Academic Survival Skills I 51 Broadway drama, championed environmental causes, and supported AIDS research. The year 1990 found Madonna muscular, aggressive, and fair-haired with a vengeance. In her latest transformation, she followed the latest trend for the hip-hop and started to dress up accordingly. Coherence Writing Coherence means logical “interconnectedness”. When ideas cohere, separate elements hold together and make a whole. Coherence can be achieved if the ideas hold together logically and flow smoothly. To maintain coherence, writers use 4 tools which are: • transitions (devices that link sentences smoothly to one-another) • keywords (important words that need to be repeated in the paragraph to keep the focus) • synonyms (meaning wise equivalent words to avoid unnecessary repetition) • pronouns (reference words that replace some part of the text to avoid unnecessary repetition) Most writers use a combination of these tools in their writing. TASK 9 In the following text, examples of these tools of coherence are underlined. Try to identify which of the four tools mentioned above they exemplify. Transitions are the glue that holds a paragraph together. These devices lead the reader from sentence to sentence, smoothing over the gaps between by indicating the relationship between the sentences. If this glue is missing, the paragraph will almost inevitably sound childish, even if every sentence in it responds to a single topic commitment. However, transitions are not substitutes for topic unity. Like most glue, they are most effective when joining similar objects, or, in this case, similar ideas. For example, in a paragraph describing the fashion trends of the 1960s, no transition could serve as a bridge between the fashion trends of the 1960s and hip hop style. In other words, transitions can call attention to the topic relationships between sentences, but they cannot create those links. Transitions: __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Keywords: __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Synonyms: __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pronouns: __________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK 10 Put the sentences in the correct order to make the paragraph coherent. 1. a. These sailors returned home wearing tattoos; they also brought back drawings of decorated islanders and Indians—and occasionally the islanders and Indians themselves, who were exhibited at fairs and circuses. b. Until the advent of Christianity, tattoos were commonplace in Europe. c. These tattoos were then favored mostly by working-class Europeans, but they gained popularity among upper-class men and women in England in the late 19th century. d. However, they were banned by the church, and virtually disappeared but they were ‘rediscovered’ by European sailors who came into contact with American Indians and Pacific Islanders. 1. _______________ 2. _______________ 3. _______________ 4. _______________
Writing 52 Unit 1: Changing the Self 2. a. This might give the viewers the message that “you have to go under the knife to look as beautiful as these women”. b. The morning shows on TV also greatly contribute to this trend because plastic surgeons explain how “easy” it is now to have plastic surgery in these programs. c. There are various TV shows such as Beni Baştan Yarat and True Life in which people turn into gorgeous beings after a so-called simple and trouble-free operation. d. For instance, Deniz Akkaya and Ajda Pekkan are shown as miracles of plastic surgery in many TV programs. e. The media encourage people to undergo plastic surgery in two ways. f. Not only through celebrities but also through the programs which depict plastic surgery as painless and easy do the media contribute to the popularity of plastic surgery. g. One way of this encouragement is through the celebrities who have had plastic surgery. 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________ 4. __________ 5. __________ 6. __________ 7. __________ TASK 11 Insert the sentences “a” and “b” into the following paragraphs. 1. a. For example, tattooing is commonly cited as a tribal badge that signifies identity with the likes of military personnel, prisoners, gangs (motorcycle, street, and criminal organizations) sports teams, or youth cultures. b. Someone who has the initials of her lover as a tattoo sends out a certain sympathetic message saying that he is deeply in love with the person. (1) _____ People have marked their bodies with tattoos almost everywhere in the world at one time or another. (2) _____ As evidenced by mummified remains discovered in Europe, Egypt, Siberia, and elsewhere, the practice has been around for thousands of years. (3) _____ However, tattoos have meant different things to different cultures: For some people a tattoo promised invincibility in war; for some tattoos protected against sickness or misfortune; for some they offered safe passage into heaven or the afterworld, and for some they furnished a visible badge of rank or of membership in a certain group. (4) _____ They can also serve as a way of advertising one’s emotional (or philosophical) attachments. (5)_____ Most commonly, however, tattoos have been and still are used for decoration. 2. a. For example, facial attractiveness contributes to a higher social status and a higher salary later in life. b. The best known of these is the three equal parts concept, in which three measurements of facial structures—from the trichion to the eyebrow, from the eyebrow to the base of the nose, and from the nose to the chin—are ideally equal. (1) _____ Balance, harmony, and unity are pillars in the concept of facial beauty. (2) _____ Although “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” certain mathematical proportions apparently play a major role in beauty. (3) _____ Interestingly, intercultural differences in perception of beauty are minimal since the significance of facial attractiveness is obvious; throughout history, all cultures have had artists who produced works showing attractive faces. (4) _____ The perception of beauty is linked to the instinct for survival, because a variety of positive features are attributed to a person with an attractive face. (5) _____ Although there are not many intercultural differences in the concept of beauty, concepts of facial esthetics have changed throughout history.
