Colegio de La Ciudad de Zamboanga: Republic of The Philippines Ayala Campus

Republic of the Philippines
COLEGIO DE LA CIUDAD DE ZAMBOANGA

Ayala Campus
For:
ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC
AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES
LESSON 1:
NATURE OF ACADEMIC TEXTS
LESSON 1
A. Lesson Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:
1. define academic writing and distinguish it from other kinds of writing;
2. identify the characteristics of academic writing
3. determine the author’s purpose in a passage
B. Lesson Outline:
1. Nature of Academic Texts
1.1 Definition of Academic Texts

1.2 Characteristics of Academic Texts
1.3 Determining the Author’s Purpose
C. Lesson Content:
Academic Writing
Academic writing is a process that starts with posing a question, problematizing a
concept, evaluating an opinion, and ends in answering the question or questions posed,
clarifying the problem, and/or arguing for a stand. Just like other kinds of writing academic
writing has a specific purpose, which is to inform, to argue a specific point, and to persuade.
It also addresses a specific audience; the audience is your teacher (for the most part), your peers
who will read and evaluate your work, and the academic community that may also read your
work. The assumption is that your audience is composed of people who are knowledgeable on
the subject that you are writing about; thus, you have to demonstrate a thorough
understanding of your subject at hand. This makes academic writing different from a personal
narrative or a creative essay, or a legal document, in which the knowledge of the writer is
assumed to be greater than that of the readers. (Saqueton, G. & Uychoco, T. 2016.)
Academic writing is thinking; you cannot just write anything that comes to your mind.
You have to abide by the set rules and practices in writing. You have to write in a language that
is appropriate and formal but not too pretentious. You also have to consider the knowledge and
background of your audience. You have to make sure that you can back up your statement with a
strong and valid evidence. Writing academic papers requires "deliberate, thorough, and careful
thought and that is why it involves research. You are not just expected to inform or to persuade
but you are also expected to engage the readers in a conversation by giving them clear ideas
and points to evaluate and question. You have to make sure that your purpose (i. e., to react to
an Issue or an event, to convince readers to take your side) is clear and that your language, style,
and tone are appropriate to convey your purpose to your target readers. Your audience is varied,
and you have to make sure that when you write, you keep the readers in mind. (Saqueton, G. &
Uychoco, T. 2016.)
Your audience will determine the language of your paper. For example, your audience is
a group of experts on language policies, it is acceptable that you use jargons such as vernacular,
mother tongue, first language, or english. If your audience, however, are your fellow students
you have to make sure that the words you use are explained In layman's terms. (Go, R. “ English
for Academic and Professional Purposes, Second Edition.”)
On the other hand, Non – academic texts are masterpiece by anyone whose audiences are
general public. Author style of writing is informal, casual or sometimes slang words. Non -
academic text does not have any reference to support the idea. Typically, non – academic text
will be found and read through newspapers, magazine, blog articles, face book post and email
messages. The author of non-academic writing does not have credentials like educational
background, other writing or even experience putted in their writings.
(http://essays.quotidiana.org/bacon/studies)
Determining the Author’s Purpose
Purpose: To Persuade
 The author’s main goal here is to convince you. An author may use a lot of factual
information as tools to persuade the reader, but the main goal is to really persuade and
not just to inform the reader.
 There are two main goals in convincing a person. These are to make you change your
mind on something or to make you do a certain action.
 As a reader of persuasive texts, ask yourself this question: “ What is the author trying to
tell me? What is the motivation of the author for telling me such? If I do what the author
says, who will benefit the most: the author or me?”
Purpose: To Inform
 It aims to give information only but not necessarily to convince the reader to believe or to
do something.
 Writing informative texts requires a lot of research. The author must check the sources of
the information are valid and reliable.
 Authors of informative texts must take extra caution when writing facts if they want to
build their credibility and trustworthiness.
Purpose: To Express
 These are the text that are sometimes more creative in nature, and the goal of the author
could be to engage the reader’s emotions such as joy, anger, and frustrations.
 Expressive texts may have more opinions than facts. One less- known form of an
expressive text is satire. It is a from of writing that uses humor to scorn and/ or expose
follies of a person, an organization, or politics in a government.
 Expressive texts may be found in literary pieces such as poems and stories. (Go, R. “
English for Academic and Professional Purposes, Second Edition.”)
D. Discussion Questions:
1. What is academic writing?
2. What are the characteristics of academic writing?
3. What is the importance of academic writing?
4. In contrast with academic writing, what is Non- academic writing?
5. Give examples of Non-academic texts.
6. How is academic writing different from a letter?
7. How is it different from a court order?
8.Why is academic writing equated to thinking?
9. If you use the first person point of view in writing academic papers, is it still considered
academic? Why?
10. In writing, what are some problems that you encounter when you write academic papers?
11. Other aspects of audience classification can also be by age level. As a writer, how would you
organize your writing if you intend to write something about children?
Read the excerpt of an essay by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) titled “Of Studies.” Answer the
questions that follow:
Studies serve for delight, for ornament , and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in
privateness and retiring; for ornament is in discourse ; and for ability is in the judgment and
disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by
one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best, from those that
are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth ; to use them too much for ornament, is
affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect
nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need
pruning , by study; and studies themselves, do give forth directions too much at large, except
they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and
wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and
above them, won by observation.
Source: http://essays.quotidiana.org/bacon/studies
12. What do you think is the purpose of the passage?
13. How does the writer achieve this purpose?
14. What does the line “… natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning …” mean?
15. How would you rate the passage in terms of its audience? Who do you think are its target
audience?
16. How could you determine the differences between academic and non-academic texts?
17. Do you agree that academic texts provide more learning compared from non-academic texts?
Explain.
18. What could be done to improve a learner’s abilities in writing an academic text?
19. What other approach could be combined with writing a particular academic text to develop
one’s intellect?
20. Think of a most pressing environmental issue. As a writer, how are you going to present your
work for your readers? Who could possibly be your audience and what could be your purpose in
writing the said topic for your academic text?
E. Lesson Activity/ Task

