Academic Survival Skills 1

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.

63Changing Communications 2U N I T In Unit 1, you studied the concepts of “changing the self ” and adoption of new identities. In this unit, you will see how the new online communication technologies contribute to changing identities.

2U N I T Changing Communications

In this unit, you will study the following skills: Reading: Speaking: n Skimming n Describing a photograph / picture n Scanning n Identifying points of reference Language: n Guessing unknown vocabulary by: • identifying cognates n Identifying word combinations • using contextual clues • transferring world knowledge • identifying parts of a word n Strengthening the use of dictionaries • Monolingual dictionaries • Bilingual dictionaries • Thesaurus • Dictionary of collocations Writing: Critical thinking: n Writing a reaction paragraph n Making connections between ideas n Using the target vocabulary learnt so far n Reacting to an idea n Reflecting on an idea in writing n Evaluating different viewpoints n Making predictions Listening: Study skills: n Listening for the main idea n Using graphic organizers n Listening for specific information n Highlighting and note-taking

UNIT 2 Changing Communications READING GETTING STARTED A. Discussion 1. Fill in the mini questionnaire below and discuss your answers with your classmates. Statement Yes No Not applicable a. I like chatting on the Internet. b. I play computer games. c. While chatting, I adopt an online self that is different from my real identity. d. I have created an avatar* of my own. e. My avatar* resembles my appearance. f. I use a nickname when I communicate online. g. I sometimes chat with people that I do not actually know. h. People can find true friendships through online communication technologies. * An avatar is a visual representation of a person in a virtual environment. 2. Read the quotation below and discuss what it might imply. The Internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life. Andrew Brown 3. Considering the statements and the quote above, and considering the title of the text on page 68, what do you expect to read?

Academic Survival Skills I 67 B. Vocabulary The words in bold in the following sentences will appear in the text, “Online Identities”. Match the words with the definitions in the box below. 1. _____________ Since most people hide their true selves while communicating online, it is not possible for online relationships and friendships to be honestly intimate. 2. _____________ When the recent statistics on online communication patterns are considered, it seems that older generations prefer impersonating false identities more than the younger generations. 3. _____________ Although online communication is quite artificial when compared to other communication methods, like letter-writing, the younger generation finds it very authentic. 4. _____________ The Internet has become a world of deception; nobody reveals their real names. 5. _____________ The pop-up advertisements on websites are designed to manipulate people’s consumption preferences. 6. _____________ Though we were not seeing one another face to face, he seemed to have an intuitive awareness of how I felt. 7. _____________ Perceiving complete strangers one meets on the Internet as true friends is foolishness to many people. a. to have an opinion about something b. life-like; genuine c. to control something or someone to one’s advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly d. to attempt to deceive someone by pretending that you are another person e. very close and personal f. the act of deliberately making someone believe something that is not true g. known or discovered by quick and ready insight C. Glancing at the Text Skim the text in 3 minutes to see if the content of the text matches your expectations.

68 Unit 2: Changing Communications TEXT Read the text below and underline the words that you do not know. Online Identities 1 When someone says “I’m going online,” but capable of speaking perfectly well. Second, where are they going? Early in the 21st she was not housebound paraplegic, but a century, when so much of the globe has been full time professional psychologist. Third, mapped and so much geography charted, is she was not a she, but a man who had created there really a new place to be visited on the the online persona of Julie to delve deeper World Wide Web? It seems there is. Using into the female psyche by impersonating one. the Internet, people send mail, they visit When the woman reported her discovery to libraries, they surf, they shop and they even the rest of the bulletin board’s participants, adopt new identities and live on the net. outraged contributors condemned the Today, it is very common to find people experiment, remarking that in impersonating renaming themselves with pseudonyms one of them, the psychologist had violated such as “DarkAngel”, “Unicorn” and their privacy. ”Eowyn”, creating colorful avatars and 3 Why were the women upset with “Julie’s” spending countless hours chatting with deception? After all, how could these women people they have never seen, nor likely will feel betrayed by someone whom they had see. In fact, when someone says “I’m online” never met face to face? To an outsider, this or “on the web”, these phrases suggest a new type of an interaction may seem unimportant placement of the subject, a subject wired and the words typed on the screen during into social existence through technology, this interaction are just “words”. But, for an online self. It seems that the new trend these women they were real because the seems to be living in a virtual world of new self that this psychologist presented and the identities. one that his conversation partners perceived 2 The story of Julie Graham and the people she seemed quite authentic. Computer-mediated corresponded with may exemplify this new communication contexts, like no other trend. For 3 years, women who participated person to person media before them, offer in a CampuServe discussion group grew communicators the ability to manipulate closer and closer to a woman they knew as their personal identities in ways that call into Julie Graham. During that time, Julie posted question assumptions about what is possible messages that disclosed increasingly intimate and what is appropriate in the presentation of details of her life, including the fact that she the self. was a mute, paraplegic victim of a car crash who had wrestled with suicidal depression. 4 Clearly, identity formation through computers has been an important component of today’s The participants in the CampuServe communication technology. An identity is discussion group were so moved by this a complex personal and social construct, unfortunate situation that after a number partly consisting of who we think we are, of months of interacting with her online, how we wish others to perceive us, and how one well-intentioned woman set out to find they actually perceive us. Identity formation Julie and offer her face-to-face comfort and through the Internet technologies involves support. Much to this woman’s surprise, “Julie Graham” turned out to be a fiction, and only the second one of these fragments: how the facts behind the person creating her were we wish others to perceive us. So the question quite contrary to what the woman and others arises: why do people engage in such role- had read. First of all, Julie was not mute at all playing on the Internet?

