The converse of
the Niño effect is the La Niña effect, which is an exaggeration of normal
conditions. This takes place when trade winds blow strongly and consistently
across the Pacific towards Australia. This pushes the warm waters from the
central Pacific, off the northern Australian coast, to build up into a mass
that is bigger than normal.
The El Niño and
La Niña Phenomena
Deviations
from normal temperature patterns of the southern Pacific Ocean, between
Australia and South America, result in the phenomenon called El Niño. Under
normal conditions, eastern trade winds blows across the Pacific. These drive
the sun-warmed surface water from the central Pacific to the coast of northern
Australia. When clouds form above this area of warm water and move over
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia, they bring rain with them. Every
two to seven years, however, this pattern is interrupted by the El Niño event.
During El Niño, the Pacific Ocean of Australia does not warm as much as it
normally does. Instead, it becomes warmer right up to the coast of Peru in
South America. At the same time, the easterly trade winds that blow across the
Pacific reverse their direction. This causes high-pressure systems to build up
to the north of and across the Australian Continent, preventing moist tropical
air reaching the continent. These conditions in turn result in storms, and in
rain falling in the eastern Pacific Ocean and in South America instead of in
Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia, which suffer drought conditions.
While
the effect of El Niño are sometimes weak, at the other times they are very strong.
During a severe El Niño period, extreme drought conditions prevail, as in
1982–83 and 1997-98. In contrast, heavy rainfall and flooding occurred in parts
of North and South America. In 1997, there were severe storms and floods in
Mexico and further north along the west coast of the United States.
The
converse of the El Niño effect is the La Niña effect, which is an exaggeration of
normal conditions. This takes place when trade winds blow strongly and consistently
across the Pacific towards Australia. This pushes the warm waters from the
central Pacific, off the northern Australian coast, to build up into a mass
that is bigger than normal. Thus, much more cloud develops than usual, and this
brings considerably more rain to Australia and neighboring countries.
Taken
from Geographica’s
Pocket World Reference, 2007
Answer the
questions!
1.What
cause the El Niño phenomenon?
2.Explain
how rain falls in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.
3.Explain
why Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia suffer drought conditions during
El Niño year.
4.What
natural disasters did Mexico suffer in 1997 as the result of El Niño?
5.Explain
how La Niña effect takes place.
The El Niño
Phenomenon
What Is El Niño?
El
Niño is a warm water current which moves off the west coast of Chile and Peru.
The current is believed to be closely associated with irregular variations in
the global weather system and it occurs approximately every 7–11years. The
wider consequences of El Niño can be atastrophic. The current is associated
with short–term changes in worldwide climate patterns, and may cause drought in
place such as Australia and violent tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean.
Some scientists fear that global warming may be making El Niño occur more
frequently.
How Does El Niño
Occur?
The
combined influence of land, sea and air on weather conditions can create a
global climate rhythm. In the Pacific Ocean, for example (A), trade winds
normally blow from east to west (1) along the Equator, "dragging" sun–warmed
surface waters into a pool of North Australia and there by the thermocline–the
boundary between warm surface waters and the cooler layers beneath (2). High
cumulus clouds form above these warm waters, bringing rain in the summer wet season
(3). Cooler, nutrient-rich waters rise to surface off Southern America (4).
supporting extensive shoals of anchovies on which a vast fishing industry has
developed. The weather over this cold water region is dry.
Every
3–5 years a change occurs in the ocean-atmosphere interaction. The climatic
pattern is reserved (B)–an event known as El Niño. The trade winds ease, or
even reverse direction (5). during El Niño and the warm surface waters which
have "pulled up" in the West Pacific flow back to warm the waters off
South America by 2–3°C (6). This depresses the east thermocline (7) and
dramatically affects the climate. In an El Niño year, drought and bush fires
occur over Australia, while flood affect Bolivia and Peru. The warm waters off
South America suppress upwelling of the cold nutrient rich waters, bringing
disaster to the fishing industry.
Taken
from Philip’s
Science and Technology
Encyclopedia, 1998
Work in pairs.
Discuss the text you have just read.
