SAMPLES OF

ACADEMIC TEXT

Compiled By:

Ken Constantine M. Espera

John Rachel L. Nidea

Table of Contents
Title Page

Title page i

Table of Contents ii

Essay 1

Concept Paper 3

Reaction Paper 6

Position Paper 7

Report 9

Research 10

Reference 11

ii

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 ESSAY

An essay is a piece of writing that is written to convince someone of something or to simply

inform the reader about a particular topic. In order for the reader to be convinced or adequately
informed, the essay must include several important components to make it flow in a logical way.

Example:
PLIANT LIKE THE BAMBOO
There is a story in Philippine folklore about a mango tree and a bamboo tree. Not being able to
agree as to which was the stronger of the two, they called upon the wind to make the decision.

The wind blew hardest. The mango tree stood fast. It would not yield. It knew it was strong and
sturdy. It would not sway. It was too proud. It was too sure of itself. But finally its root gave way,
and it tumbled down

The bamboo tree was wiser. It knew it was not as robust as the mango tree. And so every time
the wind blew, it bent its head gracefully. It made loud protestations, but let the wind have its
way. When finally the wind got tired of blowing, the bamboo tree still stood in all its beauty and
grace.

The Filipino is like the bamboo tree. He knows that he is not strong enough, to withstand the
onslaught of superior forces. And so he yields. He bends his head gracefully with many loud
protestations

And he has survived. The Spaniards came and dominated him for more than three hundred
years. And, when the Spaniards left, the Filipinos still stood-only much richer in experience and
culture.

The Americans took place of the Spaniards. They used more subtle means of winning over the
Filipinos to their mode of living and thinking. The Filipinos embraced the American way of life
more readily than the Spaniard's vague promises hereafter.

Then the Japanese came like a storm, like a plague of locusts, like a pestilence-rade, relentless,
cruel. The Filipino learned to bow his head low, to "cooperate" with the Japanese in their
"holymission of establishing the Co-Prosperity Sphere." The Filipino had only hate and contempt
for the Japanese, but he learned to smile sweetly at them and to thank them graciously for their
"benevolence and magnanimity"

And now that the Americans have come back and driven away the Japanese, those Filipinos
who profited most from cooperating with the Japanese have been loudest in their protestations
ofinnocence. Everything is as if the Japanese had never been in the Philippines.

For the Filipino would welcome any kind of life that the gods would offer him. That is why he is
contented and happy and at peace. The sad plight of other people of the world is not his. To
him, as to that ancient Oriental poet, the past is already a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision;
but today, well-lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and tomorrow is a vision of
hope

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This may give you the idea that the Filipino is a philosopher. Well he is. He has not evolved a
body of philosophical doctrines. Much less has he put them down into a book, like Kant for
example, or Santayana or Confucius. But he does have a philosophical outlook on life.

He has a saying that life is like a wheel. Sometimes it is up, sometimes it is down. The monsoon
season comes, and he has to go undercover. But then the sun comes out again. The flowers
bloom, and the birds sing in the trees, You cut off the branches of a tree, and, while the marks
of the bolo are still upon it, it begins to shoot forth-new branches-branches that are the promise
of new color, new fragrance, and new life.

Everywhere about him is a lesson in patience and forbearance that he does not have to learn
with difficulty. For the Filipino lives in a country on which the gods lavished their gifts aplenty. He
does not have to worry about the morrow. Tomorrow will be only another day no winter of
discontent. Of he loses his possessions, there is the land and these is the sea, with all the
riches that one can desire. There is plenty to spar-for friends, for neighbors and for everyone
else.

No woner that the Filipino can afford to laugh. For the Filipino is endowed with saving grace of
humor. This humor is earthly as befits one who has not indulged in deep contemplation. But it
has enabled the Filipino to shrug his shoulders in times of adversity and say to himself "Bahala
na".

3
CONCEPT PAPER
 A concept paper is a brief paper written by a university student around a research question
before undertaking the research. Simply described, as a preliminary document that explains the
purpose of research, why it is being conducted, and how it will be performed. It examines a
concept or idea and offers an outline of the topic that a researcher wants to pursue.

