LAN 105 [ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES] – First Quarter | Reviewer

Fundamentals of Reading Academic Texts

FORMAL
FICTIONAL STORY
PUBLICATION
 Significant
human
 Can be published
experiences
 Not opinionated
 For creativity
 Unbiased
and
 Mainly academic entertainment

ACADEMIC TEXTS
 Unfamiliar or has a complex topic
 Having long paragraphs
 Filled with heavy text
 Consisting of challenging vocabulary
 Composed of complex sentences
Academic Texts
- Defined as critical, objective, specialized texts written by experts or professionals (in Third Person P.O.V.)
in a given field using formal language
- Written by academic researchers attached to universities. In the academic world, it is considered important
that quality of material is assured and that new research builds upon past research.

Examples of Academic Texts

1. Articles
o Published in scholarly journals
o Offers results of research and development that can either impact the academic community or
provide relevance to nation-building

2. Conference Papers
o Presented in scholastic conferences, and may be revised as articles for possible publication in
scholarly journals
o More formals than minutes of the meeting
3. Reviews
o Provide evaluation on reviews of works published in scholarly journals
o Critical assessment

4. Essays
o A short piece of writing that expresses information as well as the writer’s opinion

5. Report
o A document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose

6. Blog Post
o A platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their reviews on an individual subject
 7. Theses and Dissertations
o Personal researches written by a candidate for a college or university degree
o Both are research papers; same structure

THESES
Masteral Program
Shorter (100 pages)
Use other research to
prove their thesis / have in-
depth study
DISSERTATIONS
Doctoral Program
Longer
Wider Coverage
Use other research
to come up with a
new
idea/topic/problem

Other Types:
- Blog Articles – give academic writings, spreading information, essay form
- Collaboration Wiki Article: Wikipedia – multiple authors can revise information
- Popularization – Trends
- Monograph – shorter version of Research

Importance of Academic Texts:

- For students’ courses in the future
- For nation-building
- For us to be updated about the happenings around us, and to understand them as well
- Improve the quality of life (luh Entrep teh?)
- Without formal writing, the nation will hardly believe the information given to them

DIFFERENCES OF ACADEMIC TEXT FROM NON-ACADEMIC TEXT

ACADEMIC TEXT
o A text that is specifically written for use by college instructors or students, or it is a text your instructor
has assigned because of its usefulness in your college course.
o It is expected to be:
- Precise
- Semi-formal/formal
- Impersonal
- Objective
- Critical
- References are listed
- Written by experts
- Structured
- informative

NON- ACADEMIC
o Witten for the mass public. They are published quickly and can be written by anyone, their language
is informal, casual and may not be provided and will not be provided and will not have any credentials
listed, there will be no reference list.
o Personal
o Emotional
 o Expressive
o Subjective
o Informal
o Free writing structure
o Subjective
o References are NOT listed
 In nature, such writing is often found in personal journal entries, reader response writing memoirs,
any kind of autobiographical writing and letters, e-mails and text messages.

A Topic Sentence tells about the limited topic of a paragraph and expresses the focusing idea or the main
point of the paragraph. It provides the idea to the reader what he/she is going to read after that.

Supporting Sentence provides detailed information to the readers from which they become able to
understand the topic sentence.

The Concluding Sentence ends the paragraph and by completing a full circle comes back to that idea which
was introduced by the topic sentence.

STRUCTURE OF AN ACADEMIC TEXT

THREE-PART STRUCTURE

 INTRODUCTION
 To provide the reader with a clear idea of the focus and aim of the text.
 The topic of the essay/article will be presented in the introduction.
 Often accompanied by a thesis statement [the claim that the writer wishes to make]
 Provides the context/background of the argument
 Introduces the theoretical perspectives, terminology etc. that will be used.
 Explains how the writing will be organized
 BODY
 Where the essays or articles arguments, ideas and results are developed and discussed.
 CONCLUSION
 Should not contain any few facts or ideas, but rather function as a BRIEF restatement of the main
arguments and facts that have been treated in the essay.
IMRAD STRUCTURE
- https://youtu.be/-Zud3lIXxdM