Name: __________________________________________Date: _____________
Grade and Section: _______________________________
Directions: Group yourselves in three. Read and evaluate these three texts and answer the
following questions.
Text A
“Why Do They Say That Our English Is Bad?”
(An Excerpt)
Grace M. Saqueton
English teachers in the Philippines often find themselves in a very frustrating situation-no
matter how hard they try to teach the rules of written English to their students, the students still
commit errors in Word Order, word choice, subject-verb agreement, tenses, prepositions,
articles, punctuations, and the like. Teachers get frustrated when they hear or read sentences such
as ”They decided to got married,” ”What did the students watched?" or ”Ana go to the canteen."
It is also alarming because the rules that apply to these sentences are supposedly simple rules that
the students should have learned in grade school. Yet, here they are in college, still committing
those same errors.
Teachers and linguists alike have sought and (probably) are still seeking for ways and
strategies to teach English effectively especially in the light of teaching English as a second
language or as a foreign language. Different research studies have been conducted and different
theories have been used to address the situation. One of the topics that the researchers have
explored is the recurring errors in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and discourse of
second language learners. They believe that studying these recurring errors is necessary to
address the supposed grammar problems of the Filipino college students.
In a paper titled, ”Why Does They Say That Our Sentences Is Wrong When We Knows
English? An Analysis of the ’Common Errors’ of Freshmen Compositions," Saqueton (2008)
identihed some of the common errors found in the essays of f1rst year college students. She
provided explanations, using error analysis, language acquisition theories, and Fairclough’s
paradigm on the appropriacy of ”appropriateness,” as to what caused the ‘errors.’ This is in the
hope of helping English teachers develop teaching materials and devise teaching strategies that
are appropriate for Filipino hrst year college students of different linguistic backgrounds.
Saqueton found out that among the students’ essays, errors in the use ofverbs are the most
common, followed by errors in the use of propositions, problems in word choice, and problems
in subject verb agreement. There are also errors in the use of articles, conjunctions, pronouns;
spelling problems are also evident.
These ”errors" are considered errors because of certain standards that language teachers
want their students to follow. These standards are the ones prescribed by grammarians.
Educators want their students to master Standard English as second language learners of English.
The problem here lies in the definition of "Standard" English. is there really a common standard?
If there is, who uses it? Whose standard should be followed?
Answering the question would entail a lot of problems. First, there should be a clear
definition of what standard is. What kind of English is Standard English? Dr. Andrew Moody,
when asked during the International Conference on World Englishes and Second Language
Teaching on how to maintain correctness and consistency when teaching English in the
Philippines, said that it would be dishonest to teach Standard English as if it exists.
That answer alone could raise a lot of issues. It only shows that the concept of standard is
problematic. According to Fairclough (1995), there is a need for a particular standard in order to
rationalize policies on the teaching of Standard English. He further stated that appropriateness
figures within dominant conceptions of language variations.
Is there an implied claim then that students of English as a second language or as a
foreign language speak a substandard kind of English because they do not follow the standards
of General American variety? What if they (Filipinos, for example) have accepted English and
appropriated it to fit their needs and the context of situation in their own places?
Andrew Gonzalez (1985), in his paper, “When Does an Error Become a Feature of
Philippine English?" pointed out that until Philippine English is really creolized, English is still a
second language in the Philippines, and he believed that in teaching any second language, one
must accept a standard. However, he also stressed that no matter how hard the English teacher
tries, a local variety will continue to develop (168).
There will always be different perspectives on this matter, especially that language issues
seem to be a highly emotional matter. Should language education then go for mutual
intelligibility rather than subscribe to a certain standard? Educators and language policy planners
could go back to Fairclough's model of language learning. They have to decide how relevant
English is to their students, and from there they have to decide what to teach and how to teach it.
Text B
Mother Tongue
(An Excerpt)
Amy Tan
I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal
opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others.
I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am
fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of
Ianguage-the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.
Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them aII-alI the Englishes I grew up with.
Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use. I was giving a talk
to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. The
nature of the talk was about my writing, my life, and my book, The Joy Luck Club. The talk was
going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk
sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me
give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her. I was saying things
like, “The intersection of memory upon imagination" and ”There is an aspect of my fiction that
relates to thousand-thus”--a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened,
it suddenly seemed to me, with normanaIized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all
the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of
English I did not use at home with my mother.
Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself
conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the
price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: ”Not waste money that way." My
husband was with us as well, and he didn't notice any switch in my English. And then I realized
why. It's because over the twenty years we've been together I've often used that same kind of
English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of
intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with.
……
Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like
others, I have described it to people as “broken" or “fractured" English. But I wince when I say
that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than ”broken,’ as If
It were damaged and needed to be fixed, as If it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. I've
heard other terms used, “limited English," for example. But they seem just as bad, as If
everything Is limited, including people's perceptions of the limited English speaker.
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English
limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected
the quality of what she had to say, that is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts
were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in
department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good
service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen,
she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to
ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. One time it
was a call to her stockbroker in New York. She had cashed put her small portfolio and it just so
happened we were going to New York the next week, our very first trip outside California. I had
to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “ This is Mrs.
Tan.”
And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, ”Why he don’t send me
check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money."
And then I said in perfect English, ”Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to
send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”
Then she began to talk more loudly. "What he want, I come to New York tell him front of
his boss, you cheating me?" And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling
the stockbroker, ”I can’t tolerate any more excuses. If I don't receive the check immediately, I
am going to have to speak to your manager when I'm in New York next week.” And sure
enough, the following week there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and l was
sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss in
her impeccable broken English.
Text C
Dear Prof. Lanuza:
Congratulations for being chosen as one of the recipients of the ASEAN Educational Program
Award. You are invited to the 5th Annual ASEAN English Teachers' Conference. Our sponsors
value the important work done by English language teachers and they are willing to support your
professional endeavors by giving financial aid in the conference.
The conference organizers and sponsors want to know more about your work and how the
ASEAN English Teachers’ Conference will be able to help you. May we ask you to complete the
attached questionnaire to help us provide that information? Also, we would appreciate the
opportunity for members of our Sponsorship Profile team to talk with you about your work and
the challenges and opportunities that you have identified in your study.
If you have questions, just send me an email or check this link to the conference website. Thank
you and we look forward to meeting you.
Best regards,
Prof. Hannah Lee

______________________________________________________________________________
Below is a table that will help you determine the correct example of an academic text. Reread the
three texts and fill out this table based on your evaluation of the texts.
Text A Text B Text C
What is the text
about?
(subject/focus)
What is the writer’s
goal in writing the
text?
What is the point of
view used in the text?
How much does the
writer know of the
subject?
How did the writer
organize the text?
Did the writer write
in a formal or
informal manner?
Based on the answers from your group discussion, define and give the features of academic
writing.
Academic writing is ____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Academic writing requires_______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Academic writing is different from a creative essay, and a business letter in terms of ______
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
References:
Saqueton, G. & Uychoco, T. 2016. “ English for Academic and Professional Purposes”. Rex
Bookstore
Go, R. “ English for Academic and Professional Purposes, Second Edition.” Diwa Learning
System Inc.
http://essays.quotidiana.org/bacon/studies
Ayala Campus
For:
LESSON 2:
READING TEXTS CRITICALLY
LESSON 2
1. explain what critical reading is;

