Instruction:

After learning the difference between academic and non-academic text, write a short essay answering the
question, “Considering the strand where you are currently enrolled, why is it important to engage in
reading academic text?”. Your essay will be graded using a rubric.

As a student enrolled in the HUMSS strand, reading articles in an academic perspective teaches
us how to think critically and draw our own conclusions from the information provided. It also provides a
baseline of objectivity and truthfulness to compare with when we are reading popular sources. We
understand the importance of truth and learn to be wary of sensationalized media.
It’s not to say that popular media should not be trusted, ever. Even in scholarly text there are
contradictions from different sources. There is no monolithic source where everything obtained is
truthful. Instead, these contradictions tell us to see beyond the article itself and analyze the authors’
thought processes and their procedures used in their work. This lets us know which sets of information
are reliable and can be trusted.
These lessons carry over to popular media and help combat the spread of disinformation,
especially on social media. It is tantamount that everyone should be able to differentiate between
academic and popular sources, as well as reliable information and disinformation.