E303B: English Grammar in Context II

Semester 2, 2017-2018

 

Please return your completed assignment to your tutor to arrive by the end of week 11.

 

This assignment, which is made up of three tasks, relates to your study of E303B Book 3 (Getting Practical: Evaluating everyday texts; Units 13, 15 &16 and the readings and activities associated with them.  It represents 20% of the overall continuous assessment score (or OCAS).

The overall objective of this TMA is to assess your skills of critical evaluation and interpretation of texts and comparing representations of events on the basis of grammatical evidence.

You are required to write no more than 1,500 words, but you will also need to present some of your findings in graphical or tabular form. Please indicate at the end of your essay the number of words you have used.

Before you start this assignment, refer to the general guidance on completing and submitting your assignments on page 41 in the course guides booklet that you have received with the package.

 

• Task 1 (selection of texts)

Choose two texts by native speakers/writers of English from two different registers: one text should be spoken (a natural conversation/dialogue between two or more speakers) about any subject taken from TV, radio, magazine, newspaper or any other source) and the other text should be written (academic prose) text in English taken from any academic source. The written text can be about any specialized subject (e.g. medicine, law, education, arts, politics etc.). Each text should be about 200-250 words in length. The texts you choose should be RECENT; i.e. published over the last 2- 3 weeks. You can access most daily newspapers, magazines or academic proceedings on the internet.

You should expect to spend a reasonable amount of time selecting your texts, as your choice of text will potentially affect the quality of your answer.  Do not be afraid to reject your initial choice if you come across something better, since you will inevitably have gained insights from the process of selection. However, you need to remember to leave yourself enough time to spend on the analysis of your chosen texts.

 

 

 

Important Notes:

1. Your chosen texts MUST be approved by your tutor to make sure they are the proper texts for the TMA, otherwise your TMA will not be accepted.
2. You should write an introduction to the TMA at the very beginning of the page on which you are beginning the TMA. Also, you should write a conclusion to the whole TMA at the end in which you sum up what you have done in the TMA and state your own evaluation and opinion of the TMA.
3. In an appendix attach a photocopy or a printout of the two texts you have used for analysis.
4. Indicate in a very clear manner the source and date of publication of each text.

 

1. • Task 2 (analyzing the experiential meanings with special reference to coherence and cohesive devices)

 

• You should type the two texts (200-250 words) in your TMA.

In this task you should analyze the experiential meanings in the two texts as outlined in Book 3, Unit 13, section 4 using the SFL aspects and analytical methodology. You can also refer to Unit 15 and 16 for more information, illustration and practice that are relevant to this TMA.

You need to clarify how cohesive devices are deployed to build experiential and interpersonal meanings to create a coherent text; how cohesive patterns are interpreted in relation to the contextual variable of mode and in terms of their role in building those experiential and interpersonal meanings and why certain uses of lexical cohesion make a text more or less effective.

 

1. • Task 3 (comparison of the 2 texts; 750-1000 word essay)

In this task you should write an essay (750-1000 words) in which you discuss, explain and compare the two media articles depending on the findings provided by the raw text analysis you performed in Task 2. You should suggest reasons for, and communicative effects of, the differences (i.e. differences in views and ideas of the same event/topic). You should illustrate your discussion/comparison with examples taken from the two texts you analyzed in Task 2.

 

Note: You can use tables, graphs and any other formats to do the tasks properly and make them convenient and easy to follow. You could also use appendices to tabulate the results of the 2 articles.

 

 

Using the e-library on campus:

Students are requested to visit the e-library on campus and use it to do their TMAs properly. They are also requested to show their tutor that they used the e-library in doing the TMA.

 

The following are guidelines on plagiarism:

If you submit an assignment that contains work other than yours without acknowledging your sources, you are committing plagiarism. This might occur when:

• Using a sentence or phrase that you have come across
• Copying word-for-word directly from a text
• Paraphrasing the words from the text very closely
• Using text downloaded from the internet
• Borrowing statistics or assembled fact from another person or source
• Copying or downloading figures, photographs, pictures or diagrams without acknowledging your sources
• Copying from the notes or essays of a fellow student

(Slightly adapted from OU document on quoting versus plagiarism)

 

 

It is important to remember that plagiarism is strictly barred and would be subject to punitive action by the Arab Open University.

 

Learning Outcomes of the TMA:

To be successful in doing your TMA, you are expected to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

1. the three aspects of functional grammar framework:  field, tenor, and mode and their relations in written English prose texts;
2. how experiential meanings are constructed in the grammatical angle of representation;
3. how readers can be directed towards making experiential meaning through what is emphasized or avoided in the text.
4. the major characteristics of English grammar, and how the language may be described and analyzed, using appropriate linguistic terminology (based broadly on a functional grammatical model);

5. the relevance of grammar to a range of real-life contexts;

 

and to have descriptive, analytical, cognitive, interpretation and communication skills to:

1. analyze and describe major grammatical structures in English, using appropriate terminology;
2. interpret the meanings made by writers who package and stage their texts in different ways;
3. interpret  written linguistic data, showing an understanding of how  grammatical forms relate to meaning;
4. construct a coherent argument, clearly focussed on the topic under discussion;
5. develop good academic practice in the acknowledgement of source material and  presentation of bibliographies;
6.   present written work to a high standard;
7. respond to tutor feedback about improving the effectiveness of written communication.
8. work independently, scheduling tasks and managing time effectively;
9.  make independent judgements;
10. assess the value of evidence critically (including simple statistical data).
11. construct coherent written arguments, supported by relevant evidence, appropriately referenced.