If English is not your strongest language, you may find it useful to borrow and adapt transitional devices and pieces of sentence structure from other writing in the genre you are working in. You should not copy the whole structure, however, or your borrowed sentences may seem plagiarized (Chapter 15). Find sample sentence structures from similar genres but on different topics so that you borrow a typical structure (which does not belong to anyone) rather than the idea or the particular phrasing. Write your own sentences first, and then look at other people’s sentences only to guide you in your revision.
ABSTRACT FROM A SOCIAL SCIENCE PAPER
Using the interpersonal communications research of J. K. Brilhart and G. J. Galanes, along with T. Hartman’s personality assessment, I observed and analyzed the group dynamics of my project collaborators in a communications course. Based on results of the Hartman personality assessment, I predicted that a single leader would emerge. However, complementary individual strengths and gender differences instead encouraged a distributed leadership style.
EFFECTIVE BORROWING OF STRUCTURES
Drawing on the research of Deborah Tannen on conversational styles, I analyzed the conversational styles of six first-year students at DePaul University. Based on Tannen’s research, I expected that the three men I observed would use features typical of male conversational style and the three women would use features typical of female conversational style. In general, these predictions were accurate; however, some exceptions were also apparent.