2. annotate, outline, summarize, and question the writer’s claim in a text;
3. analyze a text by applying the different ways in reading critically; and
4. critique a text by pointing out the different logical fallacies.
B. Lesson Outline:
1. Reading Texts Critically
1.1 Critical Reading
1.2Annotate, Outline, Summarize and Evaluate the Text
C. Lesson Content:
What is Critical Reading? Critical reading involves scrutinizing any information that you
read or hear. Critical reading means not easily believing information offered to you by a text. It
is an active process of discovery because when you ready critically, you are not just receiving
information but also making an interaction with the writer. The interaction happens when you
question the writer’s claims and assertions and when you comment on writer’s ideas. ( English
for Academic and Professional Purposes, 2016)
Ramage, Bean, and Johnson (2006) identified the following requirements in critical
thinking:
 The ability to pose problematic questions
 The ability to analyze a problem in all its dimensions- to define its key terms, determine
its causes, understand its history, appreciate its human dimension and its connection to
one’s own personal experience, and appreciate what makes its problematic or complex
 The ability to find, gather, and interpret data, facts, and other information relevant to the
problem
 The ability to imagine alternative solutions to the problem, to see different ways in which
the question might be answered and different perspectives for viewing it
 The ability to analyze competing approaches and answers, to construct arguments for and
against alternatives, and to choose the best solution in the light of values, objectives, and
other criteria that you determine and articulate light of values, objectives, and other
criteria that you determine and articulate
 The ability to write an effective argument justifying your choice while acknowledging
counter- arguments
The following are ways to hep you become a critical reader: (Ramage et.al. 2006)
1. Annotate what you read. One of the ways to interact with the writer is to write on the text.
You can underline, circle, or highlight words, phrases, or sentences that contain important
details, or you can write marginal notes asking questions or commenting on the ideas of the
writer.
2. Outline the text. In order to fully engage in a dialogue with the text or with the writer of the
text, you need to identify the main points of the writer and list them down so you can also
identify the ideas that the writer has raised to support his/her stand. You don’t necessarily have
to write a structured sentence or topic outline for this purpose; you can just write in bullet or in
numbers. Look at the example below.
Thesis statement:
Supporting details:
Point 1:
Point 2:
Point 3:
3. Summarize the text. You can also get the main points of the text you are reading and write its
gist in your own words. This will test how much you have understood the text and will help you
evaluate it critically. A summary is usually one paragraph long.
4. Evaluate the text. This is the point where the other three techniques will be helpful. When
you evaluate a text, you question the author’s purpose and intentions, as well as his/her
assumptions in the claims. You also check if the arguments are supported by evidence and if the
evidence are valid and are from credible sources.
Applying the four suggested ways to help you become a critical reader, read the selection
carefully and comprehensively and answer the following guide questions afterwards.
Max Shulman: Love is a Fallacy
Cool was I and logical. Keen, calculating, perspicacious, acute and astute—I was all of these.
My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, precise as a chemist’s scales, as penetrating as a scalpel.
And—think of it!—I’m only eighteen.
It is not often that one so young has such a giant intellect. Take, for example, Petey Bellows, my
roommate at the university. Same age, same background, but dumb as an ox. A nice enough
fellow, you understand, but nothing upstairs. Emotional type. Unstable.
Impressionable. Worst of all, a faddist. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason. To be
swept up in every new craze that comes along, to surrender oneself to idiocy just because
everybody else is doing it—this, to me, is the acme of mindlessness. Not, however, to Petey. One
afternoon I found Petey lying on his bed with an expression of such distress on his face that I
immediately diagnosed appendicitis. “Don’t move,” I said, “Don’t take a laxative. I’ll get a
doctor.”
“Raccoon,” he mumbled thickly.
“Raccoon?” I said, pausing in my flight.
“I want a raccoon coat,” he wailed.
I perceived that his trouble was not physical, but mental. “Why do you want a raccoon coat?” “I
should have known it,” he cried, pounding his temples. “I should have known they’d come back
when the Charleston came back. Like a fool I spent all my money for textbooks, and now I can’t
get a raccoon coat.”
“Can you mean,” I said incredulously, “that people are actually wearing raccoon coats again?”
“All the Big Men on Campus are wearing them. Where’ve you been?”
“In the library,” I said, naming a place not frequented by Big Men on Campus.
He leaped from the bed and paced the room. “I’ve got to have a raccoon coat,” he said
passionately. “I’ve got to!”
“Petey, why? Look at it rationally. Raccoon coats are unsanitary. They shed. They smell bad.
They weigh too much. They’re unsightly. They—”
“You don’t understand,” he interrupted impatiently. “It’s the thing to do. Don’t you want to be in
the swim?”
“No,” I said truthfully.
“Well, I do,” he declared. “I’d give anything for a raccoon coat. Anything!”
My brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear. “Anything?” I asked, looking at him
narrowly.
“Anything,” he affirmed in ringing tones.
I stroked my chin thoughtfully. It so happened that I knew where to get my hands on a raccoon
coat. My father had had one in his undergraduate days; it lay now in a trunk in the attic back
home. It also happened that Petey had something I wanted. He didn’t have it exactly, but at least
he had first rights on it. I refer to his girl, Polly Espy.
I had long coveted Polly Espy. Let me emphasize that my desire for this young woman was not
emotional in nature. She was, to be sure, a girl who excited the emotions, but I was not one to let
my heart rule my head. I wanted Polly for a shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebral reason.
I was a freshman in law school. In a few years I would be out in practice. I was well aware of the
importance of the right kind of wife in furthering a lawyer’s career. The successful lawyers I had
observed were, almost without exception, married to beautiful, gracious, intelligent women. With
one omission, Polly fitted these specifications perfectly.
Beautiful she was. She was not yet of pin-up proportions, but I felt that time would supply the
lack. She already had the makings.
Gracious she was. By gracious I mean full of graces. She had an erectness of carriage, an ease of
bearing, a poise that clearly indicated the best of breeding. At table her manners were exquisite. I
had seen her at the Kozy Kampus Korner eating the specialty of the house—a sandwich that
contained scraps of pot roast, gravy, chopped nuts, and a dipper of sauerkraut— without even
getting her fingers moist.
Intelligent she was not. In fact, she veered in the opposite direction. But I believed that under my
guidance she would smarten up. At any rate, it was worth a try. It is, after all, easier to make a
beautiful dumb girl smart than to make an ugly smart girl beautiful.
“Petey,” I said, “are you in love with Polly Espy?”
“I think she’s a keen kid,” he replied, “but I don’t know if you’d call it love. Why?”
“Do you,” I asked, “have any kind of formal arrangement with her? I mean are you going steady
or anything like that?”
“No. We see each other quite a bit, but we both have other dates. Why?”
“Is there,” I asked, “any other man for whom she has a particular fondness?”
“Not that I know of. Why?”
I nodded with satisfaction. “In other words, if you were out of the picture, the field would be
open. Is that right?”
“I guess so. What are you getting at?”
“Nothing , nothing,” I said innocently, and took my suitcase out the closet.
“Where are you going?” asked Petey.
“Home for weekend.” I threw a few things into the bag.
“Listen,” he said, clutching my arm eagerly, “while you’re home, you couldn’t get some money
from your old man, could you, and lend it to me so I can buy a raccoon coat?” “I may do better
than that,” I said with a mysterious wink and closed my bag and left.
“Look,” I said to Petey when I got back Monday morning. I threw open the suitcase and
revealed the huge, hairy, gamy object that my father had worn in his Stutz Bearcat in 1925.
“Holy Toledo!” said Petey reverently. He plunged his hands into the raccoon coat and then his
face. “Holy Toledo!” he repeated fifteen or twenty times.
“Would you like it?” I asked.
“Oh yes!” he cried, clutching the greasy pelt to him. Then a canny look came into his eyes.
“What do you want for it?”
“Your girl.” I said, mincing no words.
“Polly?” he said in a horrified whisper. “You want Polly?”
“That’s right.”
He flung the coat from him. “Never,” he said stoutly.
I shrugged. “Okay. If you don’t want to be in the swim, I guess it’s your business.”
I sat down in a chair and pretended to read a book, but out of the corner of my eye I kept
watching Petey. He was a torn man. First he looked at the coat with the expression of a waif at a
bakery window. Then he turned away and set his jaw resolutely. Then he looked back at the coat,
with even more longing in his face. Then he turned away, but with not so much resolution this
time. Back and forth his head swiveled, desire waxing, resolution waning. Finally he didn’t turn
away at all; he just stood and stared with mad lust at the coat.
“It isn’t as though I was in love with Polly,” he said thickly. “Or going steady or anything like
that.”
“That’s right,” I murmured.
“What’s Polly to me, or me to Polly?” “Not a thing,” said I.
“It’s just been a casual kick—just a few laughs, that’s all.”
“Try on the coat,” said I.
He complied. The coat bunched high over his ears and dropped all the way down to his shoe
tops. He looked like a mound of dead raccoons. “Fits fine,” he said happily.
I rose from my chair. “Is it a deal?” I asked, extending my hand.
He swallowed. “It’s a deal,” he said and shook my hand.
I had my first date with Polly the following evening. This was in the nature of a survey; I wanted
to find out just how much work I had to do to get her mind up to the standard I required. I took
her first to dinner. “Gee, that was a delish dinner,” she said as we left the restaurant. Then I took
her to a movie. “Gee, that was a marvy movie,” she said as we left the theatre. And then I took
her home. “Gee, I had a sensaysh time,” she said as she bade me good night.
I went back to my room with a heavy heart. I had gravely underestimated the size of my task.
This girl’s lack of information was terrifying. Nor would it be enough merely to supply her with
information. First she had to be taught to think. This loomed as a project of no small dimensions,
and at first I was tempted to give her back to Petey. But then I got to thinking about her abundant
physical charms and about the way she entered a room and the way she handled a knife and fork,
and I decided to make an effort.
I went about it, as in all things, systematically. I gave her a course in logic. It happened that I, as
a law student, was taking a course in logic myself, so I had all the facts at my fingertips. “Poll’,”
I said to her when I picked her up on our next date, “tonight we are going over to the Knoll and
talk.”
“Ooh, terrif,” she replied. One thing I will say for this girl: you would go far to find another so
agreeable.
We went to the Knoll, the campus trysting place, and we sat down under an old oak, and she
looked at me expectantly. “What are we going to talk about?” she asked.
“Logic.”
She thought this over for a minute and decided she liked it. “Magnif,” she said.
“Logic,” I said, clearing my throat, “is the science of thinking. Before we can think correctly, we
must first learn to recognize the common fallacies of logic. These we will take up tonight.”
“Wow-dow!” she cried, clapping her hands delightedly.
I winced, but went bravely on. “First let us examine the fallacy called Dicto Simpliciter.” “By all
means,” she urged, batting her lashes eagerly. “Dicto Simpliciter means an argument based on an
unqualified generalization. For example: Exercise is good. Therefore everybody should
exercise.”
“I agree,” said Polly earnestly. “I mean exercise is wonderful. I mean it builds the body and
everything.”
“Polly,” I said gently, “the argument is a fallacy. Exercise is good is an unqualified
generalization. For instance, if you have heart disease, exercise is bad, not good. Many people
are ordered by their doctors not to exercise. You must qualify the generalization. You must say
