in pairs and explore the behavior
from a sociologist’s view. Think about:
• What are the relations between coffee drinkers and the
people involved in the production, transport, and distribution
of coffee?
An individual who drinks a cup of coffee is caught up in a
complicated set of social and economic relationships stretching
across the world. The production, transport, and distribution of
coffee require continuous transactions between people
thousands of miles away from the coffee drinker. Studying such
global transactions is an important task of sociology, since
many aspects of our lives are now affected by worldwide social
influences and communications.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 4 Consider the simple act of a Chinese drinking a
cup of coffee. Work in pairs and explore the behavior
from a sociologist’s view. Think about:
•What does the Chinese people’s act of sipping a cup of
coffee remind you of? (e.g. social and economic
development, Western lifestyles, origin of coffee etc.)
The act of sipping a cup of coffee presumes a whole process of past
social and economic development. Along with other now-familiar items
of Western diets — like tea, bananas, potatoes, and white sugar–
coffee only became widely consumed from the late 1800s. Although the
drink originated in the Middle East, its mass consumption dates from
the period of Western colonial expansion about a century and a half
ago.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 1 Specialized vocabulary
1
Translate the following sociological terms from English
into Chinese or vice versa.
1 social division
社会分工
2 social being
社会人
3 intellectual life
精神生活
4 human emotion
人类情感
5 social class
社会阶级
6 人类的社会生活
human social life
Text A
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 1 Specialized vocabulary
1
Translate the following sociological terms from English
into Chinese or vice versa.
global social process
7 全球的社会进程
8 婚姻幸福
marital happiness
9 公共场所
public places
10 和他人交往
socialize with others
11 社会环境
social context
12 行为模式
patterns of behavior
13 文化背景
cultural background
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 1 Specialized vocabulary
2
Complete the following sentences with the correct form
of the terms in the box.
cultural background
pattern of behavior
intellectual life
public place
marital happiness
social class
cultural background on the
1 This study examines the effects of __________________
acceptation of information and communications technology in developing
countries.
Marital happiness is a judgment made by a spouse that indicates the
2 ________________
sense of well-being or satisfaction he or she experiences in the marital
relationship.
3 When sociologists talk of ___________,
social class they refer to a group of
individuals who occupy a similar position in the economic system of
production.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 1 Specialized vocabulary
2
Complete the following sentences with the correct form
of the terms in the box.
cultural background
pattern of behavior
intellectual life
public place
marital happiness
social class
4 If we understand that a child works to perfect the adult she or he will
pattern of behavior that emerge in
become, then we must look at the _________________
childhood as indicators of the adult personality.
5 It is now common practice for smoking to be banned in workplaces such
public places such as cinemas, buses and
as offices and in other enclosed ____________
trains.
6 Yale Law School enhances the _____________
intellectual life of its academic
community by sponsoring a variety of centers, programs, and workshops,
inspired by the interests of its faculty and students.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 2 Signpost language
Complete the sentences with the words and expressions listed
above. There may be more than one correct answer.
1 A new security system was installed. In
_________,
addition extra guards were hired.
Finally I would like to thank all those people who helped make the
2 ______,
conference such a success.
3 ___________
In addition to catching errors, object-oriented systems can shelter the user
from the complexity of dealing with lots of different kinds of data.
First Jack would not allow it, and _______,
second I don’t think mom would like
4 ____,
it much either.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 2 Signpost language
Complete the sentences with the words and expressions listed
above. There may be more than one correct answer.
5 Here are some quick hints that can help make revision easier.
First
____, set your first draft aside for a while. You can then come back
to the draft with a fresh, more objective point of view. _______,
Second in
revising a paper, you should read and reread it several times, for it
is impossible to notice all the errors and things that need changing
Finally as you read your paper, add
in one or two hasty readings. ______,
your thoughts and changes above the lines or in the margins of your
paper. Your written comments can serve as a guide when you work
on the next draft.
Unit 4
Text A
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 3 Formal English
Replace the underlined words in the following sentences with
the ones that are more daily-life.
1 Romantic love first made its appearance in courtly circles as a
characteristic of extramarital sexual adventures indulged in by
members of the aristocracy.
