Page 260 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

246 CHAPTER 10
Prevalent Clauses in Formal Academic Writing
• Condition clauses are common in contexts that introduce the writer's position or argumentation (Biber, 1988): If aproblemcannot be denied or repressed completely, some individuals distort its nature so that they can handle it more easily. (Psychology)
•
•
•
Time clauses are far less frequent than condition clauses: When the Etruscans expanded their territory in Italy during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., they controlled the monarchy in Rome. (History) Concession (contrast) clauses are also prevalent in contexts where they play the role of hedges to limit the power of generalizations and claims, as well as account for opposing points of view: Although irrigation can be costly, drip irrigation greatly reduces water use and waste. (Environmental sciences) It is important to note, however, that con- cession clauses with whereas are hardly ever encountered in student academic texts.
Cause clauses are not as prevalent in academic writing as clauses of condition, time, and concession, and they occur mainly in con- versation (Leech et al., 2001): Because marketing is primarily re- sponsible for conception and development of products, marketing analysts also test and refine product ideas. (Marketing) One of the reasons that cause clauses may not be very popular in academic writing is that in real academic analyses (as opposed to cause-ef- fect compositions usually assigned in composition courses) di- rect and clear-cut causes of events and developments may be difficult to identify (Biber, 1988).
However, cause clauses are relatively frequent in student academic writ- ing possibly because they are common in the conversational register. Other important adverb clauses, such as concession and condition, are rarely en- countered in L2 student writing, and it may be that the importance of their contextual and academic uses needs to be emphasized in instruction (Hinkel, 200la, 2002a).
Cautionary notes should be made in regard to the lists of adverbial subordinators ubiquitously found in composition textbooks and writing guides alike. Some of them are hardly ever found even in published aca- demic prose (e.g., as if, every time that, for [purpose, e.g., ?for I need to study hard], in case, in the event that, in order that, now that, provided that, so that, whereas). The long lists of seemingly redundant subordinators with similar meanings, as they are listed, can be confusing and discouraging for NNS learners. In teaching, the best approach may be to focus on a small number of practical subordinators (but not so small that writers have to use them re- peatedly) that L2 writers can use in various contexts.
TLFeBOOK