ELC 2010 LexicoGrammatical Patterns in English Scientific Abstracts

ELC 2010 Lexico-Grammatical Patterns in English Scientific Abstracts: presenting the research’s purposes and results Carmen Dayrell Arnaldo Candido Jr. Stella Tagnin Sandra Aluísio DLM ICMC / NILC

Context English for Academic Purposes l Academic communication poses real challenges fo novice researchers(Hyland 2009: ix) l Demands are heavier for non-native speakers of English(Hyland 2009: 5, Milton and Hyland 1999, Vold 2006) Difficulties relate to: l lexicaland syntacticalfeatures of the target genre l rhetoricalmotivations behind linguistic choices l Disciplinaryvariation l Culturaldifferences across languages

Context Local Context l Courses on English academic writing l Writing tools for non-native speakers of English Assistgraduate studentsto write scientific papers in English

Context Courses on English Academic Writing 2004 to 2010 l USP l l l Department of Physics (IFSC) Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF) Department of Computer Science (ICMC) l UNESP l IBILCE Dentistry and Biology/Genetics l UFSCar l Department of Biology /Genetics

Context Writing tools: Scipo-Farmácia (http: //www. nilc. icmc. usp. br/scipo-farmacia/) Abstracts Background Gap Purpose Methodology Results Conclusion

Context Writing tools: Scipo-Farmácia (http: //www. nilc. icmc. usp. br/scipo-farmacia/) Examples from published abstracts

Context Why Abstracts? Relevant in various academic contexts However … (Swales &Feak 2009: xiii) Constructing an efficient, clear abstract is a fairly difficult task, even for experienced an widely published writers In Brazil: Abstracts are part of most research papers written in Portuguese as well as Ph. D and master’s dissertations

Purpose General Objective Investigate the potential differences between. English abstractswritten by Brazilian graduate students vis-à-vis abstracts taken from publishedpapers from the same disciplines

Purpose Aim of this study To investigate the recurring lexico-grammatical patterns used for presenting either the purposes or resultsof the research

Rhetorical ‘moves’ in abstracts Purpose Swales and. Feak (2009: 5) Background / Introduction Purpose Methods / Materials / Subjects/ Procedures Results / Findings Discussion / Conclusion / Implications / Recommendations

Purpose Lexico-grammatical patterns The AIM of this STUDY the present aim purpose objective goal aims objectives purposes study work investigation article research project paper

Corpora Student Abstracts Physical Sciences and Engineering ST-EXA Abstracts: Tokens: Average. Number Words(ANW): Life and Health Sciences ST-BIO 169 138 34. 151 27. 911 202

Corpora Student Abstracts Physical Sciences and Engineering Disciplines # texts Physics 85 Computing 46 Earth Sciences 20 Engineering 18 169 Life and Health Sciences Disciplines # texts Dentistry 47 Pharmaceutical. Scs. 39 Biology 21 ST-BIO Biophysics 21 Bioengineering 5 Biomedical. Scs. 5 138

Corpora English Abstracts Physical Sciences and Engineering Life and Health Sciences Disciplines ST PB Physics 85 425 Dentistry 47 235 Pharmaceutical Scs. 39 195 Biology 21 105 Bioengineering 5 25 Biomedical. Scs. 5 25 138 690 Computing 46 Earth Sciences 20 Engineering 18 169 230 100 90 845 ST-BIO Biophysics

Corpora Published Abstracts Physical Sciences and Engineering Abstracts Tokens Average. Number Words(ANW) Life and Health Sciences PB-EXA PB-BIO 845 690 139. 591 159. 940 165 231

Corpora Published Abstracts l Taken from papers published by various leading academic journals (CAPES - QUALIS A) l Preference given to authors affiliated to universities in English speaking countries

Methods Methodology 1. Identification ofrhetorical moves 2. Identification and comparison of lexico-grammatical patterns in ‘purposes’and ‘results’

Methods a) 1. Identifying Rhetorical Moves Automatic tagging AZEA (Argumentative. Zoning for. English Abstracts) (Genovêset al. 2007) • • • a corpus-basedmachine learning system PURPOSE: to automaticallyidentify components of theschematic structureof scientific abstracts in English Background Gap Purpose Methodology Result Conclusion AZEA achieved 80. 4%accuracy (kappa 0. 73) using a very small training corpus

