The readability of textual materials in biology

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Examination and Critique of Codebook for Textual Analysis

The researcher presents the details, findings, and critique of a pre-pilot study conducted on a codebook created for a textbook comparison. She used Cohen’s alpha and percent agreement to determine inter-rater reliabilities for coding categories. These values revealed changes needed in the coding scheme and in the coder training process for the future comparison study.

Análise textual das representações discursivas no discurso político brasileiro: o discurso da primeira posse da presidenta Dilma Rousseff (1°/01/2011)

Cette recherche décrit la représentation discursive que la présidente Dilma Rousseff fait de soi-même, dans son discours devant le Congrès National, lors de la journée d’investiture, le 1/1/2011. Notre travail se situe dans le domaine théorique et méthodologique de la linguistique du texte et, plus spécialement, dans la perspective de l’Analyse Textuelle des Discours – ATD (ADAM, 2011 [2008a]), qui se définit comme « une théorie de la production co(n)textuelle de sens qui doit se fonder sur l’analyse de textes concrets ». Elle nous fournit la notion théorique et analytique de « représentation discursive », qui se focalise sur la dimension sémantique du texte. Nous nous appuyons, aussi, sur des travaux récents sur les représentations discursives, réalisés dans la recherche brésilienne sur l’ATD (RODRIGUES, PASSEGGI, SILVA NETO, 2010, 2012; RAMOS, 2011; OLIVEIRA, 2013; QUEIROZ, 2013; ZAMBLANO-OLIVEIRA, PASSEGGI, 2013). Les principales opérations sémantiques de construction de la représentation discursive utilisées dans notre travail sont la Référenciation et la Prédication. L’approche méthodologique est, en même temps, qualitative et quantitative, priorisant l’identification des occurrences, ainsi que la description détaillée de leurs valeurs sémantiques et textuelles. Les résultats de la recherche sont de trois ordres : méthodologique, théorique et descriptif-interprétatif. Méthodologique : nous proposons une approche que nous désignons comme « marquage textuel » (ou « mappage textuel ») qui permet de marquer (étiqueter) les valeurs sémantiques des formes linguistiques, permettant leur identification dans le flux textuel, c.-à-d., dans la dimension séquentiellecompositionnelle du texte. Théorique : nous introduisons la notion de « domaines de la représentation discursive » qui organisent et articulent les différents éléments qui composent la représentation discursive de la présidente. Quant aux résultats descriptifsinterprétatifs du discours de l’investiture, ils indiquent que la représentation discursive de la présidente se configure au moyen de différents domaines conceptuels, explicités par les référenciations et les prédications. Ils mettent en relief les désignations et les actions / états, aussi bien de la femme – domaine du genre – que de la présidente – domaine du rôle politique et institutionnel. La présidente se représente explicitement et avec emphase comme l’agent responsable par les actions exprimées par les prédications verbales (verbes d’action), consciente de l’importance de son rôle politique et social. Les prédications nominales signalent clairement une représentation discursive qui englobe les domaines conceptuels politique, moral, éthique, comportemental et émotionnel (forte, accueillante, pionnière, consolidatrice, infatigable, humble, engagée, démocrate, victorieuse et courageuse). Le discours d’investiture réalise, donc, des désignations positives de la présidente, lesquelles se situent dans un temps présent et prospectif – avec des perspectives de futur – comme leader politique du Brésil, avec une participation active dans la transformation du pays, tenant compte aussi de son histoire de vie, sa biographie de luttes. Ainsi, la description empirique et l’interprétation de ce discours particulier contribue à l’analyse textuelle des représentations discursives dans le discours politique brésilien contemporain. Elle soulève, aussi, des questions théoriques et méthodologiques qui nous semblent pertinentes pour le développement de cette aproche.

Análise textual-interativa das Cartas dos Sertões do Seridó: em busca de efeitos estético-estilísticos

This work takes as its object of study a specific set of texts, designated letters about Sertões do Seridó (interstate region in the Brazilian northeastern), written by Paulo Bezerra, whose main approach is the backcountry universe. For its unique character, mainly because of a strong poetic appeal, we infer that these letters can also contain natural phenomena related to discourse-compositional structure, which may be responsible for creating specific effects, particularly aesthetical. In order to discuss and develop the issue, we set the theoretical assumptions of Textual-Interactive Perspective whose base is the concept of language as interaction, such as verbal activity impregnated with the space-time social and historical context in which the interlocutors are related, we chose the analytical category discursive topic and analyse introduction, sequencing and change of topic mechanisms. The goal is to determine the functionality of these mechanisms, noting how correlate the structural and interactional aspects are, and how this movement can be used to explain some of the aesthetic and stylistic effects of these letters. The result shows that it is used different topic organizational patterns according to the nature of the central topic. These different mechanisms express an aesthetic intention and feature a style. This result gives rise to more general conclusions about the texts: their discursive-compositional structure is related to the creation of aesthetics and stylistics effects.

Resumo de dissertações e teses: a estrutura composicional à luz da Análise Textual dos Discursos

This doctoral dissertationproposes the description, interpretation and analysis of the compositional structure of thesis and dissertation abstracts, with regard to the linguistic mechanisms that evidence text zones of different typological sequences, such as those of the text plan. Along these lines, the research problem was developed from the notion of compositional structure (sequences and text plans), as one of the levels or plans of text analysis, according to the theoretical framework proposed by Jean-Michel Adam (2011a). The main objective of this study was to recognize how the compositional structure, of thesis and dissertation abstracts, is achieved, with respect to text units and the global organization of this text category. The hypothesis posed in this research posits that specific informational text composition categories of abstracts are necessary to process the representation of the original text and the way in which it makes its meaning. Subsequently, this study is based on the theoretical and methodological framework of Text Linguistics (TL) and, above all, Textual Discourse Analysis (TDA), as we endeavor to understand the organizational structure of abstracts from both a linguistic and textual perspective. This structure involves the text plan of abstracts, with respect to their communicative purpose, i.e, the sharing of scientific information in its standard textual form. Thus, the development of this study, from a theoretical and methodological perspective, is based on the theoretical and descriptive premises from TDA (ADAM, 2011a, 2012; PASSEGGI et al., 2010), and also from TL (BEAUGRANDE; DRESSLER, (2012 [1981]); COSERIU; LAMAS (2010); MARCUSCHI, 2009 [1983]; FÁVERO; KOCH, 1994;KOCH, 2006; BENTES, 2004; BENTES; LEITE, 2010), within the field of text studies. The methodology of this study relies on empirical, documental research, which is qualitative, and adopts a descriptive and interpretive approach. From the empirical perspective, our objective is to understand the problems pertaining to the textual composition of abstracts, aiming to elucidate them in light of the theoretical and methodological framework previously mentioned. The corpus of the analysis is comprised of seven abstracts designated for systematic data collection. These texts, written between 2004 and 2011,were selected from Master’s theses and Doctoral dissertations in their electronic version, from the graduate program at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. A thorough review of the literature reveals a clear fluctuation in the terminology of the concept, ‘abstract’. The results of the analysis revealed that the abstracts, which comprise the corpus of analysis in this study, in general, present typological heterogeneity, while the text plan remains fixed. Finally, the new knowledge gained in this research contributes both to the understanding of the compositional structure of abstracts as well as their production.

A leitura e a produção textual no ensino fundamental I: uma proposta de como trabalhar com os gêneros textuais

The little interest in reading and the large presence of deviations in writing observed in the texts of students of the 5th grade of a public school in RN, led us to question the motives of this problem. Thus, the idea to organize and develop teaching sequences with a variety of possibilities of reading and production through the text genres. The practice with the textual genres in elementary school extends the use of reading and writing and improves the quality of learning. In this way, the school, as one of the most active spheres in social practices of the language, we justify this work with the use of text genres as facilitators for teaching and learning the mother tongue. For this purpose, we draw as the main objective to talk about the work with textual genres from the development of didactic sequences, as well as encourage students to take a more reflexive attitude toward language and its uses, as discursive social practices. The development of the study with the text genres was made through the application of didactic sequences in the school context of elementary school classes, from 5th grade. Specifically were chosen, the letter, note, music, poetry, fable and the tale. The study is anchored in the reflections of the following theorists and researchers: Bakhtin (2011), Miller (1994), Marcuschi (2008) and Bronckart (1999) on the text genres; Marcuschi (2005) and Dolz and Schneuwly (2004) that approve a teaching-learning proposal focused on textual genres, giving a meaning to language in the construction of the knowledge and Dolz and Schneuwly (2004) regarding the didactic sequence; other theoretical orientations: PCN (1998), Lerner (2005), among others. The methodology followed the action research guidelines, in a qualitative approach perspective. The instruments of research included questionnaire, observations, readings and productions. The results pointed the students' interest in relation to the activities developed in the didactic sequences and consequently improvement in the students‘ own writings. In this sense, we reiterate the need to contamplate in the teaching activities the diversity of texts and genres and, not only due to its social relevance, therefore the student should be able to use the language in various way and adapt their texts to situations of oral and written interlocution.

Uso didático do Facebook como estratégia de leitura para o gênero textual poesia

The poor performance of students in reading and writing activities, prompted the search for actions that would minimize this problem, noticeable mainly in public education. The lack of interest in reading of poetic texts seen in students from the 7th year in a public school in RN, has led us to question the reasons for the rejection of poetry. Thus, the idea to organize and develop new reading possibilities mediated by digital technologies, considering the preference of teenagers by virtual environments. Therefore, it was essential to observe how students used web resources in order to plan actions that aimed to improve their reading performance. We present to justify the need for reflection on the educational problems starting from our reality, in order to establish appropriate procedures to minimize them. To this end, we draw is to investigate how students appropriated the Facebook social network in order to elaborate reading strategies using this platform. The study is anchored in the reflections of the following theorists and researchers: language concepts and language: Bakhtin (2011 [1979] 2006 [1999]), Bronckart (2012 [1999]), Marcuschi (2008); reading strategies: Leffa (1996) Solé (1998), Antunes (2009), Kleiman (2013); genre: Bakhtin (2011 [1979] 2006 [1999]), Marcuschi (2008); didactic sequence: Dolz, Noverraz and Schneuwly (2013 [2004]); technologies: Moran (2008 [2000]), Kenski (2007), Bento (2012), Behrens (2013); literary literacy: Cosson (2007); other theoretical orientations: PCN (1998), PDE (2008), Perrenoud (1999), among others. The methodology followed action research guidelines, a qualitative approach perspective. The research instruments included questionnaires, interviews, observations and field notes. The results pointed to the interest of students in this social network, which favored the development of a didactic sequence whose activities converged on the didactic use of Facebook as a support for the presentation of textual poetry genre, drawing the attention of students for reading. Thus, we reiterate the need to include the pedagogical use of Information and Communication Digital Technologies educational activities to better meet the expectations of the generation of "digital natives", offering them a significant Portuguese-speaking school that fits your interests.

Uso didático do Facebook como estratégia de leitura para o gênero textual poesia

The poor performance of students in reading and writing activities, prompted the search for actions that would minimize this problem, noticeable mainly in public education. The lack of interest in reading of poetic texts seen in students from the 7th year in a public school in RN, has led us to question the reasons for the rejection of poetry. Thus, the idea to organize and develop new reading possibilities mediated by digital technologies, considering the preference of teenagers by virtual environments. Therefore, it was essential to observe how students used web resources in order to plan actions that aimed to improve their reading performance. We present to justify the need for reflection on the educational problems starting from our reality, in order to establish appropriate procedures to minimize them. To this end, we draw is to investigate how students appropriated the Facebook social network in order to elaborate reading strategies using this platform. The study is anchored in the reflections of the following theorists and researchers: language concepts and language: Bakhtin (2011 [1979] 2006 [1999]), Bronckart (2012 [1999]), Marcuschi (2008); reading strategies: Leffa (1996) Solé (1998), Antunes (2009), Kleiman (2013); genre: Bakhtin (2011 [1979] 2006 [1999]), Marcuschi (2008); didactic sequence: Dolz, Noverraz and Schneuwly (2013 [2004]); technologies: Moran (2008 [2000]), Kenski (2007), Bento (2012), Behrens (2013); literary literacy: Cosson (2007); other theoretical orientations: PCN (1998), PDE (2008), Perrenoud (1999), among others. The methodology followed action research guidelines, a qualitative approach perspective. The research instruments included questionnaires, interviews, observations and field notes. The results pointed to the interest of students in this social network, which favored the development of a didactic sequence whose activities converged on the didactic use of Facebook as a support for the presentation of textual poetry genre, drawing the attention of students for reading. Thus, we reiterate the need to include the pedagogical use of Information and Communication Digital Technologies educational activities to better meet the expectations of the generation of "digital natives", offering them a significant Portuguese-speaking school that fits your interests.

A responsabilidade enunciativa em artigos científicos de pesquisadores iniciantes e contribuições para o ensino da produção textual na graduação

This thesis investigates materialization strategies of non-assumption of enunciation responsibility and inscription of an authorial voice in scientific articles produced by initial researchers in Linguistics. The specific focus lays on identify, describe and interpret: i) linguistics marks that assign enunciation responsibility; ii) the positions taken by the first speaker-enunciator (L1/E1) in relation to points of view (PoV) imputed to second enunciators (e2); and iii) the linguistic marks that assign the formulation of themselves' PoV. As a practical deployment, it is proposed to discuss how to teach taking into account text discursive strategies regarding to enunciation responsibility and also authorship in academic and scientific texts. Our research corpus is formed by eight scientific essays and they were selected in a renamed Linguistics scientific magazine which is high evaluated by Qualis/CAPES (Brazil Science Agency). The methodology follows the assumptions of a qualitative research, and an it has such an interpretative basis, even though it takes support in a quantitative approach, too. Theoretically, we based this research on Textual Analysis of Speech and linguistics theories about linguistic enunciation area. The results show two kinds of movements in PoV management: imputation and responsibility. In imputation contexts, the most recursive linguistic marks were reported speech, indirect speech, reported speech with “that”, modalization in reported speech (in enunciation with “according to”, “in agreement with”, “for”), beyond that we see certain points of non-coincidences of speech, specifically the non-coincidence of the speech itself. The way those linguistic marks occur in the text point out three kinds of enunciation positions that are assumed by L1/E1 in relation to PoV of e2: agreement, disagreement and a pseudo neutrality. It was clearly recursive the imputation followed by agreement (explicit or not), this perspective puts other’s voices to defend a speech assumed like own authorship. In speech responsibility contexts, we observed such a formulation of inner PoV that results from theoretical findings undertaken by novice researchers (revealing how he/she interpreted concepts of the theory) or arising from their research data, allowing them to express with more autonomy and without reporting to speeches from e2. Based on those data, we can say that, in text by initial researchers, the authorship is strongly built upon PoV and also dependent from others' words (theory and the scholars quoted there), taking into account that many contexts in which we can observe agreement position, PoV formulations with words taken from e2 and assumed as own words by syntactic integration, the comments about what the other says, the absence of explanations and additions, as well as a data analysis that could show agreement with the theory used to support the work. These results allow us to visualize how initial researcher dialogs with the theoretical enunciation sources he or she takes as support and how he/she displays the status of a subject doing a research and positioning himself/herself as a researcher/author in the scientific field. In assuming the reported speech, when quoting, as a resource that allows the enunciation responsibility and also when doing evidence to the positions of speaker-enunciator in relation do reported PoV, this suggests to a textual-discursive treatment of quoting in academic and scientific text, in a context of teaching that gives attention to the development of communication skills of initial researcher and that can contribute to insert and interact students in the scientific field.

