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ERIC Number: ED210920
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1981
Pages: 20
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Teaching English for Science and Technology (EST) through Technical Writing.
Master, Peter
Suggestions are presented to assist the nontechnically trained English as a second language teacher to create a syllabus for a technical writing course for foreign students who are studying science and technology. The syllabus for the English for Science and Technology (EST) writing course is based on the format of technical writing derived from native-speaker texts on the subject. The course involves writing five short reports concerned with description (i.e., amplified description, description of a mechanism or body part, description of a process, classification, and an abstract), and one or more long reports concerned with argumentation. The types of long reports may include a feasibility study, research report, and progress report. Before any writing assignment is given, a skeleton structure is presented to the class, along with a model of the report being studied. Grammar, as an adjunct to the writing sequence, also is taught. The article system in English is one of the most difficult grammatical points for a foreign student to master. It is also necessary to devote considerable attention to the relative clause, including subject- and object-form relative clauses and the defining (restrictive) versus nondefining (nonrestrictive) distinction. Other grammatical points are covered, including compound nouns and adjectives and the passive voice. Stylistic and rhetorical points of interest concern definitions; transitional devices; paraphrasing and quoting; wordiness; and figures, graphs, and equations. The skeleton structures of a short and long report are included. (SW)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: California Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: In its CATESOL Occasional Papers, Number 7, p42-60, 1981. Paper presented at the CATESOL Bay Area Mini-Conference (San Francisco, CA, November 1, 1980) and at the CATESOL Convention (Monterey, CA, April 3, 1981).