Academic Survival Skills I 69 5 The first reason might reside in the greater 7 Another motive for adopting a different identity might be that changing identities control people experience over their online offers people a moratorium, a time out or identities. To some degree in real life, we safe place for the personal experience that can control what others know about us by is crucial for adolescent development. Our making some choices in life, and yet certain dangerous world with crime, terrorism and qualities of our identities are predetermined drugs offers little in the way of safe spaces. for us. In face-to-face interactions, people Online worlds can provide valuable spaces infer qualities of our identities based on for identity play (Turkle, 1995, p. 33). our gender, race, clothing, and other non- verbal characteristics. But in online forums, 8 This freedom of role-playing in a safe, non- what people know about others is based existing world might also have serious on the disclosure of information that one consequences though. Some people who gain wishes others to have. If one’s age is not fluency in expressing multiple aspects of the self relevant to the persona one wishes to have may find it harder to develop authentic selves. others perceive, then one merely needs Or, some children who write narratives for not to reveal this information to prevent their screen avatars may grow up with too little influencing others’ perceptions one way or experience of how to share their real feelings another. Because many of the cues like facial with other people. In addition, information expression, eye contact or body language are technology may cause those who are lonely invisible online, Internet technologies offer us yet afraid of intimacy to have the illusion the possibility of controlling more aspects of of companionship, a companionship that is our identity for public consideration than has deprived of the warmth of a real friendship. been possible before. In other words, people exert greater control over their identity in 9 While people keep themselves busy communicating with people that they do not the online environment than in face-to-face actually know, there may be other losses. We interaction. insist that our world is increasingly complex, yet we have created a communications culture 6 A second drive for identity formation on that has decreased the time available for us the Internet might be that people may wish to sit and think, uninterrupted. People are to experiment with a different self. Sherry Turkle (1995, p. 15), professor of sociology connecting one-on-one; they have their online at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, social network, but do they feel responsibility suggests that people can experience an for a set of shared political commitments? Do identity on the Internet that they could not they feel the need to take action rather than portray in real life. A benefit of such role- talk to false identities in a non-existing world? playing is that individuals can gain a new While the world is enmeshed in multiple wars perspective on their world and their place in and genocidal campaigns and is incapable of it. Borrowing from anthropology, Turkle uses calling a halt to environmental destruction, the term dépaysement to describe the feeling there is less interest in asking questions about of seeing the familiar through unfamiliar the state of the world than in creating a virtual eyes. In interviews with people who adopted self-expression. distinctly different identities from their own for their online personas, most notably those 10 All in all, constructing a variety of virtual identities has both advantages and who changed their genders, Turkle found disadvantages to our cultures. We should that the experience of living a life unlike accept that the new information technology their own opened them up to the struggles is identity technology. In the future, it will and pleasures that come along with living develop even further. What we once called with another gender, race, class, or other distinction. virtual has already become the reality itself. REFERENCES Turkle, S. (1995). Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

70 Unit 2: Changing Communications Focusing on Guessing Vocabulary: a Skill Readers usually face unknown vocabulary items when reading texts in a foreign language, which is often discouraging and frustrating. Successful readers, however, may succeed in dealing with unknown words by guessing their meanings. TASK 1 Below are some of the words you may have underlined in the previous task. Now, guess the meanings of the following words, and write down their definitions or synonyms. 1. wrestled with (par.2): _________________________________________________________________________ 2. condemned (par.2): _________________________________________________________________________ 3. reside in (par.5): _________________________________________________________________________ 4. exert (par.5): _________________________________________________________________________ 5. enmeshed (par.9): _________________________________________________________________________ 6. calling a halt (par.9): _________________________________________________________________________ THINK: What helped you to guess the meanings of the words that you did not know? Now read the information below on strategies for guessing meanings of words and note down which of the four strategies you used. Below are some of the strategies successful readers use to guess the meanings of unknown words. • Recognizing cognates (similar words in their native language) • Making use of contextual clues, such as transitions, connectors, and punctuation marks • Activating world knowledge • Looking at the parts a word consists of, such as their root and affixes In order to be able to guess, some prior knowledge of words and concepts is necessary. In other words, readers can only guess what they do not know by using the piece of knowledge that they already have and by reading until they have finished the whole text, that is, until they have scanned the whole piece of writing for clues they can use in guessing. Therefore, some basic initial word knowledge and the ability to identify possible clues are prerequisites for successful guessing. COGNATES Most languages contain words which are borrowed from other languages with very slight changes in their pronunciation or spelling. These words are called cognates. In Turkish, some words like free kick, assistant and mask are cognates because they have meanings similar to the words in the English language from which they are borrowed. However, words like sympathetic and agenda sound very familiar when read out loud with a Turkish intonation, but they can be misleading because they have different meanings in Turkish and English. These words are not cognates, but false friends. In order to decide whether a word is a cognate or a false friend, one should consider the context which the word is used in. For example, the word depression could be either a cognate or a false friend depending on the context in which it is used. The word depression in Turkish has the same meaning in the context of psychology in English; it can also refer to “economic recession” in English.

Academic Survival Skills I 71 TASK 2 Determine whether the following English words taken from the text are ‘cognates’ or ‘false friends’ for Turkish in the context that they are used. 1. But, for these women they were real because the self that this psychologist presented and the one that his conversation partners perceived seemed quite authentic. (par. 3) ■ cognate ■false friend 2. Computer-mediated communication contexts, like no other person to person media before them, offer communicators the ability to manipulate their personal identities in ways that call into question assumptions about what is possible and what is appropriate in the presentation of the self. (par. 3) ■ cognate ■false friend 3. Identity formation through the Internet technologies involves only the second one of these When you have fragments: how we wish others to perceive us. (par. 4) a wide vocabulary, NOTHING ■ cognate ■false friend surprises you! 4. The first reason might reside in the greater control people experience over their online Alan Weiss identities. (par. 5) ■ cognate ■false friend 5. But in online forums, what people know about others is based on the disclosure of information that one wishes others to have. (par. 5) ■ cognate ■false friend 6. Sherry Turkle (1995), professor (a) of sociology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that people can experience an identity on the Internet that they could not portray (b) in real life. (par. 6) ■a. cognate ■false friend ■b. cognate ■false friend 7. A benefit of such role-playing is that individuals can gain a new perspective on their world and their place in it. (par. 6) ■ cognate ■false friend 8. Our dangerous world with crime, terrorism and drugs offers little in the way of safe spaces. (par. 7) ■ cognate ■false friend 9. In addition, information technology may cause those who are lonely yet afraid of intimacy to have the illusion of companionship, a companionship that is deprived of the warmth of a real friendship. (par. 8) ■ cognate ■false friend 10. While the world is enmeshed in multiple wars and genocidal campaigns and is incapable of calling a halt to environmental destruction, there is less interest in asking questions about the state of the world than in creating a virtual self-expression (par. 9). ■ cognate ■false friend

