We the People? An Analysis of the Dana Corporation Policies Document

Companies are increasingly using written ethical codes to communicate their prin ciples and practices; however, there have been few attempts to examine the complex lan guage decisions the composers of such documents are likely to face in their attempt to "manage" the differing expectations of their readers. To reveal some of the rhetorical concerns that arise in constructing a code that is truly affiliative and inclusive of the readership and yet reflective of the goals of the corporation itself, this study focuses on the Dana Corporation's code. Using the standard linguistic technique of substitution to examine possible alternatives, especially the ways in which Dana refers to itself and its employees, brings to light some of the subtle rhetorical decisions that composers of ethi cal codes need to negotiate.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69002/2/10.1177_002194369002700305.pd

Using scenarios to explore UK upland futures

Uplands around the world are facing significant social, economic and environmental changes, and decision-makers need to better understand what the future may hold if they are to adapt and maintain upland goods and services. This paper draws together all major research comprising eight studies that have used scenarios to describe possible futures for UK uplands. The paper evaluates which scenarios are perceived by stakeholders to be most likely and desirable, and assesses the benefits and drawbacks of the scenario methods used in UK uplands to date. Stakeholders agreed that the most desirable and likely scenario would be a continuation of hill farming (albeit at reduced levels) based on cross-compliance with environmental measures. The least desirable scenario is a withdrawal of government financial support for hill farming. Although this was deemed by stakeholders to be the least likely scenario, the loss of government support warrants close attention due to its potential implications for the local economy. Stakeholders noted that the environmental implications of this scenario are much less clear-cut. As such, there is an urgent need to understand the full implications of this scenario, so that upland stakeholders can adequately prepare, and policy-makers can better evaluate the likely implications of different policy options. The paper concludes that in future, upland scenario research needs to: (1) better integrate in-depth and representative participation from stakeholders during both scenario development and evaluation; and (2) make more effective use of visualisation techniques and simulation models

A discourse analysis of trainee teacher identity in online discussion forums

Teacher education involves an identity transformation for trainees from being a student to being a teacher. This discourse analysis examined the online discussion board communications of a cohort of trainee teachers to better understand the situated identities of the trainees and how they were presented online. Their discussion board posts were the primary method of communication during placement periods and, as such, provided insight into how the trainees situated their identities in terms of being a student or being a teacher. During the analysis, the community boundaries, language and culture were explored along with the tutor's power and role in the identity transformation process. This involved looking at the lexis used by the students, the use of pronouns to refer to themselves and others such as teachers and pupils, the types of messages allowed in the community and the effect of the tutor's messages on their communication. The research found that the trainees felt comfortable with teaching but did not feel like teachers during the course. Tutors and school teachers need to develop an awareness of the dual nature of trainees' identities and help promote the transition from student to teacher. In the beginning of the course, trainees should be familiarised with teacher vocabulary and practical concepts in addition to pedagogical theory. Towards the end of the course, trainee identity as teachers could be promoted through the use of authentic assessments that mirror real teacher tasks and requirements

Distribution and abundance of fish and crayfish in a Waikato stream in relation to basin area

The aim of this study was to relate the longitudinal distribution of fish and crayfish to increasing basin area and physical site characteristics in the Mangaotama Stream, Waikato region, North Island, New Zealand. Fish and crayfish were captured with two-pass removal electroshocking at 11 sites located in hill-country with pasture, native forest, and mixed land uses within the 21.6 km2 basin. Number of fish species and lineal biomass of fish increased with increasing basin area, but barriers to upstream fish migration also influenced fish distribution; only climbing and non-migratory species were present above a series of small waterfalls. Fish biomass increased in direct proportion to stream width, suggesting that fish used much of the available channel, and stream width was closely related to basin area. Conversely, the abundance of crayfish was related to the amount of edge habitat, and therefore crayfish did not increase in abundance as basin area increased. Densities of all fish species combined ranged from 17 to 459 fish 100 m-2, and biomass ranged from 14 to 206 g m-2. Eels dominated the fish assemblages, comprising 85-100% of the total biomass; longfinned eels the majority of the biomass at most sites. Despite the open access of the lower sites to introduced brown trout, native species dominated all the fish communities sampled

