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III. ASPECTS OF COHESION

Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence. It is related to the broader concept of coherence. A text is characterized as coherent if its constituent elements/ sentences follow on one from another in an orderly fashion so that the reader can make sense of the entire text. Cohesion is complementary to coherence and refers to the linking relationships between the elements of a text.

Cohesion can be defined as the links that hold a text together and give it meaning. In other words,cohesion describes the way a text is tied together by linguistic devices, such as conjunctions, substitution, parallel constructions and so on.

 

There are two main types of cohesion: 1) grammatical/ syntactical cohesion, concerned with sentence structure and 2) lexical, referring to the text wording.

Both spoken and written English use certain devices to provide cohesiveness in a text, to keep its meaning clear and to express it economically. A cohesive text is created in many different ways.

InEnglish, cohesive devices fall into five broad categories: reference, ellipsis, substitution, conjunctions, and parallelism (grammatical and lexical).

Text reference

A key feature of a continuous text is the use of reference words which tie different sentences together by making cross references backwards and forwards in the text.

There are three referential devices that can create cohesion:

- Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously mentioned – in order to avoid repetition. For example, ‘the tailor’ is replaced with the pronoun ‘he’ or ‘two girls’ with ‘they’, verbal phrases can be replaced with ‘to do so/ that’ etc. Anaphoric reference is also provided by formulas such as the abovementioned/ aforementioned or as stated previously.

E.g.: The managers of the abovementioned company often adopt production processes which give rise to unsatisfying jobs because it is cheaper for themto do so.

 

- Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphora: it is a reference forward in discourse. In other words, it occurs when something is introduced before it is identified in the text.

E.g.: Here he arrives, our long-awaited guest... Our dearcousin Mr. Collins!

 
 


Its eyes glinting like steel and its mouth salivating, the predator prepared to strike.

 
 


As is seen from the examples above, cataphoric reference is typical of emphatic sentences.

- Exophoric reference is used to describe a person, event or an abstract notion without identifying them (in contrast to anaphora and cataphora which do identify the nominated object). Thus, instead of introducing a notion, the writer refers to it by a generic word such as ‘everything’.

 

Among the linguistic devices of reference the major importance is given to pronouns and determiners:

Means of reference

Personal pronouns Possessive pronouns Demonstratives The definite article



I, it, me, he, we, them etc My, his, mine, its, our etc The

Near Far

This, these, here That, those, there

Here also belong such lexical units as comparatives, words ‘(an)other’, ‘both’, ‘(n)either’, ‘similar’, ‘same’ etc. For example:

Anaphoric reference

(1) If you don’t have a pen, you cam use mine.

(2) The collective security issues are off the agenda today. These are to be discussed at the coming summit in July.

(3) His reluctance to participate is the major reason for our failure. Another is bad luck.

 

(4) I had two versions of what might have happened. But neither proved plausible enough.

 
 


Cataphoric reference

(5) Some of these concepts, such as those of metaphor, image schema, and the like are covered in Chapter 2.

 

The use of the definite article deserves special mention. When the is used in a sentence, it is always a signal to the reader/ listener that the noun or phrase the article is attached to is identified either within the text itself or in the environment/ situation outside the text:

 

 

The main function of reference is to provide textual coherence by making the semantic relations between the elements of a text clear. However, when used incorrectly, reference can produce the opposite effect, i.e. cause ambiguity. For instance:

Anna told her that she should be more careful in future.

It is unclear what the reference word ‘she’ in the cited sentence refers to: the subject ‘Anna’ or the object – her interlocutor. So the wording of the sentence must be changed to take away the ambiguity. Thus, if ‘she’ refers to the interlocutor (Anna’s sister), the sentence can be altered in the following way:

Anna advised her sister to be more careful in future.

The other possible meaning can be expressed in the following way:

Anna said that she should be more careful in future.

Sometimes the original referent is not definitely stated in a text, which also causes problems. Consider the passage below.

The underclass, excluded from the consumer society, is likely to experience social, nutritional, and medical problems beyond those of the general community. However, they discourage them from counseling except for serious emergency cases.

The reference word ‘they’ seems to refer either to the nearest noun ‘(general) community’ – just like ‘those’ clearly refers to ‘medical problems’, or to the subject – ‘the underclass’. In both cases, it does not make sense. The same concerns the reference word ‘them’. To tackle the ambiguity, one should rewrite the second sentence, introducing the referent proper. For example:

The underclass, excluded from the consumer society, is likely to experience social, nutritional, and medical problems beyond those of the general community. However, even if medical facilities such as hospitals may be available, they discourage the underclass people from counseling except for serious emergency cases.