Academic Survival Skills I 53 TASK 12 1. Fill in the blanks with the following words. they it (2) one this that their(2) The immediate question: Why is society so shallow that a bump on the nose might have such an Writing effect on someone’s self-esteem or on one’s success? We all know the role that appearance plays in our lives and the impact (1) _______________has on our relationships with others. Dr. Joyce Brothers has clearly shown that how we are perceived by others determines how (2) ______________ interact with us. She says, “When you look good and feel great, people treat you as if you’re special. Your appearance sends signals to others about who you are, how you feel, even about your values and aspirations. When people treat you as if you are intelligent and friendly, you behave that way, and (3) _______________ starts an upward spiral of success. “As facial plastic surgeons, we can feel comfortable as we do facial rejuvenation surgery, knowing that we are helping our patients’ outward appearance more appropriately mirror (4) ____________ inner vitality.” says Dr. Kridel. But what happens when we change a feature with which (5) ______________was born? Are we bowing to society’s whims? Not according to some more recent authors. In fact, several scientific articles about the science of beauty by well-respected bio-psychologists indicate that the desire for beauty may be an instinctive reproductive desire rather than an arbitrary cultural artifact. As author Brad Lemley states, “If beauty is not truth, (6)________________ may be health and fertility: Lemley goes on to state that landmark studies show that attractive males and females not only garner more attention from the opposite sex. “They also get more affection from (7) ______________ mothers, more money at work, more votes from the electorate, more leniency from judges, and are generally regarded as more kind, competent, healthy, confident and intelligent.” The facial plastic surgery community is helping individuals achieve (8) ______________ instinctual need with cosmetic facial plastic surgery. 2. Fill in the blanks with the following words. that their themselves these them Contemporary life is plagued by a plethora of artificial images and computer generated people. Computer Generated Images (CGI) can make any picture of a man or woman look like the image of perfection. These images are sold to the public as reality: people are told that (1) _____________ fake pictures are what beauty looks like. “One hundred percent of fashion photos are retouched,” according to Brad Adams, NYC photographer. Due to our society being obsessed with being young and sexy forever, young women are not even giving (2)______________a chance to get to know their bodies before they are deciding to alter (3)_______________and older women are refusing to age. Maybe our recent obsession is because of reality shows like ‘The Swan’ and ‘Extreme Makeover’ (4) ______________ are taking over our television screens. Conversely, plastic surgery can also be seen as an empowering movement among women. The author of Creating Beauty to Cure the Soul remarked that “The technology is there, the good clinics are safe, and I applaud women who think it’s worth spending money on cosmetic surgery. Its money spent on themselves and (5)_____________happiness.”