Example:

Leveraging on Mobile Payment Methods to gain Competitive Advantage by Local based

Business

I. Introduction

Mobile payment methods have popularity with big businesses operating in large towns and
cities across the world. These payment methods enable the business customers to access their
cash at the point of sale and do not need to have physical money to complete their transactions.
This study will therefore help in understanding the mobile payment methods preferences for the
local based business and how and why these preferences have failed to prevail. The research
will therefore address that gap that is viewed as the low uptake of mobile payment methods by
the local based businesses which are essentially operating in remote areas. This concept builds
upon the various insights that have been undertaken by various researchers in the business and
information technology field to bridge the gap of strategic implementation of information
technology systems in business to gain competitive advantage..

II. Need of this study

It is estimated that more than 5 billion people have access to mobile phone devices and
that out of this figure about a third of the population is based in local areas. Further, the village-
based businesses do not have immediately access to the physical money banking system as
they are located kilometers away. Porter (2011) notes that in order for businesses to achieve
and sustain superior performance, they must be able to implement systems that are
competitively superior. Budree and Williams (2013, September) and Namada (2018) established
that the areas with large number of low-income earners experienced low uptake technological
advancements and businesses in these locations are not keen on leveraging on technology.
The concept will therefore be intended to identify the salient factors that local businesses can
apply in leveraging on mobile payment methods to gain competitive advantage.

III. Background

Several studies have concluded that mobile payment methods is one of the major factors
put in place by businesses in gaining competitive advantage, however this has also, not been
achieved in remote areas. As a result, Onyango et al. (2014) in their study on mobile phone
technology and the evident performance of micro and small enterprises, concludes that there is
an impact on the use and implementation of mobile phone technology to achieve the full
business performance. In order, therefore to achieve competitive advantage, Porter (2011)

4
 advises that the strategy implemented should be geared towards achieving full potential
competitively.

Many scholars also agree that there is a significant relationship between mobile payment
methods and gaining competitive advantage to sustain an improved performance. Most also
argue that the mobile payment method of use will be dependent on the location and nature of
need. The handbook by Namada (2018) notes that the concept of organizational learning must
be down. trotted to the local businesses to learn which mobile technology suits their operations
and how this technology can be leveraged to achieve competitive advantage. The literature and
conclusions from the scholars however fail to answer specific questions that related to
leveraging on mobile payment methods to gain competitive advantage for local based
businesses. Most of the studies were focused on businesses and companies in towns and cities
with the area of interest majoring on performance

IV. Objectives

The research paper seeks to achieve its general objective of leveraging on mobile
payment methods to gain competitive advantage by focusing on the following specific
objectives:

1. To determine the influence of perceived risks on the use of mobile payment methods to
gain competitive advantage by local based businesses.

2. To determine the influence of M-Payment characteristics (mobility, reachability,

convenience, and compatibility) on the use of mobile payment methods to gain competitive
advantage by local based businesses.

3. To assess the influence of personal innovativeness on use of mobile payment methods

to gain competitive advantage by local based businesses.

V. Research Question and/or Hypothesis

1. Does perceived risks influence the use of mobile payment methods to gain competitive
advantage by local based businesses?

2. Does M-Payment characteristics (mobility, reachability, convenience, and compatibility)

influence the use of mobile payment methods to gain competitive advantage by local based
businesses?

3. Does personal innovativeness influence the use of mobile payment methods to gain
competitive advantage by local based businesses?

VI. Research Methodology

The study intends to use cross sectional survey design in determining the leverage
on mobile payment methods to gain competitive advantage by local based businesses. The
study will sample 478 local based businesses registered in Kenya out of a population of 4
thousand which are mainly registered and operated in village area settings. The study will
collect both primary and secondary data, and the quantitative data generated will be analyzed
using descriptive statistics which will include percentage distribution, mean and the frequency
counts. The qualitative data from the study will undergo transcription and reported in themes
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and sub-themes. The relationship between the independent and dependent variables will
be explained through multiple regression.