Or an ambiguous reference word can be omitted altogether:

The underclass, excluded from the consumer society, is likely to experience social, nutritional, and medical problems beyond those of the general community. However, the underclass people are discouraged from counseling except for serious emergency cases.

Sometimes a writer may need to refer to an extended stretch of text. This can be achieved by means of nouns with a very broad semantics capable of summarizing the corresponding text: statement, assumption, reasoning, suggestion, pledge, improvements etc. For example:

(1) Human language constantly keeps evolving in order to represent adequately man’s knowledge of the world and to meet the needs of human communication; its progressive development is going parallel to the evolution of the real world and man’s cognition. This assumption underlies most of today’s research works investigating into language semantics.

(2) In modern Britain, the class boundaries are no longer that rigid. National Curriculum ensures that all children in the country receive a core course of study. Civil servants are now more than ever accountable to the people. And the Establishment does not have any say in modern society. Another change that is getting evident these days is a gradual decline of RP.

So, a serious problem writers face while referencing is appropriate naming of the text they are making reference to. Thus, in the passage below the author chooses the term ‘reasoning’ which does not quite accord with the general meaning of the sentence it refers to:

The literature strongly suggests that cotton gowns offer nothing more than a false sense of security. This reasoning is supported by a recent study on the most economical and effective protection.

Rather, it would have been more correct to use the word ‘statement’, ‘assertion’ or ‘claim’.

Substitution

Substitution, like ellipsis, serves to avoid unnecessary repetition. Substitution consists in replacing one word or phrase with another.

Here, a word is substituted for by another, more general word.

E.g.: - Which ice-cream would you like?

- I would like the pink one.

The substitute word ‘one’ is used instead of repeating ‘ice-cream’. This works in a similar way to pronouns, which replace the noun while referencing. For example, ‘ice-cream’ is a noun, and its pronoun could be ‘it’:

(1) I threw away the ice-cream becauseit was dirty. (anaphoric reference)

(2) - How did you like the ice-cream? – Unfortunately, I dropped it, and it was the only one I had.

The second example contains both a reference word – the pronoun ‘it’, linking it back to the word ‘ice-cream’, and the substitution (‘one’). These should not be mixed up because they serve different purposes.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is employed when certain words or phrases which have previously been mentioned need to be repeated. In ellipsis, the redundant words are left out altogether.

A simple conversational example:

- Where are you going?- To town.

The full form of the reply would be: ‘I am going to town’.

A simple written example:

The younger child was very outgoing, the older much more reserved.

The omitted words from the second clause are ‘child was’.

4) Conjunctions/ discourse markers

Conjunction creates cohesion by means of linking words or discourse markers.

Various linking words and phrases express a relationship between the preceding and the succeeding sentences and paragraphs. The table below contains some common examples of such linkers.

Types of discourse markers Examples Discourse examples
Additive linkers (giving additional information) Furthermore Moreover In addition Besides Alongside Along with On top of this What’s more You can save yourself a full five per cent of interest with our new credit plan. Furthermore, we are offering no repayments for a year to customers who sign up before the end of the month.
Adversative linkers (introducing information which contrasts with what has been stated previously) Yet However Nevertheless On the other hand Your counsel has made a convincing case in mitigation. Nevertheless, we feel that in a case of this gravity the only appropriate option is a custodial sentence.
Causal linkers: a) introducing information providing reasons for the subsequent statement; b) introducing the result of previous information a) Because of… Due to… Owing to… On account of… b) Consequently As a result Therefore Hence Thus For this reason On account of constantly rising cost of fuel, more and more people are using public transport. Your repayments are now three months in arrears. Consequently, we have no option but to withdraw credit facilities immediately.
Comparative linkers:     a) Expressing similarity;   b) Expressing Difference Compare … In comparison   a) By analogy Similarly Equally In exactly the same way Just as Likewise b) Alternatively While Whereas As opposed to As distinct from In contrast (to) On the contrary The Court has almost unlimited power. Compare this to the position of the Secretary of State. The interior deserts have greater extremes of temperature than the west coast deserts. Similarly, the amount of rainfall varies considerably. The United States operates rigorous controls on mergers that promote new monopolies. In contrast, the UK takes a more neutral view of monopoly.
Concessive linkers (to concede a point contradicting the main argument of a sentence) Although Though Despite … In spite of … Despite often offering poor conditions and basic salaries, charities rarely have problems in recruiting staff.
Concluding linkers: a) At the end of a series of facts or comments;     b) at the end of the text   a) All in all Totally In sum In brief   b) By way of summary In summary To sum up To wind it up In conclusion To conclude All in all, there was little to demonstrate that those who managed schools were working very closely together. To sum up, the observations reported in the study clearly indicate that the technique is effective, but the morbidity is high.
Illustrative linkers (introducing detail, examples and explanation) For example For instance Such as Specifically Namely In particular By way of illustration For example, the island of Singapore has more native species of palm that the entire African continent does.   Study groups are being set up in three other subject areas, namely agriculture, architecture, and teacher training.
Temporal linkers (expressing a relationship of time or sequence) First of all Firstly, Secondly… Next Finally The last point … The troops trudged for weeks through the snowy wastes. Finally, as they were nearing the point of exhaustion, they saw the faint lights of the city

