Shelf space + abstract + graph + fact assumption

Supplementary Exercise: “Shelf Space”

• Scan the article to find out what three distribution methods are mentioned (2 mins!).

Independent distributors with vans, direct selling to retail outlets,

selling direct to customers over the Internet.


Reading #2 1.B2.B3.A4.A5.C6.B7.A8.C


Vocabulary1. Hundle h. obstacle, difficulty2. Unproven g. new, inexperienced3. Gain a foothold e. find a place to start selling from4. Purchase d. buy5. Hype k. excessive publicity6. Pioneer c. being the first to sell7. Rapport a. a good relationship8. A brand with legs b. a product which will sell9. Shoddy j. poor quality10.Inaugurated i. opened11.Warehouse f. large building for storing goods


Questions1. What is the main obstacle Coates and Rarrick

found when they began their muffin business?

2. What are campaigns that Henry attended in order to make others recognize his brand?

3. What made Robbins and McLain discontinue the service with their initial distributors?


Translate the following sentences from the article.

1.The more they sold, they more they and Monkey Muffins profited.

2.Distributors are not interested in pioneering a new brand. They want a sure thing.

3.Every retail outlet is looking for a brand with legs. You just have to prove that your product will have longetivity.

What is an abstract?

• It is a brief summary of a project, research, or paper.

• It is written to describe the content or scope of your work not explain what the topic is about.

• The length really depends – normally an abstract should contain around 200-400 words.

An abstract should….

• be concise – short and informative.– don’t cite sources, tables, or figures– don’t put long quotations

• use direct messages• use ‘past tense’ to describe what you already

did e.g., methods• use ‘present tense’ to show the general

information such as objective and results

What should an abstract include?

• Information in an abstract, in fact, varies from discipline to discipline.

• However, it should include these four types of information1) The objective/purpose of the research or paper2) Methodology3) Results you obtain4) Conclusion or indication of the results

An Objective/Rationale

• The issue that you want to explore in your paper.

• What motivates you to do your project.• Hypothesis statement

Methodology

• Explain how to solve the problem or what kind of method do you use to explore the issue you want to identify in the objective.

Results• What you find from the work you have done

so far.

Conclusion/Indication

• Try to convince the readers that your project is interesting and valuable or how it contributes to the field.

• It doesn’t matter whether the results are negative or positive. At least, it shows something.

Some common words that indicate summary

In short In conclusion To sum upIn brief In summary As we’ve seen

The result is Thus ClearlyTherefore Hence It can be concluded

that

Describing chart

Analyze the chart before you start writing.• What are the topics and the time frame?• What do the numbers and labels represen

t?

Be clear about what you are describing.• A number? A percentage? A price?

Describing chart

• Start by describing the overall situation.

• DO NOT describe every single detail. Find only important trends.

• Try NOT to keep repeating the same l anguage and sentence structures.

• Stick to the facts! DO NOT add your o wn opinions.

This graph shows energy consumption in the UK. It demonstrates energy consump tion throughout the entire day in househol

ds in the winter and summer.

In the summer , energy consumption is about 32 00watts at midnight. Over the next four hours it

falls w wwww www wwww 2 0 0 rises to ahighpointof420 0 10watts at about pm. Consumption falls shar

ply 3200backto wattsat mi dni ght .

In the winter , energy consumption is about 1300 w atts at midnight. It falls 1000 watts at 4 am and ri ses dramatically to 1600 watts at 8 am. It then ri ses slowly to a peak of 2200 watts at 10 pm.

Words and useful phrases

1 . 5Which verbs mean ‘go up’?2. wwww www ww wwwwwwwwww,3‘’ ?3. 5Which verbs mean ‘go down’?4. Which verb means reach its highest level?5. Which verb means ‘stay the same’?6. www ww www wwwwww‘’?

More practice: http://www.eclecticenglish.com/applets/Graphs.html

Adverbs: Decide whether these phr ases indicate a small or a large diff

erence

Refresh your memory!Comparatives

16My Internet connect is Mega – it’s a lot wwwwww wwwwww. www wwwwww ww ’ much wwww wwwwwwwww than the old .

a lot farmuchconsiderably

fasterspeedier

more rapidless

powerful

fasterspeedier

more rapidless

powerful

than

Be careful when using prepositions with nu mbers. Simply changing the preposition ca

n change the whole meaning of a sentence.

What’s the difference between these two sentences?

1) Newspaper circulation rose by 20000, newspapers per month.

2) Newspaper circulation rose to 200, 00 newspapers per month.

Sentence 1 describes the size of the increase. Perhaps newspaper circulation was already 40,000 per month, and there has been a 20,000 per month increase. The final figure will be 60,000 per month.

Sentence 2 shows the point reached. Perhaps newspaper circulation had been 15,000 per month

and it then rose by another 5,000 to reach 20,000 per month.

Inthel ast t ask you l earned some usef ul phrases for describing increases and

decreases. There are also two useful sentence structures for doing this:

2 ways of expressing the same idee

1 SUB + verb + [adverb] Forexampl e:

The unempl oyment rat e rose rapidly. The cost of living fell dramatically.

2 There is/are + [adj] + noun+ in+ something Forexampl e:

There was a rise in unemployment. There has been an increase in the cost of living.

Exercise 1 The price of oil rose sharply.There… 2 There is a noticeable increase in temperatu

re from May onwards.Temperature… 3 The number of people attending the theatr e has fallen dramatically.

There…4

There had been a steady rise in DVD sales fo r the first six months of the year.

DVD sales…

Describing decrease and increase

You can also describe increases and decrea ses by using fractions to show the size of th

e change over a certain period.– The cost of rents doubled in less than a year.– Birth rates have halved since the turn of the c

entury.– By July , the price of petrol had fallen by a third.– The number of school leavers going on to univer

sity has risen by a quarter since 1980.

Activity!!

Your graph should look like this!

Distinguishing Facts from Assumptions

• A fact = information that has been proven to be accuratee.g., “It is 38c outside!”

• An assumption = an idea that might not be true but has not be provene.g., “It is too hot to do anything right now.”

• Signal words can help you identify which information is a fact or an assumption


• A fact is a verified statement and it is something that you can check whether it is true.

• An assumption may be based on opinion or belieft it doesn’t mean that it will be valid.– Commercials contain assumption which is

designed to influence us to belive.– It is normally not based on research.

Examples

Assumption:Gold prices are way too high this week.Fact:Gold prices have risen about 15% within a week.


• A fact:found proof, a known fact, evidence, certain, scientific, clear, positive, demonstrate, show, prove, sure

• An assumption:believe, suggest, may/might, seem, claim, imply, possibly, likely, probably, think, doubt, possible, subjective

Let’s look at pages 200-203 together

Technology

Shelf space + abstract + graph + fact assumption