VII. Research Timeline

The project is expected to be completed in 17 weeks with the following indicated as the
activity’s durations for every section of the research project:

Research Section Duration

1. Title 1 week

2. Introduction 1 week

3. Need for this Study 2 weeks

4. Background 3 weeks

5. Objectives 1 week

6. Research Questions and or Hypothesis 1 week

7. Research Methodology 2 weeks

8. Data analysis interpretations and discussion 3 weeks

9. Summary conclusion and recommendations 2 weeks

10. Reviewing work for final submission 1 week

VIII. Reference

Porter, M. E. (2011). Competitive advantage of nations: creating and sustaining superior

performance. simon and schuster.

Namada, J. M. (2018). Organizational learning and competitive advantage. In Handbook of

Research on Knowledge Management for Contemporary Business Environments (pp. 86-104).
IGI Global.

Budree, A., & Williams, K. H. (2013, September). Factors influencing the uptake of
mobile banking in developing countries: A case study of M–Pesa in South Africa. In
Proceedings of 22nd Internafional Business Research Conference (pp. 9-10).

Onyango, R. A., Ongus, R. W., Awuor, F. M., & Nyamboga, C. (2014). Impact of adoption and
use of mobile phone technology on the performance of micro and small enterprises in
Kisii Municipality Kenya. World Journal of Computer Application and Technology, 2(2), 34-42.
 6
REACTION PAPER

A reaction paper is typically a 2-5 page document in which the writer responds to one or
more texts. Reaction papers are often used as tools in a class-setting to encourage students to
think critically about texts, and how those texts are in conversation with each other, or with a
wider field of discourse.

Example:

Heneral Luna

The film is truly remarkable and I can say with great confidence as one of the best historical
movies ever created in the Philippines. The film showed the bravery of not only General Antonio
Luna himself, but also our fellow Filipinos at that time. Despitethe lack of supplies, equipments,
proper training and cooperation, they fought against the Americans with all their might. In
addition to that, focusing on General Luna, despite his bad temper, pride and aggressive
behavior, we could see how much he loves his country and fellowmen. He is one of the prime
examples of a patriotist.

Upon watching the film, I have learned a lot more about the history and the heroism of the
Filipino people. One of the scenes that caught my attention was how General Luna did not
hesitateto climb his horse, holding only a single gun and proceeded to marched towards the
Americans who were firing rains of bullets. Although it was reckless and somewhat an idiotic
thing to do, it showed how brave and strong General Luna is. He was willing to sacrifice his life
just to fight against the American army.

In addition to that, the Filipinos were hiding and doing a safe fight, but as soon as General
Luna marchedtowards the enemies, they all stood up with their weapons and backed up for
Luna. This part proved that Luna is a great leader and that the Filipino's would never left their
commander fight alone.
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POSITION PAPER

A position paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue. The goal of a position paper
is to convince the audience that your opinion is valid and worth listening to. Ideas that you are
considering need to be carefully examined in choosing a topic, developing your argument, and
organizing your paper.

Example:

"Education System in the Philippines”

Education has been an important thing in the world especially for the parents andyoung
people because it is considered as the “key to success”. It’s the reason why thereare different
expertise that people can take. This can help them to distinguishedthemselves and do the
things they love. It’s also the reason why they are manydiscoveries now and then since
education widen your understanding and perspective inthe world that leads you to be curious
and discover new entities. Education can also makepeople change for the better and be a
successful person because in school, teacherseducate the student about moral values and
essential skills like analyzation,comprehension, logic and etc. All of this are needed because
this are required as theyounger generation prepare for adulthood.

In the Philippines, education has also been important to people especially for parents like in
other countries. It is also very important for young people since it is the toolfor them to repay the
sacrifices their parents made just for them to go to school. Somemay even sacrifice their time
just to go to school even if they needed to work and earnmoney so that in the future they can
earn more money and lift their family from famine.That’s why it is important for the system to be
effective just like what Finland andSingapore did.