54 Unit 1: Changing the Self TASK 13 Fill in the blanks in the text below with the transitions in the box. There are more transitions than you need. Writing unlike nevertheless in addition also because of for this reason in spite of similarly while since for example in fact Consumers considering cosmetic surgery are almost universally unaware of the differences between “cosmetic” surgery and “plastic” surgery. (1) ______________, they are easily misled to believe that board certification in plastic surgery proves a physician can perform cosmetic surgery. People view “cosmetic surgery” as more temporary and less technically difficult than “plastic surgery”, according to a new study. The study (2) ___________ shows that the public thinks “cosmetic surgeons” require less specialized training than “plastic surgeons”. Cosmetic surgery is a subspecialty that uniquely restricts itself to the enhancement of appearance through surgical and medical techniques. It is specifically concerned with maintaining normal appearance, restoring it, or enhancing it toward some aesthetic ideal. (3) ________________, a 60 year old man may have a face that is normal for a 60-year-old. When he gets a face-lift, he is trying to improve the appearance of something that was basically normal to begin with. (4) __________________cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery deals with the repair, reconstruction or replacement of physical defects of form or function such as the repair of a cleft lip or the straightening of a nose. (5) ___________ cosmetic surgery is not considered medically necessary, it is going to be out-of-pocket for the patient. Insurance companies do not recover surgeries that are not essential to the maintenance or improvement of one’s physical health. (6) __________________ the American Board of Plastic Surgery may verify a physician’s competency in “plastic surgery”, it does not verify competence in “cosmetic surgery”. (7) ________________ the difference between the two types of surgeries, many board-certified plastic surgeons seek to equate the terms “plastic” and “cosmetic” in order to represent their certification in plastic surgery as evidence of their competency to perform “cosmetic” procedures. There are many extremely qualified cosmetic surgeons who are not board-certified in plastic surgery. (8) ________________, many cosmetic procedures were developed by physicians from specialties other than plastic surgery. Surgeons develop their skills in cosmetic surgery through experience. See Appendix 2 for the use of transitions. GOING ONE STEP FURTHER by writing Write a well-organized expository paragraph of 150-200 words discussing one of the topics below. • What are the factors that shape the concept of “beauty” in your home country? • What are the reasons for the increasing interest in beauty? • What are the possible effects of beauty contests on teenagers/ society/ the concept of beauty?
Academic Survival Skills I 55 • What are the possible effects of fashion industry’s use of underweight (zero size) models? • How do the media affect the concept of beauty? In your paragraph, use at least 5 of the following words you studied in Unit 1: Writing to have/get/undergo/need plastic surgery flaw to capture enhancement reticent to appeal to to submit oneself to immense to be obsessed with procedure to emerge from to dedicate oneself to in pursuit of to alter to rely on to be inclined to to lead to Before writing the paragraph, make an outline below: Your Outline: Your Paragraph Word count: _______________________________________
Study Skills Study Skills Active Learning Selin is taking a course in clinical psychology and is assigned several chapters of reading every week. She also has some reading to do for her three other classes, making it challenging to read it all, let alone remember what she reads. When Selin sits down to do her reading assignments, she opens the book to the first page and reads word for word until the end. Her mind frequently wanders to her other assignments, events of the day, and upcoming social events with her friends. Because she is so distracted, she finally stops reading to make a phone call or watch a TV show. When she gets back to the assignment, she finds she has to reread almost all the material to remember where she left off. When it is time to review for a test, she finds she has to reread most of the chapters because she does not remember what they were about. Selin spends a lot of time reading but not understanding. No wonder she does not like to read. TASK 1 What is the reason why Selin constantly needs to reread the chapters? Have you ever experienced the same problem? Were you able to solve it? If yes, how? There is obviously a serious problem with Selin’s way of reading. Selin has to reread the same material a couple of times because she is a PASSIVE reader, who does not employ the strategies that might help her become an ACTIVE reader. ACTIVE readers: • start reading with a purpose. • use pre-reading strategies: • previewing • skimming and scanning • use different reading speeds for different purposes. • continuously develop their vocabulary. • take notes while reading. • evaluate what they read. Throughout the book, you will practice these strategies. In this part, you will study two of these strategies, in particular: previewing, and speed reading. Both of these strategies are vital in becoming a SUCCESSFUL reader, which is highly necessary in academic life.
Academic Survival Skills I 57 PREVIEWING: TASK 2 Study Skills Answer the following questions and discuss how they are related to reading. • Why do football players watch videos of their opponents’ games before the game? • Why do drivers and other travelers ask for directions or look at road maps before traveling? How else can people find directions to their destinations? • Why do people read film reviews in the newspaper before going to the movies? How else can they get information about the films they are planning to see? All these examples are quite related to reading. When approaching reading, most people are passive like Selin. They do not make a plan or map a direction, so they waste a lot of time by reading from the first word to the last. Active readers, on the other hand, always prepare a plan of attack like the football players. They map out a direction and create a course of action to use their time wisely just like film-lovers. They do this mainly by PREVIEWING. They examine the material to discover the writer’s outline before reading the text in detail, which gives them a lot of clues about the content. The benefits of previewing are as follows: a. It builds background knowledge for easier learning. b. It helps to transfer new information into long-term memory because you will have seen the material more than once. c. It helps you to be active in your reading by having a plan of attack and a mapped direction. How to Preview a Book Previewing is also necessary the first time you pick up a new book. Before you start reading it, you need to preview it in order to familiarize yourself with the material. You might think of previewing a book as shaking hands with a new friend. Previewing a book is accomplished by focusing on each of the following elements: Strategy Reason Read the title and subtitles. Check the author’s name and his qualifications. The title tells the reader the topic or the main idea. Look at the cover of the book or the page entitled “About the Author”. This may give the reader an idea about the topic Look at the copyright date. and the attitude of the writer towards the topic. Read the preface. It tells you how recent or old the book is. It is found immediately before or after the table Read the blurb. The blurb (i.e. the publisher’s of contents. It tells you why the writer wrote this comments) is generally on the cover of the book. book. It gives a description of the contents and Review the table of contents. information about the author. In addition, it helps Preview the appendix, index, glossary, and you discover who the book is written for. bibliography. They are usually found at the back This is the outline of the book, which gives you an of the book. idea about what is covered throughout the book. These tell you what resources are available to you.
