Punctuation

Comma [ppt]

(For more information follow this link)

Paragraph Writing: The Basics

Biays J. Along These Lines. Chapter 1 [pdf]
[Paragraph structure]
[Comparison&Contrast paragraph]
[This is NOT a comparison/contrast paragraph]
[Sample Classification Paragraph]

Course Program [doc]

Research Writing Topics 2010

1. Effectiveness of the testing system (UKMA case study)

2. UKMA internship VS charity contribution for the university development

3. Ecological aspects of the campus life (UKMA case study)

4. Living in UKMA dormitories VS renting a room

5. The role of donators in the UKMA life

6. Educational process (UKMA case study)

7. Students' employment (UKMA case study)

8. Nutrition possibilities for UKMA students

9. Effectiveness of the student self-governance (UKMA case study)

10. Academic integrity and the students' responsibility (UKMA case study)


Optional topics:
Juvenile problems.

Swales John M., Feak Christine B. Academic writing for graduate students

To be used only for studying purposes.

Segal Margaret, Pavlik Cheryl. Interactions One: A Writing Process Book

To be used only for studying purposes.

How to write a course paper in one night [pdf]

Paper template [zip]

To be used only for studying purposes.

Reference Book in Academic Writing for Graduate Students

CONTENTS

UNIT 1 ...4
Academic Writing Style ...4
1. The Differences between Spoken and Written Language ...4
2. Levels of Formality ...8
UNIT 2 ...11
Paragraph Writing ...11
1. Paragraph Structure ...11
2. Unity. Coherence. Development. ...16
UNIT 3 ... 27
Essay Writing ...27
1. Organization of the Essay ...27
2. The Introductory Paragraph ...27
3. The Concluding Paragraph ...28
4. Argumentative Essay ...30
5. Argumentation Designs ...32
6. The Writing Product ...33
7. Checklist of Essay ...34
8. Sample Argumentative Essay ...35
UNIT4 ...38
Research Paper ...38
1. What Is Research? ... 38
2. Steps in Writing a Research Paper ...38
4. Paraphrase ... 41
5. Summary ...44
6. Texts for Note-Taking, Paragraphing and Summarizing ...49
7. Annotated Research Paper ...55
8. Research Paper Abstracts ...62
SUPPLEMENT ...66
Comparison of Punctuation Marks Usage in English and Ukrainian ... 66
APPENDIX ...77
MLA STYLE of DOCUMENTATION ...77
Index of MLA Style Features ...77
Basic Features of MLA Style ...79
Literature Used ... 96

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Symbols for Common Errors

Classification Paragraph

Dmytro Drozdovskyi, group # 1

All the dramatic works of William Shakespeare fall under three traditional periods: 1590-1594, 1594-1601, and 1601-1609. However, the history plays of this writer can be also divided into three main groups but not according to their chronology. In fact, the parts of the histories were not created one after another; for example, there was a ten-year chronological distance between Henry VI and Henry VIII. Nevertheless, the history plays belong to three main groups: connected with the Lancaster’s last king, the conflicts with the York dynasty, and the blossom of the Lancaster’s monarch family. The fist type of dramas represents the histories that depict the confrontation with Richard II and the historical battles of this time connected with the White and Red Roses. The second category can be characterized as the one that depicts the last member of the rival house of York as an evil monster, “a depiction disputed by many modern historians, while portraying his usurper, Henry VII in glowing terms.”[1] The last kind of the Shakespearean chronicles ends with an effusive celebration of the birth of Elizabeth. However, “Shakespeare's celebration of Tudor order is less important in these history dramas than the spectacular decline of the medieval world. Moreover, some of Shakespeare's histories—and notably Richard III—point out that this medieval world came to its end when opportunism and ‘machiavellism’ infiltrated its politics.”[2] To conclude, we can underline that all the history dramas of W. Shakespeare explain the British historical reality in the Renaissance period and represents the historical conflicts and mechanisms of finding the compromise to create the glorious image of England. The histories made Shakespeare the greatest humanist of the English Renaissance literature.

[1] Traversi, Derek. Shakespeare: the Young Dramatist and the Poet // The Age of Shakespeare, vol. 2. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. P. 281.
[2] Ibid. P. 282.

A Fairy-Tale and a Cartoon

Alona Yemlyutina

Make some pop corn, magic horn!

There was a couple advanced in years who lived in conditions of insolvency. like all people of that age, they were not able to work neither to earn their living, but to ask for help from others.