 

Here are some more commonly used words and phrases that express particular relationships in discourse and make a text cohesive.

· Cause: to affect, bring about, be the cause of, contribute to, have an effect on, facilitate, be a factor in, influence, precipitate, produce, provide, be responsible for, give rise to, underlie.

· Result: aftermath, consequence, effect, after-effect, side effect, end result, follow-up impact, outcome, sequel; to arise from, can be ascribed/ attributed to, derive from, develop from, flow from, follow from, grow out of, result in, stem from; accordingly, as a consequence/ result, consequently, hence, in consequence, thereby.

· Similarity: analogous, comparable, corresponding, equivalent, identical, parallel; to draw an analogy/ comparison/ parallel between …, use an analogy to …, compare (un)favourably with…, correspond closely/ roughly, can be identified with…, there is no parallel for …, without parallel (= no one is better).

· Difference orcontrast: contrasting, converse(ly), dissimilar, divergent, diverse, reverse; be contrary to …, quite the contrary, despite all evidence to the contrary …, discrepancy, there’s a wide divergence of…, far from …, the reverse of …, quite the reverse is true.

· Sequence: (indicating thatyou arestarting alist) Three/ the following issues need to beraised, it contains two types of …, the reasons are as follows, … in thefollowing/ two/ several ways, the major points are …, there are a number of reasons/ factors/ aspects …, there are three types/ classes/ species;

- (introducing items in sequence) to begin/ start with, first, in the first/ second/ third place, the latter – former, the one – the other, turning from… to…, the next/ further point, in addition, the final point/ class/ aspect…, the last but not least.

· Time: after a while (a short time), afterwards, at the same time, in the meantime, immediately, presently, shortly, meanwhile, soon, until, while, after, before, at the same time, more recently, on rare occasions, until very recently, quite often.

· Clarification: evidently, in fact, in other words, too, of course, that is to say.

· Illustration: As an example … consider, a classical example of …, examples include …, can be illustrated/ exemplified with …/ as follows, to take an example/ case, a case in point.

· Expressing reality: in fact, actually, as a matter of fact, in practice, the fact of the matter is that.

· Emphasizing ideas: anyway, atall events,certainly, clearly, obviously, doubtless, in any case, indeed, needless to say, in particular, in all probability.

· Summary: in short, on the whole, to summarize, in some respects, taking everything into account, all things considered, reviewing ….

· Expressingpersonal opinion: in my opinion, in my view, to my mind, to my way of thinking, personally I believe, it strikes me that…, I feel very strongly that…, I am inclined to believe that…, as far as I am concerned….

5) PARALLELISM

Lexical cohesion/ parallelism

Lexical parallelism is the cohesive effect achieved by a particular selection of vocabulary. In other words, lexical cohesion largely refers to the way in which related words are used to link elements of a text. In order to provide cohesion, the link of one sentence to another, writers can resort to the following techniques: repetition/reiteration, enumeration and collocation.

First of all, reiteration is basically created either by repetition of the same lexeme, or by the replacement of certain words/ phrases with lexical units having a more general meaning (e.g.: ‘man’ instead of ‘officer’, ‘miner’, ‘brother’ etc or ‘public transport’ instead of ‘bus’, ‘tram’ etc) to refer back to an item already mentioned. For instance:

(1) I’ve bought a computer and a printer. I set up the computer yesterday and the printer this morning.

(2) On Tuesday the shareholders planned to demand the director’s resignation. However, when they did, the man didn’t turn a hair.