Study Skills 58 Unit 1: Changing the Self TASK 3 Now, preview your book, Academic English: Survival Skills I, and identify the pages described above. How to Preview a Text Before reading a text, it is a good idea to preview it first. This then helps one to read the material more easily and more rapidly. In order to preview a text, one should focus on the following: There are those who Strategy Reason travel and those who Read the text title. are going somewhere. Read the introduction or the first paragraph. The title of the text and - if there are any - the They are different Read each boldface heading. subheadings generally reveal the topic. and yet they are Read the first sentence under each heading. the same. The most This paragraph serves as a lead-in to the text by successful is the one establishing the overall subject and focus. who knows where he is going. These headings announce the major topic of each section. Mark Caine The first sentence often states the central thought. Note any graphic aids. Graphs, charts, photographs, and tables often Read the last paragraph or summary. suggest what is important in the text. Quickly read any end-of-article material. This provides a condensed view of the text by outlining the key points and information covered. This might include references, discussion questions, and vocabulary lists, which might give clues about the text. TASK 4 Preview the text below and do the task that follows. Looks Count, Says Study on Earning Power: Attractive People Are Rewarded with Higher Pay 1 Ten years ago, former TV news author Christine Craft sued a Kansas City Station that demoted her for being “too ugly”, a highly publicized and ultimately unsuccessful case that added “lookism” to the growing list of prejudices condemned by social critics. Not the first full-blown study on the subject by economists shows that Lookism carries a big price for its victims – and handsome economic rewards for those blessed with good looks.
Study Skills Academic Survival Skills I 59 2 The earnings gap between attractive and unattractive people, who otherwise share the same education, experience, and other characteristics, rivals that between black and white or male and female workers, reported Danielle Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle, economists at the University of Texas and Michigan State University. 3 In a surprising departure from conventional wisdom, their research suggests that men earn even greater rewards for good looks and pay even greater penalties for ugliness than do women in our beauty-conscious society. 4 “The biggest effects are on the bad-looking, not the good looking,” said Hammermesh “and the effects are if anything bigger for men than for women, a result that is startling to me.” 5 Attractive people tend to earn about 5% more per hour than those with average looks. Homely workers pull in about 7% less than average, other things being equal, the researchers found. Men with below-average-looks earned 9% less, compared with 5% for women. 6 The researchers also found out that women considered to be unattractive are less likely to work than other work and tend to marry men with lower levels of education. 7 These earnings gaps could be explained by a variety of factors: employers showing simple favoritism toward attractive job applicants, a tendency by consumers or fellow employees to favor good-looking workers (thus making them more valuable to bosses) or the possibility that attractive workers have higher self-esteem and actually produce more. Psychologists’ Findings 8 Psychologists have found that attractive people are widely regarded as being more intelligent, friendly, honest, and confident than others – all traits that could influence employers and customers to discriminate in favor of them. 9 And attractive children are often rewarded with more praise from parents and teachers, shaping their personality in ways that may boost their confidence and poise, both valued in the market place. 10 The economists found some evidence that the earnings gap is caused by certain occupations catering to attractive employees more than others. But favoritism toward good looks and prejudice against homeliness is pervasive in most jobs, they determined. 11 “It is not just a matter of good-looking people going to work in Hollywood and bad looking people digging ditches,” Hamermesh said. “Even with in any given occupation, good- looking people make more.” The Influence of Cosmetics 12 …People can and do influence their looks by spending on cosmetics, hair styling, and fashionable clothes. In this sense, “lookism” is more easily combated than racism or sexism. 13 “People do intuitively understand these results and invest in how well they look,” Hamermesh said. “I fully expect that when these results are published, Revlon or some company would advertise that you can make 10% more if you buy their lipstick.” Taken from: Wassman, R., & Rinsky, L.A. (1997). Effective reading in a changing world (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Study Skills 60 Unit 1: Changing the Self Write Yes or No in the space provided. 