Reading and Writing

Name: Patrick James L. Pangilinan Grade & Section: Grade 11-

ABM Pythagoras
LESSON 5: BOOK REVIEW OR ARTICLE CRITIQUE
PROMPT
Title of Article: Teenage Pregnancy
Authors: Ramiro Carters and Electra Araya
Journal Name: Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology: Evidence-based Clinical Practice
Link: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/230588265_Teenage_Pregnancy
Strengths:
The writing was free of clichés, redundancies, verbosity, and lofty vocabulary. The unity has
been reached and includes a single, focused notion. The sentences in the paragraph are logically
structured. The arrangement is well-organized and logical. It's in line with the author's
perspective which is sane and plausible. It has a clearly stated topic sentence as well as the
specific details to support each. The flow of ideas is easy to follow and in a nonchalantly
manner. The ideas are well-transmitted through the use of the conjunctions and other transitional
devices. There are prosaic paragraphs which clearly talked about one idea only. It gives a concise
overview of how teenage pregnancy affects most developing and developed countries. The writer
moves from a general statement or claim to increasingly more detailed examples as to why the
claim is made. The following paragraph includes emphasized words and phrases hence increases
readability for the audience. It uses dynamic verbs which energized some sentences to a certain
level. The article avoided long nouns or phrases instead, it settled for simple verbs. It utilized the
power of synonym to minimize repetitiveness. The writing sounds confident and professional
when read aloud. The writer provided a well-reasoned explanation in each of the sections as
much as possible. The author was aware of his article to be a clearly communicative article
rather than to impress.
Weaknesses:
In the article, the prepositions have been misused in some cases. In the parenthesis, sexually
transmitted infection was only briefly mentioned and in an abbreviation form. Unnecessary
appearance of a colon in the sentence. The text appears to lack coherence and cohesion. The
article has a weak, vague or poorly developed introduction. There are awkward sentences due to
a lack of parallel structure, lingering or misplaced modifiers. The ideas also known as concepts
are not well-connected to one another. It lacked clarity and conciseness through its sentences. It
contains lengthy sentences that could be reduced into simpler terms. It does not have a consistent
progression leading coherently to a reasonable, well thought out conclusion. It has a non-
American variant word such as behaviour which could be replaced for consistency. It has a
presence of sentences that are too short or too choppy, or perhaps is lacking of sentence variety.
The proper placement of punctuation and subject-verb agreement are deteriorating and therefore
need to be improved. There appears to be no determiner preceding the noun phrase maternal role.
The conclusion contains an insufficient restatement of the speech's thesis, a summary of the
important points, and a concluding device that helps in the formation of a lasting image in the
minds of the audience. There are some sentences which used conjunction improperly.
Overall Impression:
The article is well-structured and accurately expresses the author's position. Although the unity
has been achieved, there is no statement of a full name, only abbreviations. The writing was
accessible and appealing. Moreover, it did not exaggerate claims in the sentences. Long phrases
can be shortened into a lower number of words in some cases. There is a lack of coherence and
cohesion in the writing. In addition, the ideas are not well-connected. The article has a position
on the dilemma, or the article takes a placement but don’t express rationales to support that
position, or the essay usually takes a place but don’t keep up a stance. It takes a position on the
issue and provide a wide framework for discourse. The point of this article is to seek why and
how teenage pregnancy should not be normalized but put to an end. There is a lot of
disappointment in the results of many teenagers who became pregnant and everyone has the right
to be disappointed. However, if we are able to understand that we are talking about our overall
impression and not what the people emphasizes, we will have less dispute and disappointment
with the results of teenage pregnancy. It’s an obvious observation but one that needs to be made.
In the end, the article was on point on the usage of vivid adjectives, figurative language and
comparisons which layouts the point of view of the author about the specific topic.

PRACTICE EXERCISES
Write T if the statement is true and F if false. Write your answer before each
number.
T 1. A review or a critique involves higher-order thinking skills.
F 2. A book description is similar to a book review.
T 3. A book review or article critique uses the same organization of ideas.
T 4. A book review or article critique presents the strengths and weaknesses of a reading
material.
F 5. A book review is exclusive for professionals.
T 6. More than half of the review should be devoted to the summary.
F 7. The name of the author and the title of the reviewed article is placed at the end of the
article critique.
F 8. The purpose of an article critique is to inform and persuade readers.
 F 9. The reviewer’s overall impression of the work should be placed in the introduction.
F 10. When reviewing a book or article, only one perspective should be used.

Analyze the text very carefully. Then, complete the table that follows.
Type of A Book Review or Article Critique
Document
Purpose An article critique’s purports to the author of the article are to discuss its
major problems in the paper. It broadens knowledge base and understanding
of the topic. One of the main reasons for this is to determine whether you side
to argue for or against the ideas presented by the author. This paper’s purpose
is to assess the linguistic complexity of students’ narratives and reading
texts”.

