E303B: English Grammar in Context II

E303B: English Grammar in Context II


2017/2018 TMA (First Semester)
                 

[Prepared by Course Chair: Dr. Ismail Safieh]





Copyright 2017-2018 Arab Open University



TMA

Please return your completed assignment to your tutor to arrive by the end of week 10-11.

This assignment, which is made up of three tasks, relates to your study of E303B Book 3 (Getting Practical: Evaluating everyday texts; Unit 13) and the readings and activities associated with it.  It represents 20% of the overall continuous assessment score (or OCAS).
The overall objective of this TMA is to assess your skills of critical evaluation and interpretation of texts and comparing representations of events on the basis of grammatical evidence.
You are required to write no more than 1,500 words, but you will also need to present some of your findings in graphical or tabular form. Please indicate at the end of your essay the number of words you have used.
Before you start this assignment, refer to the general guidance on completing and submitting your assignments on page 41 in the course guides booklet that you have received with the package.

• Task 1 (selection of texts)
Choose two media reports/articles on the same event; one report/article from a newspaper/magazine published in English in Britain or the United States and one from an Arab newspaper/magazine published in English (e. g. Kuwait Times, Gulf Times, etc.).                      
The texts you choose should be 200-250 words in length and should also be RECENT; i.e. published over the LAST 2-4 WEEKS. You can access most daily newspapers or magazines on the internet.
You should expect to spend a reasonable amount of time selecting your texts, as your choice of text will potentially affect the quality of your answer.  Do not be afraid to reject your initial choice if you come across something better, since you will inevitably have gained insights from the process of selection. However, you need to remember to leave yourself enough time to spend on the analysis of your chosen texts.

• Task 2 (analyzing experiential meanings)
You should type the two texts (200-250 words) in your TMA.
In this task you should analyze the experiential meanings in the two texts as outlined in Book 3, Unit 13, section 4 using the SFL aspects and analytical methodology. You can also refer to Book 2, Unit 11and Book 4, Unit 20 for more information, illustration and practice that are relevant to this TMA.

• Task 3 (comparison of the 2 articles; 750-1000 word essay)
In this task you should write an essay (750-1000 words) in which you
discuss, explain and compare the two media articles depending on the
findings provided by the raw text analysis you performed in Task 2. You
should suggest reasons for, and communicative effects of, the differences
(i.e. differences in views and ideas of the same event/topic). You should
illustrate your discussion/comparison with examples taken from the two
texts you analyzed in Task 2.

Important notes:
1. Your chosen texts MUST be approved and signed by your tutor to make sure they are the proper texts for the TMA, otherwise your TMA will not be accepted and will not be marked; your mark will be zero.
2. You should write an introduction to the TMA.  You should also write a conclusion to the whole TMA at the end in which you sum up what you have done in the TMA and state your own evaluation and opinion of the TMA.
3. In an appendix attach a photocopy or a printout of the two texts you have used for analysis.
4. You can use tables, graphs and any other formats to do the tasks properly and make them convenient and easy to follow. You could also use appendices to tabulate the results of the 2 articles.
5. Make sure you use a good number of references for your TMA from any source from which you should use relevant in-text well referenced citations/quotations to support your discussions, explanations and arguments to make your TMA well researched, well argued, and more convincing. This will help you get a better mark.



End of TMA Questions