When spring came, the woman sent her husband to saw some millet in the fields so they could have kasha in addition to crusts. So he did. As the grains started to sprout, the man became very glad of it. But one day he found the plants trampled down by a stork. This scene made the man absolutely vexatious. He went home and told his wife about losses they suffered. Recognizing their desperate situation, the woman remembered about the gun they had and decided to shoot that stork down so they could have meat instead of kasha. So the man went into fields hunting for the stork. As he saw the bird as he had expected, the man was already going to make a shot while the stork started to speak with a human voice to the man. It turned out not to be aware of the fact that the millet belonged to a local peasant. He asked to forgive him and gave a bundle as a compensation for the caused damage. First the man thought it was a trick, but the bird insured him that this was a magic bundle. One should have asked it to untwist and to provide food and drinks with code words "Satisfy our hunger, almighty bundle!" and so this happened in a moment. Also the mentioned procedure took place if the asker desired the blanket to roll up and items to be hidden. Wishing to go convinced of the bundle's magic abilities, the man pronounced those words, and an extraordinary event happened. An abundance of foodstuff appeared in front of him that he had never seen before. Having satisfied his hunger, the man went home to share his feelings of excitement with his wife. The magic bundle was considered by the old woman as a salvation in conditions of food disaster, so she proposed to call together all the local countrypeople who were suffering lack of food. Thus many people from around became permanent visitors of the old couple's every day dinner.

Once, one of the local landowner's employees found out about the magic bundle and informed his chef of that phenomenon. The reaction of the landowner was a sudden intention to confiscate the bundle from those people (which was easy considering their unprotected position) on the grounds that there should not be a single person who could have more or better food than he had. So he went to the village. The peasant could not hide the fact so he told his story and showed the bundle in its action to the landowner. The man had no desire to be deprived of his bundle, but he had no choice as he was proposed two variants of settling the matter. One of them was to give it to the landowner and to get a plenty of ordinary food in return; and the other was to go apart with it by means of force and contra damage.

Having returned to his residence, the landowner forgot of his proposition. He invited guests with dense regularity entertaining them with his new gain.

Following the advice of the woman, her husband went to the landowner's house to remind him of the food he had promised. By getting there the man was refused in meeting his request. Also as a bad welcome the man was given an assault by the order of the landowner.

Bearing desperate feelings, the man went to look the stork in hope to get another magic food-bundle. And when he met the bird and informed it of what had occurred, he got another magic item - the silver horn.

Next day the horn of mystery function became to be another object of the landowner's interests. Willing to know what kind of valuable thing it provided, the landowner run into quite unexpected transformations. After the man said the code words "Make some pop corn, magic horn!" twelve Ninjas* appeared to provide a task of punishing all antagonists in this story. Only when the landowner agreed to leave the land without any luggage, the punishment was over.

*In Japanese history, a ninja (忍者) is a warrior specially trained in a variety of unorthodox martial arts.