In example (1), the same words ‘computer’ and ‘printer’ are used in both sentences. The definite article, which itself is a very important device of providing coherence, serves to manifest the semantic relations of co-reference between the repeated lexemes in the first and second sentences: ‘computer’1 and ‘computer’2 refer to the same object.

In example (2), the word ‘director’ is replaced with the general noun ‘man’ to refer to the same person. In such cases of reiteration, the definite article is often replaced with some other determiner, an indicative pronoun, for example.

E.g.: – Can you show me the way to the Cubicle Garden, please? – I’m sorry, I’ve never been to that place myself.

A general noun in cohesive function can also be accompanied by an attitudinal modifier, such as ‘dear’, ‘poor’, ‘little’ etc.

E.g.: Have you been to see Aunt Ann? The old girl’s getting quite shaky. – Yes, the poor old darling is 84, if a day!

Likewise, in order to avoid direct repetition, which is sometimes too obvious, a synonymous word or phrase can be used instead. This strategy is termed “elegant variation”.

E.g.: I’m sure she costs him a pretty penny in dress. – Well, such a lovely woman must have a decent frock to show off.

After taking a shot rest, George resumed the ascent of the peak. The climb was not that easy.

Antonymy can also create sentence cohesion, for antonyms actually share a number of semantic elements, too. Consider the passage below, where textual cohesiveness rests mostly on the relationship of semantic opposition.

Unlike his rightistpredecessor, the newly elected liberal president is not committed to the primacy of force in international relations. To promote global security, he relies mostly on negotiations and dialoguebilateral and multilateral – instead of unilateral military threats and force.

Enumeration implies the use of overt markers of sequence to manifest the connection between ideas. This technique can link ideas that are otherwise completely unconnected. Enumeration involves various semantic relations, for example:

- ordered series (May, July, October…);

- unordered lexical sets (window, roof, basement…);

- part to whole (wheel/ brake, car) etc.

Lexical cohesion can also be achieved by using sets of lexical items which belong to the same semantic field: rainbow, sunshine, cloud, rain, air etc. The cohesive effect of such sets/ pairs is achieved due to their tendency to share the same lexical environment, to occur in collocation with each other.

However, collocation as a technique of lexical cohesion implies a different phenomenon. This device rests on the use of a commonly paired or highly probable word to connect one sentence to another. Collocation employs related words that typically go together and repeat the same meaning: Once upon a time.

Lexical parallelism can also form other relational patterns in a text, sometimes overlapping with other cohesion techniques, for example with parallelism in syntactic structure.

Grammar cohesion/ parallelism

Parallel construction is one of the most powerful tools for organizing and presenting ideas.

Although one should try to avoid repeating words while composing a text, there exists another way of making a text cohesive and that is the use of similar grammar forms in related sentences, for example, the same tense or aspect, similar word order or repeating a particular grammatical form. For example:

(1) She is probably going to fail the exam. And she is probably going to blame her teacher.

(2) What is to guarantee that my orders are not changed?What is to guarantee thatthe attack is not annulled? What is to guarantee the attack is not postponed?

(3) To steal, yes. To eat well, yes. To murder, yes. To fight. No.

In example (3) above, the lexical and grammatical parallelism is deliberately violated for the sake of emphasis: the replacement of the word ‘yes’ by its antonym ‘no’ serves here to emphasize the last sentence, and namely provides a stark contrast to the preceding sentences. This is so called antithetic parallelism: when, for instance, the second utterance/ clause contrasts or denies the first one.

E.g.: Wise son maketh a glad father, But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother [Proverbs 10].

Normally, however, one should avoid sudden changes in grammar, unless for a dramatic effect. Grammatical forms should never be mixed as this often looks clumsy and can make a written text difficult to understand.

Incorrect:

I can’t wait to lie on the sand. Swimming in the sea is great. To sunbathe is something I would love to do as well.

Correct:

I can’t wait to be lying on the sand. Swimmingin the sea and sunbathing are great/ are things I would love to do (as well).

Briefly, one should observe the following basic rules for grammatical parallelism.

1) All elements in a list should take the same grammatical form. For example:

Incorrect:

At present, our association has: (1) no formal charter, (2) subsisting without a long-term organizational goal, (3) a seriously declining membership, (4) a large budgetary deficit, and (5) to collect a large amount of past-due membership fees.

Correct:

At present, our association: (1) lacks a formal charter, (2) subsists without a long-term organizational goal, (3) suffers from a seriously declining membership, (4) carries a large budgetary deficit, and (5) needs to collect a large amount of past-due membership fees.