IMRAD 3-Part
Structure
More detailed
Take longer time to finish
Structure is more complicated Write freely
Cannot be used everyday easier
Thorough investigation of the topic

OFHR Communication: Objective – Feelings – Human Needs – Request

ACADEMIC WRITING PROCESS

 1. Posing a question
2. Problematizing a concept
3. Evaluating an opinion
4. Answering the question/s posed
5. Clarifying the problem or
6. Arguing a stand
7. Giving results
Introduction
Body
Conclusion

PURPOSES OF AN ACADEMIC TEXT

1. To persuade by reasoned discourse
2. To develop critical thinking [by relaying informative information]
3. To inform
4. To argue a specific point [by explaining ideas]

FEATURES OF AN ACADEMIC TEXT

1. Complex – written language has longer words, it is lexically denser, and it has more varied vocabulary
(noun phrase than subject phrase). Written texts are shorter, and the language has more grammatical
complexity.
2. Formal – should avoid colloquial words and expressions.
3. Precise – facts are given accurately and precisely
4. Objective – objective rather than personal; has fewer words that refer to the writer or the reader.
5. Explicit – make it clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related.
6. Accurate – uses more vocabulary accurately; most subjects have words with narrow specific
meanings.
7. Hedging – make decisions about your stance on a particular subject or the strength of the claims you
are making.

UNDERSTANDING ACADEMIC TEXT

1. Purpose – writing is a form of communication for a reason or purpose.
2. Perspective – writer’s opinion, point of view, attitude or feelings about a particular idea, situation or
topic.
3. Critical Thinking means advancing your understanding

LOCATING MAIN IDEAS

UNDERSTANDING AND LOCATING THE THESIS STATEMENT
 The thesis statement presents or describes the point of an essay
 In an academic text, the thesis statement is usually presented in the abstract or executive summary or
found at the last part of the introduction.
 It is written in a declarative sentence
  In some cases, in academic text, the thesis statement located at the last part of the introduction is replaced
with a PURPOSE STATEMENT. Unlike the thesis statement, the purpose statement is introduced by
SIGNAL PHRASES that announce the purpose scope, or direction of the text as well as its focus.
 These signal phrases include:
- “this study examined…”
- “this paper examines..”
- “The aim of this essay is to..”
- “This paper begins with…”
- “The primary objective of this paper is to…” and
- “the purpose of this essay is to…”

STRATEGIES IN LOCATING THESIS STATEMENT

o Read the title of the text and make inferences on its purpose.
o If the text has no abstract or executive summary, read the first few paragraphs as the thesis statement is
usually located here.
o In other cases, you may also check the conclusion where author sum up and review their main points.

UNDERSTANDING AND LOCATING THE TOPIC SENTENCES

o The topic sentence presents or describes the points of the paragraph.
o It is the main idea of the paragraph
o It can be located in the beginning, middle or last part of the paragraph.

STRATEGIES IN LOCATING THE TOPIC SENTENCE

o Read the first sentence of the paragraph very carefully because most authors state their topic sentence in
the beginning of the paragraph.
o Browse the sentences in the paragraph to identify what they describe. The sentence that best describes
the topic of the paragraph is the topic sentence.
o Find the concept or idea being tackled, which in colloquial term is the “big word” in the paragraph. The
sentence that defines the BIG WORD.
o purpose of the paragraph
o writing style of the author

DIFFERENCES:
THESIS STATEMENT
The thesis statement:
o is the basic stand that an author takes and the major point that he wishes to make about his subject.
o contains the controlling idea of the essay.
o is a single sentence that is used to define purpose of your paper.
o asserts the main claim or argument of your paper.

REMEMBER!!!
A thesis statement:

o Is not a title
 o Is not an announcement of the subject
o Is not a statement of absolute fact
A good thesis:

o Is restricted (it limits the subject)

o Is unified
o Is specific
 A strong thesis statement makes a complex and unique argument that someone could reasonably object to.