Basically the process of
writing takes three stages, namely probing a topic, choosing a plan, and
revising (Schwegler, 1985). Most writers of the writing process agree to put
the process into three stages, even though they use different terms, and in some
ways, put the activities involved in the process under different stages. Ede (1992) for instance,
divides the process into three stages under the names invention, planning and
drafting, and revising. Omaggio Hadley (1993) calls the three stages
prewriting, composing, and revising respectively.
It
is useful to think about the process of writing as a series of stages like the
above, although experience indicates that the real process doesn’t follow such
simple pattern, but involves a recursive set of activities. Good writers
frequently move forwards and backwards the stages, but there is a general
movement in the way most people write, that is, from ideas and feelings through
various rough drafts to a polished essay.
Prewriting involves probing a topic in
order to discover insights and ideas for writing. Most writers use a variety of
free writing, brainstorming, and clustering. Free writing means putting down on
paper every idea that comes into your mind without stopping regardless it is
good or bad, or how close it is related to the topic.
Brainstorming is similar to free
writing. But, while in free writing you write everything that comes to mind, in
brainstorming you simply list ideas, facts, and arguments related to the topic.
Clustering is the second half of
brainstorming. It involves circling or underlining the elements in the list to
discover relationships and to suggest how to develop the topic. The example
below shows the results of brainstorming and clustering about the topic
‘water’.
Water—
The
smell
The
taste
The
brownish color
How
it looks coming out of the faucet
Is
it unhealthy?
Could
anyone die of such water?
Could
it hurts a fetus?
Water
authority people, scandals?
Not
really competent?
Reservoir
too small
Pipes
too old.
THE THREE PARTS OF AN ESSAY
Like the paragraph, the
structure of an essay basically consists of three parts, namely introduction,
body/development, and conclusion. Generally, each part contains some elements
of the essay. In the introduction you
have background, topic, thesis statement, and subtopics/controlling ideas. In
the body you have the development of
the controlling ideas. In the conclusion
you have the summary and/or commentary of the essay. Summary very often is the
restatement of` the thesis statement.
In
a short essay (5-7) paragraphs, an introduction is usually a paragraph, each
controlling idea takes one paragraph, and a conclusion in one paragraph. The
essay ‘Photographing Emotions’ below is a clear example of the concept.
Photographing Emotions
Photographs
that appeal to basic human emotions have a special kind of impact. The
viewer does not simply observe the subject, but reacts emotionally to it.
The viewer may laugh, feel sad, or simply empathize with the emotions of
the subjects. Some of the subjects that appeal to basic human emotions are
related to conflict, sex, ambition, and escape.
Conflict
exists when people compete against others or against the forces of
nature or society. It may be seen in photographs of firefighters in
battling a blaze, residents sandbagging to fight a flood, ordinary people
struggling against disaster. The human competitive spirit is seen also in
sports, in elections, in business, and in a grimmer way, in war. Accidents
are another context in which we can observe basic human conflict against
the forces of nature and society.
Sex
appeal has become a standard phrase in our language and it describes
another appeal to basic human emotions. Photographs of attractive men and
women, singly, in couples, and in groups, usually appeal to human beings of
both sexes: they attract the eye and trigger emotional responses. Sex
appeal may be observed in action in newspaper and magazine advertisements
and in human interest stories and articles.
The
appeal to ambition can be seen in pictures of people who have achieved
success in any area of business, science, athletics, cultural activities,
industry, or in other human pursuits. People are interested in others who
have achieved success, who have overcome odds, or who by the workings of
chance have attained a measure of fame or a notable position.
Finally,
photos of people in recreational activities possess escape appeal.
Escape is represented when the subjects portrayed are shown attempting to
escape the monotony of everyday life by having fun, in the pursuit of
pleasure and adventure. The person with an interesting hobby, the surfer,
or the mountain climber, appeals to the viewer’s desire for escape. For a
moment the viewer can empathize with the subject and escape the routine of
life.
Seeing picture possibilities
that appeal to basic human emotions is a skill that can be developed. Look
at your photographic subjects. Ask yourself what feeling or emotion the
subject generates in you. Then consider how best to convey that same
feeling or emotion to your viewer. Ask yourself not only what the idea of
your photograph is to be, but also what the emotion of the photograph is to
be. Your own emotional sensitivity to the scenes you perceive can be developed.