Writer’s It is a third person perspective wherein the author's paper's shortcomings are
Persona thoroughly addressed by the writer, and the writer is straightforward in
discussing the author's work. It communicated to their audience who they are.
It did not only serve as a chance to give the writing a little personality, but it
also became an opportunity for the writer to connect to readers by allowing
them to imagine the person who wrote the text they’re now reading.
Intended The target audience are the students, teachers or the educational sector and
Reader last but foremost the author of the topic.
Strengths The writer emphasizes the problem of the work of the author. The writer
discusses its critique with honesty and direct to the point. It is consistent with
the author's reasonable and realistic viewpoint. The flow of ideas is easy to
understand. The following paragraph has highlighted words and phrases,
making it easier for the audience to read. As much as allowed, the writer
presented a well-reasoned explanation in each of the paragraphs. It provides a
brief outline of how students' narratives and reading materials are evaluated
for linguistic complexity.
Weaknesses There are misspelled or miswritten words that doesn’t seem to fit the
context. Punctuation placement and subject-verb agreement are grossly
misused, and hence need to be improved. There is incorrect usage of
prepositions. It appears that the quantifier much does not fit with the
countable noun data. There are poorly used words that is not suitable for the
context. There is an unnecessary use of adverbs such as really that does not
really make a change at all. The presence of being wordiness can be seen
which is not advisable. The summary of the article is not in its proper place. It
did not follow the correct tenses of verbs.
Revise the text given by eliminating its weaknesses and retaining its strengths. Feel
free to add other information, if necessary.
This paper purports to assess the linguistic complexity of students’ narratives and reading
texts. However, the Authors never stated the purpose behind the study. The authors provide no
motivation and goals for the study, no research questions, no strong methodological practices,
and very few findings that can be easily interpreted. While reading the study, every new sentence
is a surprise. There are no details and the entire paper is completely under-referenced.
Below, I will discuss some of the major problems with the paper. First, the authors never
provide a rationale for their studies. They never give a reason as to why they are studying
reading and writing together, and they fail to link the two skills. The authors assume that the
reader knows the narrative and make no attempt to assist them in developing the narrative of the
paper. Another major problem with the paper is the naivete that is apparent in the literature
review, the methods, and the analysis. The literature review is perhaps two pages long and full of
unsupported statements, conjectures, and short viewpoints. The authors need to boost their
knowledge of L2 writing and reading theory before they submit a paper to a professional journal.
Interestingly, the language background of the participants is never made explicit
(participants are at the mid beginners to high beginner's level in using English as a second
language). The extent to which any results found in the study would be broadly generalization to
what is typically conceived as an EFL/ESL learner is vague. Moreover, the authors continually
draw on literature meant for an L1 acquisition audience and therefore of dubious extension to L2
contexts.
The methods section contains no details at all. In a stratified random sample, ten
participants per grade level does not seem to be enough to obtain many stable data. Since there
are only 10 participants per grade level in both accredited and non-accredited schools due to
logistical constraints, the paper is more of an exploratory study. In other words, it seems a stretch
to ask most journal readers to generalize from such a limited sample of such a specific
population. The authors state that "pupils were not given limits as timing and number of words,
for them to be relaxed in their narrative production "(p. 5). However, later, the authors explain
that the written data also forms the basis of the corpus used for analysis. How does this
differential production affect the results of the analysis? Surely, a participant who produces
1,000 words will have different results from one who produces 500. It is not clear how the
authors can assert any sort of pattern from linguistic ‘snapshots" of just 10 students per school,
producing such heterogeneous data samples. Again, from such a modest sample size.
In general, the paper is hard to read. This likely goes back to the lack of research
problems. There are a few transitions, and, organizationally, the paper does not set up any
expectations for the reader. The first paragraph is a great example because it contains a single
sentence and at least five different clauses. The final paragraph in the introduction (right before
the methods section) is another example. I have read that paragraph four times and am not sure
how to process it.
There are other major problems with this paper, but I do not have the time or the
energy to discuss them all. The authors need to rethink the purpose of the collected data and
educate themselves in the field of L2 reading and writing. I would highly suggest that the authors
reread issues of the Journal of Second Language Writing and Reading in a Foreign Language.

ASSESSMENT
Write an article review by following the writing process outlined below.
Read the article on this link: https://www.ijpdll.com/download/the-covid-19-pandemic-through-
the-lens-of-education-in-the-philippines-the-new-normal-8311.pdf) and complete the following
details.
A. Article Title: The COVID-19 Pandemic through the Lens of Education in the Philippines: The
New Normal
Article Author: Jose Z. Tria
Topic: This review paper highlights policy implications, strategies and issues that will arise in
the new normal education, particularly in the Philippines.
B. Complete the given information to come up with the writing situation for your article critique.
General Purpose: This article presents opportunities for responding issues, problems and trends
that are currently arising and will arise in the future due to COVID-19 pandemic through the lens
of education in the Philippines - the new educational norm.