72 Unit 2: Changing Communications CONTEXTUAL CLUES When an unknown word is not a cognate, the reader needs to read further and analyze the structure of the whole sentence in order to guess the meaning. The structure of a sentence may include important clues as to what a word may mean. These are called contextual clues. Some are given in the following table with examples. Contextual Clues Examples Punctuation commas ,,, • Metrology, the science of measurements, is based on parentheses ( ) precision. or square brackets [ ] colons : • A very prevalent (widespread, common) attitude is dashes - one of caring only for oneself. • There has been a sudden rise in the cost of utilities: water, gas and electricity. Definition Can be described as, • Fatigue can be generally described as the tiredness and and is/are, is/are called, exhaustion that result from muscular work. can be defined as, refer Description to, involve, mean • Vegetarianism is the practice of eating only vegetables. • Segregation refers to the setting apart of one group from another. • Rationalization involves substituting an acceptable motive for an unacceptable one. • Drug abuse means becoming dependent on drugs. Contrast While, whereas, but, • While deserts are expanding, forests are shrinking. yet, unlike, however, • He is not stingy. On the contrary, he is quite generous. on the contrary, on the • Some actions are learned, but others are innate. other hand, although • Although they look similar, these plants are actually quite distinct. Comparison Similarly, both, • She was late, and I similarly was delayed. likewise, just as Example Such as, such, like, • In the markets, basic commodities such as meat, sugar e.g., for example, and and cooking oil are always obtainable. the like Reformulation i.e., in other words, • I’m not sure that his business is strictly legitimate, i.e. and that is is legal. Explanation • According to ethnologists, most animal behavior is governed by innate or instinctive mechanisms, in other words, mechanisms inherited at birth. • Human beings are omnivores; that is, they eat both animal and plant material, while some living things are carnivores, eating only animal flesh. Synonyms Synonyms and • To repeat one small job hour after hour is both tedious and antonyms may be and boring. accompanied by Antonyms conjunctions, such as • The president neither confirmed nor denied the news. “or” and “neither … • The velocity, or speed of light is about 300,000 nor” kilometers per second.

Academic Survival Skills I 73 TASK 3 The following sentences have been taken from the text. Underline the contextual clues that help you to understand the meanings of the bold words. 1. Today, it is very common to find people renaming themselves with pseudonyms such as “DarkAngel”, “Unicorn” and ”Eowyn”, creating colorful avatars and spending countless hours chatting with people they have never seen, nor likely will see. (par. 1) pseudonyms: ____________________________________________________________________________________ 2. First of all, Julie was not mute at all but capable of speaking perfectly well. (par. 2) mute: ____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Borrowing from anthropology, Turkle uses the term dépaysement to describe the feeling of seeing the familiar through unfamiliar eyes. (par. 6) dépaysement: ____________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Another motive for adopting a different identity might be that changing identities offers people a moratorium, a time out or safe place for the personal experience that is crucial for adolescent development. (par. 7) moratorium: ____________________________________________________________________________________ WORLD KNOWLEDGE Return to the root and you will find When readers activate their knowledge and experience of the world while reading, guessing the meaning. becomes easy. While reading, they remember and visualize the situation they are reading about and fill in the meaning of the word they do not know. Sengstan For example: During that time, Julie posted messages that disclosed increasingly intimate details of her life, including the fact that she was a mute, paraplegic victim of a car crash who had wrestled with suicidal depression. (par. 2) A reader who does not know what paraplegic means may easily guess the meaning when reading the sentence because it is known that after a serious car crash, a person may not be able to move some part of his body due to spinal injury. Moreover, the person’s being depressed to the extent that he considers suicide signifies that he is seriously injured after the car accident. PARTS OF THE WORD We can often deduce the meaning of a word if we know the meaning of the root (base word) and the affixes (elements added to the base word). There are two kinds of affixes, those that come at the beginning of a word (prefix) and those that come at the end (suffix). If readers know the meaning of a root and recognize it when it appears in combination with some affixes the meaning and function of which they know, then they can derive the meaning of that new combination of a root and affix. To illustrate, if one knows that the prefix co- adds the meaning “together” to a verb or noun, and if one knows that the root pose means “put”, then it is easy to guess that the word “compose” means “to put together”. To find out what it is that is put together, readers need to read on until the end of the sentence or paragraph and make use of their knowledge about things that can be composed, for example music. See Appendices 3 & 4 for a comprehensive list of roots and affixes.

