ATS1340 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES WORKBOOK 1 ISSUE 4

Worldwide, 5 to 80 million species of plants and animals comprise the ‘biodiversity’ of planet Earth. Tropical rain forests – covering only 7% of the total dry surface of the Earth – hold over half of all these species. Of the tens of millions of species believed to be on Earth, scientists have only given names to about 1.5 million of them, and even fewer of the species have been studied in depth. Many of the rain forest plants and animals can only be found in small areas, because they require a special habitat in which to live. This makes them very vulnerable to deforestation. If their habitat is destroyed, they may become extinct. Every day, species are disappearing from the tropical rain forests as they are cleared. We do not know the exact rate of extinction, but estimates indicate that up to 137 species disappear worldwide each day. Urquhart G., Chomentowski, W., Skole, D. & Barber, C., (n.d.)Tropical deforestation fact sheet. Page 3. Earth Observatory, NASA. From http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Deforestation Another important set of devices to introduce into your writing are boosters and attitude markers: • • Boosters allow you to express certainty and increase the authority of your voice. Because boosters assume that your readers share your position, they should only be used when you are sure that your readers do share your position. Actually always apparent certain that certainly it is clear • • • must never no doubt of course obvious(ly) prove well-known Attitude markers allow you to express your feelings about a particular position or piece of information. As with boosters, they need to be used very carefully, and only when you are sure that your reader(s) share your position. Attitude markers are used most often in professional magazines. amazingly appropriately correctly [Return to contents page] 9 clearly definitely doubtless essential in fact indeed we know curiously fortunately importantly interesting (ly) surprisingly unfortunately

ATS1340 ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES WORKBOOK 1 ISSUE 4 | Page 9