DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
COURSE TITLE: GECC 102 – Purposive Communication
HAND OUT 5: Communication for Academic Purposes

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
 The moral code or ethical policy of the academe. This includes values such as avoidance of
cheating or plagiarism, maintenance of academic standards, honesty and rigor in research and
academic publishing.(Kirk, 1999)
 This is practices in a majority of educational institutions, it is noted in mission statements and
represented in honor codes, but it is also being taught in ethics classes, and being noted in
syllabuses.
 Academic integrity is the commitment to and demonstration of honest and moral behavior in
an academic setting. This is most relevant at the university level as it relates to providing
credit to other people when using their ideas. In simplest terms, it requires acknowledging
the contributions of other people. Failure to provide such acknowledgement is considered
plagiarism or academic dishonesty. (https://writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/resources/academic-integrity/)

FORMS OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY (GECC 102 Module – DMMMSU OUS)

1. Cheating
 Using unauthorized notes, study aids, or information on an examination.
 Altering a graded work after it has been returned, then submitting the work for re-
grading.
 Allowing another person to do one’s work and submitting that work under one’s own
name.
 Submitting identical or similar papers for credit in more than one course without prior
permission from the course instructor.
2. Fabrication
 Falsifying or inventing any information, data or citation
 Presenting data that were not gathered in accordance with standard guidelines
defining the appropriate methods for collecting or generating data and failing to
include account of the method by which the data were gathered or collected.
3. Obtaining an unfair advantage
 Stealing, reproducing, circulating or otherwise gaining access to examination materials
prior to prescribed schedule by the instructor.
 Stealing, destroying, defacing or concealing library materials with the purpose of
depriving other of their use.
 Unauthorized collaboration on an academic assignment
 Retaining, processing, using or calculating previously given examination materials,
where those materials clearly indicate that they are not returned to the instructor at
the end of the examination.
 Intentionally interfering with another student’s academic work.
 Recycling one’s own work done in previous classes without obtaining permission from
concerned instructor.
 Undertaking activity with the purpose of creating or obtaining an unfair academic
advantage over other students’ academic work.
4. Aiding and Abetting Academic Dishonesty
 Providing materials information, or other assistance to another person with knowledge
that such aid could be used in any violations stated above.
 Providing false information in connection with any inquiry regarding academic
integrity.
5. Falsification of Records and Official Documents
 Altering documents affecting academic records.
 Forging signatures of authorization or falsifying information on an official academic
document, grade report, petition, I.D. card or any other official school document.
6. Unauthorized Access to Computerized Academic or Administrative Records or System
 Viewing or altering computer records
 DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
 Modifying computer programs or systems
 Releasing or dispensing information gained via unauthorized access
 Interfering with the use of availability of computer systems or information.
7. Plagiarism
 an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another
author without authorization and the representation of that author’s work as one’s
own, as by not crediting the original author.
 Sample citation or crediting of original author:

ACADEMIC WRITING
 A clear, concise, focused, structured writing backed up by evidence. Its purpose is to aid the
reader’s understanding. It has a formal tone and style, but it is not complex and does not
require the use of long sentences and complicated vocabulary. (https://library.leeds.ac.uk)

TYPES OF ACADEMIC WRITING (https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/writing/types-of-academic-writing.html)

1. DESCRIPTIVE
 The simplest type of academic writing is descriptive. Its purpose is to provide facts or
information. An example would be a summary of an article or a report of the results of
an experiment.
 The kinds of instructions for a purely descriptive assignment include: 'identify', 'report',
'record', 'summarise' and 'define'.
2. ANALYTICAL
 It’s rare for a university-level text to be purely descriptive. Most academic writing is also
analytical. Analytical writing includes descriptive writing, but also requires you to re-
organise the facts and information you describe into categories, groups, parts, types or
relationships.
 Sometimes, these categories or relationships are already part of the discipline, while in
other cases you will create them specifically for your text. If you’re comparing two
theories, you might break your comparison into several parts, for example: how each
theory deals with social context, how each theory deals with language learning, and how
each theory can be used in practice.
 The kinds of instructions for an analytical assignment include: 'analyse', 'compare',
'contrast', 'relate', and 'examine'.
 To make your writing more analytical:
 Spend plenty of time planning. Brainstorm the facts and ideas, and try different ways
of grouping them, according to patterns, parts, similarities and differences. You
could use colour-coding, flow charts, tree diagrams or tables.
 DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
 Create a name for the relationships and categories you find. For example, advantages
and disadvantages.
 Build each section and paragraph around one of the analytical categories.
 Make the structure of your paper clear to your reader, by using topic sentences and a
clear introduction.