3rd Feb. 2009

The Hedgehog in the Fog: I and the big Other

"The Hedgehog in the Fog" cartoon of 1975 contains the recognition of the postulate that a human being is afraid and not well known of himself. This psychological fact which is quite of a problematic nature is revealed in a person of a little forest animal - the hedgehog.
The usual every night occupation of this character is counting stars with the Bear, a close friend of the Hedgehog. The stars-engagement for them is like watching a movie. They do not consider the sky as the inaccessible celestial body. The Friends contingently divide it twain in order to specify and appropriate this extra-earth challenging screen by exacting stars in it. This mathematical meditation is usually accompanied with the tea ritual. Such a way of spending the night time is hardly to be referred to work and neither to entertainment. The author apparently offers to consider this a lifestyle. In any case, denomination of joy is evident. To make a new perception of it, life circumstances collide the Hedgehog with a series of unplanned experiences. Unexpectedly for himself, the animal meets his phobias and weaknesses and if does not resolve, then at least asks some questions about his personality.
From the very acquaintance with the character, a viewer feels the rhythm of his mind. The animal thinks about upcoming meeting with his friend, about high suitability between raspberry jam and tea and mainly about the increased emotional tone of the Bear as a result of this jam investment. This last dream is particularly valid in view of the fact that the Bear is a well-known adherent of sweet food. The Hedgehog is absolutely lost in reverie about the forthcoming smell of juniper twigs in the fire and the visual amusement which he used to find in the object of the sky.
The Hedgehog meets with new sensations connected with the extra-high humidity in the Forest. The next few minutes they are supplemented with an aesthetically-social impression which is provoked by the sudden appearance of a white horse. Simple but quite an absurd question arises in the mind of the Hedgehog, which concerns the ability of the Horse to drown in the Fog in case of falling asleep. An attempt of the protagonist to address the Horse does not cause any reaction in the recipient. The Fog significantly obstructs the perception of visual information. So the Hedgehog makes an auditory effort to identify the location of the Horse. But instead he finds himself surrounded by the aggressive sounds of the Forest and the Night. The feelings of the animal are focused on fear. The context is filled with images of negative nature. The imagination of the Hedgehog generates the presence of undefined beings and physical confrontation with them.
A tree of a big size appears to be one of those beings. It draws attention of the Hedgehog with its parameters and puts the animal in state of the Other. A brown leaf falls from the Tree, and starting from this moment the voice of the Bear calling for the Hedgehog is periodically heard in the forest. The notice of losing the valued jam suddenly interrupts the research interest of the Hedgehog. Fear mixes with hopelessness. The Hedgehog understands that he has lost his way. There comes a state of panic and inability to control the situation. The animal finds impermanent comfort in the functional assistance of a firefly as a possibility to determine the boundaries of what is visible. But the insect is not stable and effective enough in conditions of the Forest.
The Distant voice of the Bear periodically returns the Hedgehog into a usual condition. However, the Forest keeps occupying a dominant position in the perception of the animal. In addition to fear of owls and bats, the Hedgehog is frightened of such forest creatures as the snail and elephant. Anxiety and hopelessness become the only feelings of his. The need for reality and certainty increases. The voice of the friend of the Hedgehog is joined with the man's best friend, the dog. It is obvious for a viewer that it does not feel disoriented in the bad weather conditions. It is even valid to say about irony in the behaviour of the Dog over the state of the Hedgehog. The Smiling Dog is a new look at this situation as a paranoid one. But even this sign does not sober the Hedgehog. Having fallen into cold water, he concludes that he has appeared in the river and allows himself to surrender to the flow. As the river flows, the visual information the Hedgehog gets constantly changes. Besides the animal is wet, there is a probability to drown. The horse emerges in his mind, and the Hedgehog keeps confidence. This is an important and unclear moment in this cartoon. The Hedgehog is not in a fear condition any more. Once again he faces with a certain being, but it does not frighten him. However, this contact is of a different nature. First, it is tactile. Second, it takes place in the water of unknown origin. This Being asks the Hedgehog a simple question: "Who are you?"
Doubts about the social equality, which were provoked by dichotomies - "the Hedgehog - the Owl", "the Hedgehog - the Night", "the Hedgehog - the Forest" - are replaced by realization of a clear fact that the Hedgehog is a hedgehog and he has just fallen into the river.
Since his fall, the viewer notices not only the disappearance of fear in his behaviour, but the entire emotionality of his. Upon arrival at the shore, the Hedgehog expresses gratitude to the Being in a very formal tone. In a short time, the Bear appears in the narrative. He greets his friend excitedly with questions about his long absence, accompanying this with telling about preparations for the night of their plan. The figure of the Bear almost explodes the situation with vitality. The time, the smells around, the taste of jam, the temperature of the air - everything becomes clearer. But the Hedgehog does not alter by the activity of the Bear. In the emotional sense, we can state the loss of his image. Despite the unique form and content, this cartoon provokes contrast reactions in a viewer. The ambiguity is in determining the exact image of the Hedgehog, and specifically in changes he has bared. Among the assumptions, we can conclude two versions:
1. The Hedgehog has a fragile sensuous constitution. After the emotional experiences of the Forest, he is suffering a temporary autism.
2. Being relatively small in size and unable to resist psychologically the stress subjects, the Hedgehog did not survive in the Forest environment.
The state of being alone can make significant changes in a man. Instinctively, the individual tries to avoid this in personal and public relationships. In other words, people are creatures of couple and social nature. At such a state of things, friendship and love and expression of other human feelings are the main components of the living sense, equally as the ability to see the sense in a matter of stars.

17 Jan. 2010

Koza-Dereza (The Contrary Nanny Goat)

Olha Maksymchuk
Group 1

According to the History of Ancient Ukraine, there was a family which consisted of four members: two males (the Chronologically Advanced Man and his Son) and two females (the Chronologically Advanced Woman and the Goat). The main role in it was played by the Chronologically Advanced Man. This is a breach of personal rights of female persons and can be considered as a type of gender discrimination. Although three members of the family worked hard (two males and one female), they did have certain financial needs. That is why the family counsel decided to send the second female person (the Goat) to graze on a meadow every day.
Firstly, the Son led the Goat to graze. In the evening the Chronologically Advanced Man put on his red shoes, which was the family relic, came to the gate and asked the Goat what she had eaten and drunk during the whole day. The Goat answered that she had eaten nothing but a small leaf and had drunk nothing but a drop of water. The head of the family got angry and banished his Son. Next day the Chronologically Advanced Woman went to graze the Goat. The end of their journey was the same as in the case with the Son. Finally, the breadwinner noticed that something in the Goat’s words was wrong. According to her complaint she might have starved, but day after day she was gaining extra weight. The Chronologically Advanced Man did not have the right to accuse the Goat of lying without any proofs. So he decided to graze the Goat by himself. Since it is offensive to goats to call them stupid animals we just announce that our Goat was not very smart and at the end of the day repeated the same complaint to her master. He realized he had been cheated by his pet, banished the Goat and returned the Son and the Chronologically Advanced Woman home.
The Goat escaped to the forest, found someone’s house, and settled there. In that house the Hare lived. He was a lawyer and knew that the Goat’s action could be qualified as a crime of capture of another person’s dwelling. The Hare phoned immediately to the police and asked for help. They sent to the place of crime their police officer. The Hare was not gender prejudiced and hoped that aesthetically pleasant uniformed Ms. Fox would be success to arrest the burglar. But she failed. Two other police officers, whose names were Wolf and Bear (both males), did not reach the success either. The last officer was a veteran of anti-terrorist service, the crayfish with an amputation (he had only one pincer). Despite his physical disability, he managed to pinch the Goat. According to the law it was a kind of corporal punishment. The Goat was arrested and put into prison. The happy Hare thanked all of those who took part in that operation and invited them for a cup of tea.