Key: appeared
2 A brief example will provide an initial taste of the nature and
objectives of sociology.
Key: goals
3 The theory might assert that high inflation arises when the
government prints too much money.
Key: appears
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 3 Formal English
Replace the underlined words in the following sentences with
the ones that are more daily-life.
4 Sociology demonstrates the need to take a much broader view of
why we are as we are, and why we act as we do.
Key: shows
5 Some countries are industrializing and may suffer some of the
disruptions that analogous parts of the West encountered at similar
stages of their development early in the 20th century.
Key: met
6 Learning to think sociologically — looking, in other words, at the
broader view — means cultivating the imagination.
Key: developing
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text A
Suggested answers
Language building-up
Task 3 Formal English
Replace the underlined words in the following sentences with
the ones that are more daily-life.
7 … we need to imagine, for example, what the experience of sex and
marriage is like for people — the majority of humankind until recently —
to whom ideals of romantic love appear alien or even absurd.
Key: strange
8 Studying sociology cannot be just a routine process of acquiring
knowledge.
Key: gaining
9 The sociological imagination requires us, above all, to “think
ourselves away” from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order
to look at them anew.
Key:
in a new way
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
• Text B
– Critical reading and thinking
– Difficult sentences
– English language for
academic purpose
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Critical reading and thinking
Text Analysis
The sociological debate: the gender pay gap
What is the main reason according to sociologists?
Sex segregation or gender typing.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Critical reading and thinking
Text Analysis
Sex segregation
→ the fact that men and women are concentrated in different
occupations
e.g. In 1989 jobs that were over 80 percent female and jobs that were
over 80 percent make are as follows:
Jobs for female
Jobs for male
•Secretary
•Doctor
•Childcare
•Lawyer
worker
•Hairdresser
•Cashier
•Bookkeeper
•Telephone operator
•Receptionist
•Typist
•Elementary school teacher
•Librarian and nurse
•Dentist
•Taxi
driver
•Plumber
•Electrician
•Carpenter
•Firefighter
•Auto mechanic
•Machinist
•Truck driver
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Critical reading and thinking
Text Analysis
•The gender composition of a job is associated with the pay
received for that job.
•Jobs pay less if they contain a higher proportion of females.
•An Equal Pay Act in 1963 has done little to eradicate pay
differences attributable to gender.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Critical reading and thinking
Text Analysis
How occupational segregation leads
to a gender gap in pay?
Sociologists and economists differ in their
explanations.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Critical reading and thinking
Text Analysis
Economists
Focusing on the
occupational choices women
make

Endorsing a human capital
theory explanation
1) Women intentionally select
occupations easy to move in
and out of
2) Women seek undemanding
jobs

sociologists
Focusing on the constraints
women face

Critiquing human capital theory
1) There are some forces blocking
women from freely choosing
occupations.
2) Human capital theory neglects
power differentials between men
and women in the workplace and
society.

Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Difficult sentences
•The reason that sex segregation is problematic is because the
gender composition of a job is associated with the pay received for
that job. (Para. 4)
→ If there is sex segregation in occupations then the pay received
for certain jobs are not based on the intrinsic value of the work but on
the gender composition, that is to say, if an occupation is
predominantly female, the jobs are paid less.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Difficult sentences
•Central to this argument is the assumption that women’s primary
allegiance is to home and family; thus they seek undemanding “deadend” jobs that require little personal investment in training or skills
acquisition so that they can better tend to their household
responsibilities. (Para. 7)
→ The main assumption behind the argument is that …women try to
find jobs that are not challenging, and are not promising because
such jobs do not demand much training and skills. They do this
because they want to devote much of their time and energy to
household work.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Text B
Difficult sentences
• …girls may choose occupations such as teacher or nurse, which
are viewed as compatible with “feminine” traits such as warmth or
nurturance. (Para. 8)
→ …girls may choose jobs such as teacher or nurse. These jobs are
regarded as suitable for girls as they fit the descriptions of warmth or
nurturance which are often associated with women.