2) In comparative constructions one should use parallel grammar forms. For instance:

Incorrect:

Helen enjoys jogging better than to run.

Correct:

Helen enjoys jogging better than running.

 

3) Elements joined by the verb to be or another linking verb should take the same grammatical form.

Incorrect:

To make that impossible demand is declaring open hostilities.

Correct:

To make (or Making) that impossible demand is to declare (or declaring) open hostilities.

 

4) Elements joined by correlative conjunctions (either… or, neither… nor, not only… but also, both… and) should take the same grammatical form.

Incorrect:

For you to get to Paris on time, we suggest either taking the morning flight tomorrow or to drive overnight right now.

Correct:

For you to get to Paris on time, we suggest either taking the morning flight tomorrow or driving overnight right now.

 

5) Coordinated words or phrases should belong to the same part of speech.

Incorrect:

The chairman was a pragmatist but fixated on the bottom line. (noun + participle)

Low proceeds and having to seek for a new commercial director have put the company at risk. (noun phrase + non-finite form)

Correct:

The councilman was pragmatic but budget-conscious. (two adjectives)

Low proceeds and the search for (or the necessity to search for) a new commercial director have put the company at risk. (two noun phrases)

 

6) Parallel clauses. Coordinated clauses should employ analogous structures.

Incorrect:

A newbie describes someone who is ignorant of an online environment, while a novice is being introduced generally for the first time. (The phrase ‘is being introduced...’ in the second clause is not parallel to the correlating element of the first clause – ‘describes someone who...’)

Correct:

A newbie describes someone who is ignorant of an online environment, while a novice describes someone who is introduced for the first time.

While using comparative or contrasting expressions to link parallel words, phrases and clauses (rather than, as opposed to, on the other hand, not, like, unlike, similarly, just as/so too etc), one should make sure that the grammatical forms of those elements match up.

Incorrect:

The staff approved the first request for funding, not the second presenter who requested funds.
Correct:

The staff approved the first request for funding, not the second one.

 

MAKING A COMMENT

1. Introduction

· The title of the article

The article is entitled/ headlined…

The title of the article I have read is…

· The author of the article; where and when the article was published

The author of the article is…

The article is written by…

It is (was) published in…

· The main idea of the article

The main idea of the article (text) under review is…

The article gives a comment on…

The article (under review) deals with…

The article is concerned with …

The article touches upon…

The article gives an account/ survey of…

The feature (article) discusses…

The purpose of the article is to give the reader some information on…

The aim of the article is to provide the reader with some material (data) on…

The article is aimed to elaborate the theme of…

The story aims to show…

The article which is headlined … comments on…

The article highlights a most debatable/ topical/ vital problem/ issue of today’s politics

The report is focused on…

The report concentrates our attention on…

The author considers/ analyzes/ tackles the problem of…

The choice of the theme was dictated by…

The story serves as an illustration of…

 

2. The main part: the content of the article

The author starts by telling the readers about/ that…

The author writes/ states/ stresses/ thinks/ points out that…

The article describes…

As pointed out by…/ in the article…

As far as … is concerned…

Further the author reports/ writes/ says that…

Reporting on … the author states/ claims/ alleges…

The author expresses a deep concern over…

The author is critical of…

The story runs as follows…

The article goes on to say that…

By way of example the author …

The author describes… as being…

The report dwells too much on the economic aspect of…

Further the author enlarges on/ upon the fact…

The author goes on to specify the details of…

The statistics provided in the article show…

Trying to support/ back up his claim, the author quotes/ refers to the latest statistics …

Still another point/ fact illustrates…

The fact remains that…

Another prominent/ noteworthy feature/ fact is…

Furthermore/ Moreover, it would be interesting to note that…

It deserves a special mention/ comment …

 

Summing up

· Conclusion

The author comes to the conclusion that…

The author draws the following conclusions…

So the author concludes…

So the author makes it quite clear that…/ the importance of

The message of the story is…

The text conveys the author’s idea…

It is quite evident/ apparent/ certain/ generally accepted/ assumed that…

The information/ evidence given in the article makes you believe that…

So the problem evokes much controversy.

The problem is rather controversial.

Thus, … still seems a vital problem.

Thus, … still is a factor of importance.

· Your opinion of the article.