exercise is usually good, or exercise is good for most people. Otherwise you have committed a
Dicto Simpliciter. Do you see?”
“No,” she confessed. “But this is marvy. Do more! Do more!”
“It will be better if you stop tugging at my sleeve,” I told her, and when she desisted, I continued.
“Next we take up a fallacy called Hasty Generalization. Listen carefully: You can’t speak
French. Petey Bellows can’t speak French. I must therefore conclude that nobody at the
University of Minnesota can speak French.”
“Really?” said Polly, amazed. “Nobody?”
I hid my exasperation. “Polly, it’s a fallacy. The generalization is reached too hastily. There are
too few instances to support such a conclusion.”
“Know any more fallacies?” she asked breathlessly. “This is more fun than dancing even.”
I fought off a wave of despair. I was getting nowhere with this girl, absolutely nowhere. Still,
I am nothing if not persistent. I continued. “Next comes Post Hoc. Listen to this: Let’s not take
Bill on our picnic. Every time we take him out with us, it rains.”
“I know somebody just like that,” she exclaimed. “A girl back home—Eula Becker, her name is.
It never fails. Every single time we take her on a picnic—”
“Polly,” I said sharply, “it’s a fallacy. Eula Becker doesn’t cause the rain. She has no connection
with the rain. You are guilty of Post Hoc if you blame Eula Becker.”
“I’ll never do it again,” she promised contritely. “Are you mad at me?”
I sighed. “No, Polly, I’m not mad.”
“Then tell me some more fallacies.”
“All right. Let’s try Contradictory Premises.”
“Yes, let’s,” she chirped, blinking her eyes happily.
I frowned, but plunged ahead. “Here’s an example of Contradictory Premises: If God can do
anything, can He make a stone so heavy that He won’t be able to lift it?” “Of course,” she replied
promptly.
“But if He can do anything, He can lift the stone,” I pointed out.
“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “Well, then I guess He can’t make the stone.” “But He can do
anything,” I reminded her.
She scratched her pretty, empty head. “I’m all confused,” she admitted.
“Of course you are. Because when the premises of an argument contradict each other, there can
be no argument. If there is an irresistible force, there can be no immovable object. If there is an
immovable object, there can be no irresistible force. Get it?”
“Tell me more of this keen stuff,” she said eagerly.
I consulted my watch. “I think we’d better call it a night. I’ll take you home now, and you go
over all the things you’ve learned. We’ll have another session tomorrow night.”
I deposited her at the girls’ dormitory, where she assured me that she had had a perfectly terrif
evening, and I went glumly home to my room. Petey lay snoring in his bed, the raccoon coat
huddled like a great hairy beast at his feet. For a moment I considered waking him and telling
him that he could have his girl back. It seemed clear that my project was doomed to failure. The
girl simply had a logic-proof head.
But then I reconsidered. I had wasted one evening; I might as well waste another. Who knew?
Maybe somewhere in the extinct crater of her mind a few members still smoldered. Maybe
somehow I could fan them into flame. Admittedly it was not a prospect fraught with hope, but I
decided to give it one more try.
Seated under the oak the next evening I said, “Our first fallacy tonight is called Ad
Misericordiam.”
She quivered with delight.
“Listen closely,” I said. “A man applies for a job. When the boss asks him what his qualifications
are, he replies that he has a wife and six children at home, the wife is a helpless cripple, the
children have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, no shoes on their feet, there are no beds in the
house, no coal in the cellar, and winter is coming.”
A tear rolled down each of Polly’s pink cheeks. “Oh, this is awful, awful,” she sobbed.
“Yes, it’s awful,” I agreed, “but it’s no argument. The man never answered the boss’s question
about his qualifications. Instead he appealed to the boss’s sympathy. He committed the fallacy of
Ad Misericordiam. Do you understand?”
“Have you got a handkerchief?” she blubbered.
I handed her a handkerchief and tried to keep from screaming while she wiped her eyes. “Next,”
I said in a carefully controlled tone, “we will discuss False Analogy. Here is an example:
Students should be allowed to look at their textbooks during examinations. After all, surgeons
have X-rays to guide them during an operation, lawyers have briefs to guide them during a trial,
carpenters have blueprints to guide them when they are building a house. Why, then, shouldn’t
students be allowed to look at their textbooks during an examination?” “There now,” she said
enthusiastically, “is the most marvy idea I’ve heard in years.” “Polly,” I said testily, “the
argument is all wrong. Doctors, lawyers, and carpenters aren’t taking a test to see how much they
have learned, but students are. The situations are altogether different, and you can’t make an
analogy between them.” “I still think it’s a good idea,” said Polly.
“Nuts,” I muttered. Doggedly I pressed on. “Next we’ll try Hypothesis Contrary to Fact.”
“Sounds yummy,” was Polly’s reaction.
“Listen: If Madame Curie had not happened to leave a photographic plate in a drawer with a
chunk of pitchblende, the world today would not know about radium.”
“True, true,” said Polly, nodding her head “Did you see the movie? Oh, it just knocked me out.
That Walter Pidgeon is so dreamy. I mean he fractures me.”
“If you can forget Mr. Pidgeon for a moment,” I said coldly, “I would like to point out that
statement is a fallacy. Maybe Madame Curie would have discovered radium at some later date.
Maybe somebody else would have discovered it. Maybe any number of things would have
happened. You can’t start with a hypothesis that is not true and then draw any supportable
conclusions from it.”
“They ought to put Walter Pidgeon in more pictures,” said Polly, “I hardly ever see him any
more.”
One more chance, I decided. But just one more. There is a limit to what flesh and blood can bear.
“The next fallacy is called Poisoning the Well.” “How cute!” she gurgled.
“Two men are having a debate. The first one gets up and says, ‘My opponent is a notorious liar.
You can’t believe a word that he is going to say.’ … Now, Polly, think. Think hard. What’s
wrong?”
I watched her closely as she knit her creamy brow in concentration. Suddenly a glimmer of
intelligence—the first I had seen—came into her eyes. “It’s not fair,” she said with indignation.
“It’s not a bit fair. What chance has the second man got if the first man calls him a liar before he
even begins talking?”
“Right!” I cried exultantly. “One hundred per cent right. It’s not fair. The first man has poisoned
the well before anybody could drink from it. He has hamstrung his opponent before he could
even start … Polly, I’m proud of you.” “Pshaws,” she murmured, blushing with pleasure.
“You see, my dear, these things aren’t so hard. All you have to do is concentrate. Think—
examine—evaluate. Come now, let’s review everything we have learned.”
“Fire away,” she said with an airy wave of her hand.
Heartened by the knowledge that Polly was not altogether a cretin, I began a long, patient review
of all I had told her. Over and over and over again I cited instances, pointed out flaws, kept
hammering away without letup. It was like digging a tunnel. At first, everything was work,
sweat, and darkness. I had no idea when I would reach the light, or even if I would. But I
persisted. I pounded and clawed and scraped, and finally I was rewarded. I saw a chink of light.
And then the chink got bigger and the sun came pouring in and all was bright.
Five grueling nights with this took, but it was worth it. I had made a logician out of Polly; I had
taught her to think. My job was done. She was worthy of me, at last. She was a fit wife for me, a
proper hostess for my many mansions, a suitable mother for my well-heeled children.
It must not be thought that I was without love for this girl. Quite the contrary. Just as
Pygmalion loved the perfect woman he had fashioned, so I loved mine. I decided to acquaint her
with my feelings at our very next meeting. The time had come to change our relationship from
academic to romantic.
“Polly,” I said when next we sat beneath our oak, “tonight we will not discuss fallacies.”
“Aw, gee,” she said, disappointed.
“My dear,” I said, favoring her with a smile, “we have now spent five evenings together. We
have gotten along splendidly. It is clear that we are well matched.” “Hasty Generalization,” said
Polly brightly.
“I beg your pardon,” said I.
“Hasty Generalization,” she repeated. “How can you say that we are well matched on the basis of
only five dates?”
I chuckled with amusement. The dear child had learned her lessons well. “My dear,” I said,
patting her hand in a tolerant manner, “five dates is plenty. After all, you don’t have to eat a
whole cake to know that it’s good.”
“False Analogy,” said Polly promptly. “I’m not a cake. I’m a girl.”
I chuckled with somewhat less amusement. The dear child had learned her lessons perhaps too
well. I decided to change tactics. Obviously the best approach was a simple, strong, direct
declaration of love. I paused for a moment while my massive brain chose the proper word. Then
I began:
“Polly, I love you. You are the whole world to me, the moon and the stars and the constellations
of outer space. Please, my darling, say that you will go steady with me, for if you will not, life
will be meaningless. I will languish. I will refuse my meals. I will wander the face of the earth, a
shambling, hollow-eyed hulk.” There, I thought, folding my arms, that ought to do it.
“Ad Misericordiam,” said Polly.
I ground my teeth. I was not Pygmalion; I was Frankenstein, and my monster had me by the
throat. Frantically I fought back the tide of panic surging through me; at all costs I had to keep
cool.
“Well, Polly,” I said, forcing a smile, “you certainly have learned your fallacies.” “You’re darn
right,” she said with a vigorous nod.
“And who taught them to you, Polly?”
“You did.”
“That’s right. So you do owe me something, don’t you, my dear? If I hadn’t come along you
never would have learned about fallacies.” “Hypothesis Contrary to Fact,” she said instantly.
I dashed perspiration from my brow. “Polly,” I croaked, “you mustn’t take all these things so
literally. I mean this is just classroom stuff. You know that the things you learn in school don’t
have anything to do with life.”
“Dicto Simpliciter,” she said, wagging her finger at me playfully.
That did it. I leaped to my feet, bellowing like a bull. “Will you or will you not go steady with
me?”
“I will not,” she replied.
“Why not?” I demanded.
“Because this afternoon I promised Petey Bellows that I would go steady with him.” I reeled
back, overcome with the infamy of it. After he promised, after he made a deal, after he shook my
hand! “The rat!” I shrieked, kicking up great chunks of turf. “You can’t go with him, Polly. He’s
a liar. He’s a cheat. He’s a rat.”
“Poisoning the Well ,” said Polly, “and stop shouting. I think shouting must be a fallacy too.”
With an immense effort of will, I modulated my voice. “All right,” I said. “You’re a logician.
Let’s look at this thing logically. How could you choose Petey Bellows over me? Look at me—a
brilliant student, a tremendous intellectual, a man with an assured future. Look at
Petey—a knothead, a jitterbug, a guy who’ll never know where his next meal is coming from.
Can you give me one logical reason why you should go steady with Petey Bellows?”
“I certainly can,” declared Polly. “He’s got a raccoon coat.”
D. Discussion Questions
1. What is your understanding of the word “fallacy”?
2. How would you describe the narrator in the story? How about Polly?
3. Do you think that they are really as dumb as they were described?
4. What is the narrator’s reason for wanting Polly?
5. From whose point of view is the story told?
6. Is the telling of story logical? Why or why not?
7. In which parts of the story did the narrator commit fallacies?
8. Identify the other instances that the narrator committed fallacies other than those that Polly has
mentioned?
9. Using your annotation and summary, identify the purpose or intention of the author.
10. Is the author successful in accomplishing his purpose? Explain.
11. The story is satirical and ironic at the same time. How can you show that irony is used in the
story?
12. If you were Polly, would you fall for the narrator or for Petey? Briefly explain.
13. Do you agree that love is a fallacy?
14. What does it take to be a critical reader?
15. Why is critical reading considered an active process of discovery?
16. How can you assess the importance of critical reading?
17. In what way is critical reading related to critical writing?
18. What ways would you recommend to become a critical reader?
19. How would you improve your reading skills?
20. How can you make a distinction between reading and writing?
References:
Bookstore
System Inc.

