Macro Skills (L1)

What is Macro Skills?

 In learning, there are four macro skills that we must deal with in order to communicate
effectively
 Macro skills refer to the primary, key, main, and largest skill set relative to a particular context

LISTENING

 This is a communication technique that requires the listener to understand, interpret and
evaluate what he or she hears

SPEAKING

 Speaking is the delivery of language through the mouth

Formal Speaking

 Occurs in business or academic situations, or when meeting people for the first time

Informal Speaking

 Informal speaking is typically used with family and friends, or people you know well

Reading

 A cognitive process that involves decoding symbols to arrive at meaning

 An active process of constructing meanings of words

Writing

 Writing is the process of using symbols letter of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces
 To communicate thoughts and ideas
 What is writing? (L2)

Writing

 is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to
communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form

Introduction

 According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, writing is "the way that you use written words
to express your ideas or opinions." However, we as individuals write for many reasons

Purpose of Writing

1. Communicate
 The purpose for writing to communicate is to share facts and other information

2. Persuade
 Writing that has a purpose to persuade states an opinion or goal and supports it with
reasons and supporting details in order to get the audience to agree, take action, or both

3. Narrate
 The purpose of writing to narrate is to tell a story. The story can be made up or truthful

4. Learn
 Writing is one of the ways to expands one’s knowledge

5. Reflect
 Most writing is creative writing, where you describe something that happened or you make
up a story

6. Entertain
 A writer writes for the purpose of keeping his readers’ attention as the story unfolds
Non-Acade mic and Academic Text (L3)

Non-Academic Text

 Non-academic texts are non-objective

 These texts tend to be more personal and based on opinions or one's point-of-view
 Opinions are neither correct or incorrect
 texts are written for the mass public
 There is no specific audience for non-academic texts
 These are published quickly and can be written by anyone. No specialization is needed
 Authors of non-academic texts use casual, informal language
 These texts may also use slang

Non-Academic Text

 Non Academic writing refers to a piece of writing which focuses on a general topic rather than
any academic topic
 Non academic writing focuses on lay audience or the mass public
 These types of articles are mostly personal, impressionistic, emotional, or subjective in nature. It
includes magazine articles, personal or business letters, novels, websites, text messages, etc. are
some examples of non academic writing

Academic Text

 Academic texts are objective. This means that they are based on facts with solid basis
 The emotions of the authors cannot be felt from texts or materials
 Academic texts often take years to publish because of intense writing and review
 Academic texts are written by professionals in any given field
 Academic texts use formal words and may contain technical terms that are related to a certain
field
 These kinds of texts usually include a list of references where authors based their information

FUNDAMENTALS OF READING ACADEMIC TEXT (L4)

READING GOALS

Before you read an academic text, ask yourself the following questions.

 Why am I reading this text?

 What information or pieces of information do I need?
 What do I want to learn?

Below are some general purposes for reading an academic text.

 To better understand an existing idea.

 To get ideas that can support a particular writing assignment.
 To gain more information.
 To connect new ideas to existing ones.

STRUCTURE OF ACADEMIC TEXT

 Formal
 Introduction
 Body
 Conclusion
 Credible sources
 List of references

CRITICAL READING

 Involves scrutinizing any information that you read or hear.

 It means not easily believing information offered to you by a text.
 Reading Critically is reading with a purpose.

CRITICAL READING STRATEGIES

Stages of Reading Process

 Before Reading
 During Reading
 After Reading

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 the main idea or argument of the text based on its title.
 State what you already know and what you want to learn about the topic.
 Check the publication date for relevance.

BEFORE READING

 Read the title of the following blog article. Make an inference on the content or main idea of the
article. Share your answer with your classmates.

DURING READING

Annotate important parts of the text.

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

 Write something on the page margin where important information is found.
 Write brief notes on the margin.
 Write questions on information that you find confusing.
 Comment on the author’s biases.

DURING READING

Annotate important parts of the text.

 React on the arguments presented in the text.

 Underline important words, phrases, or sentences.
 Underline or circle meanings or definitions.
 Mark or highlight relevant/essential parts of the text.
 Determine the main idea of the text.

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.

LOCATING MAIN IDEAS (L5)

Understanding And Locating The Thesis Statement

 The thesis statement presents or describes the point of an essay. In academic text, the thesis
statement is usually presented in the abstract or executive summary or found at the last part of
the introduction. It is written in declarative sentence
 The thesis statement located at the last part of the introduction is replaced with a purpose
statement.
 The purpose statement is introduced by signal phrases that announce the purpose, scope, or
direction of the text as well as its focus.

STRATEGIES IN LOCATING THE THESIS STATEMENT

 Read the title of the text and make inferences on its purpose.
 If the text has no abstract or executive summary, read the first few paragraphs as the thesis
statement is usually located there.
 In other cases, you may also check the conclusion where authors sum up and review their man
points.

Understanding And Locating The topic sentence

 The topic sentence presents or describes the point of the paragraph. In other words, it is the
main idea of a paragraph. It can be located in the beginning, middle, or last part of a paragraph

STRATEGIES IN LOCATING THE TOPIC SENTENCE

 Read the first sentence of the paragraph very carefully because most authors state their topic
 sentence in the beginning of the paragraph.
 Browse the sentences in the paragraph to identify what they describe. The sentence that best
describes the topic of the paragraph is the topic sentence.
 Identify the purpose of the paragraph. The sentence that presents or describes the purpose is the
topic sentence.
 Observe the writing style of the author. Focus specifically on where he/she usually places his/her
topic sentence.

CONTENT AND STYLE OF ACADEMIC WRITING (L6)

ACADEMIC TEXTS

 Academic texts refers to a piece of writing which focuses on specific academic subject/topic

CONTENT OF ACADEMIC TEXTS

Organization

 How your ideas are presented

Unity

 Each paragraph has only one main idea

Coherence

 Sentences and ideas are connected and flow together smoothly

Good Grammar

 Making sense of what one writes