The Foreign Language Engineering Writer: What Makes a Readable Memo Report?  

Oleh:

Dalton, David F.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: The Asian ESP Journal vol. 4 no. 2 (2008), page 35-62.
Fulltext: Untitled4.pdf (356.08KB)

Isi artikel

Writing in a foreign language brings its own set of complex difficulties, not least that the structure, notions, and productive skills required by different genres are often not understood by writers writing in their native languages. They have to be taught. The purpose of this exploratory research is to analyze some of the linguistic and organizational elements of a typical degree-level document (memo report) produced in one of the engineering programs at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE with a view to describing some of the salient features which contribute to its level of “success” (readability) as judged by the subject teacher grading the document since part of the grade is given for language quality. (Here, teachers made comments related to “accurate grammar” and were able to identify text-based examples which they considered problematic.) Texts were analyzed according to quality of noun phrase formation; quality of infinitive clause formation and use in the context of text moves, and lexical range in the employment of the latter. Successful application of these features was a factor in the response of the content teacher to the language quality of the report. Data relating to the above will be presented and discussed in relation to how linguistic features can be aligned with the above-noted “success” for the subject lecturer. Recommendations will be made as to how the readability of such documents might be improved by better preparing students to produce them, in particular by developing a better understanding of the relevant genre.

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