Methods AZEA’s features Basic Features 1. Sentence Length 2. Position within the abstract 3 -5. Verb Tense, Voice and Modal 6. Previous Component 7 -8. Formulaic patterns 14 additional features to distinguish between. Resultsand Methodsand improve accuracy

Methods Azea-Web http: //www. nilc. icmc. usp. br/azea-web/

Methods 1 a. AZEA tagging <purpose>We propose a Local-Density approximation to calculate the entanglement entropy of the inhomogeneous on dimensional Hubbard model. </purpose> <background>Such inhomogeneitycan be due to the finite size the presence of impurities, or the periodic variation of the interaction and the external potential, assuperlattices in. </background> <purpose>We show that, toinhomogeneitiesdue to finite size, our approximation reproduces the know thermodynamic limit and also the limit of the entanglement entropy in n=1, obtain by Cardy and Calabrese. </purpose>

Methods 1 b. Manual Validation <purpose>We propose a Local-Density approximation to calculate the entanglement entropy of the inhomogeneous on dimensional Hubbard model. </purpose> <background>Such inhomogeneitycan be due to the finite size the presence of impurities, or the periodic variation of the interaction and the external potential, assuperlattices in. </background> <result>We show that, toinhomogeneitiesdue to finite size, our approximation reproduces the know thermodynamic limit and also the limit of the entanglement entropy in n=1, obtain by Cardy and Calabrese. </result>

Methods Manual Tagging: Correcting sentence break <purpose>We finda. Rb/a. Na =1. 959(5), </purpose><background>a. K/a. Na =1. 786(6), </background><purpose>and a. Rb/a. K=1. 097(5). </purpose> <result>We finda. Rb/a. Na =1. 959(5), a. K/a. Na=1. 786(6), anda. Rb/a. K=1. 097 (5). </result>

Methods Manual Tagging: multi-labels <purpose>Using whole-cell rapid-agonist application techniques and the cell-attached singl -channel recording configuration, we examined human 5 -HT 3 A(QDA) receptors expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells</purpose>. <method>Using whole-cell rapid-agonist application techniques and the cell-attached sing -channel recording configuration, </method> <purpose>we examined human 5 -HT 3 A(QDA) receptors expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. </purpose>

Methods Lexico-grammatical patterns 1. Semi-automatic identification of patterns: Wordsmith. Tools 5 (Scott 2007) • Starting point: Most frequent items and cluster in each corpus • Analysis of the surrounding context • Patterns should occur at least once per 10, 000 words in either corpus 2. Comparison of frequencies significance Statistical test of

Results Overall … Significant differences: • Between student and published abstracts • Across the two broad areas

Results PURPOSE: Life and Health Sciences (BIO) The AIM of this STUDY the present the aim objective purpose aims objectives aim purpose objective goal aims Objectives purposes intent our study work review paper study work Investigation Article Project Research Clinical trial paper

Results PURPOSE: Life and Health Sciences (BIO) (In this. STUDY), we VERB (the/a) REPORT DESCRIBE INVESTIGATE SHOW ANALYSE EVALUATE DETERMINE … INVESTIGATE EXAMINE REPORT PROPOSE TEST HYPOTHESIZE DESCRIBE PRESENT SEEK TO ANALYSE EVALUATE DEMONSTRATE …

Results PURPOSE: Physical Sciences and Engineering (EXA) 1. The AIM of this STUDY 2. This STUDY VERB 3. (In this. STUDY), we VERB (the/a)

Results RESULTS: 1. Results. VERB (that/the) e. g. The results show that 2. we VERB (that/the) e. g. we found that

Contributi ons Main Contributions 1. Pedagogic applications a) Syllabus b) Teaching material 2. Development of writing tools

Contributi ons Pedagogic applications Overuseand underuse l Patterns l Results VERB(that/the) l BE PARTICIPLE to VERB (e. g. was found to be ) l Items within patterns It BE observedthat X It BE shown/found that

Contributi ons Writing Tools: AZEA Manual validation AZEA++ New features to be considered: • Lexico-grammatical patterns • Multi-labels • Disciplinary variations

Future Work Writing Tools Physical Sciences and Engineering Life and Health Sciences

ELC 2010 Thank you!