EAPP REVIEWER

Academic Writing

 Purpose – Audience/Readers
 Paraphrasing – what you understand/what you have understand
 Grammar – no fancy word, direct to the point
 Referencing – sources/stating resources to avoid plagiarism
 Structure – the format, dependent to the purpose

ACADEMIC WRITING – refers to a style of expression that researchers use to define the intellectual boundaries of the
disciplines and their specific areas of expertise. Like specialist languages adopted in other professions, such as, law or
medicine, academic writing is designed to convey agreed meaning about complex ideas or concepts for a group of
scholarly experts

Academic text – is a kind of text that is commonly characterized with being formal, studied, researched, objective, exact,
direct, and has the ability to influence its readers.

Goal: to analyze, synthesize, and convey information and data in a prescribed manner.

Note: understanding what genre a text belongs to – in other words, what kind of text it is, matters most, whenyou begin
to understand different genres, you will be able to use this knowledge as a tool to approach new on unfamiliar academic
texts.

Examples of Academic texts:

 Textbooks
 Shorter student texts: essays
 Longer students texts: dissertations and theses
 Research articles
 Case studies
 Reports

Academic writing features:

CHARACTERISTIC SPECIFIC FEATURE

S
Structure logical, properly outlined & follows a format
Tone formal
Diction concrete word/s within a particular discipline/field
Language concise, formal, and express precisely the meaning
Conventions a list of preferences or the source of any ideas
Content contexts, ideas, theories, analyses and evidences

Academic writing Similarities Creative Writing

Audience  Writing is intended  The writer offers  General
for specific the taste of the  Audience are
audience audience or readers entertained with
 Academic or the use of word
scholarly audience pictures, concepts,
 (research scholars and deep meaning
or professionals
who have an
expertise in a
specialization
Content  Factual, straight-  Must be interesting  Focuses on
forward storytelling and
 The evidences used recounting personal
up as support for experiences
the assertion of the  This writing can be
author must come entirely fictional
from concrete and rely more
sources heavily on
 Rigid procedural emotional appeal or
organized and the opinions of the
formatted author
 Imaginative,
metamorphic or
symbolic
Style  Structured and  Have concerns to  Not adhere to any
executed adhering the basic writing specific style
to a series of principles such as parameters
guidelines dividing you piece  Informal
 Formal into parts and the  Artistic
 It needs to be usage of linking  Figurative
orderly, organized words that help  Does not need to
and structured structure the piece stick to any specific
 Follows series of of writing guidelines
style parameters
Vocabulary  Specialized  Have different  General
 Technical and language filling  Evocative
academic language  Usually uses
used accurately rhetoric and
 Does not require flowery words or
complicated terminologies in
vocabulary writing
 Uses slang and
idioms
Grammar  Likely to be error  Proper from the  May not always use
free linguistic point of concrete sentence.
view

What is our focus in analyzing academic text?

 Structure – format
 Language – more on formal
 Content – concepts, theories
Reading strategies

Strategies to use in academic text reading:

1. Summarizing
2. Paraphrasing
3. Outlining
4. Quoting

SUMMARIZING

- Involve stating the main ideas and findings of a text into your own word.
- Presents a general overview, so is usually shorter than the original text.
- Includes and in-text citation that states the author’s last name and the publication year (Lee, 2016)

Points to consider a good summary:

 Own words
 Main points with supporting details relevant to it
 Restating conclusion by the author
 Paragraph in length and much shorter

A good summary does not:

 Include entire sentences that are copied

 Personal feelings and opinions
 Include unnecessary details

PARAPHRASING

- Involves putting a section of a text into your own words

- Changes the words and paraphrasing of the original text, but keeps the original meaning of the text
- Includes an intext citation that states the author’s name and the publication year: (Lee, 2016)

A good paraphrase includes:

 Different words to explain the same idea

 Choose right words to make your point
 Unique way to explaining the idea
 Restructure completely into a new paragraph that conveys the same idea.

A good paraphrase does not include:

 No replacing words with synonyms

OUTLINING

- Planning for a summary of a writing project or speech

- Use to organize information in a reading text
- Could be word/sentence manner

A good outline includes:

  Usually in the form of a list divided into headings and subheadings that distinguish main points from supporting
points
 Contains topic sentence, supporting sentence, details and including setences.

QUOTING

- Involves copying short sentences or passages from the original text word-for-word places copied wording within
“quotation marks”
- Includes an in-text-citation that states the author’s last name, the publication year, and the page or paragraph
number: (Lee, 2016,p.I)

Important points to consider

Summarizing

 Pick out important details that are necessary

 Pick out the less important or repeated ideas and eliminate them
 Highlight the important details using keywords
 List key words in the order they appeared in the passage
 Trim the list of key words down to one topic sentence.

Paraphrasing

 Not copying the sentence and replacing or changing a few words to be different from the original (This is called
“patchwriting” and may trigger plagiarism-detecting programs)
 You should paraphrase when the idea or point is more important than the actual words used
 You should paraphrase when the words are complex but the point is simple
 Paraphrasing should remain faithful to the meaning of the material

Outlining

 identify the topic

 figure out the main points
 arrange the main points in a logical order and list them in the outline
 create sum-points beneath major idea
THESIS STATEMENT

- is the sentence that expresses the argument or claim of the writer on the topic. It is the main idea that controls
the flow and organization of information in the reading text.
- Informs readers of the content, the argument, and often the direction of a paper.
- Always and argument or claim/more details
- 1-2 sentences
 Taken as a whole
 Presents pros/cons
 First – usually seen on the first paragraph
 Support (supported by the details)
 Catches interest – stimulates
 Essential – very important in the paragraph

Example:

“WELCOME TO HEALTH DIGEST ONLINE FAQ PAGE!”

Thesis statement: The writer claims that flu is a costly disease; thus the writer argues that people should be prepared
for it.

Purpose of the thesis statement – informs the readers of the content, the argument, and often the direction of a paper

Things to consider:

1. A thesis statement is a declarative sentence.

a. Thesis statements are not title or fragments, questions and commands
2. A thesis statement is an arguable idea.
a. Thesis statements are not facts, not announcements of the author’s purpose and not merely
observations of the obvious and not unarguable personal opinions.
3. Thesis statements is specific and narrowed
a. Should not consists of two topic
b. Thesis statements are not broad overgeneralizations, cover only the topic and often focus the essay and
guide its direction
4. Thesis statements are worthy of development in an academic paper and interest and adult audience.
a. Thesis statements are not simplistic, not immature or tasteless.
5. Thesis statement are concise – direct to the point, not too wordy

How is thesis statement written?

1. Decide on your topic

2. Narrow your topic
3. Put your topic in a sentence
4. Add your argument, view point, or opinion to your topic to make your thesis persuasive
5. Elaborate on your thesis
6. Organize your thesis to guide the direction of your paper
7. Check your thesis from the “Things to consider” discussion
8. Edit you thesis for content, word choice, precision, and mechanics.

Example:
1. Religion
2. Religion in public school curriculum
3. Religion as part of public school curriculum should be avoided
4. Religion as part of the school curriculum should be avoided because it can cause trouble.
5. Religion should not be part of the public school curriculum because it is a highly personal commitment and can
cause conflict with those who hold attentive beliefs