Unit 4
Text B
The Study of
Society and
People
English language for academic purpose
Specialized vocabulary
•gender pay gap
•sex segregation
•gender typing
•public policymaker
•human capital
•Socialization
•gender role
•gender ideology
男女收入差距
性别隔离
性别特征
决策人
人力资本
社会化
性别角色
性别意识
Unit 4
Text B
The Study of
Society and
People
English language for academic purpose
Collocation
•be disadvantaged by
•eradicate pay differences
•be attributable to
•formal schooling
•on several grounds
•be compatible with
•provide backpay
Unit 4
Text B
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 1 Economists and sociologists differ in their
explanations of how occupational sex segregation
leads to a gender gap in pay. Work in pairs and complete
the table about how they
differ.
Economists’ explanations
Sociologists’ explanations
Focusing on the occupational
choices women make
Focusing on
________________________.
the constraints women face
human capital
Endorsing a _____________
______ explanation:
theory
1 Women intentionally
select occupations that are
_________________________
human capital theory
Critiquing ___________________:
1 There are some forces
__________________________
blocking women from freely
____________________.
choosing occupations
2 Human capital theory neglects
power differentials between men
_____________________________
and women in the workplace and
_____________________________
society
_______.
easy to move in and out of
——————————————.
2 Women seek
undemanding jobs
_________________.
Text B
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Suggested answers
Critical reading and thinking
Task 2 Work in pairs. Discuss whose view you are in favor
of, the economists’ or the sociologists’, and explain why.
Researching
Task Work in groups of 4-5. Carry out a research about whether
there is a gender pay gap in China. You may search the Internet
or libraries for relevant statistics, factors, examples etc.
1 Define what is a gender pay gap.
2 Search the Internet for related statistics and cases.
3 Find out possible reasons.
4 Discuss and give possible solutions.
5 Present your findings to the class.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
• Listening
– Note-taking symbols (1)
– Listening tasks
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Listening
Academic activities
Note-taking symbols (1)
Symbols and abbreviations are useful to
enable effective note-taking.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Listening
Note-taking symbols (1)
Some commonly shared symbols:
and → &
Less, minus → Times, multiplied by →x
For example →e.g.
Plus, positive → +
Divided by → /
Compare → cf.
You may use your own ways.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Listening
Listening tasks
Task 1 Listen to a lecture. Complete the sentences according
to what you have heard.
1 The topic is demography
___________, which refers to
the scientific study of population
____________________________.
2 Demographers use a number of
_________________
standard
measures in translating a locality’s raw
birth _____,
death ______________________
and the number of those
totals — ____,
general statistics
________________
moving in and out — into _______________that
allow them to _____________.
identify trends
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Listening
Listening tasks
Task 2 Listen to the lecture again and complete the
following sentences about the definitions.
1 The birthrate refers to ___________________________
the number of births per 1,000
people
in a given year
___________________.
2 The death rate is ___________________________
the number of deaths per 1,000
people
in a given year
___________________.
the number of live births per 1,000
3 The fertility rate is ______________________________
_________________.
women of the world
4 Suppose there were 900 births in a city of 50,000 in a
specific year. The birth rate for the city is ___
18 .
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Listening
Listening tasks
Task 3 Dictation
Listen to the first part of the lecture for three times. While
listening for the first time, try to get the main idea. For the
second listening, it will be read sentence by sentence with
the interval of 15 seconds. Try to take down every word. For
the third time, try to check you answer. Apply the note-taking
symbols you have learned.
The scientific study of population is known as demography. The
word comes from the Greek for “measuring people.” But counting
heads is only a small part of what demographers do. They also
attempt to calculate the growth rate of a population and to
assess the impact of such things as the marriage rate and life
expectancy, the sex ratio, the age structure on human behavior
and the structure of society. They are interested in the
distribution of population and in movements of people. Put
another way, demographers study the effects of such numbers
on social trends.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
• Speaking
– Making a counterargument
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Speaking
Making a counterargument
Task Mock debate
Work in groups of 4 or 6. Divide the group into two teams
and carry out a debate about “Occupational Segregation
Leads to a Gender Gap in Pay”. One team take the
economists’ side and the other take the sociologists’. Use
the above language patterns while debating
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
• Writing
– Avoiding plagiarism
– Writing tasks
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as the use of somebody
else’s words or ideas without acknowledging the
source. To avoid plagiarism, you need to quote,
paraphrase and reference correctly.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Original source
A key factor in explaining the sad state of American
education can be found in overbureaucratization, which is
seen in the compulsion to consolidate our public schools
into massive factories and to increase to mammoth size our
universities even in underpopulated states. The problem
with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long
to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth
for their original primary objective. Few succeed.
Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no
conscience. If there is a single stumbling block on the road
to the future, it is the bureaucracy as we know it.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Paraphrase 1
American education is overly bureaucratic. This is manifest
in the increasing size of educational institutions, even in
small states. Bureaucracies are bad because they tend to
work to promote their own survival and growth rather than
that of the institution, as was their initial objective. Most
bureaucracies fail because they have a conscience or a
soul. I believe that bureaucracies are the biggest stumbling
block on the road to the educational future.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Paraphrase 2
Bureaucratization has proved to be a major stumbling block
on the road to our educational future. American institutions
have become factories that are more conducive to the
growth of bureaucratic procedures than to the growth of the
students who attend them. Bureaucracies have to work
long and hard to keep from promoting their own survival
rather than the educational goals that were their primary
objective.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Paraphrase 3
Bureaucratization has proved to be a major stumbling block
on the road to our educational future. American institutions
have become factories that are more conducive to the
growth of bureaucratic procedures than to the growth of the
students who attend them. This means that, as Edward T.
Hall says in his book, Beyond Culture, today's educational
institutions “have no soul, no memory, and no conscience.”
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Paraphrase 4
In his book, Beyond Culture, Edward T. Hall discusses the
problems posed by the increasing bureaucratization of
American educational institutions. Hall maintains that
overbureaucratization is one of the key factors governing
the state of education in America today. He points to the
tendency of bureaucracies to promote their own growth and
survival first and foremost, and observes that few overcome
that tendency. He believes that this is responsible for the
fact that many public schools bear a closer resemblance to
factories than to educational institutions. In Hall's words,
“Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no
conscience.”
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Suggested answer
Paraphrase 1 is unacceptable because this paraphrase
retains most of the original author’s ideas (though not quite
accurately), as well as his way of structuring and
expressing them. The paraphraser has made no effort to
acknowledge the original author, and the use of the
expression “I believe” suggests that the ideas in question
are the paraphraser's own.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Suggested answer
Paraphrase 2 is unacceptable as it retains most of the
original author’s ideas and several key phrases, although it
juggles their order around and rephrases them. The writer
has not acknowledged the original author.
Paraphrase 3 is also unacceptable. Although the writer does
credit the original author, she only credits him with one of
the ideas/phrases she uses and she misrepresents the
emphasis of the quoted words.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Avoiding plagiarism
Suggested answer
Paraphrase 4 is acceptable in that the writer has avoided
using too many of Hall's key phrases and clearly attributes
his ideas to him without distorting their meaning.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Writing tasks
Task 1 Paraphrase the following sentences according to the
above strategies.
1 Source: Few issues challenge a society’s ideas about the
natures of human development and justice as much as serious
juvenile crime.
Paraphrase: Steinberg believes that of all the problems facing a
society, the problem of “serious juvenile crime” is among the
most difficult to grapple with.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Writing tasks
Task 1 Paraphrase the following sentences according to the
above strategies.
2 Source: Many free-speech controversies, especially on
college campuses, are grounded in concerns for civility,
politeness, and good taste. They also tend to follow the same
path and end the same way. A government entity regulates
speech in an effort to elevate discourse, limit the profane and
protect public and personal sensitivities; courts strike down the
regulations as violating the First Amendment freedom of
speech; and we end up right where we started.
Paraphrase: Howard M. Wasserman sees a recurring pattern
to many First Amendment challenges. He says that when the
government tries to create a more mannered atmosphere by
setting rules to reduce instances of profanity and “protect
public and personal sensitivities,” the efforts are struck down in
court as a violation of free speech.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Writing
Writing tasks
Task 2 Check the paper you are working on and make sure to
avoid plagiarism.
Unit 4
The Study of
Society and
People
Get ready for the next unit
Do the following tasks:
1. Find out main points of Text A;
2. Define the key terms with examples;
3. Mark the specialized vocabulary and explain them.
4. Underline the collocations you think important.