Name: __________________________________________Date: _____________
Directions: Work with a partner and evaluate three advertisements (on print or on TV). Find out
if there are fallacies that used in those advertisements.
Use the following criteria for your evaluation:
 Purpose of the news.
 Execution of the message: How was the message conveyed? What are some interesting
claims that catch your attention? Did they present evidence and/ or credible sources to
vouch for the text’s credibility?
 Critical value of the text: Are there fallacies?
 Effectiveness and/or truthfulness of the text

Ayala Campus
For:
LESSON 3:
THE PRE-WRITING STAGE
LESSON 3
1. define writing and prewriting;

2. identify the different methods in prewriting;
3. create a topic employing the different methods of prewriting; and
3. distinguish between paraphrasing and quoting.
B. Lesson Outline:
1. The Pre-writing Stage
1.1 Brainstorming
1.2 Freewriting
1.3 Clustering
1.4Avoiding Plagiarism
C. Lesson Content:
The writing process consists of different stages: prewriting, drafting, revising, and
editing. Prewriting is the most important of these steps. Prewriting is the "generating ideas" part
of the writing process when the student works to determine the topic and the position or point-of-
view for a target audience. Pre-writing should be offered with the time necessary for a student to
create a plan or develop an outline to organize materials for the final product.
(www.thoughtco.com/prewriting-stage-of-the-writing-process-8492)
The pre-writing stage could also be dubbed the "talking stage" of writing. Researchers
have determined that talking plays an important role in literacy. Andrew Wilkinson (1965)
coined the phrase oracy, defining it as "the ability to express oneself coherently and to
communicate freely with others by word of mouth." Wilkinson explained how oracy leads to
increased skill in reading and writing. In other words, talking about a topic will improve the
writing. This connection between talk and writing is best expressed by the author James Britton
(1970) who stated: "talk is the sea upon which all else floats.”
Pre-writing Methods
1. Brainstorming. When you responded with ideas and concepts related to the broad concept, you
were already generating possible topics for your paper.
2. Freewriting. Aside from brainstorming, you can also use freewriting to generate ideas.
Freewriting is similar to brainstorming in that you just write any idea that comes to your mind.
The catch is to put down into writing the ideas that you think of so that later on you will be able
to generate ideas and narrow them down into a single topic for your paper.
3. Clustering. This is also called as ballooning or mapping. This technique provides a graphic
representation of your ideas, allowing you to visualize the connections and/ or relationships of
your ideas. Write your main topic at the center of your paper then circle or box it. Think of
subtopics and place them around the center circle until you feel you have developed all the
subtopics fully. (Saqueton, G. & Uychoco, T. 2016.)
Once you have narrowed down your topic, you ponder on the reason why you are writing. The
last step in pre-writing is one of the most crucial steps, knowing your purpose and identifying
your reader or audience. Determining your purpose will help you communicate clearly your
ideas to your readers, which is the goal of all writing. Once you have determined your purpose,
knowing your audience comes next. Knowledge of who your audience is, what they need, and
what their interests are will help you adjust your language, tone, and style in writing. (Saqueton,
G. & Uychoco, T. 2016.)
Avoiding Plagiarism
Before you start the actual process of writing, you need to make sure that the assumptions
that you have about your topic can be supported by evidence. This can be done by making sure
that you have enough resources on that topic. Being able to find a lot of reading materials that
relate to your topic will confirm that your topic is important since prior studies were done about
it; it will also suggest that you contribute something new to the existing studies. (Saqueton, G. &
Uychoco, T. 2016.)
What is Plagiarism? As defined in the dictionary, it is “the act of using another person’s word,
ideas, or work without giving credit to that person.” Plagiarism could be any of the following:
(Plagiarism.org)
 Turning in someone else’s work as your own
 Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
 Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
 Giving incorrect information about the source of quotation
 Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
 Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your
work, whether you give credit or not
 Copying media (especially images) from other websites to paste them into your own
paper or websites
 Making a video using footage from other’s videos or using copyrighted music as part of
the soundtrack
 Performing another person’s copyrighted music (i.e., playing a cover)
 Composing a piece of music that borrows heavily from another composition
Paraphrasing is one of the ways to avoid plagiarism. It is rendering the essential ideas in
a text (sentence or paragraph) using your own words. Paraphrase materials are usually shorter
than the original text. It is more detailed than a summary. Another way to avoid plagiarism is to
directly quote the sentence or the paragraph that you will use in your paper. Quotations must be
identical to the original text. A direct quotation is preferred to a paraphrase when the author’s
ideas are so important that paraphrasing them will change the essence of those ideas. (Saqueton,
G. & Uychoco, T. 2016.)
1. What is the definition of Writing?

2. What are the different stages of writing?
3. What is pre-writing?
4. Identify the three different methods/strategies in pre-writing.
5. How does Brainstorming differ from Clustering?
6. What are the differences of Freewriting from Brainstorming and Clustering?
7. How does Brainstorming any differ from listing down your ideas of a possible topic?
8. What are other considerations that a writer must include when he/she is doing prewriting?
9. What would result if a writer refuses to do prewriting?
10. Why do you think it is important to avoid plagiarism?
11. What constitutes plagiarism?
12. Do you agree that plagiarism is very rampant nowadays? Explain.
13. Is there a way to promote academic honesty in schools? How?
14. Why was it better to do paraphrasing or quotation when you consider start to write a paper?
15. What is the importance of Paraphrasing?
16. Explain the importance of Quotation.
17. Prewriting is part of the writing process. Why does writing considered to be as a process?
State its importance.
18. How is writing related to communication?
19-20. Paraphrase and Quote the paragraph:
As I have noted earlier, the interviewers were partly responsible for some differences between
the two interviewees. For instance, the opening signal in Mike’s interview presupposes that
Mike is good in other sports too aside from basketball and the interviewer just asked what
sport he is lousiest at. In Gretchen's interview however the opening signal is presupposing
that karate is a man’s game so the first question was how she got into this man’s game. She
was also asked if she has ever used her charm to win against guys; again, presupposing that
women use their charm to get what they want from men.
References:
Bookstore
System Inc.
www.Plagiarism.org
Name: __________________________________________Date: _____________
Directions: Choose one topic from the list. Generate ideas about the topic you have chosen by
answering the guide questions.
Topics:
 Education in the 21st century
 Effective leadership
 My favorite online game
 Where I will be in 10 years
 Spiritual wellness
 The course I want to take in college
 Pros and cons of using social media
Guide Questions:
1. What is my purpose for writing?
2. For whom am I writing?
3. What message do I want to communicate?
4. What is the best pattern of writing for this message that I am sending? (Is it narrative,
descriptive, etc.)
5. How do I want to sound to my audience/readers?

Ayala Campus
For:
LESSON 4:
WRITING AND REWRITING STAGE
LESSON 4
1. illustrate that writing is a process;

2. construct a clear thesis statement; and
3. write an academic paper following the basic structure of a writing output.
B. Lesson Outline:
1. Writing and Rewriting Stage
1.1 Developing Thesis Statement

1.2 Organizing Your Paper
1.3 Basic Structure of a Writing Output
C. Lesson Content:
Developing Your Thesis Statement
Try to visualize your reader’s attitudes toward your topic. Picture how you want your
essay to turn out. What you have written in the earlier activity could already be developed as
your thesis statement. A thesis statement is the claim or stand that you will develop in your
paper. It is the controlling idea of your essay. It gives your readers idea of what your paper is all
about. A strong thesis statement usually contains an element of uncertainty, risk, or challenge.
This means that your thesis statement should offer a debatable claim that you can prove or
disprove in your essay. The claim should be debatable enough to let your readers agree or
disagree with you. (Ramage, Bean and Johnson 2006)
“Women and men are born to perform specific roles”= it states a fact
Your thesis statement should introduce ideas that may challenge your reader’s views.
“ Although there seem to be specific role assigned to women and men, those roles should
never dictate nor limit women and men to do other things that are beyond their assigned roles.”
This thesis statement challenges the stereotypical roles assigned to women or men, and not
everyone may agree to it so this is something that you can explore in your paper. Also, you will
have to gather evidence in order for you to back up your thesis statement. (Saqueton, G. &
Uychoco, T. 2016. “ English for Academic and Professional Purposes”. Rex Bookstore)
Organizing your Paper
As a writer, your main aim is to organize your ideas in a logical order. This means
finding the connections of one point to another and establishing a link from one idea to another.
Some writers start organizing their draft by making an outline. Outlining is an effective way of
ensuing the logical flow of your ideas.
Example outline (Saqueton, G. & Uychoco, T. 2016. “ English for Academic and Professional
Purposes”. Rex Bookstore)
Topic: ____________________
Thesis Statement: ____________________
Main Idea 1: _______________
Minor point 1: _______________
Minor point 2: _______________
Minor point 3: _______________
Main Idea 2: _______________
Minor point 1: _______________
Minor point 2: _______________
Minor point 3: _______________
Main Idea 3: _______________
Minor point 1: _______________
Minor point 2: _______________
Minor point 3: _______________
Conclusion: __________________
Basic Structure of a Writing Output