74 Unit 2: Changing Communications TASK 4 The following words have been taken from the text. Study the affixes and match them with their meanings in the box below. Think of other possible words that include the same affixes. • of the mind • name • without • apart, away, not • kill • study • birth, race • one who • art, skill • between, at intervals • false, fake, not real • not • man • before, earlier, in front of 1. pseudonyms (par.1) Other examples Affix Meaning pseudo- -onym(a) 2. countless (par.1) Meaning Other examples Affix -less 3. disclosed (par.2) Meaning Other examples Affix Dis- 4. psychologist (par.2) Meaning Other examples Affix psych -logy -ist 5. technology (par.4) Meaning Other examples Affix techno- -logy 6. predetermined (par.5) Affix Meaning Other examples pre- 7. anthropology (par.6) Meaning Other examples Affix anthro -logy

Academic Survival Skills I 75 8. uninterrupted (par.9) Meaning Other examples Affix un- -inter 9. genocidal (par.9) Meaning Other examples Affix geno -cid Adapted from: Alperer, S., Eşit, C., Noyes Pehlivanoğlu, F., Sığınan, Ö., & Somuncuoğlu, Y. (2005). English for academic purposes I (Rev. ed.). In C. Eşit, & F. Noyes Pehlivanoğlu (Eds.). Ankara: METU Press. WORKING THROUGH THE TEXT Read the text again and do the exercises that follow. A. Text Comprehension 1. Why does the writer compare the physical globe with the virtual world of the Internet in paragraph 1? 2. Compare / contrast the online persona (nicknamed Julie Graham) and the self this person has in real life by filling in the chart below: Online/fake persona Real self • • • • • • 3. Why did the psychologist create a false identity? 4. In what way is online communication different from face-to-face communication?

76 Unit 2: Changing Communications 5. Fill in the chart below: Reasons for identity formation on the Internet 6. What does Turkle mean by “seeing the familiar through unfamiliar eyes” in paragraph 6? 7. What are the possible drawbacks of forming online identities? Write two. a. b. B. Reference Words Determine what the following words from the text refer to. 1. her (par.2): __________________________ 2. one (par.3): __________________________ 3. those (par. 6): __________________________ C. Text Structure Below is a list of patterns of organization and supporting techniques. Identify and circle the main pattern of organization and the supporting techniques used in the text. Patterns of Organization Supporting Techniques a. description a. examples and illustrations b. narration b. data (facts / statistics) c. comparison-contrast c. testimony d. process analysis d. anecdote e. argumentation e. explanation f. cause-effect f. description g. classification h. definition i. exemplification j. problem solution

Academic Survival Skills I 77 MAKING CONNECTIONS 1. Compare the reasons behind people’s insensitivity to world problems given in the texts “Online Identities” in this unit and “Your Masterpiece - Yourself ” in Unit 1. 2. Compare and contrast the topics you have read in “Change of Face … Change of ‘Self ’” in Unit 1 and “Online Identities”. What are some of the similarities and differences between the contents of these two texts in terms of identity formation? Explain. 3. Read the paragraph below and do the tasks that follow: Ted Norton is a gentle, kind and, mild-mannered engineer working for an international company. He’s a friendly fellow and a model employee. He’s never late to work. He keeps his workspace nice and tidy. He always speaks in a pleasant and clear manner during staff meetings and never objects to the decisions taken by his colleagues. Thus, he is highly docile. But underneath his good personality lies something sinister. Mr. Norton has a dark secret. As night falls on the suburbs where Ted dwells, a blue-white light flickers in the dark bedroom of his modest home. Ted hovers in front of his PC’s monitor; and grins wickedly as World of Warcraft finishes loading. Suddenly, Ted undergoes an unpleasant transformation. His perfectly combed hair becomes a wild jungle of frizz. His eyes sink back into his skull. A wicked, demonic smile appears on his face. Ted has become Durden, the blood thirsty, undead warlock. Using his epic staff of destruction, Durden gets the souls of his victims recklessly, laughing at their pathetic pleas for mercy. He is guildmaster and wields ultimate power. All shall obey his commands or be forever exiled from his presence. Does this sound like you? If so, please seek psychiatric help immediately. Adapted from: Nottke, M. (2008). Identity crisis. Retrieved March 21, 2008, from http://www.massively.com/category / mmogology

78 Unit 2: Changing Communications a. Guess the meanings of the underlined words and identify which contextual clues helped you. 1. mild-mannered: __________________________ Contextual clue: _________________________ 2. docile: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 3. sinister: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 4. dwell: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 5. flicker: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 6. hover: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 7. frizz: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 8. recklessly: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 9. pleas: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ 10. wield: __________________________ Contextual clue: __________________________ b. In terms of identity formation, compare and contrast the cases of Ted Norton and Julie Graham. For what purpose do they use online technologies? How do you evaluate the destruction these characters cause on either themselves or their societies? Discuss with your classmate. Focusing on Writing a Reaction Paragraph a Skill People sometimes write to react to an idea or an argument. As opinions and arguments may be transferred via different media, people may sometimes be reacting to a text, a quote, a movie, a cartoon or a newspaper column. In university writing, you will frequently be asked to react to written materials. The Process of Writing a Reaction to Written Material: 1. Read the written material. 2. Read it again marking the points you would choose to react to. 3. Write one sentence which explains the writer’s main idea. 4. Decide on and write an overall topic sentence that reflects your reaction by a. agreeing b. disagreeing c. partially agreeing/disagreeing 5. Develop your reaction paragraph by giving your reasons in an organized way. Adapted from: Read, J. M. (1982). The process of composition. London: Prentice-Hall.

Academic Survival Skills I 79 Below is a sample student reaction paragraph which is written in response to the following quotation about friendship through online communication: Those strangers [in online contexts] who have no arms to put around my shoulders, no eyes to weep with mine, nevertheless can see me through. As friends do. John Perry Barlow The Sample Reaction Paragraph: The writer thinks that friends in the online world may act as real friends and that people may have intimate relationships online like they do in real life. He believes that online friends may provide people with support by sharing their feelings. I disagree with the writer because people cannot build healthy relationships in a virtual world. First, online communication is far from being genuine because it lacks the necessary elements of real face-to-face relationships. Chat friends can never give the feeling of warmth, love and sincerity behind screens. In real life, sometimes talking to your friend might not be enough as you might sometimes need a shoulder to cry on or a hug when you are very happy. How can a virtual friend whom you have not seen at all share all these feelings through computers? Second, people using online communication have always the risk of being deceived by “friends”. It is a well known fact that not everyone online has good intentions. There will always be people who can lie to you and take advantage of you. For example, people may abuse your friendship with the intention of getting your money. Or, one’s online best friend may turn out to be a psycho or a pervert. Since people do not see these chat friends face-to-face, they may never be sure of the real identity of these friends. On the whole, I disagree with the writer’s opinion that true friendship can be found on the Internet. TASK Identify: a. the sentences in which the student explains the main idea of the quotation. b. the topic sentence that reflects the student’s reaction. GOING ONE STEP FURTHER by writing Analyze the cartoon below and write a well-organized reaction paragraph of 150-200 words in response to the message it conveys. In your paragraph, use at least 5 of the following words you have studied so far:

80 Unit 2: Changing Communications authentic intimate deception avatar to manipulate online communication intuitive to be obsessed with to perceive to be inclined to pseudonym to dedicate oneself to to impersonate in pursuit of immense flaw ALL THIS INTERNET WHAT CHATTING HAS CAUSED CHILDREN?! YOU TO NEGLECT YOUR CHILDREN! Cartoon adapted from: Goddard, C. (n.d.). [Cartoon]. Retrieved May 3, 2008, from http://www.cartoonstock.com Before writing the paragraph, make an outline below: Your Outline:

Academic Survival Skills I 81 Your Reaction Paragraph: The cartoonist … LISTENING GETTING STARTED A. Discussion Give examples to and describe some software programs/ games /virtual platforms where people create their own characters and avatars. WHILE-LISTENING 1: Technology Matters Listen to the interview on virtual identities and do the exercises that follow. Introduction: The Presenter 1. In this episode of the TV show, “Technology Matters”, the topic of discussion is ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ . Part 1: Phillip Rosedale: 2. The idea for “Second Life” was born in _________________________________ with the intention of ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ . 3. What is “Second Life”?

82 Unit 2: Changing Communications 4. Fill in the chart below on the uses of “Second Life”. a. In __________________ for Uses of Second Life b. In education for distance learning • marketing Give one example: • reaching consumers ________________________________ ________________________________ c. For medical purposes: It helps patients with Asperger’s syndrome who have problems in _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ 5. How is “Second Life” different from other online games? 6. What is one criticism about “Second Life”? Part 2: Prof. Linden: 7. Complete the history of identity formation: a. Virtual identities were born in the 1990s. b. When computer access first became easier for large numbers of people, _________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________. c. With the improvement of online technologies, people discovered online identities.

Academic Survival Skills I 83 8. Write one of the reasons why people prefer avatars over photos. _____________________________________________________________________ 9. What is the other part of the “divided self ”? a. a core personality The Divided Self b. ____________________________ 10. Fill in the chart below. Groups of people How they benefit from online identities a. Such contexts enable these people to build healthy relationships. Marginalized people b. c. They share comments, experiences and information. 11. What are the two drawbacks of online identities? a. b. 12. What is Prof. Linden’s advice to users of the Internet? GOING ONE STEP FURTHER by speaking 1. Look at the avatars below. Analyze their facial expressions, costumes and the accessories they wear. What clue would these avatars give you in terms of the personality of the owners? What kind of a personality is the owner of each avatar trying to create?

84 Unit 2: Changing Communications 2. If your avatar were to be created online, how would you like it to be? Bring to class an avatar you would consider using when communicating online. To do this, you can: • design an avatar using computer technologies • find a photograph / picture that you think represents you • draw a sketch of your avatar Consider the physical characteristics, clothing and expression when choosing your avatars. Explain your reasons behind your choice. While introducing your avatar to your classmates, you may use the following expressions: Useful Expressions: Describing a Photograph/Picture • I’d like to show you… • At this point, I’d like to point to… • As you can see… • Here you’ll notice that… • This picture shows/represents… • I have chosen this avatar because… • Have a look at this picture. • This avatar represents my personality because…. • Here we can see that... • My avatar is a representation of… • Let’s look at this picture.

Academic Survival Skills I 85 READING GETTING STARTED A. Discussion 1. Do you have an account on websites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Hocam? If yes, for what purpose do you use these sites? 2. How is Facebook or MySpace different from virtual worlds like Second Life or World of Warcraft? Which of these two types of online communication contexts do you find more attractive? Why? 3. Your Country under Spotlight • Which social networking sites are now popular in your country? • What attracts people to these sites? B. Vocabulary Match the verbs with their collocations. There may be more than one answer. 1. launch ___________________________ a. on a bulletin board b. with someone 2. log on ___________________________ c. a website d. on the Internet 3. keep ___________________________ e. a social network f. a blog 4. post messages ___________________________ g. to a website 5. surf ___________________________ 6. chat ___________________________ 7. create ___________________________ 8. access ___________________________ 9. maintain ___________________________ C. Glancing at the Text Scan the text in 3 minutes and list the names of the websites in the box below.

