Lesson 1: Understanding Technical Terms

What is a Technical Term?

Have you ever noticed that reading a story can be a lot

different than reading a science or a math textbook? Most of
the time, informational texts are difficult to read because
they use a lot of technical words. These words have specific
meanings in each are of study.

For example, think about what word “area” means for each
these sentences:

There were no wild horses in the area, or

The area of the square was 9 cm.

In the first sentence, “area just means the location you are in;
there are wild horses near where you are. In the second
sentence, “area” is a technical word; it has a specific meaning
when it’s used in mathematics. In mathematics, “area” means
“the size of a surface”.

When you’re looking for technical words in a passage, look

for words that are set off from the other word in some other
way. They might be in boldface or in italics to make them
stand out.

When you come to a technical word you don’t know, try to

figure out what it means by using context clues. You need to
think about other word in the sentence to help you figure out
the meaning of the technical word.
Common Components of Technical Terms

Many technical words in English have their origins in Greek

and Latin words. They are often made up of several
components, and knowing these will help you remember
them or to work out their meaning. Technical terms often use
prefixes and suffixes to provide additional information to a
word.

 Prefix – found at the beginning of a word.

The function of prefix is to elaborate, qualify or
change the meaning of a word.

For example:

1. Prefix: an-
Meaning: no, not, without
Word: anaerobic
Word Meaning: without air.
2. Prefix: ante-
Word: antecedent
Word Meaning: existing before.
3. Prefix: hemi-
Meaning: half
Word: hemisphere
Word Meaning: half a sphere.
 Suffix- found at the end of a word.
Suffix cannot be used alone, but when added after a
word it completes the word. Its function is to form or
change the meaning of the word.
 Suffixes can indicate the type of words, for example
‘communicative’ is an adjective, ‘communication’ is a
noun, and ‘communicate’ is a verb. They may also
describe a state, action or relation.
For example:
1. Suffix: -itis
Meaning: inflammation
Word: dermatitis
Word Meaning: skin inflammation.
2. Suffix: -logy
Meaning: study of
Word: anthropology
Word Meaning: study of human race.
3. Suffix: -oid
Meaning: form
Word: cuboid
Word Meaning: cube shaped.

Noticing Common word Structures

There are often common ways of forming technical words in a

discipline. While there are inconsistencies to general rules,
knowing how technical words are usually structured can help
you both learn and recall them.

For example, the following are typical word endings that

indicate singular or plural.

1. Singular: one vertebra

Plural: two vertebrae
 2. Singular: a protozoon
Plural: many protozoa
3. Singular: a hypothesis
Plural: several hypotheses

Noticing How Technical Terms are Classified.

Each discipline may use its own way or ways of classifying its
content, foe example by systems, groups, time, period,
theories, or methods. Whichever way, main themes are often
divided into smaller topics, followed by details and examples.
The grouping content usually follows rules or principles
specific to the discipline. Knowing how your discipline groups
its content, making it easier to understand and recall them.

For example:

1. System: Kingdom
Example: Animal
2. System: Species
Example: Sapiens
3. System: Class
Example: Vertebrata

Lesson 2: Technical Terms Used in Research

What is a Research?

Research is a process of investigation or inquiry that requires

data collection, analysis, and interpretation using appropriate
methodologies. Research will help you evaluate if the
hypothesis is valid, as it gathers a body of knowledge and
findings to be shared by students, teachers, and experts.

 Qualitative Research is descriptive. The data gathered

are usually expressed in words. It is used to
understand concepts based on the participant’s
thoughts and experiences. This type of research
enables you to gather the participant’s experiences
through interviews, focus group discussions, and
open-ended questionnaires.
 Quantitative Research is usually expressed in
numbers and graphs. It Is used to test or confirm
theories and assumptions. This type of research
gathers data through experiments and surveys with
closed ended questions.
 Conceptual Framework shows the relationship of
research variables and helps you inform the rest of
the design. To assess a md refine the goals, develop
realistic and relevant research questions, select
appropriate methods and identify the threats to the
conclusion. It illustrates and maps out how relevant
the variables are to each other. In developing the
conceptual framework, it must make sense based on
existing studies or theories from your literature
review.
 Population represents the entire group of people that
meets the criteria of your study.
 Title Page is the first page of your article, and
therefore, must be well formatted to represent your
 paper. This page should include all the information
necessary for a reader to identify the contents of the
article (e.g. author(s), the origin of the article, and
the article type.
 Abstract summarizes the contents of the research. It
is composed of one paragraph with 300 words or less
and discusses the important aspects of the entire
paper: 1) the overall purpose of the study and the
research problem(s) you investigated; 2) the basic
design of the study, and 3) major findings or trends
found as a result.