Page 312 - English - Teaching Academic Esl Writing

298 CHAPTER 11
Examples provided in support of the writer's thesis or specific points made in the text can be used in the following contexts:
•
To support a generalization
•
To clarify and explain unfamiliar terms and abstract concepts
o by means of specific cases that demonstrably apply to most (or many) cases/people/situations (e.g., For example, when coastline changes its shape, the tide pools where people fish will also become differ- ent. In this case, the local people cannot go to fish where they used to before)
o by means of expanded/detailed descriptions that deal with the publicly known and verifiable events (such as political, financial, social, demographic, medical, natural, or historical develop- ments), lives of public figures, communities, groups of people, or sets of circumstances, or explanations examined from several perspectives. For instance, an example of how the teaching of math in Japan is better than that in the United States has to in- clude points about elementary and secondary schools, boys and girls, and/or teacher training and expectations of students.
o
o
by means of information obtained from published and citable sources (such as statistical data, research findings, or opinions of experts; e.g., Forexample, Peters (2004) has a differ- ent view and states that...)
by explicitly stating that generalizations indeed apply to most (or many) cases/people/situations/events (e.g., For example, 42% of all high school students have part-timejobs or in U.S. universi- ties today, only a minority of students are male, 49%)
In academic writing, examples and extended examples present factual information thatisclearandwellorganized.Examplesthatareusedtosup- port the writer's thesis can provide the highlights or an outline of the rest of the information that follows. All extended examples usually begin with a statement of fact. For example:
Education is important for the economic survival of the poor. For example, in the course of his or her working life, an average high school graduate can earn 1.2 mil- lion dollars. College graduates can earn 2.1 million dollars, and people with master's degrees, on average, can make 2.5 million. It seems clear that the more education workers have, the more money they can make. Educated adults have greater earning
power and can have a higher standard of living.
Students need to be warned that examples should NOT include:
• narrations of personal experiences, as well as those of one's family members, classmates,roommates, or neighbors
TLFeBOOK