The Introduction. Your introduction is very important. It should captivate the reader’s
attention so that they’ll keep on reading until the end. Your main point and purpose for writing
should be evident and clear. The introduction should clearly contain the thesis statement and
supporting ideas that you would develop later on in the body of your paper.
The Body. Develop the main supporting details in the body of your paper. This is where
bulk of the essay is found and where you develop an answer or propose a solution to the thesis
statement. In the body, you have to support your main points and include the other details that
would support your thesis statement.
The Conclusion. It is as important as the introduction. You should bring together the
points made in your paper and emphasize your final point. The conclusion may also leave a
thought-provoking idea that you wish your audience to consider. Do not just summarize your
main points; make sure that you synthesize your main points and emphasize your thesis
statement. (Go, R. “ English for Academic and Professional Purposes, Second Edition.” Diwa
Learning System Inc.)
The Post-Writing Stage
Once your paper is complete, you are now ready to polish it by checking on four
important things: support, unity, coherence, and grammar and mechanics. This stage is the
proofreading and revising stage. (1) Support means that the details and information provided in
your essay are suitable and all details are supporting each other. (2) Unity refers to the relevance
of supporting details to all other sub-details used to develop them. Parts that are not relevant
should be taken out. (3) Coherence in writing means the effective sticking together of your ideas.
Your flow of ideas should be smooth and clear. Effective use of transitions and other connecting
words is also important for your ideas to cohere. (4) Grammar and Writing Mechanics happens
during proofreading. This involves the usage of correct grammar and sentence structure. Also,
check for accuracy in spelling, appropriateness of vocabulary words, and effectiveness of
punctuation marks. (Saqueton, G. & Uychoco, T. 2016.)
1.Explain why Writing is considered a process.
2. What is a Thesis Statement?
3. What is the importance of the thesis statement in your essay?
4. What are some characteristics of a good thesis statement?
5. Which part of the essay structure can we find the thesis statement?
6. Why is it necessary to write an interesting introduction?
7. What would result if the purpose of your writing was not achieved?
8. What is proofreading?
9. What are the principles of writing effectively? Explain.
10. Why is audience analysis important before writing your essay?
11. What is your opinion of the phrase “Writing is Revising”?
12. What is the relationship between writing and rewriting?
13. State the significance of Post-Writing.
14. How can you make a distinction between proofreading and revising?
15. what is the function of a conclusion in writing?
16. How important does the function of this conclusion play in the writing process?
17. How important do you think effective writing skills are to you as a learner?
18. If you could change any one thing about your writing process, what would that be? Why?
19. What kinds of changes do you most often make when revising?
20. Among the stages in writing, which do you think is the hardest? Explain.
Name: __________________________________________Date: _____________
Directions: Write an introduction for the topic you have chosen in the previous activity. Your
Thesis Statement and introduction should be catchy and should present your main point and
purpose clearly. then write the body of your paper using the outline you prepared. Develop your
ideas by providing relevant details to support them. Finally, prepare a conclusion that will
highlight the major points you raised in your paper. Your writing output should consist of at least
1000 words.
References:
Bookstore
System Inc.

Ayala Campus
For:
LESSON 5:
THE REACTION PAPER
LESSON 5
1. identify the different kinds of reaction paper;

2. demonstrate the craftsmanship of writing a review; and
3. write an insightful reaction paper on a social issue or common experience.
B. Lesson Outline:
1. The Reaction Paper
1.1 What is a Reaction Paper?

1.2 Reading and Writing a Review
1.3 Reacting to a Social Event or Phenomenon
C. Lesson Content:
"The Reaction Paper: A Measured Response to the World"-

Marikit Tara Alto Uychoco
1. The world can be a chaotic place. Often, there seems to be no ryhme or reason in the events
that happen to us. Oftentimes, people despair, and the modern alienation articulated by Henry
Thoreau may be true for many----"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."
2. In order to make sense of the world, people write. In order to create a semblance of order and
understanding of one's experiences people write. Often enough, they write a measured response
to what has happened to them. This takes on various forms, but for the purpose of this textbook,
the forms, but for the purpose of this textbook, the forms we will explore are the review and the
reaction paper.
3. Of course, some may consider a diary entry to be a reaction paper to the world.However, diary
entries are personal in their significance, while the reaction paper's significance os societal. The
reaction paper is written for the enlightenment pf one's fellow human beings; a diary entry is
written for the enlightenment of the self. Both have their significance, however, only the reaction
paper is considered significantly valuable for the academe.
4. There is also a difference in form: the reaction paper is more formal, more descriptive, and
often uses the rhetorical devices of description and narration in order to prove a point; while the
diary entry is less formal, less descriptive, and does not endeavor to persuade or to make another
person understand; hence, there is no real effort in using rhetorical devices. Oftentimes, the diary
entry is a way to rage against petty insults and grievances.
5. When one reads a reaction paper, one expects to be informed and amused. Reaction papers
help us in our everyday decisions: from what movie we should watch, to the clothing that we
should wear, and the causes that we should believe in. It tells us that we are not alone in
experiencing the world, and that there are others before us who care to tell us what to watch out
for, and how to best experience what we are about to go through.
6. Modern interations of the reaction paper are the movie, review, gadget review, trip advisor
post, and other travel reviews, restaurant reviews , and essays that discuss a social phenomenon
or a common experience. Many editorials can be considered reaction papers, if not, position
papers. Many of them are written in newspapers, magazines, and weblogs.
7. Although the modern world can be a lonely and alienating place, the reaction paper can reach
put and tell us that we are not alone. It helps to know that the other person is going through the
same experience as well, and that this person has something to tell you about how to survive,
what to avoid, and where to seek pleasure. A reaction paper, when done right, can help us
process our own experience, and help us see things that we weren't able to see on our own.
8. In today's multimedia world, this stretches across countries and over territorial borders, where
a housewife from Manila can tell a tourist from Tokyo how to best survive Manila's hot summer.
We reach out to one another, in order to make the world a better place, by mapping the world for
others, and letting them know where beauty and darkness reside.
1. What is a Reaction Paper?

2. What is an example of a Reaction Paper?
3. Is reaction paper the same as diary entry? Why or why not?
4. Why should people write a reaction paper?
5. What are the features of a good reaction paper? As a student, tell how much change there
would be if a student manages to react on a certain academic paper?
6. How would you organize your writing when writing a reaction paper?
7. What is the difference between a diary entry and a reaction paper?
8. According to the text, what is the importance of the reaction paper to society?
9. What are the importance of reviews and reaction papers?
10. Why does the academe value the reaction paper?
11. If you are to make a reaction paper, what steps would you follow to make a good reaction
paper?
12. Did the text change the way you look at the reaction papers? What changes would you
incorporate when writing a reaction paper?
Name: __________________________________________Date: _____________
Directions:
A. Print or cut out movie reviews from a newspaper. With a small group consisting of three
members, pick out the best review. Among yourselves, discuss what makes it a well-written
review. Present your work in front.
B. By group: Choose a restaurant where you want to go. When you are already in the restaurant,
ask for their specialties and choose a few favorites. Take photographs of the food and the
restaurant. Interview the manager or the Officer in Charge and explain that you are doing this for
the purpose of writing a restaurant review. Afterwards, write a group restaurant review/reaction
paper. Make sure to describe the food and the restaurant. If possible, include the history of the
restaurant, and what they are known for. By the end of the review, conclude by either
recommending or not recommending the restaurant, and why.
References:
Bookstore
System Inc

Ayala Campus
For:
LESSON 6:
REACTING TO A SOCIAL EVENT OR PHENOMENON
LESSON 6
1. explain what social event or phenomenon is;