86 Unit 2: Changing Communications TEXT Read the text below and do the exercises that follow. This is Your Space 1 The growing impact that the Internet has 3 What does it all involve? On a typical on our lives is increasingly getting difficult networking site like MySpace, people create an to ignore. If the web was once an enormous individual profile detailing their age, location, library, it is now a vast conversation. whether they are single or in a relationship, Transmitting information from one person their general interests, their favorite music, to another has never been easier. Anyone can movies and books. They might even upload participate. Young people now communicate photographs of themselves and write daily more through social networking websites than journal entries. Also, people build up a set of through email. Instead of keeping diaries, they online friends, each of whom will have their keep blogs; instead of photo albums, they have own set of friends, and so on. When people online photo galleries. It is clear that while view someone’s profile, the website shows older adults go online to find information, them how people are linked to each other: the younger crowds go online literally to live. Bob is a friend of Jane, who is a friend of The boundaries between private and public Mark who is a friend of other people. Through and between offline and online are becoming varying degrees of separation, people are blurred, and there is a widening generation soon connected with hundreds, thousands, gap between adolescents growing even millions of other people. up with social technology Users can communicate with each and adults who find it foreign other in many ways. Many people and unsettling. There is a new post messages on a “bulletin generation growing up online. board” that is automatically sent to everyone in their network, 2 It all happened remarkably or they can post a personalized quickly. The first social comment on someone’s profile, networking websites were born which is displayed for everyone just three years ago, aimed at providing to read. For one-on-one conversation, they online forums where friends could connect. can send direct messages through an internal A year later online social networking was e-mail system, or chat in real time via instant a fully fledged phenomenon. Today it is messaging. the face of the Internet. Social networking websites have evolved from something to visit 4 Another kind of online social networking in your spare time to an integral part of daily environment is the so-called blogosphere, life that many today cannot imagine living which is a good example of how interactive without. This can be confirmed with striking the Internet has become. Blogs are web pages, statistics. Friendster, one of the pioneers where individuals regularly post their personal of online social networking, now has more views, like a personal journal or, depending than 30 million members. Bebo, launched on the blogger, a newspaper column. On only last July, has 25 million members and these blogs, people even keep online diaries is the number one social networking site for others to read. However, blogging extends in the UK. MySpace has just registered well beyond teen diaries, according to a its 100 millionth member (Arnold, 2008, website called Technorati, which is a search para. 3). These figures suggest that online engine that monitors the blogosphere. It says social networking cannot be dismissed as it is currently tracking 51.3 million blogs a passing trend. Socialization, rather than worldwide, and claims that 75,000 new blogs information, has emerged as the primary use are created every day (Arnold, 2008, para. 11). of the Internet. That’s almost one per second.

Academic Survival Skills I 87 networking tools is taking that further. Many 5 Online social networking, it seems, is scientists now use blogs, and the number of entering all areas of life and all age groups. science blogs is on the rise. These networks, Therefore, with people spending so much time first, connect scientists to other scientists, communicating online, how is this changing serving as modern-day intellectual salons. real-life social behavior? Recent studies have Formal scientific papers are now even reached contradictory conclusions. Some beginning to cite blogs as references. Second, claim that individuals who socialize online they connect scientists to the general public, become more social, extroverted and happy, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how while others claim that such people draw away science progresses. Meanwhile, other kinds from their family and friends, break social ties of social networking sites for scientists are and become isolated and depressed. emerging. One website, for example, provides a forum for collaboration and exchange 6 Although there are conflicting views regarding of information to around 200 biology and the impact of social networking on social biomedical researchers in 30 countries. If you behavior, there is an undeniable fact: The log on to the site you will find posts like, “Does distinction between life in the real world and anyone know of a good tool that will predict life in the cyber world is no longer clear-cut as active sites in a protein of interest given an it was in the past. The original social websites, amino acid sequence?” (It seems a world away such as chat rooms and online games, used to from common blog posts like, “Has anyone draw in people who wanted to escape their daily seen Ashlee Simpson’s new nose?”) Although lives, if momentarily, to interact with strangers such science related socializing networks are or to play a fantasy role. They used anonymous fewer, it looks like the beginning of a growing screen names and were often represented by trend: science is fundamentally a collaborative avatars or cartoon-like characters. This has endeavor and online networking is bound to changed. Users of social-networking websites play a major role. are no longer anonymous. Most people, now, 8 Where will social networking go from here? do not prefer an avatar to represent a different We can get an idea by looking at some of the identity. Instead, they have real names, jobs latest networking websites which focus on a and relationships. They are represented by specific area of users’ lives as a point of common photographs. Virtual world is now an extension interest. Facebook, launched in early 2004, of real life where people continue to interact with enables people to create their personal-friend their real friends. Therefore, people now find it profiles. LinkedIn is for job networking, and easier to switch from their real world to their then there’s LibraryThing where your profile virtual one, and the people they interact with is your entire book collection, and you can are largely the same. Thus their online social check out who shares the same books and link life does not detract from their real one, as the to their bookshelves. Thus, Facebook connects two are simply different manifestations of the individuals through friends, LinkedIn through same network of friends. Online socialization professions, and LibraryThing through books. is now an extension of the kind of authentic It seems inevitable that a meta-network linking interactions that people have daily by phone, together all the various social networking sites text messages and e-mail. Thanks to mobile will emerge at hand — and an individual’s full devices that can easily connect people, having identity, shown from all sides, will live online, to sit in front of a computer to access a social integrated with the real world. We will be network has already become archaic. With the more autonomous and mobile than ever with help of small mobile phone-like devices, people the help of the meta-networking systems. For are now keeping in constant contact with their the new generation, this will not seem strange social networks. at all. 7 Social networking is not just about friends REFERENCES and recreation – it’s also starting to affect Arnold, B. (2008). Caslon analytics blogging. Retrieved professional life. Take science, for example. Scientists have used interactive sites such as April 19, 2008, from http://www.caslon.com.au/ newsgroups and online bulletin boards since weblogprofile1.htm. the early 1990s, but the new generation of

88 Unit 2: Changing Communications WORKING THROUGH THE TEXT A. Text Comprehension 1. In terms of their use of and approach to online technologies, how do the young and the older generations differ? Older Generation Younger Generation 2. List the activities people are involved in on social networking sites and on blogs. Activities on Social Networking Sites Activities on Blogs 3. Recent studies have revealed a debate over the impact of online social networking on social behavior. Although some assert that online social networking _______________________ _________________________________________, others claim that the users of these networks _________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________. 4. What does the writer mean by the following sentence? “The distinction between life in the real world and life in the cyber world is no longer clear- cut as it was in the past.”(par. 6)

Academic Survival Skills I 89 5. In what ways do scientists use online networking? 6. What is the writer’s prediction about the future of online networking? B. Vocabulary ________________________ Find a word from the text for each definition below. 1. less clear; indistinct (par.1): 2. one who opens up new areas of ________________________ thought, research or development (par.2): 3. to introduce; to start (par.2): ________________________ 4. to decide that something or someone ________________________ is not important and not worth considering (par.2): 5. of or belonging to the distant past; from ________________________ an ancient period in history (par.6): C. Reference Words Determine what the following words / phrases from the text refer to. 1. This (par.2): _______________________________ 2. It (par.4): _______________________________ 3. the two (par.6): _______________________________

90 Unit 2: Changing Communications D. Vocabulary The structures below are taken from the two texts in this unit. Fill in the blanks with correct prepositions to form collocations. on with in to into of against from 1. participate ______________ something 7. have impact ______________ something 2. interact ______________ someone 3. delve ______________ something 8. link something ______________ something 4. consist ______________ something 5. engage ______________ something 9. communicate ______________ someone 6. have interest ______________ something 10. depend ______________ something 11. detract ______________ something 12. focus ______________ something on with in to by of 13. be contrary ______________ something / 16. be relevant ______________ something someone 17. be deprived ______________ something 18. be (in)capable ______________ doing 14. be upset ______________ something / someone something 19. be integrated ______________ something 15. be based ______________ something MAKING CONNECTIONS In what way is the concept of identity formation discussed in “This is Your Space” different from the one in the text “Online Identities”? Explain. Focusing on Using Dictionaries: a Skill Trying to guess vocabulary using the strategies presented in this unit is helpful. However, it is not always possible to guess the meaning from the text itself. Sometimes it is a good idea to consult a dictionary. Dictionaries are always useful sources for language learners. Dictionaries are the best references to look up the precise meaning/s and use/s of a particular word, rather than an approximate guess. There are various types of dictionaries designed for different purposes. A small pocket dictionary may be useful for a beginner student of English or a tourist on holiday, but for university students who need to read academic or more advanced and sophisticated texts, a more comprehensive dictionary is a must. Dictionaries can be classified based on the information they present.

Academic Survival Skills I 91 MONOLINGUAL DICTIONARIES The most commonly used type of dictionary is the monolingual dictionary. A good monolingual dictionary will have all or most of the following information: Headword Grammar Facts Derivatives Part of Speech Phrasal Verbs Examples Usage Register Stress Idioms Definition American/English Differences Phonemic Transcription Collocations LISTENING A good reader has imagination, memory, WHILE-LISTENING 2: Monolingual Dictionaries a dictionary, and some artistic sense. Listen to the mini lecture on monolingual dictionaries to match the words above with the explanations below. Vladimir Nabokov  1. _______________________ the meaning of the word 2. _______________________ sentences which show how the word is used in context 3. _______________________ the first word of a dictionary entry, written in bold type 4. _______________________ the pronunciation of a word 5. _______________________ which syllable to place the emphasis on 6. _______________________ whether a verb is transitive or intransitive, or noun, countable uncountable or other such structural information 7. _______________________ other words that are made from this word 8. _______________________ whether the word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb 9. _______________________ set expressions that have a meaning of their own that are different from the meanings of each separate word put together 10. _______________________ verbs that take on a different meaning when used in combination with a preposition 11. _______________________ whether the word is used in a particular field or context (e.g. medicine, law, technical) 12. _______________________ whether the word is formal or informal 13. _______________________ the differences in spelling, pronunciation and/or meaning in American or British English 14. _______________________ the way in which the word is used together with other words

92 Unit 2: Changing Communications TASK 1 Notice the different use of “hand” in the following sentence taken from the text: “It seems inevitable that a meta-network linking together all the various social networking sites will emerge at hand” If you look it up in the dictionary, you can see a dictionary entry similar to the one provided below. Determine what information the arrows point to and write them in the blanks provided. 1. ______________________ 2. ______________________ 3. ______________________ 4. ______________________ 5. ______________________ 6. ______________________ 7. ______________________ 8. ______________________ 9. ______________________ 10. ______________________

Academic Survival Skills I 93 TASK 2 The following words in bold type are taken from the text. Five of the statements below are false, and five of them are true. Using a dictionary to help you, determine which ones are true and which ones are false. ■ ■1. True False The word ‘phenomenon’ is plural. ■ ■2. True False The word ‘anonymous’ has 5 syllables. ■ ■3. True False ‘Endeavour’ is a British spelling. ■ ■4. True False When pronouncing the word ‘autonomous’, the stress is on the first syllable. ■ ■5. True False The word ‘information’ is countable. ■ ■6. True False The word ‘pioneer’ has only a noun form. ■ ■7. True False The word ‘trend’ can be used together with “in” and “towards”. ■ ■8. True False The word ‘monitor’ can be used to describe a child who has been chosen to help the teacher in some way. ■ ■9. True False The word ‘direct’ has two different pronunciations. ■ ■10. True False The adjective ‘remarkable’ also has a noun, verb and adverb form. In many languages, most words have more than one meaning. The information provided in a good dictionary helps you decide in which meaning the word is used. The best way to do this is to follow these steps: 1. Decide what part of speech the word is in the sentence. 2. Read all the meanings that are given for the word you do not know. 3. Imagine a blank line in the sentence where the word that you do not know is. 4. Substitute the meaning that you feel is correct with the word in the sentence. 5. If the sentence makes sense, then the definition that you have chosen is probably correct.