I find the article interesting/ important/ dull/ of no value/ too hard to understand…

Here are some other useful expressions for reviewing articles:

There is a considerable divergence of opinions among…

Opinions differ widely on the problem of…

One meets different lines of approach to…

The author proceeds from the assumption that …

The author gives a better insight into…

It is subject of considerable debate and deserves a careful study

The author has conducted a number of studies which …

The author defines the main tendencies of…

The author managed to draw a distinction/ discover differences between…

The influence of… on… remains to be investigated.

A detailed survey reveals that… and testifies to …

A common practice of referring to … as…

The same tendency shows itself/ appears in …

From available evidence it seems that…

Words cited above contain evidence on…

The author’s opinion is based on observations of…

The same view was expressed in …

The same conclusion was reached by…

One may postulate that…

The supposition was supported by relevant evidence/ an exhaustive list of ….

There has been a good deal of discussion about why…

The experts are (not) in agreement about …

One should attach special importance to…

This one reason is strong enough to establish the proposition …

One of the most distinctive features of… is…

In this connection, it is interesting to observe how…

It is further complicated by the fact that …

The problem is obscured by the fact that…

The outstanding peculiarity of … is that…

It is partly for this reason that…

It hardly needs mentioning that…

Needless to say, …

It is (not) possible to ascribe … to…

If these things are found to be the case, we can say that…

The line of demarcation between … and … is sharply drawn (not clear).

The most distinctive characteristic of…

This phenomenon has yet to be fully investigated.

One thing, at all events, is clear…

With regard to.../ Seen from this angle… the facts are clearer.

 

SAMPLES

1) The article headlined “Why the War” was published in The Times on September 25, 2003. It comments on one of the most burning issues of world politics. The author Robert Skidelsky, who is a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords and professor of political economy at Warwick University, expresses a deep concern over the situation in the Middle East in connection with the US military operation in Iraq and tries to reveal the true motives for the war.

To begin with, Robert Skidelsky highlights the history of the two countries’ relations, calling the reader’s attention to certain aspects which are normally neglected by both mass media and political analysts. And namely, he focuses on the personalities of the Iraqi and US leaders, their responsibility for the growing controversies. Specifying his personal vision of the problem, the author is not apt to take sides in the conflict. Thus, he claims that Saddam seems to be the curb-stone of the contradiction. At the same time, the professor is rather critical of the US policies in the region, moreover, he is outraged by the US ultimatum.

In conclusion the author states that he has failed to find arguments to justify the war. On the contrary, he believes that a military operation can hardly be regarded as a proper means of settling a conflict. I quite agree with Robert Skidelsky and think that politicians who don’t seek political ways to solve international controversies should be placed responsible for numerous casualties, both military and civilian, suffered in wars.

 

2) The article under review is headlined “A Deaf Ear to the Deaf”. It was issued in The Moscow Times on October 12, 2013. It is a feature which is concerned with the activities of an extraordinary Moscow theatre – a new theatre for the deaf. It highlights a few interesting issues related to Moscow’s cultural life and at the same time aims to call the readers’ attention to most vital problems of invalids.

The theatre was organized at the city’s Specialized Institute for the deaf, the company including graduate students of the Institute. Lately they have staged a few plays, each being a great success. The stage director of the theatre claims that the deaf are in no way different from other people and, thus, can act on the stage no worse than hearing actors. Moreover, in his opinion, the actors don’t face any difficulty in communicating with the audience. In this respect their theatre is as worthy as any other theatre. So it’s unfair and even cruel to disregard creative abilities of people with some physical defects and exclude them from real work and cultural life, actually turning them into outcasts.

Furthermore, the article tackles another problem that deserves public attention, i.e. the problem of unemployment that the majority of physically challenged people face. The theatre has solved it for at least a dozen students, the author states. In this connection, the author hopefully concludes that it may be a good start.

Needless to say, that the article tackles a very important problem which is especially relevant to contemporary Russia. The material provided by the author inspires hopes that something is being done in this direction, though I personally can’t share completely his optimism.

ACADEMIC WRITING

In academia, writing and publishing is conducted in several sets of forms and genres, like essay, précis, abstract etc.

Writing in these forms or styles is usually serious, intended for a critical and informed audience, based on closely-investigated knowledge, and posits ideas or arguments. It usually circulates within the academic world, but the academic writer may also find an audience outside via journalism, speeches, pamphlets, etc.

Typically scholarly writing has an objective stance, clearly states the significance of the topic, and is organized with adequate detail so that other scholars could try to reproduce the results. Strong papers are not overly general and correctly utilize formal academic rhetoric.


Date: 2016-01-14; view: 2795


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