2. demonstrate the craftsmanship of writing a paper reacting to a social event; and
3. write an insightful reaction paper on the social event paper presented in the class.
B. Lesson Outline:
1. Reacting to a Social Event or Phenomenon
C. Lesson Content:
(1)This incident bum upon the world last Friday in an official cablegram from the commander of
our forces in the Philippines to our Government at Washington. The substance of it was as
follows:
(2)A tribe of Moros, dark-skinned savages, had fortified themselves in the bowl of an extinct
crater not many miles from Jolo; and as they were hostiles, and bitter against us because we have
been trying for eight years to take their liberties away from them, their presence in that position
was a menace. Our commander, Gen. Leonard Wood, ordered a reconnaissance. It was found
that the Moros numbered six hundred, counting women and children; that their crater bowl was
in the summit of a peak or mountain twenty-two hundred feet above sea level, and very difficult
of access for Christian troops and artillery. Then General Wood ordered a surprise, and went
along himself to see the order carried out. Our troops climbed the heights by devious and
difficult trails, and even took some artillery with them. The kind of artillery is not specified, but
in one place it was hoisted up a sharp acclivity by tackle a distance of some three hundred feet.
Arrived at the rim of the crater, the battle began. Our soldiers numbered five hundred and forty.
They were assisted by auxiliaries consisting of a detachment of native constabulary in our pay—
their numbers not given—and by a naval detachment, whose numbers are not stated. But
apparently the contending parties were about equal as to number— six hundred men on our side,
on the edge of the bowl; six hundred men, women and children in the bottom of the bowl. Depth
of the bowl, 50 feet.
(3) Gen. Wood's order was, "Kill or capture the six hundred."
(4)The battle began—it is officially called by that name—our forces firing down into the crater
with their artillery and their deadly small arms of precision; the savages furiously returning the
fire, probably with brickbats—though this is merely a surmise of mine, as the weapons used by
the savages are not nominated in the cablegram. Heretofore the Moros have used knives and
clubs mainly; also ineffectual trade-muskets when they had any.
(5) The official report stated that the battle was fought with prodigious energy on both sides
during a day and a half, and that it ended with a complete victory for the American arms. The
completeness of the victory is established by this fact: that of the six hundred Moros not one was
left alive. The brilliancy of the victory is established by this other fact, to wit: that of our six
hundred heroes only fifteen lost their lives.
(6)General Wood was present and looking on. His order had been, "Kill or capture those
savages." Apparently our little army considered that the "or" left them authorized to kill or
capture according to taste, and that their taste had remained what it has been for eight years, in
our army out there—the taste of Christian butchers.
(7)The official report quite properly extolled and magnified the "heroism" and "gallantry" of our
troops; lamented the loss of the fifteen who perished, and elaborated the wounds of thirty-two of
our men who suffered injury, and even minutely and faithfully described the nature of the
wounds, in the interest of future historians of the United States. It mentioned that a private had
one of bis elbows scraped by a missile, and the private's name was mentioned. Another private
had the end of his nose scraped by a missile. His name was also mentioned—by cable, at one
dollar and fifty cents a word.
(8) Next day's news confirmed the previous day's report and named our fifteen killed and thirty-
two wounded again, and once more described the wounds and gilded them with the right
adjectives.
(9) Let us now consider two or three details of our military history. In one of the great battles of
the Civil War ten per cent of the forces engaged on the two sides were killed and wounded. At
Waterloo, where four hundred thousand men were present on the two sides, fifty thousand fell,
killed and wounded, in five hours, leaving three hundred and fifty thousand sound and all right
for further adventures. Eight years ago, when the pathetic comedy called the Cuban War was
played, we summoned two hundred and fifty thousand men. We fought a number of showy
battles, and when the war was over we had lost two hundred and sixty-eight men out of our two
hundred and fifty thousand, in killed and wounded in the field, and just fourteen times as many
by the gallantry of the army doctors in the hospitals and camps. We did not exterminate the
Spaniards—far from it. In each engagement we left an average of two per cent of the enemy
killed or crippled on the field.
(10) Contrast these things with the great statistics which have arrived from that Moro crater!
There, with six hundred engaged on each side, we lost fifteen men killed outright, and we had
thirty-two wounded—counting that nose and that elbow. The enemy numbered six hundred—
including women and children—and we abolished them utterly, leaving not even a baby alive to
cry for its dead mother. This is incomparably the greatest victory that was ever achieved by the
Christian soldiers of the United States.
(11) Now then, how has it been received? The splendid news appeared with splendid display-
heads in every newspaper in this city of four million and thirteen thousand inhabitants, on Friday
morning. But there was not a single reference to it in the editorial columns of any one of those
newspapers. The news appeared again in all the evening papers of Friday, and again those papers
were editorially silent upon our vast achievement. Next days additional statistics and particulars
appeared in all the morning papers, and still without a line of editorial rejoicing or a mention of
the matter in any way. These additions appeared in the evening papers of that same day
(Saturday) and again without a word of comment. In the columns devoted to correspondence, in
the morning and evening papers of Friday and Saturday, nobody said a word about the "battle."
Ordinarily those columns are teeming with the passions of the citizen; he lets no incident go by,
whether it be large or small, without pouring out his praise or blame, his joy or his indignation
about the matter in the correspondence column. But, as I have said, during those two days he was
as silent as the editors themselves. So far as I can find out, there was only one person among our
eighty millions who allowed himself the privilege of a public remark on this great occasion—that
was the President of the United States. All day Friday he was as studiously silent as the rest. But
on Saturday he recognized that his duty required him to say something, and he took his pen and
performed that duty. If I know President Roosevelt—and I am sure I do—this utterance cost him
more pain and shame than any other that ever issued from his pen or his mouth. I am far from
blaming him. If I had been in his place my official duty would have compelled me to say what he
said. It was a convention, an old tradition, and he had to be loyal to it. There was no help for it.
This is what he said:
(12) Washington, March 10.
(13) Wood, Manila:—I congratulate you and the officers and men of your command upon the
brilliant feat of arms wherein you and they so well upheld the honor of the American flag.
(14) (Signed) Theodore Roosevelt
(15) His whole utterance is merely a convention. Not a word of what he said came out of his
heart. He knew perfectly well that to pen six hundred helpless and weaponless savages in a hole
like rats in a trap and massacre them in detail during a stretch of a day and a half, from a safe
position on the heights above, was no brilliant feat of arms—and would not have been a brilliant
feat of arms even if Christian America, represented by its salaried soldiers, had shot them down
with Bibles and the Golden Rule instead of bullets. He knew perfectly well that our uniformed
assassins had not upheld the honor of the American flag, but had done as they have been doing
continuously for eight years in the Philippines—that is to say, they had dishonored it.
(16) The next day, Sunday,—which was yesterday—the cable brought us additional news—still
more splendid news—still more honor for the flag. The first display-head shouts this information
at us in the stentorian capitals: "women slain in moro slaughter."
(17) "Slaughter" is a good word. Certainly there is not a better one in the Unabridged Dictionary
for this occasion. The next display line says:
(18) "With Children They Mixed in Mob in Crater, and All Died Together."
(19) They were mere naked savages, and yet there is a sort of pathos about it when that word
children falls under your eye, for it always brings before us our perfectest symbol of innocence
and helplessness; and by help of its deathless eloquence color, creed and nationality vanish away
and we see only that they are children—merely children. And if they are frightened and crying
and in trouble, our pity goes out to them by natural impulse. We see a picture. We see the small
forms. We see the terrified faces. We see the tears. We see the small hands clinging in
supplication to the mother; but we do not see those children that we are speaking about. We see
in their places the little creatures whom we know and love.
(20) The next heading blazes with American and Christian glory like to the sun in the zenith:
(21) "Death List is Now 900."
(22) I was never so enthusiastically proud of the flag till now!
(23) The next heading explains how safely our daring soldiers were located. It says:
(24) “Impossible to Tell Sexes Apart in Fierce Battle on Top of Mount Dajo.”
(25) The naked savages were so far away, down in the bottom of that trap, that our soldiers could
not tell the breasts of a woman from the rudimentary paps of a man—so far away that they
couldn’t tell a toddling little child from a black six-footer. This was by all odds the least
dangerous battle that Christian soldiers of any nationality were ever engaged in.
(26) The next heading says:
(27) “Fighting for Four Days.”
(28) So our men were at it four days instead of a day and a half. It was a long and happy picnic
with nothing to do but sit in comfort and fire the Golden Rule into those people down there and
imagine letters to write home to the admiring families, and pile glory upon glory. Those savages
fighting for their liberties had the four days too, but it must have been a sorrowful time for them.
Every day they saw two hundred and twenty- five of their number slain, and this provided them
grief and mourning for the night—and doubtless without even the relief and consolation of
knowing that in the meantime they had slain four of their enemies and wounded some more on
the elbow and the nose.
(29)The closing heading says:
(30) “Lieutenant Johnson Blown from Parapet by Exploding Artillery Gallantly Leading
Charge.”
(31) Lieutenant Johnson has pervaded the cablegrams from the first. He and his wound have
sparkled around through them like the serpentine thread of fire that goes excursioning through
the black crisp fabric of a fragment of burnt paper. It reminds one of Gillette’s comedy farce of a
few years ago, “Too Much Johnson.” Apparently Johnson was the only wounded man on our
side whose wound was worth anything as an advertisement. It has made a great deal more noise
in the world than has any similarly colossal event since “Humpty Dumpty” fell off the wall and
got injured. The official dispatches do not know which to admire most, Johnson’s adorable
wound or the nine hundred murders. The ecstasies flowing from Army Headquarters on the other
side of the globe to the White House, at a dollar and a half a word, have set fire to similar
ecstasies in the President’s breast. It appears that the immortally wounded was a Rough Rider
under Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt at San Juan Hill—that extinguisher of Waterloo—when the
Colonel of the regiment, the present Major General Dr. Leonard Wood, went to the rear to bring
up the pills and missed the fight. The President has a warm place in his heart for anybody who
was present at that bloody Collision of military solar systems, and so he lost no time in cabling to
the wounded hero, “How are you?” And got a cable answer, “Fine, thanks.” This is historical.
This will go down to posterity.
(32) Johnson was wounded in the shoulder with a Slug. The slug was in a shell—for the account
says the damage was caused by an exploding shell which blew Johnson off the rim. The people
down in the hole had no artillery; therefore it was our artillery that blew Johnson off the rim.
And so it is now a matter of historical record that the only officer of ours who acquired a wound
of advertising dimensions got it at our hands, not the enemy’s. It seems more than probable that
if we had placed our soldiers out of the way of our own weapons, we should have come out of
the most extraordinary battle in all history without a scratch.
(33) The ominous paralysis continues. There has been a slight sprinkle—an exceedingly slight
sprinkle—in the correspondence columns, of angry rebukes of the President for calling this
cowardly massacre a “brilliant feat of arms,” and for praising our butchers for “holding up the
honor of the flag” in that singular way; but there is hardly a ghost of a whisper about the feat of
arms in the editorial columns of the papers.
(34) I hope that this silence will continue. It is about as eloquent and as damaging and effective
as the most indignant words could be, I think. When a man is sleeping in a noise, his sleep goes
placidly on; but if the noise stops, the stillness wakes him. This silence has continued five days
now. Surely it must be waking the drowsy nation. Surely the nation must be wondering what it
means. A five-day silence following a world-astonishing event has not happened on this planet
since the daily newspaper was invented.
(35) At a luncheon party of men convened yesterday to God-speed George Harvey, who is
leaving to-day for a vacation in Europe, all the talk was about the brilliant feat of arms; and no
one had anything to say about it that either the President or Major General Dr. Wood, or the
damaged Johnson, would regard as complimentary, or as proper comment to put into our
histories. Harvey said he believed that the shock and shame of this episode would eat down
deeper and deeper into the hearts of the nation and fester there and produce results. He believed
it would destroy the Republican party and President Roosevelt. I cannot believe that the
prediction will come true, for the reason that prophecies which promise valuable things,
desirable things, good things, worthy things, never come true. Prophecies of this kind are like
wars fought in a good cause—they are so rare that they don’t count.
(36) Day before yesterday the cable-note from the happy General Dr. Wood was still all glorious.
There was still proud mention and elaboration of what was called the “desperate hand-to-hand
fight.”—Doctor Wood not seeming to suspect that he was giving himself away, as the phrase
goes—since if there was any very desperate hand-to-hand fighting it would necessarily happen
that nine hundred hand-to-hand fighters, if really desperate, would surely be able to kill more
than fifteen of our men before their last man and woman and child perished.
(37) Very well, there was a new note in the dispatches yesterday afternoon—just a faint
suggestion that Dr. Wood was getting ready to lower his tone and begin to apologize and explain.
He announces that he assumes full responsibility for the fight. It indicates that he is aware that
there is a lurking disposition here amidst all this silence to blame somebody. He says there was
“no wanton destruction of women and children in the fight, though many of them were killed by
force of necessity because the Moros used them as shields in the hand-to-hand fighting.”
(38) This explanation is better than none; indeed it is considerably better than none. Yet if there
was so much hand-to-hand fighting there must have arrived a time, toward the end of the four
days’ butchery, when only one native was left alive. We had six hundred men present; we had
lost only fifteen; why did the six hundred kill that remaining man—or woman, or child?
(39) Dr. Wood will find that explaining things is not in his line. He will find that where a man
has the proper spirit in him and the proper force at his command, it is easier to massacre nine
hundred unarmed animals than it is to explain why he made it so remorselessly complete. Next
he furnishes us this sudden burst of unconscious humor, which shows that he ought to edit his
reports before he cables them:
(40) “Many of the Moros feigned death and butchered the American hospital men who were
relieving the wounded.”
(41) We have the curious spectacle of hospital men going around trying to relieve the wounded
savages—for what reason? The savages were all massacred. The plain intention was to massacre
them all and leave none alive. Then where was the use in furnishing mere temporary relief to a
person who was presently to be exterminated? The dispatches call this battue a “battle.” In what
way was it a battle? It has no resemblance to a battle. In a battle there are always as many as five
wounded men to one killed outright. When this so-called battle was over, there were certainly
not fewer than two hundred wounded savages lying on the field. What became of them? Since
not one savage was left alive!
(42) The inference seems plain. We cleaned up our four days’ work and made it complete by
butchering those helpless people.
(43) The President’s joy over the splendid achievement of his fragrant pet, General Wood, brings
to mind an earlier presidential ecstasy. When the news came, in 1901, that Colonel Funston had
penetrated to the refuge of the patriot, Aguinaldo, in the mountains, and had captured him by the
use of these arts, to wit: by forgery, by lies, by disguising his military marauders in the uniform
of the enemy, by pretending to be friends of Aguinaldo’s and by disarming suspicion by
cordially shaking hands with Aguinaldo’s officers and in that moment shooting them down—
when the cablegram announcing this “brilliant feat of arms” reached the White House, the
newspapers said that that meekest and mildest and gentlest and least masculine of men, President
McKinley, could not control his joy and gratitude, but was obliged to express it in motions
resembling a dance. Also President McKinley expressed his admiration in another way. He
instantly shot that militia Colonel aloft over the heads of a hundred clean and honorable veteran
officers of the army and made him a Brigadier General in the regular service, and clothed him in
the honorable uniform of that rank, thus disgracing the uniform, the flag, the nation, and himself.
(44) Wood was an army surgeon, during several years, out West among the Indian hostiles.
Roosevelt got acquainted with him and fell in love with him. When Roosevelt was offered the
colonelcy of a regiment in the iniquitous Cuban-Spanish war, he took the place of Lieutenant
Colonel and used his influence to get the higher place for Wood. After the war Wood became our
Governor General in Cuba and proceeded to make a mephitic record for himself. Under
President Roosevelt, this doctor has been pushed and crowded along higher and higher in the
military service—always over the heads of a number of better men—and at last when Roosevelt
wanted to make him a Major General in the regular army (with only five other Major Generals
between him and the supreme command) and knew, or believed, that the Senate would not
confirm Wood’s nomination to that great place, he accomplished Wood’s appointment by a very
unworthy device. He could appoint Wood himself, and make the appointment good, between
sessions of Congress. There was no such opportunity, but he invented one. A special session was
closing at noon. When the gavel fell extinguishing the special session, a regular session began
instantly. Roosevelt claimed that there was an interval there determinable as the twentieth of a
second by a stop-watch, and that during that interval no Congress was in session. By this
subterfuge he foisted this discredited doctor upon the army and the nation, and the Senate hadn’t
spirit enough to repudiate it.
1. What is a social event or phenomenon?