– Marvin Rosen, Introduction to Photography
Introduction
In
a short essay, the introductory paragraph is the introduction. Basically, the
introductory paragraph contains background, topic, thesis statement, and
controlling ideas.
Topic
Topic
is the main thing the essay talks about. Topic is the general thing of the
paragraph; therefore a topic must be specified with the specifics about the
topic. For example, the topic ‘water’ is broad enough, until we are certain
what things, aspects, or others of ‘water’ the essay talks about. The specifics
may be the effects of polluted water.
Background
Background
is part of the introduction which usually appears at the beginning of the
essay. Background simply brings the readers to the topic to be discussed in the
essay. If the writer wants to discuss the topic ‘water’ for example, the writer
probably needs to insert some information related to the topic like the
following sentences. ‘Water is very important in our life. If people do not
wisely treat water supply and carelessly pollute it, water can be harmful for
human beings’.
Thesis Statement
The
topic which has been put in its specifics like the example above will be put in
a sentence in the introductory paragraph. The sentence that contains the topic
and its specifics is called the thesis statement of the essay. A thesis is the
assertion of the writer’s point of view about his or her topic. Thesis
statement plays an important role in the development of an essay, provided that
it specifies what the essay is about. If we continue using the topic ‘water’ as
the example, a possible thesis statement is ‘As more and more known that our
water has been widely polluted, we need to concern on how the polluted water
affects our life’. Another possible thesis statement is ‘Polluted water has
caused several effects that endanger human life’.
What if you have
a topic and some good ideas about it, but you’re not really sure what your
thesis is? This is not unusual, so don’t panic. Try some of these
strategies:
Review
your brainstorming notes. See if they suggest an idea that could be
shaped into a tentative thesis.
Jump
in and start writing! This is just an early draft – so mess around and
don’t worry about getting it right: You’ll be making many changes as
you develop your ideas. After you have written a small chunk on the
paper, examine what you have. It’s quite possible that you will
discover you actually have a central idea but were not fully conscious
of it when you first began to write.
If you still don’t see any major idea you can work
with, draw a line under your free-writing and try writing a one-sentence
summary or drawing a brief conclusion about what you have on your paper
thus far. You may be surprised to see a thesis statement emerge from the
mess.
HELP! I CAN’T FIND MY THESIS!
Controlling Ideas
As
you can see, the thesis statement is still general in that it doesn’t yet tell
us what effects of the polluted water that the essay is going to discuss. For
example, the effects include poor quality of drinking water, contagious food,
and skin diseases. These effects may be put together with the thesis on a sentence,
or may be put in a sentence following the thesis. Therefore, we can have
‘Polluted water has caused several effects that endanger human life, namely
poor quality of drinking water, contagious food, and skin diseases’.
Development/Body
Paragraphs
Body
paragraphs are the development of the controlling ideas. Each controlling idea
will be discussed in one or two paragraphs (in a short essay). If the writer puts a controlling idea in one
paragraph, the controlling idea is exactly the main idea (topic) of the
paragraphs. Then, the writer follows the process of writing paragraph in
developing the main idea. So, the controlling idea ‘ poor quality of drinking
water’ is the main idea. Now put in a topic sentence, ‘One of the effects of
polluted water is poor quality of drinking water.’ As usual, this topic
sentence will appear at the beginning of the paragraph. Now, the writer
develops the discussion of the paragraph. Don’t forget to have a concluding
sentence at the end of the paragraph.
By
doing so to all controlling ideas, the writer develops the body of the essay.
Concluding
Paragraph
The
concluding paragraph is the last paragraph in the essay. It concludes the
discussion of the essay. Simply speaking, the concluding paragraph is the
restatement of the introduction, especially the thesis statement. Besides
restating the thesis (stating the thesis in different words), the concluding
paragraph can also involves a commentary related to the ideas so far discussed
in the body of the essay.
The
following is an example how a writer organized her ideas about the quality of
water in Bristol
county.
Introduction – describe the smell,
taste, and appearance of the water that comes out of faucets in Bristol county homes;
then give thesis statement “The condition of water in Bristol county has become so bad that it is
time to start looking for solutions”
Body – Paragraph 1: Tell about the way
the water stains porcelain sinks, stainless steel and aluminium pans, tea and
coffee cups, and teeth; say what an irritation and waste this is.
Paragraph 2: Tell how people often
feel ill after drinking the water, and about how the county health officer has
started to investigate cases of diarrhea and skin irritation that may be linked
to the water.
Paragraph 3: Tell how BristolCounty has the highest rate of birth
defects in infectious diseases in the state; suggest that even though no one
has been able to link this with the
water, they are serious enough effects for further research to see its relationships
with the water.
Concluding paragraph- summarize the
evidence and remind people that looking into the effects of the water is better
than letting real problems creep up on us.
PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENT
For the sake of our exercise, we would
review four patterns of development, namely (1) narrative, (2) descriptive, (3)
comparison, and (4) causal analysis (cause-effect and problem-solution).
Narrative
Narrative
consists of fiction and personal experience. It functions in sharing personal
view of events, telling what happened (past events). Narrative is usually
developed in a chronological order, but very often it also emphasizes the
significance of the event. The process of writing a narrative starts with a
topic, brainstorm ideas, plan, and draft. It is important to have a focus
statement (thesis statement), that is the most important event or the emotion
or feeling you would like to share the most.
In writing a narrative,
you need to care of the followings:
Limit
time frame, meaning to focus on events in a given time, commonly the time
when the most important event took place.
Arrange
the events, commonly chronologically.
Choose
a point of view, usually first person (I, We). Often third person is also
used (He, She).
Decide
how much commentary to use, especially related to the length of the essay.
Exercises.
Read
the two examples of narrative essays ‘The Angry Winter’ and ‘The Crime of
Compassion’ provided at the back of
this handout. Work on the exercises that follow.
Identify
three strong emotions (fear, anger, and so on) and free-write for five
minutes on each. Beginning with the statement like, ‘Anger is like the
time when I……’. Then, decide which of the three you’d like to develop into
a short essay. You can learn from ‘The Angry Winter’ about how to narrate
feelings or emotions.
Identify
a past experience that you are so impressed in such a way so it is hard to
forget. Write a narrative about it.
Description
Description
is the details of a setting, as well as descriptions of participants of the
setting. By using sensory detail like the evidence of sight, hearing, touch,
taste, and smell – the physical perception, we describe scenes, moments frozen
in time, things not directly accessible by senses (abstract) like anger, and
arrange facts and details, like a room. The power of a description is its
ability to picture concrete, specific details.
There
are two categories of description. The objective description pictures the
subject as it is, no bias of the writer. The subjective description, on the
other hand, describes the subject by including the feelings, perception of the
writer.
The
process of writing a description starts with the subject ( a place, a person, a
scene, or a setting). After you have chosen a topic about the subject, invent
information by probing with some questions.
Questions for scene or setting:
1.What
does it look like (colors, shapes, height, depths).
2.What
does it sound like (loud, soft, soothing, musical, like a chain saw)?
3.what
does it smell like (smoky, like a wood fire, acrid, like gasoline)?
4.What
does it feel like (smooth, sticky, like a fish, cold like a stone)?
5.What
does it taste like (bitter, salty, like grass)?
Questions for emotions (anger, love,
fear, etc.):
1.What
effect does it have on behavior (anger, red face, abrupt gestures)?
2.What
is it like (freedom/feel free like taking a deep breath after escaping from a
smoky room)?
Questions for people:
1.What
does the person look like (hair uncombed, dandruff, shirts hanging out)?
2.What
are the physical characteristics (eyes blue, pointed nose, twiggy)?
3.What
are the characteristic aspects of the person’s behavior ( rubs hands on skirt,
picks nose holes, playing with pencil etc. while speaking)?
4.What
do others act towards the person, what do they say (turn to him for advice,
call him a slob)
Organization
A
descriptive essay may take one of three order of development, namely spatial,
chronological, and thematic.
In taking spatial order,
the writer describes the subject on the bases of space, that is, from left to
the right, from bottom to top, etc. The chronological order uses the change in
time to base the development, like from morning to midday to night. In thematic order, the writer
emphasizes on the dominant factor by repeating some key words. In practice,
spatial order of development is widely used to write a description.
Pattern
A
description can take the following patterns:
(1)Descriptive
meditation, the description of a place with the writer’s thought. This pattern
is the most common one used to describe a subject.