94 Unit 2: Changing Communications TASK 3 Find the correct definition of the bold words in the following sentences taken from the text by referring to the dictionary entries and write the definition and its number in the blanks provided. 1. The growing impact that the Internet has on our lives is increasingly difficult to ignore (par.1). ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ 2. Bebo, launched only last July, has 25 million members and is the number one social networking site in the UK (par. 2). ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________

Academic Survival Skills I 95 3. Social networking is not just about friends and recreation — it’s also starting to affect professional life. Take science, for example (par. 7). _____________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________

96 Unit 2: Changing Communications 4. The original social websites, such as chat rooms and online games, used to draw in people who wanted to escape their daily lives, if momentarily, to interact with strangers or to play a fantasy role (par. 6). _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ BILINGUAL DICTIONARIES Although it is recommended that students use monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries can also be good sources of reference; however, they need to be handled carefully. The reason why bilingual dictionaries may be insufficient is that they merely provide the translation of the word in list form. Thus, they lack all the other information to define the word such as its grammar facts, collocations, register and so on. These dictionaries, however, are useful when the definition in a monolingual dictionary is not clear or understandable enough to the language learner. Thus, the best way to make use of bilingual dictionaries would be to use them to crosscheck the meaning of a word after having consulted a monolingual dictionary. TASK 4 Study the sentences below. Note how the word ‘end’ has been used in a different meaning in each sentence. Looking at the bilingual dictionary entry below, determine which meaning it is used in. 1. Until the end of the 20th century, social networking sites were not very popular. ___________________________________________________ 2. Some psychologists conduct studies on online behavior; to this end, they sometimes enter chat rooms to observe online behavioral patterns. ___________________________________________________ 3. Although she was sitting at the other end of the table, they were chatting online. __________________________________________________

Academic Survival Skills I 97 DICTIONARY OF COLLOCATIONS The words! I collected them in all A dictionary of collocations is a very useful guide for foreign language learners because this type shapes and sizes, of dictionary provides not only the meanings of words as some traditional dictionaries do, but also and hung them like the way words combine with other words, i.e. their ‘word combinations’. The word ‘collocations’ bangles in my mind. refers to the pair of words that are commonly used together in a particular language in a variety of contexts. As most language learners experience difficulty when trying to find the right way in Hortense Calisher which the word is expressed and are often misguided by the interference of their native language, a dictionary of collocations may indeed turn out to be very handy. For instance, the student wants to produce the following sentence in English: Bilgisayar oyununda savaşı kaybedince imparatorluğu dağıldı. This student looks in a bilingual dictionary (Turkish-English) for what ‘dağılmak’ might mean. Below is the dictionary entry for the word: dağılmak 1. to scatter; to Here is the sentence that the student has written: disperse, separate. 2. to spread; Since he lost the war in the computer game, his empire to be disseminated (rumors). 3. scattered. to fall to pieces; to be dissolved. The problem here is that the student, not knowing that 4. to become untidy. 5. pass. of the words “empire” and “scatter” do not collocate, selected dağıtmak. – ın! (mil.) Dismissed! the wrong definition from the bilingual dictionary. In –ım 1. (psych.) dissociation. fact, “scatter” is used rather with such things as books and 2. (chem.) dispersion. papers. (e.g. Books lay scattered all over the floor.) and not with ‘empires’. In such instances, it is helpful to look up which words are used in combination in a dictionary of collocations. TASK 5 Study the entry below taken from LTP Dictionary of Selected Collocations (1997) and evaluate its use and effectiveness in searching for the right word to go with ‘empire’. EMPIRE Having double-checked the meaning V: add to, belong to, break up, build, conquer, destroy, from a monolingual or bilingual dismantle, establish, expand, found, get rid of, give up, dictionary, the student should have govern, rule, rule over, set up ~ written the sentence as: V: ~ collapsed, came into being, came into existence, crumbled, disintegrated, embraced…, expanded, fell, Since he lost the war in the grew, lasted computer game, his empire A: ancient, business, far-flung, great, huge, mighty, _________________. powerful ~ P: decline of, downfall of, fall of, heyday of ~

98 Unit 2: Changing Communications THESAURUS Cartoon taken from: Wassman, R., & Rinsky, L.A. (1997).Effective reading Another useful type of dictionary is the thesaurus, which is also referred to as the in a changing world (2nd ed.). New Jersey: dictionary of synonyms. A thesaurus points at Prentice Hall. the fact that no word can have completely the same meaning in all contexts. It contains words and a list of other words that can be substituted for these words depending on the context they appear in. In a thesaurus, these alternative words may be accompanied by example sentences and their most likely or frequent collocations, so that users can easily select the word that reflects their intended meaning. Adapted from: Alperer, S., Eşit, C., Noyes Pehlivanoğlu, F., Sığınan, Ö., & Somuncuoğlu, Y. (2005). English for academic purposes I (Rev. ed.). In C. Eşit, & F. Noyes Pehlivanoğlu (Eds.). Ankara: METU Press. TASK 6 Examine the following entry for “change” in a thesaurus and count how many synonyms are provided both for the noun and the verb forms of the word. The number of noun equivalents for “change”: _______________ The number of verb equivalents for “to change”: _______________

Academic Survival Skills I 99 Using a thesaurus has many advantages to offer, yet it is also difficult for learners of English who are Important not native speakers and thus not fully competent in noticing the nuances between the synonyms. Reminder Therefore, it is suggested to the learners that they check the meanings and usages of the synonyms in a monolingual dictionary to use the alternative accurately. TASK 7 Read the following sentences and decide which synonym can best replace the verb “to change” in the particular context. Use the given dictionary entries for the chosen verbs provided in the boxes below. Consider the definitions of the verbs while replacing the original with the correct alternative. to modify to alter to vary to exchange 1. So with people spending so much time communicating online, how is this changing real-life social behavior? 2. The trousers my husband bought for me are too tight. I need to go to the store to change them. 3. Salary scales change from company to company. 4. After working as a university professor for many years, he learned how to change his teaching style according to his students’ needs.

100 Unit 2: Changing Communications Dictionary entries taken from: Alderson, A. (1985). The Oxford English – Turkish dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Edmonds, A. G., & Yayli, M. (1984). Redhouse dictionary. Istanbul: Redhouse Publication. Hill, J. (1997). LTP dictionary of selected collocations. Hove: Language Teaching Publications. Longman Corpus Network. (Ed.). (1995). Longman dictionary of contemporary English. Essex: Longman Group Ltd. Procter, P. (Ed.). (1995). Cambridge international dictionary of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Urdang, L. (Ed.). (1993). The Oxford thesaurus: An A-Z dictionary of synonyms. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wehmeier, S. (Ed.). (2000). Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (7th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.