UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2017/2018
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
APPLIED COMPUTING
BAC 2207: PROFESSIONAL WRITING
FULLTIME/PART TIME
DATE: NOVEMBER, 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [30 MARKS]
a) Which aspects characterize a professionally written article? Provide an overview (4 Marks)
b) Identify any SIX habits and traits that can nurture good writing skills (6 Marks)
c) Consider the following paragraph that provides an overview of a research article:
“This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of applied
computing research design, using as examples studies that
illustrate the methodologic challenges or that
demonstrate successful solutions to the difficulties
inherent in computing research.”
Rewrite this paragraph to remove dead-weight words and be specific (4 Marks)
d) Cite any FOUR reasons why a writer should provide a reference whenever he/she
paraphrases or quotes another source (4 Marks)
f) Distinguish between the following pseudonyms and illustrate how each is used in a
sentence:
i) Allude vs. elude (3 Marks)
ii) Ensure vs. insure. (3 Marks)
iii) Among vs. between (3 Marks)
iv) E.g. vs. i.e. (3 Marks)
QUESTION TWO [20 MARKS]
a) Rewrite the following sentences to be correct (4 Marks)
i) He owed over Kes.100,000 to the doctor.
ii) The hero begins to behave strangely and in odd ways following his tryst with the
witch he meets secretly at midnight.
iii) The dessert was comprised of cream and chocolate.
iv) Many of the clinic patients die from complications of diabetes
b) Identify a set of guidelines for someone wishing to write a news article: (6 Marks)
c) Briefly describe the following sections of a proposal
i) Abstract (2 Marks)
ii) Statement of the problem (2 Marks)
d) Describe how visual aids assist in professional writing and list FOUR types of visual aids
(6 Marks)
QUESTION THREE [20 MARKS]
Read the essay provided below and use it to attempt the questions that follow:
From the abacus which made teaching math easy many years ago to the
word processor that has changed the way research papers are being
written and presented, the technological progress of humans has had
a positive impact on education. Technological change has given
shape to education from the very beginning, but with the addition
of digital revolution it has popularly increased the speed with
which education is transforming. Technological changes have
occurred to education in a way that few people ever dreamed.
Many colleges and universities have started offering distance learning
programs following the discovery of the Internet. This advancement
has enabled many people who live in both villages and towns to
access university and college education. There is no doubt that
technology has is now a basic part of our daily lives, especially
within the education field. Modern education has been widely
influenced by the integration of technologies and the increased the
efficiency of reaching the mass of students at difference
geographic locations.
Various kinds of technologies have improved the previously traditional
classrooms. One of the recent advances is the smart classroom
technology. A smart classroom is an artificially intelligent room
which can automatically reconfigure itself and its resources as
totally based on the profiles of user groups. It can be achieved
through a pre-defined schedule based on the arrival of a specific
class group or lecture. It can also react automatically to the
arrival of the staff or students. Tedious tasks can be automated at
the start of a lecture to allow the teacher and the students to
focus on the learning process. Simple tasks include a list of
attendees with their photographs, while other enhancements include
the interaction of a lecturer and the students, with support from
small to large groups.
There are valuable reasons as why there should be more usage of the
smart classroom technology in the education field. First, learning
styles of students are changed within the environment in which they
reside, enriching diversity. Secondly, a paradigm shift in learning
is created and new learning methods and practices evolve to improve
the traditional learning styles. Thirdly, learning becomes problembased such that it now involves organizing a group of students in
order to complete a project or to solve problems. Finally, it
creates an interactive response system. This allows students to
interactively respond to questions asked by the lecturer. Each
student can have a handheld device for selecting specific answers.
The smart classroom also supports other low-cost pervasive
technologies, such as Bluetooth-enabled personal devices that are
the core rationale for developing Context Aware Smart Classroom
(CASC) inside schools.
a) Provide a suitable and complete title for the essay above (2 Marks)
b) Which key issues have been brought out? Provide a brief overview (6 Marks)
c) Why does this essay matter? To which people? (5 Marks)
d) Identify and briefly discuss any key issues that may have been omitted from this essay, but
which are nevertheless important. (7 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR [20 MARKS]
a) Rewrite the following sentences to be in active form: (4 Marks)
i) There was a long line of cracks on the plate.
ii) Careful monitoring of achievements before and after the introduction of computers in
schools was done by the researchers
iii) A recommendation was made by the committee that the study be halted.
iv) There are many ways in which we can arrange words of a sentence
b) Describe the following terms as they apply to referencing: (6 Marks)
i) Citing
ii) Bibliography
iii) Reference
c) Outline and FOUR issues that should be brought out in the methodology section a scientific
article (4 Marks)
d) Provide an extensive discussion of how the following style considerations can increase
understanding of your academic article:
i) Coherence (3 Marks)
ii) Voice (3 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE [20 MARKS]
a) The “inverted pyramid” is a common writing style:
i) Draw the inverted pyramid and explain the kind of content that should be contained in
each part (7 Marks)
ii) Using the case study from a breaking news reporting, illustrate how you would
structure your text using the inverted pyramid style (6 Marks)
b) Substitute the following phrases with an equivalent more precise word/ phrase: (7 Marks)
i) With the possible exception of
ii) Referred to as
iii) Due to the fact that
iv) In spite of the fact that
v) With the possible exception of
vi) In close proximity to
vii)He totally lacked the ability to
