ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

MODULES 5 & 6
ACADEMIC WRITING IN PRACTICE

Most Essential Learning Competencies

• Designs, tests and revises survey questionnaires (CS_EN11/12A-EAPPIIe-j-7)

• Conducts surveys, experiments or observations. (CS_EN11/12A-EAPPIIe-j-8)
• Gathers information from surveys, experiments, or observations (CS_EN11/12A-
EAPP-IIe-j-9)
• Summarizes findings and executes the report through narrative and visual/graphic
forms (CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-IIe-j-11 7)
• Writes various reports (CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-IIe-j-12)

Note: The EAPP teachers have adopted this module from English for Academic and Professional
Purposes Quarter 2 published by the Department of Education. Some pages have been excluded
and page formatting has been altered in order to reduce the number of pages.

The teachers wish to acknowledge the members of the developmental team.

Development Team of the Module

Writers: Marife A. Abatayo and Ma-an C. Actub

Content Editor: Malyn P. Vidal
Language Editor: Janet M. Abao
Proofreader: Marcres R. Lee
Illustrator: Mary Grace S. Ladoroz
Layout Artist: Rheza Mae M. Pacut
Evaluator: Korina B. Alonsabe

Development Team:
Chairperson: Dr. Arturo B. Bayocot, CESO III
Regional Director

Co-Chairpersons: Dr. Victor G. De Gracia Jr. CESO V

Assistant Regional Director
Jonathan S. dela Peña, PhD, CESO V
Schools Division Superintendent
Rowena H. Para-on, PhD
Assistant Schools Division Superintendent
Mala Epra B. Magnaong, Chief ES, CLMD

Members: Neil A. Improgo, PhD, EPS-LRMS; Bienvenido U. Tagolimot, Jr., PhD, EPS-
ADM; Erlinda G. Dael, PhD, CID Chief; Maria Teresa M. Absin, EPS (English); Celieto
B. Magsayo, LRMS Manager; Loucile L. Paclar, Librarian II; Kim Eric G. Lubguban,
PDO II

Department of Education ● Republic of the Philippines

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 Lesson DESIGNING THE SURVEY
1 QUESTIONNAIRE

What’s New

Activity 1 What You Know

Copy the table below in your answer sheet. Under the K column, write what you know about
survey. Under the W column, write what you want to know about it. Lastly, leave the L column
blank

K W L
What You Know What You Want Know What You Leaned

What is It

A survey is a general view, examination, or description of someone or something. It also refers to

looking carefully and thoroughly at (someone or something), especially to assess them. When you want
to do a survey, you need a questionnaire to help get the information that you need. A good questionnaire
should be valid, reliable, clear, and interesting. When we say,
Valid - it asks what it intends to ask.
Reliable – it gets the same answer if the same question is posed repeatedly in a short time.
Clear – it is easily understood.
Interesting – it is completed by the respondents and gets better response rate

The design of the questionnaire should not be taken for granted to be able to get accurate data.
A bad questionnaire may lead to wrong conclusions since data collected may not be correct.

Remember these when you create your survey:

• Ask the right questions
• Use appropriate format
DESIGN • Arrange the questions logically
• Make instructions clear
• Do pilot testing
TEST • Detect flaws
• Make necessary changes
REVISE • Improve the questionnaire

What’s More

Activity 2. Design, Test, Revise

Directions: Design your own survey questionnaire about a family’s favorite pastime or hobby during the
Enhanced Community Quarantine days in your community. Let your family members or
relatives try to critic your work. Write your final output. This will be used in the next lesson.

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 Lesson CONDUCTING THE SURVEYS/
2 EXPERIMENTS/ OBERVATIONS

What’s New

Activity 3 How to Do it!

Now that you have designed a questionnaire, how will you conduct the survey?
Copy the concept map below and fill it with your ideas.

What is It

Ways of Conducting Survey

1. Personal Approach

A. Face-to-Face Structured Interview

Pros: When respondents are asked directly, the response rates are actually good
especially if visual materials are required during the survey. The researcher can also
observe the participants in this method.

Cons: There might be bias because of the interaction. There is also no anonymity
involved. This is also not good if the participants live in different locations.

B. Telephone Survey

Pros: This is applicable for asking consequential questions. Unlike face-to-face

interviews, there is anonymity in this approach.

Cons: This method is not good if the participants need to see visual materials and if
the questions are long.

2. Self-Administered Approach

A. Paper-and-Pencil Survey

Pros: This is a traditional survey method and this is good for those who do not know
how to use the computer or access the internet.

Cons: This requires bigger budget in terms of reproduction. This also involves
distribution of the questionnaires which can be exhausting. The researcher must
also be present during the administration.

B. Online Survey

Pros: This is best if the sample size is huge and they live on different locations.
There is less expense compared to mail survey. There are also survey companies
that can help conduct the survey online with accuracy.

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 Cons: The respondents must know how to use the computer to be able to answer
this method. There might even be incentives to be given to the respondents.

C. Mail Survey

Pros: This method can be easily administered and you can even review the mails
before you send them so that the visual quality is good. There is also anonymity in
this kind of survey method.

Cons: Mail surveys are less chosen by many because only a few responses are
collected. People also have more access to the internet so they no longer prefer the
mail survey.

What’s More

Activity 4 Let’s Review

Directions: Before deciding to conduct the survey, list down the methods discussed above and reasons
why you will use and why you will not use each. State it in your own words and add more if
necessary.