3. PERSUASIVE
 In most academic writing, you are required to go at least one step further than analytical
writing, to persuasive writing. Persuasive writing has all the features of analytical writing
(that is, information plus re-organising the information), with the addition of your own
point of view. Most essays are persuasive, and there is a persuasive element in at least
the discussion and conclusion of a research article.
 Points of view in academic writing can include an argument, recommendation,
interpretation of findings or evaluation of the work of others. In persuasive writing, each
claim you make needs to be supported by some evidence, for example a reference to
research findings or published sources.
 The kinds of instructions for a persuasive assignment include: 'argue', 'evaluate', 'discuss',
and 'take a position'.
 To help reach your own point of view on the facts or ideas:
 read some other researchers' points of view on the topic. Who do you feel is the most
convincing?
 look for patterns in the data or references. Where is the evidence strongest?
 list several different interpretations. What are the real-life implications of each one?
Which ones are likely to be most useful or beneficial? Which ones have some
problems?
 discuss the facts and ideas with someone else. Do you agree with their point of view?
 To develop your argument:
 list the different reasons for your point of view
 think about the different types and sources of evidence which you can use to support
your point of view
 consider different ways that your point of view is similar to, and different from, the
points of view of other researchers
 look for various ways to break your point of view into parts. For example, cost
effectiveness, environmental sustainability, scope of real-world application.
 To present your argument, make sure:
 your text develops a coherent argument where all the individual claims work
together to support your overall point of view
 your reasoning for each claim is clear to the reader
 your assumptions are valid
 you have evidence for every claim you make
 you use evidence that is convincing and directly relevant.
4. CRITICAL
 Critical writing is common for research, postgraduate and advanced undergraduate
writing. It has all the features of persuasive writing, with the added feature of at least
one other point of view. While persuasive writing requires you to have your own point of
view on an issue or topic, critical writing requires you to consider at least two points of
view, including your own.
 For example, you may explain a researcher's interpretation or argument and then
evaluate the merits of the argument, or give your own alternative interpretation.
 Examples of critical writing assignments include a critique of a journal article, or a
literature review that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of existing research. The
kinds of instructions for critical writing include: 'critique', 'debate', 'disagree' and
'evaluate'.
 Critical writing requires strong writing skills. You need to thoroughly understand the
topic and the issues. You need to develop an essay structure and paragraph structure
that allows you to analyse different interpretations and develop your own argument,
supported by evidence.
 You need to:
 accurately summarise all or part of the work. This could include identifying the main
interpretations, assumptions or methodology.
 DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
 have an opinion about the work. Appropriate types of opinion could include pointing
out some problems with it, proposing an alternative approach that would be better,
and/or defending the work against the critiques of others.
 provide evidence for your point of view. Depending on the specific assignment and
the discipline, different types of evidence may be appropriate, such as logical
reasoning, reference to authoritative sources and/or research data.

ACADEMIC RESEARCH
 Academic research is usually intended for the sole purpose of creating knowledge. It is not
designed to benefit a specific company or organization. Academic research is designed to be
from a voice of authority and can change how people view whatever is being researched.
For this reason, it is held to a high standard.
 The point of research is to find ways to improve our understanding of what is being studied or
to verify that our understanding of the subject is correct.
 DON MARIANO MARCOS MEMORIAL STATE UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences

GENERAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

WHY TEACHERS CONDUCT RESEARCH?

 “The objective in academic research is to produce new knowledge but for most teachers
doing research, the purpose is to improve practice while being informed by theory at the
same time. When they do literature review, they don’t have to be exhaustive. The purpose
is to look for literature that pertains specifically to the classroom teaching strategy that
they wish to try or explore,”
(Hairon Salleh, “Why Should Teachers Do Research?”, The Big Idea, Issue 46 Jan/Feb 2014,
https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2014/01/08/issue46-bigidea/)