Page 257 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
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most water is lost to plants most water is lost to plants
Similarly, adjective clauses perform the functions of simple adjectives or adjective phrases, all of which describe nouns or noun phrases:
Soil erosion and soil loss cause a change in the ecology of the entire region.
Soil erosion and soil loss cause a change that affects the ecology of the entire region.
Following the line of similarity, noun clauses perform the functions of nouns and noun phrases. Thus, noun clauses, like nouns, can be sentence subjects or objects (direct or indirect), as well as objects of prepositions. For example,
Experience tells us that males and females differ considerably [noun clause—direct object] in how they express emotion [noun clause—object of the preposition in].
Subordinate clauses of all types represent advanced syntactic construc- tions. Thus, it is not particularly surprising that they are more common in ac- ademic writing than in speech or conversational register (Biber, 1988; Ford, 1993). On the other hand, analyses of L2 writing have shown that NNS texts include significantly fewer subordinate clauses of most types than those iden- tified in the academic writing of NSs first-year students (Hinkel, 2002a).
For L2 writers, however, it is important to use complex sentences in aca- demic text at the college or university level because a writer cannot credibly build an entire assignment or term paper using only simple or compound sentences (Davidson, 1991; Hamp-L yons, 1991b; V aughan, 1991), al- though some brave souls have been known to try. It is not just that L2 writers have to use complex sentences, but they have to use subordinate clauses cor- rectly. Using complex constructions is not likely to win any accolades if the assignment contains numerous errors.
Practically all ESL grammar and writing textbooks provide explanations, recommendations, directions, and exercises for using subordinate clauses in academic writing to improve the organization of information and con- nections between ideas (Holten & Marasco, 1998; Leki, 1999; Smoke, 1999; Swales & Feak, 1994). However, as with the material discussed in earlier chapters, only a fewvarieties of subordinate clauses are usually employed in academic writing, and for L2 writers it may not be necessary to become ex-
Soon/Now/Today,
During spring/In thefall/After
due to runoff. due to runoff.
the rain, When some of the vegetation on land
most water is lost to Plants
isremoved, due to runoff.
- due to runoff.
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