You are on page 1of 3

LANGUAGES INSTITUTE

Brainstorming/Article Review
ENGLISH LEVEL V

Part I - Topic Sentences

Before getting started, please check the following information:

The parts of a paper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kwvUW8Uimo


What is a topic sentence? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEkVH9Z4dIU

You may complete these exercises working in a pair. Be sure to check your answers when you
have finished each exercise.

Exercise 1
The following groups of sentences can be rearranged to form paragraphs. Make a note of the order in which
they should be placed (e.g. b, d, c, a, e) and put a ring around the letter that corresponds to what you think is
the topic sentence.

Paragraph 1
___ A breakthrough in one of these areas will hopefully provide a means of relieving both the overstretched oil
market and the environment.
___ Researchers in the automobile industry are experimenting with different types of engines and fuels as
alternatives to the conventional gasoline engines.
___ One new type of engine, which burns diesel oil instead of gasoline, has been available for several years.
___ Finally, several automobile manufacturers are experimenting with methanol, which is a mixture of gasoline
and methyl alcohol, as an automobile fuel.
___ A further type is the gas turbine engine, which can use fuels made from gasoline, diesel oil, kerosene and
other petroleum distillates.
___ The increasing depletion of oil reserves, along with environmental concerns, have prompted some radical
developments in car design over the past few years

Exercise 2
Write a good topic sentence to begin the following paragraph. Remember to include both a topic and a main
point.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
In European universities, students are not required to attend classes. In fact, professors in Germany generally
do not know the names of the students enrolled in their courses. In the United States, however, students are
required to attend all classes and may be penalized if they do not. Furthermore, in the European system, there
is usually just one comprehensive examination at the end of the students' entire four or five years of study. In
the American system, on the other hand, there are usually numerous quizzes, texts, and homework
assignments, and there is almost always a final examination in each course at the end of the semester.
Exercise 3
Now write two or three topic sentences for each of the following topics. You should choose two or three
different main points for the same topic.

Example:
Topic: Television's effects on children
Topic sentences: 1. Television is harmful to children because it teaches them violence as a way of solving
problems.
2. Television can improve a child's general knowledge.
Topic: Studying a foreign language
Topic sentences:
1. _______________________________________________________________________________________
2. _______________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 4: Your teacher will use proofreading marks when revising your review article. Make sure how to
correct your article based on these symbols.
Correct the following article review extract by including the proofreading mark and the corresponding
correction where the mistake is underlined:

Brooks, Chad. Customer Satisfaction Still at 1970s Levels. Business News Daily, 2013.

The article draw attention to the problem of relationships between american companies and its customers; in

particular, the author refers to the issues of clients not being completely satisfy by customer support services

off these companies. The article is rather expository than analytical or descriptive, and mostly uses data from

external sources and and research, which shows the level of customers satisfaction with the mentioned

services today remains rather lowon the levels of the 1970s. The article, however, not seem to have any

significant background, what could be, for example, a rapid decline of brands popularity, or the mass

bankruptcy of companies; at least nothing like that will be mentioned in the text.
Part II: Brainstorming

Before writing your article review, please remember its structure and start working on your
draft:

Introduction:
Mention the author(s) the title, and briefly explain the main topic of the text.
Explain the main objective of the article and its contribution(s)/finding(s).
State your evaluation of the article. It can be positive, negative or both.
Summary: Explain in your own words the key points of your article along with a limited number of examples.
Critique: Evaluate your article: Think about the relevance of your article for people in your field nowadays. Are
there any gaps in the information given in the article? Do you have any recommendations?
Note: since this is your first article review, I suggest you to select whether your critique is positive or negative.
Conclusion:
Restate your overall opinion of the text.
Briefly present recommendations.

1. Introduction: Write sentences according to each component of your introduction,

Author: ___________________________________________________________________________________
Title: _____________________________________________________________________________________
Main idea of the article: ______________________________________________________________________
What you think about the article:_______________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Summary: Write 3 statements of the 3 most important key points from your article,
Key point 1:________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Key point 2:________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Key point 3:________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Critique: Write three different statements why you consider your article important or not important for
people in your field.

1.________________________________________________________________________________________
2.________________________________________________________________________________________
3.________________________________________________________________________________________
Write a recommendation or mention if there is a gap (something missing in the information given in the
article)____________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Conclusion: Write 2 sentences that restate your general opinion of the text.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Write 1 sentence about a recommendation.______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

You might also like