A responsabilidade enunciativa em artigos científicos de pesquisadores iniciantes e contribuições para o ensino da produção textual na graduação

This thesis investigates materialization strategies of non-assumption of enunciation responsibility and inscription of an authorial voice in scientific articles produced by initial researchers in Linguistics. The specific focus lays on identify, describe and interpret: i) linguistics marks that assign enunciation responsibility; ii) the positions taken by the first speaker-enunciator (L1/E1) in relation to points of view (PoV) imputed to second enunciators (e2); and iii) the linguistic marks that assign the formulation of themselves' PoV. As a practical deployment, it is proposed to discuss how to teach taking into account text discursive strategies regarding to enunciation responsibility and also authorship in academic and scientific texts. Our research corpus is formed by eight scientific essays and they were selected in a renamed Linguistics scientific magazine which is high evaluated by Qualis/CAPES (Brazil Science Agency). The methodology follows the assumptions of a qualitative research, and an it has such an interpretative basis, even though it takes support in a quantitative approach, too. Theoretically, we based this research on Textual Analysis of Speech and linguistics theories about linguistic enunciation area. The results show two kinds of movements in PoV management: imputation and responsibility. In imputation contexts, the most recursive linguistic marks were reported speech, indirect speech, reported speech with “that”, modalization in reported speech (in enunciation with “according to”, “in agreement with”, “for”), beyond that we see certain points of non-coincidences of speech, specifically the non-coincidence of the speech itself. The way those linguistic marks occur in the text point out three kinds of enunciation positions that are assumed by L1/E1 in relation to PoV of e2: agreement, disagreement and a pseudo neutrality. It was clearly recursive the imputation followed by agreement (explicit or not), this perspective puts other’s voices to defend a speech assumed like own authorship. In speech responsibility contexts, we observed such a formulation of inner PoV that results from theoretical findings undertaken by novice researchers (revealing how he/she interpreted concepts of the theory) or arising from their research data, allowing them to express with more autonomy and without reporting to speeches from e2. Based on those data, we can say that, in text by initial researchers, the authorship is strongly built upon PoV and also dependent from others' words (theory and the scholars quoted there), taking into account that many contexts in which we can observe agreement position, PoV formulations with words taken from e2 and assumed as own words by syntactic integration, the comments about what the other says, the absence of explanations and additions, as well as a data analysis that could show agreement with the theory used to support the work. These results allow us to visualize how initial researcher dialogs with the theoretical enunciation sources he or she takes as support and how he/she displays the status of a subject doing a research and positioning himself/herself as a researcher/author in the scientific field. In assuming the reported speech, when quoting, as a resource that allows the enunciation responsibility and also when doing evidence to the positions of speaker-enunciator in relation do reported PoV, this suggests to a textual-discursive treatment of quoting in academic and scientific text, in a context of teaching that gives attention to the development of communication skills of initial researcher and that can contribute to insert and interact students in the scientific field.

A produção textual no ensino fundamental: processo de retextualização com o gênero memórias

Teaching Portuguese language in Brazilian public schools is still limited mostly to studying decontextualized text fragments, memorizing classifications and cult of grammar rules. Considering the language as a social, cultural practice which emerges from the intersubjective interaction, we sought to propose an educational intervention that prioritizes the retextualization processes from speech to the writing of memoirs as a textual genre, so as to contribute for improving learner’s discursive performances. Therefore, paying attention to these concerns and in attempt to contribute for improving the teaching of Portuguese language in elementary school, we chose as privileged locus a 9th grade class from a state school in Bento Fernandes, RN. The corpus is formed by texts produced and retextualized by students from the elders’ oral reports within local community. We sought thus to understand what memory is, its importance for registering local spoken language and culture, as much as to carry out didactic actions that favor students’ learning in the activities of textual production. In light of the theoretical overviews about linguistic-discursive relations, based on Marcuschi’s (1993, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010) conception of oralitiy-writing continuum and the debates proposed by Antunes (2003, 2014), Alves Filho (2011), Koch (2012) and Bakhtin (1992, 2011), we aimed to understand, by analyzing the retextualized memoirs, how these practices complement each other within the process of orality and writing. As for the proposal of didactic sequences, the study has been oriented by Dolz and Scheneuely (2004); as for the memoirs, by the guidelines of Coracine and Ghiraldelo (2011) and Le Goff (2010, 2013). In this way, this work followed the action-research methodology in a qualitative approach, considering the teacher (researcher) as an active agent involved in the process of knowledge production in his own educational practice, so as to interfere in the mediation, knowledge production and its dissemination in classroom context, which is the privileged locus for constructing and transforming process. There is much to be research within the area of retextualization. Yet we verified that this educational intervention, based on discursive operators of retextualization, has been proven viable as an efficient path so that we teachers can work the peculiarities of usages and functions of textual genres in oral and written modalities of a language, without grasping both as a dichotomy. This accredited us to strengthen a discourse that undoes many myths still present in that order, especially the one that causes more damage for the learners of Portuguese language – that writing is a representation of speech.