TOPIC SENTENCES
o are used in each paragraph of a paper
o the first sentence of a paragraph that signals to the reader what the paragraphs main idea will be
o the purpose of this are to develop and state the key idea of each paragraph in an effort to define the point
of the paragraph.

TOPIC SENTENCES SHOULD:

 relate back to the argument of the thesis
 concisely summarize the key idea of the paragraph
 can even contain key words from the thesis statement

BASICS OF SUMMARIZING
SUMMARIZING
o often used in determining the essential ideas in a book article, book chapter, an article or parts of an
article.
o These essential ideas include the gist (main idea), useful information, or keywords or phrases.

5 BENEFITS OR ADVANTAGE SUMMARIZING HELPS YOU:

1) Deepen your understanding of the text
2) Learn to identify relevant information or key ideas
3) Combine details or examples that support the main idea/s
4) Concentrate on the gist or main idea and keywords presented in the text
5) Capture the key words in the text and put them together clearly and concisely
o CONCISE – brief
o PRECISE – exact

WHAT IS NOT SUMMARIZING?

You are not summarizing when you:

1) Write down everything

2) Write down ideas from the text word-for-word
3) Write down incoherent and irrelevant ideas
4) write down ideas that are not stated in the text
5) write down a summary that has the same length or is longer than the original text.
DEFINITIONS
Summarizing
 gather information and discuss on your own words
 summarize the WHOLE TEXT or whole essay as one
 don’t give accounts to the author
 In-Text Citation: (Standler, 2012)
Paraphrasing
 Mostly starts with according to… , stated by…
 Give explanation to a PASSAGE only
 get important passages and explain the importance, fuctions, etc., IN YOUR OWN WORDS
Direct Quoting
 introduced by a “quotation mark”
 copy the exact source text
 passage or important lines you are interested in
PARAPHRASING AND DIRECT QUOTING
COMPARISON:

 SUMMARIZING
o Does not match the source word-for-word
o Involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, but including only the main point(s)
o Presents a broad overview, usually much shorter than the original text.
o Must be attributed to the original source.
 PARAPHRASING
o Does not match the source word-for word
o Involves putting a passage from a source into your own words
o Changes the words or phrasing of a passage but retains and fully communicates the original meaning.
o Must be attributed to the original source

 DIRECT QUOTING
o Matches the source word-for-word
o Is usually a short part of the text
o Must be attributed to the original source

WHEN TO USE?

 SUMMARIZING
1) Summarize a text that has long sections
2) Summarize when you want to:
a) Avoid or minimize direct quotation; or use the main idea of the text and write it in your own
words.
 PARAPHRASING
1) Paraphrase a short text with one or two sentences or a paragraph with a maximum of five sentences.
2) Paraphrase when you want to:
a) avoid or maximize direct quotation
 b) rewrite the authors words by not changing the message or use your own words to state the
author’s ideas.
 DIRECT QUOTING
1) Quote a text that conveys powerful message or will show less impact if it is paraphrased or
summarized.
2) Quote directly when you want to:
a. Begin your discussion with the author’s stand
b. Highlight the author’s expertise in your claim, argument or discussion.

WRITING A PRECIS

 Precis is sometimes called the critical summary

 This generally asks the writer to convey a deeper understanding of the overall argument rather than to
simply paraphrase specific ideas of the source text
 Critical summaries often serve as the first step in writing a literature review
 A precis is a brief, original summary of the important ideas given in a long selection
 It is a concise and a lucid summary that forsakes all unnecessary details
 It seeks to articulate another author’s thoughts by extracting the maximum amount of information and
carefully conveying it in a maximum number of words
PURPOSES OF PRECIS
 Aims at intelligent reading and clear accurate writing
 It is not an essay. It provides readers with the information about its significance and worth

CHARACTERISTICS
 It is NOT rewriting or interpretation of the original
 As a rule, a precis is ¼ of the original length, except as noted
 It is not written with words from the original, though you are welcome to use some quotes if appropriate
 It follows the standard format: an author’s thesis and methods he uses to represent it, results, and
conclusion