Finland make several adjustments to their policies that is solely focus on thestudents and
teachers. According to an article by Mike Colagrossi on September 10, 2018,Finland get rid of
standardized test as it only promote getting high grades not learning,providing lounge for
teachers and provide psychological guidance for the students.Singapore also change their basis
on ranking by not basing it on the exams anymore sinceaccording to Ong Ye Kung, Singapore’s
Education Minister, “learning is not a competition.

Education is really important and also enjoyable at the same time since you canlearn new
knowledge that you can use in the future. But the system needs to be changedin order to
improve the capability of the students. The education system in the Philippinesis more focus on
memorization skills rather than on the essential skills such asanalyzation, comprehension, logic
skills and etc. Some may disagree to this claim becauseschool also provide lessons for that. But
as a student I observe that some of myclassmates and students are not that good in
comprehension and especially analyzationskills. These can be proved on a news article by
ABS-CBN on December 9, 2019. According to the article, about “600,000 students around the
age of 15 from 79 differentcountries joined the reading assessment of the Programme for
International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018” and “Filipino students was ranked last among
79 countries”.That’s why it is needed to be change in order to be also competitive to other
countries andto be rank not in the last anymore.
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The education system should also focus on giving efficient salary to teachers. Manywill
disapprove on this since as a student I observe too that there are teachers to thatdoesn’t do
their job right since they lack monitoring. Even so, teacher should still get a fair amount of salary
like any other jobs because not all teachers slack off and without themstudents can’t study and
earn a degree that is the “key to success”. And this is one of theways which students can catch
up to the other countries and raise our rank in the nextassessment. Since teachers also handle
many documents the institution gives them andthis is way to motivate the teachers to their job
effectively.

And the last thing, the education system should also focus on improve and givemore
facilities to the school. Some may argue that the Department of Education (DepEd)is already
making an action regarding this matter and the facilities are sufficient already.Yet as an ex-
student in public, the facilities are still lacking in public schools. Manyinformation I found online
is also agreeing to this fact that facilities are still lacking in number and many schools are
insufficient in classroom. If the DepEd will improve their ways and actions, it is certainly that
students can function well in class and they can studyeffectively.
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REPORT

A report is a specific form of writing that is organised around concisely identifying and
examining issues, events, or findings that have happened in a physical sense, such as events
that have occurred within an organisation, or findings from a research investigation.

Example:
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RESEARCH

Research is a process of systematic inquiry that entails collection of data; documentation of

critical information; and analysis and interpretation of that data/information, in accordance with
suitable methodologies set by specific professional fields and academic disciplines.

Example:
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REFERENCE

Essay

Source: Ismael Mallari (2020 April. 24) Pliant like the bamboo. Available at:
http://filipinoliterature.blogspot.com/2011/09/pliant-like-bamboo.html?m=1

Concept Paper

Source: Dr. Benard lango (2019 October) Leveraging on Mobile Payment Methods to gain
Competitive Advantage by Local based Business. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336150591_How_to_write_a_concept_paper_with_pra
ctical_sample_by_Dr_Lango

Reaction Paper

Source: Rheann Olaya (2022 January) Reaction Paper: Heneral Luna. Available at:
https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/emilio-aguinaldo-college/readings-in-philippine-history/
reaction-paper-heneral-luna/21741047

Position Paper

Source: Christine Ashley P. Aquevido (2018 Sept. 10) Position Paper: Education System in the
Philippines. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/491899019/Education-System-in-
the-Philippines-Position-Paper

Report

Source: Govt. Philippines - DSWD DROMIC (2022 Sept. 4) Weather Report: Super Typhoon
Henry. Available at: https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/dswd-dromic-report-4-super-typhoon-
henry-04-september-2022-6pm

Research

Source: CHUCHAN A. MONSERATE, PhD (2018 January - March) Research Paper: Impact of
Technology on the Academic Performance of Students and Teaching Effectiveness. Available
at: https://www.researchpublish.com/upload/book/Impact%20of%20Technology-5340.pdf