2. Can you name some social events or phenomena that happened in the Philippines? How do
you feel about them?
3. Do you think that it is possible for the victims of the phenomenon to surpass and survive their
ordeal?
4. What could be done to ensure that this phenomenon will not happen again?
5. In the paper, who are the Moros? What where they fighting for?
6. “Christian”, the “Golden Rule,” and “butchers,” were words being repeatedly mention in
which paragraph? What is the effect of using these words, given he is discussing the massacre of
the Moros?
7. What do you think is being emphasize in the sentence, “ I was never so enthusiastically proud
of the flag till now!” in paragraph 22?
8. What do you think is the author trying to say in paragraph 31: “The President has a warm
place in his heart for anybody who was present at that bloody Collision of military solar systems,
and so he lost no time in cabling to the wounded hero, ‘How are you?’ And got a cable answer, ‘
Fine, thanks.’ This is historical. This will go down to posterity.”
9. What is your opinion of this event happened before?
10. How can you assess the importance of writing a reaction or review paper on a social event?
11. What could be done to ensure that a phenomenon will not happen again in the future?
12. As a student, what social value do you think you can propose or recommend in writing a
reaction paper?
Name: __________________________________________Date: _____________
Directions: Think of a social phenomenon or current event that you deeply care about. Research
about it in the newspapers and online news sources. If you cannot think of any topic, you can
choose from one of the following:
 a recent calamity
 a devastating flood
 the bagong bayani or OFW
 poverty in the Philippines
 the BPO industry and its effects
Write a reaction paper about that event. Make sure that you do the following when writing the
reaction paper.
 Get readers interested in the event
 Summarize the event
 Try to look at the event from different angles
 Come up with original insights about the event
References:
Bookstore
System Inc

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