Specific Purpose:
Implementations of plans and procedures on how to contain the virus, and the infections are still
continually rising.
This article will serve as a reference for future studies related to responding COVID-19 crisis in
the educational sector, particularly in the Philippine context.
Target Output:
Wearing of Face Masks and Physical Distancing
Strengthening Research and Development in Health
Strengthening Online Learning Platforms
Program Creation and Health Integration
Audience: The target audience are the students, teachers or the citizens and education and health
sectors.
Writer’s Persona: First person point of view
Tone/Formality: The article is written in an optimistic tone with formal structure and delivery as
it focuses on being thorough and direct, yet respectful.
C. Reread the sample critiques and pay close attention to the structural features by answering the
guide
questions below.
 What does the article critique begin?
The article is introduced, and then a brief is written about it, with the topic of the article
presented in a descriptive way to help the readers comprehend the concept of the topic. It comes
with the author to be critique.
 What organization does the article critique follow? How is it structured?
Just like any other written assignment, a critique paper should be formatted and structured
properly. A standard article critique consists of four parts: an introduction, summary, critique,
and conclusion.
Introduction (around 5% of the paper)
Summary (around 10% of the paper)
Review/critique (in no particular order) (around 75% of the paper)
Conclusion (around 10% of the paper)
 How would you describe the style and approach of presentation of ideas?
It is in a narrative writing style which follows a chronological method of presentation to tell an
actual event.
 How are the supporting details presented? Are the explanations sufficient?
They are presented in a subtle yet understandable way that would make the main idea broader
and clearer. The explanations are on point and is used minimally which is additional points for
the structure.
 What cohesive devices are used to improve the flow and clarity of ideas?
The cohesive devices that are used are reference, substitution and conjunction which has been a
great companion to the article.
 How would you describe the conclusion? How is it organized?
The conclusion somehow is satisfactory as it contains the thesis, summarization of the key
supporting ideas discussed throughout the work, and offered final impression on the central idea.
D. Conduct preliminary research by getting sources that you might need for the writing of your
article
critique. Be sure that your references are taken from reliable sources.
Abel, T., & McQueen, D. (2020). Critical health literacy and the
COVID-19 crisis. Health Promotion International.
Akamai. (2017). Akamai’s State of the Internet. Akamai, 10(1). Retrieved
from https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/
state-of-the-internet/q1-2017-state-of-the-internet-connectivity-
report.pdf
Cortegiani, A., Ingoglia, G., Ippolito, M., Giarratano, A., & Einav, S.
(2020). A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of
chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19. Journal of Critical Care.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2020.03.005
Crawford, J., Butler-Henderson, K., Jurgen, R., Malkawi, B. H.,
Glowatz, M., Burton, R., Magni, P., & Lam, S. (2020). COVID-19:
20 countries’ higher education intra-period digital pedagogy
responses. Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching, 3.
https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2020.3.1.7
Denworth, L. (2020). How the COVID-19 Pandemic Could End. Scientific
American. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0620-4

E. Write your draft.

This paper aims to learn more about the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines: The New

Normal via the lens of education. Unfortunately, the study's goal was never acknowledged by

the authors. The authors do not explain the study's motivation or objectives. There are few

easily interpretable findings, no solid methodological procedures, and few research questions.

The work as a whole is completely under-referenced.

I'll go over some of the paper's significant flaws in the following paragraphs. First, the

authors assume that the reader knows the narrative and made no attempt to assist them in

developing the narrative of the paper. Phrases are missing a determiner. The punctuations are

not placed in their proper position. There is the presence of a state of wordiness in other
sentences. There are misspelled words and words that do not agree in number with other

words in the phrases. There are incorrect prepositions used. There are missing verbs that need

to be used in the article.

I disagree with this purpose about strengthening online learning platforms as I see

online platforms as a hindrance for a student to learn at all. I have been schooling through this

method and I can assure you that not even half of the school’s lessons have been engraved in

my mind. There are a lot of factors that will affect the student’s academic performance in

implementing this kind of learning method. I do not support this at all perhaps they should

immediately find ways to cope with the situation as it is the best thing for us to do since we

have no choice but to live with it. I am in full support of the author’s idea to strengthen

research and development in health as it would contribute to the generation of knowledge and

its application through research and development endeavors. This would also accelerate

innovative research and development programs to help contain the spread of the pandemic

and facilitate care for those affected.

In general, the paper is easy to read and follow. This likely goes back to the presence of

research information. There are few transitions and, organizationally, the paper does set up any

expectations for the reader. There are other major problems with this paper, but I do not have

the time or the energy to discuss them all. I would suggest that the author should proofread the

article to remove mistakes. They should provide the reason behind the article.