Seminar 2

Seminar 2

The seminar starts with the discussion of the mistakes in the test that students did last time.

Sentence 2: I have worked for this company for more than thirty years. – It is necessary to use Present Perfect Simple because the action started in the past and has lasted till the present and the period is long enough to be described as a process. If you used the form “have been working” – Present Perfect Continuous – it is not theoretically a mistake but the use of Present Perfect Simple is more justified.

Sentence 6: Sam was trying to change the bulb when he slipped and fell. – We use Past Continuous in the first part of the sentence because this is a process and to other action happened while this process lasted.

Sentence 7: In the last sentence – “However, this morning I got up at 6.30, skipped the breakfast, and left for work late because I had forgotten to set my alarm” – in the end, we use Past Perfect, as this is the action that happened before other actions in the past.

Sentence 9: We use Future Perfect in the sentence as the action will have completed BY a certain moment in the future, thus, the present and the future are connected with each other.

Sentence 12: Mary is the correct answer to the question, as far as we usually use Future Simple for offers and promises, and use Present Continuous or Future Continuous, to describe our intentions and actions in the future.

Sentence 14: The correct answer is Mary because we use Present Continuous with the adverb “always” to describe an action that happens too often and bothers or annoys us.

For the next class the students are recommended to do the online exercises the links to which can be found on ÕIS and at the next seminar ask the lecturer about the points that they still fail to understand. This assignment is crucial as far as grammar exercises on the revision of the tenses will be included into the test.

The seminar goes on with the discussion of the text “How to identify a “good” journal”? (The text of the article can be found on ÕIS) The students are encouraged to reflect on the points they agree or disagree with. Finally the students are challenged to think about the list of factors they are supposed to consider when choosing a good journal.

The summary of the discussion by other groups (I kindly advise that you should first read the text of the article and form your own opinion, and only after that read the summary):

Wiki should be a starting point of the search for a good journal thank to a substantial number of references its articles contain. However, it should be treated with a reasonable degree of scepticism. A researcher should avoid clicking down on too many links as every next link lowers the degree of reliability.

A long history and a good reputation of the journal is essential. A researcher may ask for advice from the specialists in the field.

The fact that the journal is peer-reviewed certainly adds credibility but the reputation and publication history of the reviewers is still important.

If we deal with an online journal then the number of followers may help in understanding the trustworthiness of the journal

The availability of the printed version adds to the journal’s quality

The length of the articles that are included into the journal and the number of authors for each article gives young researcher information about the quality of the journal. Good scientific articles are at least 5 pages long and have at least 2 authors. The title of the article should not be too short and should comprise at least 5 words.

In general, a researcher should consider all the information with a certain degree of scepticism.

At the end of the seminar, the strategies for gist writing are discussed. The text about gist writing can be found on ÕIS. The students are recommended to read the text and reflect on that as we will be doing with gist writing at the next class

Assignment 3: find 3 scientific articles on a certain topic related to the speciality – 16.02.2012 (In order to feel more confident in choosing the topic for the articles, the students are recommended to read the text “How to choose a research problem” – can be found on ÕIS)

Homework:

Prepare to present the slideshow and write a gist of your partner’s presentation in class. Get familiar with three scientific articles for the group work at the next class and do tense revision exercises