Focusing on the Grammar

The research product published is the first part (Part I Focusing on the grammar) of the book A Companion to Scientific English. This text aims at satisfying the needs of students on the new master degree courses in psychology who are called upon not only to understand authentic texts in English regarding their particular specialisation, but also to deconstruct and re-propose them. The two parts of the book enable the reader to acquire an awareness of the structure of a text and develop the linguistic skills necessary to re-elaborate the original. A Companion to Scientific English is made up of two parts: Part I Focusing on the Grammar and Part II Working on the Text. The pruct published, Part I, proposes some of the most controversial and challenging grammatical aspects which have a high occurrence in texts of clinical psychology. The four topics covered are: The Passive Voice, Prepositions in Relative Clauses and Phrasal Verbs, Nominalization and Word Order in Nominal Groups, and Connectives. The topics are first presented in their structural form, following the functional grammar approach, and then analysed in their application and usage in context. Descriptions are supported by extensive exemplification which, in most cases, are taken from the texts proposed in Part II. The study of these specific topics allows the reader to gain awareness of how and where to focus attention when approaching a scientific text. Such awareness anticipates and facilitates the tasks the reader will be asked to undertake in the second part