Given and New
Paragraph Development Models from Scientific English
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10818505 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Weissberg (New Mexico State University, corresponding author), Robert C Weissberg |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 485 |
| Publication date | 1984-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | TESOL Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-8322 • E-ISSN: 1545-7249 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3586716 |
| OpenAlex | W1980967387 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 6 |
The existence of the paragraph as an authentic feature of written English is not in doubt. However, there is evidence that the kinds of traditional rhetorical categories (such as definition, cause/effect, and comparison/contrast) commonly presented in ESL composition textbooks do not in fact accurately describe the majority of paragraphs actually written and published in English. As an alternative, a set of descriptive models for teaching paragraph development in ESL writing classes is offered here based on the given/new contract, a theory of information distribution developed by text linguists and validated by psychologists in studies of reading comprehension. Also described here is a study carried out to determine the ability of these alternative models to describe paragraph structures that occur in experimental research reports published in English. Results indicate that various patterns of given and new information which conform to the models are in fact regular features of the 60 paragraphs studied. Applications of the models to ESL composition classes are discussed, with special reference to courses in scientific and technical writing. The use of the given/new model at the editing stage is illustrated with examples from student papers
Linguistics · Mathematics education · Paragraph · Sociology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Writing and Handwriting Education
Utilizing the Literatures in Teaching the Research Paper
Thematic Progression and Paragraph Development in the experimental Research paper
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The role of progress notes in the professional socialization of medical residents
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.18 |
| Citation span | 1987 - 2026 (40) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |