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4. Argumentation

One of the major modes of discourse, argumentation can be applied to theoretically all assignments involving critical reasoning no matter the subject or discipline. As it involves a higher level of reasoning than associated with descriptive writing, or narrative writing, or expository writing per se, it is crucial for the successful university-level student to understand and master the principles, indeed the concepts that drive the critical thinking skills associated with argumentative writing. This section outlines basic methods of presenting one's ideas and arguments effectively in academic English, particularly in academic writing.  

4.1 What is an argument?

Argument comes from the 14th century French word of the same spelling, meaning, "statements and reasoning in support of a proposition." An argument can be a fact used as evidence to show that something is true, like a study that shows exercise improves certain health conditions — an argument for being more active. All arguments are, either implicitly or explicitly, comparisons of two hypotheses that attempt to explain the same facts, observations, or ideas. 

The key concept here is "to convince the audience," that is, you must make them believe your position, accept your logic and evidence. Not only do you want them to accept the evidence, but you want that audience to accept "a particular point of view" -- that point of view, or perspective, is yours. It is your position, your proposition. Understand that all too often the audience may be intrigued by the evidence presented, but that intrigue alone is not enough to convince them of the validity or authority of your position in the matter.

4.2 Evidence in Argumentation

To support your point of  view, evidence must be presented. There are two types of evidence: facts and opinions. Facts consist if items that can be verified or proven.

1) Scientific Measurement: one commonly measures the frames per second (fps) in scene rendering. 

2) The Way Nature Works:  we know that the water flows downhill, not uphill; that formations indicate specific weather patterns.

3) Observation: In research, this might consist of longitudinal study of a phenomenon carried out over a period of time involving several hundreds or thousands of cases looking for and recording similarities and differences

4) Statistics: 

3. Rhetorical structure

Let's consider how to make general claims from specific examples.

Your claims, though, need to be supported. This is an important aspect of critical writing.

3.1 Supporting your claims

Academic writing is generally both informative and argumentative. In other words, researchers publish not only new information and ideas, but also attempts to persuade readers about their idea or theory. Propositions or claims require some kind of support or evidence. It may be either of a primary source (from the author's own research or analysis) or secondary (information cited from another source besides the author).  There are three ways in which you can support your arguments. You can support your claims with examples, with details or with evidence.

1) Supporting with examples: You can provide support for your claims by using examples. 

2) Supporting by giving details: You can support  your claims by providing examples. 

3) Supporting by providing evidence: You can provide evidence to support your claims. 

3.2 English vs. Korean rhetorical structure

Koreans usually have encountered difficulties in English academic writing, mainly because of inexperience in organizing writings and different expectations and cultural patterns in developing ideas in academic writing. English style is described as 'linear' while the Korean style is more indirect. This cultural difference causes many problems for Korean students. 

- Korean students tend to write an introductions overly general or vague.  However, introductions should be explicit and direct in English. For example, if talking about the way of researching Computer Graphics, Korean students might give a general introduction such as how hard research is, or when Computer Graphic research has been began, which is common, obvious information that would be regarded as irrelevant in an academic English. 

- Korean students fail to specifically identify their claims or arguments in the introduction. It may be stated directly or even indirectly in the conclusion. In English, however, this should be stated clearly in the introduction. 

- Since Korean students are ESL(English as a second language) speaker, they tend to resort to emotional arguments and other fallacies, instead of proper argumentation, evidence, or support. 

3.3 Desired Form

1) Introduction

  - Background: Specific and clear information leading to the thesis

  - Thesis: A specific position or objective

  - Plan: A short possible outline or summary of the main arguments to be developed. This is usually constituting one clause or sentence following the thesis. 

2) Body

  - Provide specific background information on the topic.

  - Explain the importance of the topic.

  - Use a clear, specific examples to get the attention of reader. 

3) Conclusion

  - A brief, final anecdote that reinforces the central idea without an explicit restatement. (Do not state them redundantly)

  - A careful estimate of the significance of the conclusions reached in the paper. 

  - An essential condition for future progress. 

2. Organization 

        Bold Beginnings, Mighty Middles, Excellent Endings

2.1 Thesis Statement

  This chapter describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can refine one for your draft. Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion to convince others with your point of view on the subject you are studying. In research paper, you are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you write your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it is usually regarded as a summary of the argument you'll make in the rest of your paper.  

A thesis statement tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will convince the reader of the logic of your point of view.  A thesis is also an interpretation of a question or subject, so it must claim your argument that others might dispute. Your goal is to persuade your reader, with supporting evidence found during your research, that your thesis is valid. 

Bad example: There are various types of Level-Of-Detail (LOD) algorithm on the geometry rendering.

(True, but this is common knowledge and imprecise. How many algorithms? Are they all the same? Most of all, it doesn't include your view on the topic)

Good example:  With the advancement of GPU performance, various  types of  LOD algorithm, previously used for the purpose of improving geometry rendering performance, have become unnecessary.

(Focused, worth arguing and demonstrating, contains your opinion)

2.2 Topic sentences

  Every paragraph should include a topic sentence that identifies the main idea of the paragraph. Although topic sentence may appear anywhere in a paragraph, in academic essays they often appear at the beginning. The topic sentence must be general enough to express the overall subject of a paragraph, but it must be specific enough to provide a claim or an insight related to the thesis. Followings are some advice for writing a successful topic sentence. 

- State your main idea clearly: It must include your point of 

- Balance the topic sentence between specifics and general ideas: Write general enough to relate to the broader idea of an essay, but not so narrow that there's nothing left to discuss. 

- Hook your reader: One of the many important roles of a topic sentence is to draw the readers in.

- Keep it short and sweet: The topic sentence should put forward your intention without forcing your reader to hunt it down; keeping it short will help keep your intention clear.

- Give a reasonable opinion:  Your topic sentence should state something that you think or believe that can be supported by concrete evidence.

- Use the topic sentence as a transition: Topic sentences that also work as transitions can help guide your readers through your argument, which can keep them from getting lost. Think of this sentence as a “bridge” between the main idea of the previous paragraph and the main idea of this next paragraph.

 2.3 Academic writing style. 

  The most important thing is to keep your writing clear and concise and make sure that you get your ideas over in a comprehensible form. A wide range of vocabulary is of course important, but you must use the right word, and shorter ones are often better than longer ones.  The most important thing to remember is generally to try to avoid everyday, informal language, especially colloquial expressions and slang. Also, spoken language is naturally full of hesitations, repetitions, grammatical errors and unfinished ideas. In your writing, however, structure is much more important: sentences should be complete and ideas arranged into paragraphs or sections, and you should aim for perfection in your grammar and spelling. However, especially if English is not your first language, don't become too obsessed with this, to the point perhaps of copying word for word from your sources. What’s important is that you clearly show your understanding of the subject and your ability to manipulate information to answer a specific question or complete a specific task, and as long as any grammar errors you make don’t impede this, then it shouldn’t be a problem.

  Here are a few general points to remember when you are writing your paper. As well as using appropriate language and aiming for 100% accuracy in your grammar and vocabulary, you should also remember that you're writing for someone else, and hence the importance of punctuation, sentences, paragraphs and overall structure, all of which help the reader.

2.3.1 Avoid some aspects of informal English

- Don't use contractions (e.g. it's, he'll, it'd etc): always use the full form (it is/has, he will, it would/had).

- Don't use colloquial language or slang (e.g. kid, a lot of/lots of, cool)

- Always write as concisely as you can, with no irrelevant material or "waffle".

- Generally avoid "phrasal verbs" (e.g. get off, get away with, put in etc): instead, use one word equivalents. 

- Avoid common but vague words and phrases such as get, nice, thing. Your writing needs to be more precise. 

- Avoid overuse of brackets; don't use exclamation marks or dashes; avoid direct questions; don't use "etc". 

- Always use capital letters appropriately and never use the type of language used in texting. 

2.3.2 Structure your writing carefully

- Make sure you write in complete sentences.  (1.34)

- Divide your writing up into paragraphs (1.35)

- Use connecting words and phrases to make your writing explicit and easy to follow (1.39)

- Check your grammar and spelling carefully (1.42)

2.3.3 Make your writing formal and impersonal

- Avoid too much personal language (I, my, we etc). Some tutors prefer you to avoid it completely. Never use emotive language; be objective rather than subjective (1.22)

- Avoid being too dogmatic and making sweeping generalizations. It is usually best to use

- Some sort of "hedging" language and to qualify statements that you make. 

- You should consistently use evidence from your source reading to back up what you are saying and reference this    correctly.

- Avoid sexist language, such as chairman, mankind. Don’t refer to “the doctor” as he; instead, make the subject    plural and refer to them as they. Avoid he/she, herself/himself etc.

- Use nominalization; that is, try to write noun-based phrases rather that verb-based ones.

2.3.4 Hedging/Avoiding commitment

In order to put some distance between what you’re writing and yourself as writer, to be cautious rather than assertive, you should:

- Avoid overuse of first person pronouns (I, we, my, our)

- Use impersonal subjects instead (It is believed that .. , it can be argued that ..)

- Use passive verbs to avoid stating the 'doer' (Tests have been conducted)

- Use verbs (often with it as subject) such as imagine, suggest, claim, suppose

- Use 'attitudinal signals' such as apparently, arguably, ideally, strangely, unexpectedly. These words allow you to hint at your attitude to something without using personal language. 

- Use verbs such as would, could, may, might which 'soften' what you're saying

- Use qualifying adverbs such as some, several, a minority of, a few, many to avoid making overgeneralizations. 

Reference:

http://library.bcu.ac.uk/learner/Writing%20index.htm

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Good-Topic-Sentence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic_sentence

How do varying N (resolution of image) and k (number of gray level in image) affect images? An early study by Huang [1965] attempted to quantify experimentally the effects on image quality produced by varying N and k simultaneously. The experiment uses images that is similar to those shown in below figure. The woman’s face has relatively little detail; the picture of the cameraman contains an intermediate amount of detail; and the crowd picture contains, by comparison, a large amount of detail. 

(a) Image with a low detail. (b) Image with a intermediate amount of detail. (c) Image with a large amount of detail.

Sets of these three types of images were generated by varying N and k, and participants were then asked to rank them according to their subjective quality. Results were plotted in the form of so-called iso-preference curves in the Nk-palne (see below graph). 

Representative iso-preference curves for the three types of images in the above figure.

Each point in the Nk-plane represents an image having values of N and k equal to the coordinates of that point. Points lying on an iso-preference curve correspond to images of equal subjective quality. It was found in the course of the experiments that the iso-preference curves tended to shift right and upward, but their shapes in each of the three image categories were similar to those shown in above graph. This is not unexpected, since a shift up and right in the curves simply means larger values for N and k, which implies better picture quality.  The key point of interest in the context of the present discussion is that iso-preference curves tend to become more vertical as the detail in the image increases. This result suggests that for images with a large amount of detail only a few gray levels may be needed. For example, the iso-preference curve of crowd image is nearly vertical. This indicates that, for a fixed value of N, the perceived quality for this type of image is nearly independent of the number of gray levels used. It is also of interest to note that perceived quality in the other two image categories remained the same in some intervals in which the spatial resolution was increased, but the number of gray levels actually decreased. The most likely reason for this result is that a decrease in k tends to increase the apparent contrast of an image, a visual effect that humans often perceive as improved quality in an image.

1. Introduction

1.1 Linguistic background

1.1.1. Language history

   English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects and was brought to Britain by Germanic invaders (or settlers) from what is now called north west Germany and the Netherlands. It uses a vocabulary unlike that of other European languages from the same era. A large portion of the modern English vocabulary comes from the Anglo-Norman languages. English frequently makes use of loanwords originating from other languages.

  Middle English differed from Old English because of two invasions, which occurred during the Middle Ages. The first invasion was by people who spoke North Germanic languages. They conquered and colonised parts of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries AD. The second invasion was by the Normans of the 11th century, who spoke Old Norman and eventually developed an English form of this, called Anglo-Norman. A new vocabulary introduced at this time heavily influenced many organizations, including the church, the court system and the government. European languages, including German, Dutch, Latin and Ancient Greek influenced the English vocabulary during the Renaissance.

  Old English initially was a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain. The Late West Saxon dialect eventually became dominant. Written Old English of 1000 AD was similar to Old Frisian and, to a lesser extent, other Germanic languages such as Old Saxon, Old High German and Old Norse in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Written Old English is relatively unintelligible today, in contrast to written Modern English and written Middle English. Close contact with the Scandinavians resulted in much grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the English language, which had been based on Anglo-Frisian. These changes did not reach South West England until the Norman invasion in 1066. Old English developed into a full-fledged literary language, based on the most common manner of speaking in London during the 13th century.

 English is divided into several historical forms. Each historical form of English had certain characteristics that distinguish it from the forms of English that came before and after it. The Old English period was from the mid-5th century to the mid-11th century, the Middle English period from the late 11th century to the late 15th century, the Early Modern English period from the late 15th century to the late 17th century, and the Modern English period from the late 17th century to the present.

 In a nutshell, the historical factors explain why English vocabulary is so diverse and difficult.

1.1.2. Latin abbreviations in academic writing

1.2. Linguistics terms

It may be good for you to know the following terms. 

1) Syntax: Studies of the rules for forming admissible sentences and arrangement of words.

2) Semantics: Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It can be applied to entire texts or to single words. For example, "destination" and "last stop" technically mean the same thing, but students of semantics analyze their subtle shades of meaning.

3) Pragmatics: To describe a person or a solution that takes a realistic approach, consider the adjective pragmatic. When it comes to linguistics, it is the study the use of linguistic signs, (words and sentences), in actual situations.

4) Psycho linguistics: How language is stored and processed in the mind, for first and second language learning. 

5) Applied linguistics: A very broad area of application of theoretical principles. This includes language learning and teaching. 

6) Lexicon: A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or subject. "No-hitter," "go-ahead run," and "Baltimore chop" are part of the baseball lexicon.

The Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT): Theory and Application p. 16

DCT = Discrete Cosine Transform

DFT = Discrete Fourier Transform

KLT = Kamunen-Loeve Transform

 At this point it is important to mention the superiority of DCT over other image transforms. More specifically, we compare DCT with two linear transforms: 1) The Karhunen-Loeve Transform (KLT); 2) Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT).

  The KLT is a linear transform where the basis functions are taken from the statistical properties of the image data, and can thus be adaptive. It is optimal in the sense of energy compaction, i.e., it places as much energy as possible in as few coefficients as possible. However, the KLT transformation kernel is generally not separable, and thus the full matrix multiplication must be performed. In other words, KLT is data dependent and, therefore, without a fast (FFT-like) precomputation transform. Derivation of the respective basis for each image sub-block requires unreasonable computational resources. Although, some fast KLT algorithms have been suggested, nevertheless the overall complexity of KLT is significantly higher than the respective DCT and DFT algorithms. 

  In accordance with the readers’ background, familiarity with Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) has been assumed throughout this document. The DFT transformtion kernel is linear, separable and symmetric. Hence, like DCT, it has fixed basis images and fast implementations are possible. It also exhibits good decorrelation and energy compaction characterictics. However, the DFT is a complex transform and therefore stipulates that both image magnitude and phase information be encoded. In addition, studies have shown that DCT provides better energy compaction than DFT for most natural images. Furthermore, the implicit periodicity of DFT gives rise to boundary discontinuties that result in significant high-frequency content. After quantization, Gibbs Phenomeneon causes the boundary points to take on erraneous values.

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819918

Six Business Era Models in the Digital Business Development Path

Stage 1: Analog

Stage 2: Web

Stage 3: E-Business

Stage 4: Digital Marketing

Stage 5: Digital Business

Stage 6: Autonomous