EAPP

Academic Texts

- are critical, objective, specialized texts written by experts or professionals in a given field using
formal language.

Non-Academic Texts

- are non-objective texts that can be written by anyone by using informal or casual language.

Critical Reading Strategies

Before Reading:

 Determine which type of academic text you are reading.

 Determine and establish your purpose for reading.

 Identify the author’s purpose for writing.

 Predict or infer the main idea or argument of the text based on its title.

 Identify your attitude towards the author and the text.

 State what you already know and what you want to learn about the topic.

 Determine the target audience.

 Check the publication date for relevance. It should have been published at most five years earlier than
the current year.

 Check the reference list while making sure to consider the correctness of the formatting style.

 Use a concept map or a graphic organizer to note your existing ideas and knowledge on the topic.

During Reading:

 Annotate the important parts of the text.

a) Write key words or phrases on the margins in bullet form.

b) Write something on the page margin where important information is found.

c) Write brief notes on the margin.

d) Write questions on information that you find confusing.

e) Write what you already know about the ideas.

f) Write the limitations of the author’s arguments.

g) Write notes on the reliability of the text.

h) Comment on the author’s biases.

i) Use a concept map or graphic organizer to note down the ideas being explained.

j) React on the arguments presented in the text.

k) Underline important words, phrases, or sentences.

l) Underline or circle meaning or definitions.

m) Mark or highlight relevant/essential parts of the text.

n) Use the headings and transition words to identify relationships in the text.

o) Create a bank of unfamiliar or technical words to be defined later.

p) Use context clues to define unfamiliar or technical words.

q) Synthesize author’s arguments at the end of chapter or section.

r) Determine the main idea of the text.

s) Identify the evidence or supporting arguments presented by the author and check their validity and
relevance.

t) Identify the findings and note the appropriateness of the research method used.

After Reading:

 Reflect on what you learned.

 React on some parts of the text through writing.

 Discuss some parts with your teacher or classmates.

 Link the main idea of the text to what you already know.
 Thesis Statement

- it presents or describes the point of the essay.

- it is usually presented in the abstract or executive summary or found at the last part of the
introduction.

Topic Sentence

- it is the main idea of the paragraph.

- it can be located in the beginning, middles, or last part of a paragraph.

Criteria for Evaluating Sources

1. Relevance of the Source to the Research Topic

- How well does the source support your topic?

Key Ideas:

 You can check the title, table of contents, summary, introduction, or headings of the text to have a
sense of its content.

2. Authority/Author’s Qualifications

- Is the author’s name identified?

- Is the author’s background, education, or training related to the topic?

- Is he or she a professor in a reputable university?

- What are his/her publications?

- Is the contact information of the author available?

Key Ideas:

 If the source does not have an author, think twice before using it.

 You can check the university’s website to make sure that the professor is associated with the university.
 Publications from professors are usually peer-reviewed and have undergone a strenuous publication
process and are therefore reliable.

 Legitimate academic texts must include citations as a requirement for publication.

3. Currency/Date Publication

- What is the date of the publication?

Key Ideas:

 In most fields, the data from older publications may no longer be valid. As much as possible, the date
of publication should be at most five years earlier.

4. Contents/Accuracy of Information

- Does the author have a lot of citations in his/her text and/or a bibliography or works cited
section?

- What is the tone and style of writing?

- Is the information inaccurate?

- Is the information obviously biased or prejudiced?

Key Ideas:

 The tone or attitude of the author towards his/her subject and writing style must be formal. There
should be no words or phrases that are unacceptable in English formal writing.

 You do not want to use a source that is disputable, so make sure to verify your findings with multiple
sources.

5. Location Sources

- Where is the source published?

- Is it a book, an academic journal, or a reputable news source?

- Does it provide complete publication information such as author, editor, title, date of publication,
and publisher?

- What is the URL of the website?