(2)Character’
sketch, describes a person’s sense of personality, of a person’s outlook and
motivation, of his/her influence on others. For example Marie Curie, Einstein,
Eva Peron, Cleopatra.
(3)Technical
description reflects needs, methods, and values of a subject. For example, a
description of a painting (color, line, shape, brushstroke). The National
Geographic is a magazine using this pattern most often.
Exercises.
Read
the two essays ‘Mayakovsky
Square’ and ‘Dad’ given at the end of this
handout. Work on the exercises that follow.
Look
through some magazines for examples of the following kinds of
descriptions: meditation, character sketch, and technical description.
Write
a character sketch of someone you dislike or someone of an usual
personality. Learn from ‘Dad’ techniques in describing your subject.
Describe
a place so impressive that you never want to forget the beautiful scene it
has.
Comparison
Comparison
deals with similarities and differences; therefore it is very often called
comparison and contrast. Comparison serves some purposes. First, to evaluate.
For example, comparing two brands of cameras to see the quality. Second, to
explore. The purpose is to add to knowledge and understanding. For example
comparing American and British in terms of their interaction with others, to
broaden cultural understanding. Third, to explain. For example to explain the
function of a machine by comparing it with another.
Comparing
means putting at least two things to see the characteristics under comparison.
To be effective, comparison must deal with similar subjects, in order that the
comparison can be meaningful. For example, the common perception is that the
Americans are very much the same with the British, a few differences but
significant will be worthwhile for comparison. But analogy can be a comparison;
like man is compared with sheep in that both blindly follow leaders.
In
planning a comparison essay, decide a topic and focus, and points of
comparison. A point of comparison is feature of the group or class to which the
subjects belong. For instance, doctors and nurses are comparable as they belong
to the same profession (health professionals). Health professionals are the
focus of comparison. As in most professions, members of health professionals
can be compared in terms of their length of training, attitude towards
patients, contribution to health healing, responsibilities, and salary. These are
the points of comparison. In the essay, the points of comparison are the
controlling ideas.
When
talking or writing, we often indicate comparison and contrast by using
words or phrase like the following:
Comparing X with Y, I find that
. . . .
Contrasting X to Y, we note that
. . . .
While X is . . . , Y is . . . .
Although X is . . . , Y is . . . .
The first (room, person, thing) . . . , and the
second . . . .
X is (better, smaller, more interesting, etc.) than
Y.
In the past X was . . . ; now it is . . . ; in the
future it might be . . . .
Before . . . . and after . . . .
Then . . . . and now . . . .
At first . . . ; later . . . .
C & C
Exercises.
Read
the essay ‘Eye and camera’, then find out similar subjects to write about
in terms of compare-and-contrast pattern.
Read
the essay ‘Grant and Lee: a Study in Contrast’, then using the model,
compare and contrast two people whose personal qualities represent
different academic discipline, religious affiliation, and social
interaction.
Cause
– Effect
Cause-effect
is a process of thought called causal analysis. A causal analysis will take
place where a phenomenon cannot be fully understood unless it is put in a
causal chain. In writing exercises, cause-effect may be just a high correlation
between two things, as true cause-effect situation is very difficult to
explain.
The cause and effect pattern is used
to answer questions: Why did X happen?, What caused X?, and What happened as
the result of X? What are the effects or consequences of X?. Then, we formulate
the thinking process of cause and effect by saying: X happened
because………….,etc.
When
talking or writing, we often signal cause and effect reasoning by using one
of the following words or phrases:
Thus consequently X caused
Y
Since as a
result Y
was caused by X
Because on account
of Y
resulted from X
Therefore the reason
for Y
was a result of X
When X,
then Y for this
reason X
was to blame for Y
C & E
Exercises.
Read
the essay ‘Stress: Its Nature, causes, and Management’ and ‘Who Will take
care of the Children?’ and work on the exercises that follow.
Technological
changes seem to bring new problems. Among them are TV programs. Discuss
the effects of TV programs on children, then write a short essay.
Write
an essay on ‘Forest destruction and the effects of it, develop a suitable
topic and title that meets your interest concerning the theme given.
Obesity
is probably one of the most ‘frigthening’ human aspects for women. Discuss
the causes of obesity in a short essay.
Write
two more essays of your own, elaborating cause-effect relationships.