Content-aware compression for big textual data analysis

A substantial amount of information on the Internet is present in the form of text. The value of this semi-structured and unstructured data has been widely acknowledged, with consequent scientific and commercial exploitation. The ever-increasing data production, however, pushes data analytic platforms to their limit. This thesis proposes techniques for more efficient textual big data analysis suitable for the Hadoop analytic platform. This research explores the direct processing of compressed textual data. The focus is on developing novel compression methods with a number of desirable properties to support text-based big data analysis in distributed environments. The novel contributions of this work include the following. Firstly, a Content-aware Partial Compression (CaPC) scheme is developed. CaPC makes a distinction between informational and functional content in which only the informational content is compressed. Thus, the compressed data is made transparent to existing software libraries which often rely on functional content to work. Secondly, a context-free bit-oriented compression scheme (Approximated Huffman Compression) based on the Huffman algorithm is developed. This uses a hybrid data structure that allows pattern searching in compressed data in linear time. Thirdly, several modern compression schemes have been extended so that the compressed data can be safely split with respect to logical data records in distributed file systems. Furthermore, an innovative two layer compression architecture is used, in which each compression layer is appropriate for the corresponding stage of data processing. Peripheral libraries are developed that seamlessly link the proposed compression schemes to existing analytic platforms and computational frameworks, and also make the use of the compressed data transparent to developers. The compression schemes have been evaluated for a number of standard MapReduce analysis tasks using a collection of real-world datasets. In comparison with existing solutions, they have shown substantial improvement in performance and significant reduction in system resource requirements.

‘The voice speaking, desired, awaited’: Jack Lindsay’s 1649, Textual Form and Communist Historiography

This article examines the 1938 historical novel 1649: A Novel of a Year by the Anglo-Australian communist polymath Jack Lindsay in the context of the politics of the Popular Front, and identifies the aesthetic and historiographic debates questions that inform Lindsay’s inventive rendition of the historical novel. The novel may be considered in light of what Lindsay later called his desire ‘to use the novel to revive revolutionary traditions’, as well as his ‘struggle to achieve an understanding of the Novel while writing novels’. Lindsay’s novel figures a reality becoming prosaic: it reproduces contemporary textual sources – tracts, pamphlets, newspapers – as part of its meditation on a nascent print culture whose products circulate in processes that mirror the increasingly conspicuous flow of commodities. In this sense, the novel offers a marxist reflection on its own conditions of possibility in emergent bourgeois culture, as well as intervening in the vexed question of the Civil War as a ‘bourgeois revolution’. The novel however seeks to capture a dialectical method of representing the revolution that acknowledges defeat while rearticulating the utopian content of the defeated radicals, a practice integral to Lindsay’s vision of popular history as a transhistorical dialogue. That utopian content is transmitted through two forms: popular song, which acts to supplement political writing; and the heroic portrayal of the Leveller John Lilburne on trial, whose conduct exemplifies praxis conceived as a unity of word, thought and action.

Estructura formal, textual y oral del discurso público

Estructura formal, textual y oral del discurso públicoExisten tres competencias comunicativas muy valoradas en la sociedad de la información. Primero, la búsqueda, selección y gestión de grandes cantidades de información. Segundo, la redacción de textos claros, concisos y rigurosos. Y en tercer lugar, la exposición y defensa oral de esta información en un discurso público. Tradicionalmente, los estudios de periodismo han abordado estas competencias de forma independiente. Pero actualmente, instituciones y empresas de ámbitos diferentes demandan un perfil profesional capaz de aplicarlas ante cualquier tipo de información y con objetivos diversos. Se propone un modelo integral en tres niveles estructurales basado en teorías, conceptos y estudios específicos de periodismo, oratoria, retórica… o comunicación, en los últimos años. Este modelo puede contribuir a encauzar las investigaciones de académicos y representa una herramienta de entrenamiento para profesionales.