WHY YOU WILL USE THIS WHY YOU WILL NOT USE
METHODS
METHOD THIS METHOD

Activity 5 Conduct the Survey

Directions: For practice, use the questionnaire you made in lesson 1 to conduct the survey. You can
choose any of the methods discussed. Choose the one that is applicable to you and safe
for you at the same time. Take pictures for documentation purposes. Remember to apply
the tips given in the discussion.
Conduct the survey among 5 respondents within your family or friends. Make a letter
addressed to your respondents expressing your purpose and asking permission from them
to allow you to conduct your survey with them. Attach the letter as your documentation.
Paste all your picture on the space provided.

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 Lesson GATHERING INFORMATION AND
3 SUMMARIZING FINDINGS

What’s New

Activity 6. Your Draft

When you conducted the survey, you have gathered a lot of information already. What did
you do to the answers of the respondents to the surveys? How did you summarize the
information?

What is It

It is time to gather the information and summarize your findings. What you have gathered are now
considered as data. Data collection is very important in any type of research study. (Burchfield,1996), (Tim
,1997), (Matt, 2001).

Data is referred to as a collection of facts, such as values or measurements, observation or even

just descriptions of things. Data can be classified into Primary and Secondary Data.

Primary data are those that you have collected yourself or the data collected at source or the data
originally collected by individuals, focus groups, and a panel of respondents specifically set up by the
researcher whose opinions may be sought on specific issues from time to time (Matt, 2001), (Afonja, 2001).

Secondary data research project involves the gathering and/or use of existing data for which they
were originally collected, for example, computerized database, company records or archives, government
publications, industry analysis offered by the media, information system and computerized or mathematical
models of environmental processes and so on (Tim ,1997), (Matt, 2001).

There are two kinds of data, although not all evaluations will necessarily include both.

1. Quantitative data are mainly numbers. It refers to the information that is collected as, or can be
translated into, numbers, which can then be displayed and analyzed mathematically. Quantitative data are
Structured and Unstructured in nature. Structured data can be produced by closed questions, unstructured
data can be produced by open questions. (Checkland et al 1998), (Matt, 2001), (Burchfield, 1996),
(Anyanwu, 2002)

2. Qualitative data is data that is mainly words, sounds or Images. Unlike numbers or “hard data”,
qualitative information tends to be “soft,” meaning it can’t always be reduced to something definite. That

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is in some ways a weakness, but it’s also a strength. A number may tell (Matt, 2001), (Afonja, 2001),
(Burchfield, 1996).

There are many ways of summarizing your findings based from the data you have collected. It
depends on the type of data you collected. The most common is the tally and frequency table.

Tally marks are often used to make a frequency distribution table. For example, let’s say you
survey a number of families and find out how many gadgets they own. The results are 3, 0, 1, 4, 4, 1, 2,
0, 2, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3. The frequency distribution table will make the data easier to understand.

Pictograph is a way of showing data using images. Each picture represents a certain frequency.
Bar graph is a graphical display of data using bars of different heights.

Pie graph is a special chart that uses "pie slices" to show relative sizes of data.

What I Can Do

Activity 7. Present It

Directions: Below is a set of data. Present it in the most appropriate way. Explain why you used that
kind of presentation.

Most Frequently Visited Sites by Teenagers

Facebook – 50 students Youtube – 35 students

Netflix – 20 students Yahoo – 30 students
Google – 40 students Lazada – 10 students

Activity 8. Generalize it

Directions: Based on the data above, create generalizations. Draft one paragraph for a discussion of
your findings. Tell what you have seen and learned from the data. Analyze and give
objective conclusions.

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

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 Lesson
WRITING VARIOUS REPORTS
4

What’s New

Activity 9 Your Thoughts

Write your ideas about reports. Write a word or idea about it that starts with each letter given below.

R-

E-

P-

O-

R-

T-

What is it

There are many different types of reports, including business, scientific and research
reports, but the basic steps for writing them are the same. These are:

1. Decide on the 'Terms of reference”

To decide on the terms of reference for your report, read your instructions and any other
information you've been given about the report, and think about the purpose of the report.

2. Decide on the procedure

This means planning your investigation or research, and how you'll write the report.

3. Find the information

Make sure the information you find is relevant and appropriate.

4. Decide on the structure

Depending on the type of report, the structure can include:
• A title page
• Executive summary
• Contents
• An introduction
• Terms of reference
• Procedure
• Findings
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• References/Bibliography
• Appendices
• The sections, of a report usually have headings and subheadings, which
are usually numbered

5. Draft the first part of your report

Once you have your structure, write down the headings and start to fill these in with the
information you have gathered so far.

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6. Analyze your findings and draw conclusions
The conclusion is where you analyze your findings and interpret what you have found.
7. Make recommendations
Recommendations are what you think the solution to the problem is and/or what you think
should happen next.
8. Draft the executive summary and table of contents
An executive summary is usually about 100 words long. It tells the readers what the report is
about, and summarize the recommendations.
9. Compile a reference list
This is a list of all the sources you've referred to in the report and uses APA referencing.
10. Revise your draft report
It is always important to revise your work.

This is a report made by a maintenance personnel for the head of the department. This is an
example of a very simple and basic report which you would also make someday when you work. Check
whether these have the essential parts.

Activity 10 Arrange the Parts

Directions: How should the parts be arranged? Rewrite the parts in proper sequence.

• Title Page • Findings

• Terms of reference • Procedure
• Contents • Conclusions
• Appendices • Recommendations
• An Introduction • References/ Bibliography
• Executive Summary

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Activity 11 Report

Directions: Make a written report of the findings you have made from your survey. Use the sample
given format discussed in making your report. Remember to be objective and use your data
as the basis of your report. You may use any format you wish if the structure is complete,
and the information presented correct. Be creative too! Use a bond paper for your answers.
There is a rubric given to serve as your guide in making the report.

--end of module--

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