Writing Essays in English Language Report (Assessment)

Murray, N 1960, Writing Essays in English language and Linguistics: principles, tips, and strategies, for undergraduates, Cambridge University Press, New York.

Key terms

Hedging can be defined as the use of words or phrases which express uncertainly of the speaker.

Bias is a prejudiced attitude that is not usually backed by empirical data.

False syllogism is a wrong conclusion which can be drawn from two or more statements that are correct from a logical viewpoint.

False analogy is a comparison that does not take into account the essential differences between two phenomena or objects.

Central Claim

Neil Claim (1960) argues that in order to address linguistics questions, one should clearly understand the subject of the assignment and the major directions.

1. In particular, at first it is necessary to determine whether the task is related to definition, description, comparison, and so forth (Murray 1960, p.70).
2. Furthermore, one should clearly identify a set of tasks or activities that will be included in this particular assignment.
3. It is necessary to single out the major argument that will be put forward by the student.
   1. The argument should present a clear response the question posed in a specific assignment.
   2. Additionally, one should identify possible counterarguments to the central claim.
   3. The statement should be made specific and concise (Murray 1960, p.70).

Content Significance

This chapter can be of great use to students who do not have much experience in writing academic assignments. The guidelines provided by the author can help these people avoid many pitfalls. Although, these instructions are primarily related to linguistics assignments, they can be used by learners who major in other subjects.

Critical analysis

Overall, this reading provides plenty of examples that can help students better cope with a variety of written assignments. Furthermore, the author illustrates the logical fallacies that should be avoided. Nevertheless, the author’s arguments could have been more convincing provided that he had focused more on the specific tasks that students may need to do. These are the main points that can be made.

Reference

Murray, N 1960, Writing Essays in English language and Linguistics: principles, tips, and strategies, for undergraduates, Cambridge University Press, New York. Web.