Validity Arguments for Diagnostic Assessment Using Automated Writing Evaluation

Two examples demonstrate an argument-based approach to validation of diagnostic assessment using automated writing evaluation (AWE). Criterion ®, was developed by Educational Testing Service to analyze students’ papers grammatically, providing sentence-level error feedback. An interpretive argument was developed for its use as part of the diagnostic assessment process in undergraduate university English for academic purposes (EAP) classes. The Intelligent Academic Discourse Evaluator (IADE) was developed for use in graduate EAP university classes, where the goal was to help students improve their discipline-specific writing. The validation for each was designed to support claims about the intended purposes of the assessments. We present the interpretive argument for each and show some of the data that have been gathered as backing for the respective validity arguments, which include the range of inferences that one would make in claiming validity of the interpretations, uses, and consequences of diagnostic AWE-based assessments

The external benefits of higher education

The private market benefits of education are widely studied at the micro level, although the magnitude of their macroeconomic impact is disputed. However, there are additional benefits of education, which are less well understood. In this paper the macroeconomic effects of external benefits of higher education are estimated using the “micro-to-macro” simulation approach. Two types of externalities are explored: technology spillovers and productivity spillovers in the labour market. These links are illustrated and the results suggest they could be very large. However, this is qualified by the dearth of microeconomic evidence, for which we hope to encourage further work

Linguistic Analysis of Requirements of a Space Project and Their Conformity with the Recommendations Proposed by a Controlled Natural Language

International audienceWe propose a linguistic analysis of requirements written in French for a project carried out by the French National Space Agency (CNES). The aim is to determine to what extent they conform to some of the rules laid down in INCOSE, a recent guide for writing requirements, with a focus on the notion of sentence " comprehensibility ". Although CNES engineers are not obliged to follow any Controlled Natural Language, we believe that language regularities are likely to emerge from this task, mainly due to the writers' experience. As a first step, we use natural language processing tools to identify sentences that do not comply with INCOSE rules. We further review these sentences to understand why the recommendations cannot (or should not) always be applied when specifying large-scale projects, and how they could be improved. This paper presents a corpus linguistics approach applied to the melioration of requirements writing. We propose a linguistic diagnosis of the way requirements are written in a space project by comparing these requirements with a guide for writing specifications (a controlled natural language). Initial results obtained from this analysis suggest that guides for writing specifications are not fully adapted to the real writing process: they are sometimes too constraining, and sometimes insufficiently so. In the medium term, the aim is to propose another guide based on the spontaneous regularities observed in requirements. The paper comprises two parts. In the first one (see section 2), we present the context of our study and the tool-assisted method used for making the diagnosis. In the second one (see section 3), we describe and discuss our preliminary results

Supervision and Scholarly Writing: Writing to Learn - Learning to Write

This paper describes an action research project on postgraduate students’ scholarly writing in which I employed reflective approaches to examine and enhance my postgraduate supervisory practice. My reflections on three distinct cycles of supervision illustrate a shift in thinking about scholarly writing and an evolving understanding of how to support postgraduate students’ writing. These understandings provide the foundation for a future-oriented fourth cycle of supervisory practice, which is characterised by three principles, namely the empowerment of students as writers, the technological context of contemporary writing, and ethical issues in writing

Language for Specific Purposes and Corpus-based Pedagogy

This chapter describes how corpus-based pedagogies are used for teaching and learning language for specific purposes (LSP). Corpus linguistics (CL) refers to the study of large quantities of authentic language using computer-assisted methods, which form the basis for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) that uses corpora for reference, exploration, and interactive learning. The use of corpora as reference resources to create LSP materials is described. Direct student uses of corpora are illustrated by three approaches to data-driven learning (DDL) where students engage in hands-on explorations of texts. A combination of indirect and direct corpus applications is shown in an illustration of interactive CALL technologies, including an example of an inclusive corpus-based tool for genre-based writing pedagogy. The chapter concludes with potential prospects for future developments in LSP