“TEXT AS CONNECTED DISCOURSE”

As a reader and a writer, getting involved with texts is inevitable. Readers read text and writers write text.
This is why understanding the nature of text is an essential part of learning how to read and write
effectively.
Basically, a text is a large unit of written language. It is actually connected discourse. You must have heard
of a wide range of definitions of discourse – utterance, talk, speech, discussion, conversation etc. Simply
put discourse is an expression of ideas. Thus, text is a group of ideas put together to make a point or one
central idea.

Alex is no stranger so poverty

Alex passed the highly competitive college admission test of a respected university.

Studying hard became Alex’s routine, and despite his being poor, he made sure to maximize the
university’s resources.

Inspired by his friends, Alex worked on joining the a National Chemical Engineering Quiz Bowl as
representative of his University

Alex will graduate with the university’s highest academic achievement.

Alex says that while it sounds cliché’s, he really wants to give back to Philippines

Almost five years later, Alex has become one of the country’s premier chemists

As you may have noticed the ideas are not connected or do not have particular structure. As opposed to
what a discourse is, a text has a structure which requires the ideas in the discourse to be relevant to each
other. The author connected each idea to the others so that the reader will be able to understand the
main point in the text.

PRACTICE: SELECTION READING

alex is no stranger to poverty. When he was 2 years old, his mother, a single parent, had to enroll him at the
barangay Day Care Center in Talavera, Nueva Ecija because she didn't have the money to buy for his milk. The
center was managed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the students were given free
food in class. When he was a kid, he was used to making a meal out of rice swimming in sugar water.

When he graduated valedictorian at the Honorato C. Perez, Sr. Memorial Science High School in Cabanatuan City,
he was originally supposed to enroll in a provincial college, even if he passed the highly competitive UP College
Admission Test.

"If you have the money, go to UP," his mother told him.
Two weeks before his high school graduation, he learned that he won a scholarship from DOST, so he hopped on a
bus to Quezon City the following month, tugging his bags and appliances, with a meager amount in his wallet.

Five years later, his big gamble paid off. Alex is not only graduating on Sunday; he will graduate with the
university's highest academic achievement.

"I was the first in the family. No one ever expected that I'd be a summa cum laude graduate," he said.

But he had it all planned from the start. On his first semester in university, Alex sat his first long exam in Math 17,
the notorious college algebra and trigonometry course that occupies a spot in UP Diliman campus legends. For
freshmen students required to take the course, Math 17 is the university's baptism of fire, with a number of
students failing every semester. Alex was confident, though; he was expecting he would top the exam with a high
grade. He got a little above 60 percent.

"Everyone in the dormitory kept bragging their scores in the Math 17 long exam," he said. The experience humbled
him, and made him fear for the remaining nine semesters in his college life. "I thought I will crawl my way to my UP
graduation," he said.

He was determined to make a turnaround, however. After the disappointing first exam results, he started
photocopying previous final exams and studied harder on his own and with his classmates. His determination to
improve pushed him not only to perfect the second exam, but go beyond the 100-percent mark with a 110-percent
score. "There's a 10-percent bonus," he said. He went on perfecting the succeeding exams and got a final grade of
1.0, the highest in the university's grading scale. The next semester, he got the highest mark in all 18 units,
translating to a general weighted average of 1.0. That year, he wrote "graduate summa cum laude" on a sticky
note and posted it on his room wall. Almost five years later, he finished with an overall grade of 1.16, well beyond
the 1.2-and-above requirement for a summa cum laude distinction.

Studying hard became his routine, and despite his being poor, he made sure to maximize the university's
resources. "Every semester, I make sure that I have materials for my subjects. I don't buy books; I just borrow," he
said. Acing his tests wasn't the only challenge for Alex, as he had to find a way to finance his college education
from start to end.

"It's the first time I represented UP in a national competition and we won," he said.
His biggest achievement, however, happened on his last year in the university. With two other classmates, he
worked on a tongue-twisting thesis titled "Design, Optimization and Field Testing of a Plasma-Enhanced Optic Fiber
Reactor for Hydrogen Production via Visible Light-Driven Photocatalytic Water-Splitting." He explained that a
synthesized ingredient is mixed with water, which is subjected to sunlight. The reaction splits the hydrogen and
oxygen molecules in water, and hydrogen is used as an energy source. The hydrogen interacts once more with
oxygen, producing water as a byproduct. The water is split once more and process repeats itself.

"When hydrogen is used, the byproduct is water so it's a continuous process," he said, adding that hydrogen as an
alternative energy source is a more efficient alternative than carbon which is used in the country's power plants.

His thesis won four awards: the UP College of Engineering's undergraduate project competition, the Phi Kappa Phi
International Citation for Science Project, the Chemical Engineering National Undergraduate Research Competition
and the Bank of the Philippine Islands-DOST Science Awards Best Project of the Year.

"We did research; we did extreme literature review; we stayed up all night for experiments," he said. He added
that the prize money from the various competitions helped him with his finances, especially in paying for
graduation requirements.

Looking back at his college life, Alex said his achievements are attributable to his strict mother who helped him
develop a rewarding study habit. He never got the chance to meet his father, but his mother ensured that he is
taken care of and guided in his studies. He is also thankful for his aunts, who supported him financially and gave
him inspiration in powering through college despite being poor.

"(They) gave me the will to strive harder and prove that poverty will not stop us from doing something," he said.

After graduation, Alex plans to work on getting his doctorate degree before working for the country. He is
interested in working in the field of renewable energy, seeing as the Philippines stands as the second biggest
geothermal energy producer in the world. "I could be there, tap those resources and optimize them," he said.

He added that it sounds cliche, but he wants to give back to the Philippines. Having studied in what he considers a
microcosm of Philippine society, he said he was made aware of different problems confronting the country, and
the enormous potential UP graduates have in solving them.
"Imagine the change we can give... Imagine how many more thousands will march with us. If each and every one of
those graduates would have that thinking, imagine the impact," he said.

On his graduation day on April 27, Alex will have officially completed his degree in chemical engineering. He is
already way past his big problem of budgeting P2,500 for two months. He has a bigger problem post-graduation,
though, but he intends to solve it with the same passion and determination that resulted in his astounding
academic achievement.

"I really want to do something that could change the Philippines," he said.