WB Exercise 7

Now you are requested to prepare a written synopsis of the text, basing yourselves on the out-line of it that you have compiled in Exercises 4, 5 and 6.

Before you start preparing your report, we would consider that worth mentioning that a typical scientific report should comprise four basic narrative elements. Those elements are: 1) Title; 2) Introduction; 3) Main Body; 4) Conclusion.

The generalized functions of the said elements are as follows:

n Title - suggests the topic that follows, and can also be employed for advertising (as a slogan);

n Introduction - states the topic of the article, or clearly outlines the topics to be covered;

n Main Body - a series of paragraphs in each of which a separate subject is developed in detail; Main Body can include two streams: main issues arisen by other authors, and your (narrator’s) personal attitude;

n Conclusion (Summary) - sums-up the topic and/or offers an opinion, comments, recommendations, etc.

Given below are the offered sets of introductory constructions that may be recommended for the application in the respective parts of your presentation (report) scheme.

a) Introduction

- The text (article) points out …; - The author believes …; - The major point is …;

- The key-stone here is …; - The purpose / aim / intention of the report is to …;

- This is the paper concerning …

- This article contains / outlines / examines / assesses …

b) Main Body

· To state main issues arisen in the text:

- The first thing to be mentioned in this connotation is …;

- The text starts with the assumption that …; - To begin with, …; - First of all, …;

- Secondly / Then, …; - Thirdly / In the third place, …;

- Lastly / Last but not the least ….

· To note or declare (your) personal attitude:

- As I see it, …; - That goes without saying that …; - As far as I can judge, …;

- I would assume that …; - My opinion here is as follows: …;

- From my point of view, …; - Personally, I believe that …;

- To my way of thinking, …; - I am inclined to consider that ….

c) Conclusion

- On the basis of the points mentioned above, it would seem that …;

- It is therefore considered / obvious / recommended that …;

- To sum-up …; - Summarizing the foresaid, …;

- Taking everything into account, …; - In conclusion we should reconfirm that …;

- On the whole, …; - Finally, ….