1. _________ There are research findings in the text. 2. _________ People with good-looks earn more money than those who are unattractive. 3. _________ Psychologists’ views are given in the text. 4. _________ Anthropologists’ views are given in the text. 5. _________ There are comparisons between and statistics on attractive and unattractive working people. 6. _________ People resort to cosmetics to get help in order to fight against lookism. You probably were able to answer all or most of these questions correctly. Previewing, then, does provide you with a great deal of information. It is only after previewing that you can read this text in detail with ease. SPEED-READING TASK 5 Read the following excerpt and suggest a solution for Cenk’s problem. Cenk, an industrial engineering student, was mumbling quietly to himself, “Oh, no. I’m running out of time again. I can’t believe this is happening again.” “What’s the matter now?” asked Ali, his roommate. “I’m so exhausted. I cannot finish all these readings. Between all these exams, people dropping by my room, and the phone that keeps ringing, I cannot get any work done. I have 50 pages to read for Mr. Olson’s class. And it’s not very interesting, I should say. And it’s not only Mr. Olson’s class. Mrs. Eren assigned 60 pages. Look at this pile of reading I have for that course, too. These instructors think all I have to do in my life is read. Even if all I did was read, I still don’t think I’d finish it all.” In academic life, most students have similar problems. Since they do not know when to speed up or when to slow down, they read every material at the same speed. As a result, they have time management problems just like Cenk. In Unit 1, you studied pre-reading strategies, namely previewing, skimming, and scanning; and in this “study skills” section, you studied previewing in more detail. All these reading strategies enable you to read faster because you become familiar with the material before reading it in detail. In this section, you will be introduced to other techniques to help you read faster and better.
Academic Survival Skills I 61 Study Skills *THE BOOK YOU TOOK OUT ON SPEED READING IS 12 MONTHS OVERDUE” Cartoon taken from: Wassman, R., & Rinsky, L.A. (1997). Effective reading in a changing world (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Techniques for speed reading: 1. Do not vocalize, that is, do not say the words under your breath as you read. 2. Do not run your finger or a pencil beneath the words as you read. 3. Try to focus on groups of words, not individual words. 4. Try not to backtrack over the text. 5. Guess at the general meaning of words you are not sure about. 6. Skip over words that you have no idea about and that do not seem important. 7. Slow down slightly for key information, such as definitions and main ideas. 8. Speed up for less important information, such as examples and unimportant details. Following a Z-pattern with your eyes on the text will enable you to use these techniques easily. This pattern helps to increase your reading speed because with this technique you will stretch your eye span and avoid the white space, the area on either side of a page where no printed words appear.
62 Unit 1: Changing the Self Study Skills When people are good looking, we assume many other good things about them. Because attractive people are treated as if they have more to offer, they live up to our positive expectations. Sadly, those less pleasing to look at live down to our negative expectations. In studies looking at the relationship between attractiveness and personality, good looking people turn out to have higher self-esteem and to be happier, less neurotic, and more resistant to peer pressure than those who are less attractive. Those blessed with good looks also have more influence on others, get higher salaries, receive more lenient decisions in court, are thought by their students to be superior teachers, and are more valued as friends, colleagues and lovers. The general pattern is true of both men and women. Beauty in our culture is clearly more than a superficial matter. Skilled, active readers are like multi-speed vehicles. They change speeds according to the type of material, their reading purpose and their background knowledge. Adapted from: Beale, A. M. (2007). Success skills: Strategies for study and lifelong learning. (3rd ed.). Ohio: Thomson South-Western. Seal , B. (1997). Academic encounters: Reading, study skills and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wassman, R., & Rinsky, L.A. (1997). Effective reading in a changing world (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. See Appendix 8 for the answers to the tasks above.
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