EAPP REVIEWER

Nature and characteristics of an Academic text

Academic text
- A written language that provides information, which contain ideas and concepts that are related to the particular
discipline.
Ex: - essay - report - article - dissertation - research paper - project - thesis

STRUCTURE
- consist of 3 parts; introduction, body, and conclusion which is formal and logical
- enables the reader to follow the argument and navigate the text
- In academic writing, a clear structure and a logical flow are imperative to a cohesive text
TONE
- refers to the attitude conveyed in a piece of writing
- when presenting a position or argument that disagrees with one’s perspective, describe the argument accurately
without loaded or biased language
LANGUAGE
- it is important to use unambiguous language
- the topic sentence should be clear
- formal language and the third person point-of-view should be used
- technical language appropriate to area of study may also be used
CITATION
- citing sources in the body of the paper and providing a list of references as either footnotes or endnotes is very
important
- always acknowledge the source of any ideas, research findings, data or quoted text that have been used in a paper as a
defense against allegations of plagiarism
COMPLEXITY
- an academic text addresses complex issues that require higher-order thinking skills to comprehend
EVIDENCE-BASED ARGUMENTS
- opinions are based on a sound understanding of the pertinent body of knowledge and academic debates that exist
within, and often external to a specific discipline
THESIS-DRIVEN
- the starting point of an academic text is a particular perspective, idea or position applied to the chosen research
problem, such as establishing, proving, or disproving solutions to the questions posed for the topic

Features of an Academic Texts:

1. COMPLEX
- written language has no longer words, it is lexically more varied vocabulary
- written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical complexity, including more subordinate clauses and
more passives
2. FORMAL
- should avoid colloquial words and expressions
3. PRECISE
- facts are given accurately and precisely

4. OBJECTIVE
- has fewer words that emphasize on the information you want to give and the arguments you want to make
- mostly use nouns (adjectives), rather than verbs (adverbs)
5. EXPLICIT
- It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related
6. ACCURATE
- Uses vocabulary accurately
 - Most subiects have words with narrow specific meanings
7. HEDGING
- It is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a particular subject, or the strength of the claims you are making
8. RESPONSIBLE
- You must be responsible for and must be able to provide evidence and iustification for any claims you make
9. ORGANIZE
-Well-organized.
-It flows easily from one section to the next in a logical fashion.
10. PLAN
-Well-planned.
- It usually takes place after research and evaluation, according to specific purpose and plan.

Purposes in Reading an Academic Text

1. To locate a main idea;
2. To scan for information;
3. To identify gaps in existing studies;
4. To connect new ideas to existing ones;
5. To gain more pieces of information;
6. To support a particular writing assignment; and,
7. To deeply understand an existing idea.

Factors to Consider in Writing Academic Text

1. State critical questions and issues;
2. Provide facts and evidence from credible sources;
3. Use precise and accurate words while avoiding jargon;
4. Take an objective point of view;
5. List references; and,
6. Use cautious language.

Academic Language
Academic language is the language needed by students to do the work in schools. It includes, for example, discipline
specific vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, and applications of rhetorical conventions and devices that are typical for
a content area (e.g. essays, lab reports, discussions of a controversial issue.) Students who master academic language are
more likely to be successful in academic and professional settings.
Social language is the set of vocabulary that allows us to communicate with others in the context of regular daily
conversations
CHARACTERISTICS ACADEMIC TEXT NON-ACADEMIC TEXT
Audience Scholarly audience Public
Purpose To inform/validate idea To inform/ to entertain
Structure Intro-body-conclusion No fixed structure
Language Formal Contains slang and colloqualisms
Style Objective Subjective
Source of content Related literature Everyday events
Examples -essays -report -research paper -diaries -journals -informal essay

Characteristics of Academic Language

A. Formal - It should not sound conversational or casual. Colloquial, idiomatic, slang or journalistic expressions should
particularly be avoided.
Examples: Use... Consider, monitor Revise, review Solve, repair, amend Instead. Look at Go over Fix
B. Objective - This means it is unbiased. It should be based on facts and evidence and are not influenced by personal
feelings.
C. Impersonal -This involves avoiding the personal pronouns I and 'we'.
For example, instead of writing 'I will show', you might write 'this report will show. The second person, 'you', is also to be
avoided.

Common Text Structures

Text structures (WDPI, 2012) refer to the way authors organize information in text. Recognizing the underlying structure
of texts can help students focus attention on key concepts and relationships, anticipate what is to come, and monitor
their comprehension as they read.
GRAPHIC TRANSITIONS/
TEXT STRUCTURE DEFINITON ORGANIZER SIGNAL WORDS QUESTIONS

Narrates an Descriptive language -Who is the

NARRATIVE event/story with (adjectives, adverbs, narrative about?
characters, setting, similes, and -Where is it set?
conflict, point of metaphors) -What is the
view, and plot conflict?
-Who is telling the
narrative?
-What is
happening?
CHRONOLOGICAL, Present ideas - first, second, - what items,
PROCESS, OR Process, or or events third… events, or steps are
SEQUENCE in the Sequence - later listed?
order in which they - next - do they have to/
happen - before always happen in
- then this order?
- finally - what sequence of
- after events is being
- when described?
- since - what are the major
- now/ previously incidents that
- actual use of dates occur?
- how is this
structure revealed in
the text?
CAUSE AND Provide explanations - if/then - what happened?
EFFECT or reasons for - reasons why - why did it happen?
phenomena - as a result - what caused it to
- therefore happen?
- because
- consequently
- since
- so that
- for
- due to
PROBLEM AND Identify problems - problem is - what is the
SOLUTION and pose solutions - dilemma is problem
- if/then - why is this a
- because problem
- so that - is anything being
- question/answer done to try to solve
- puzzle is solved the problem?
COMPARE AND Discuss two ideas, - however/yet - what items are
events, or being compared?
 CONTRAST phenomena, - nevertheless - in what ways are
showing how they - on the other hand they similar?
are similar - but/whereas- Different?
similarly - what conclusion
- although does the author
- also/likewise reach about these
- in items?
contrast/comparison
- different
- either/or
- in the same
way/just as
DEFINITION OR Describes a topic by - for example - what are the most
DESCRIPTION listing - characteristics important
characteristics, - for instance characteristics?
features, attributes, - such as - how is it being
and examples - including described?
- to illustrate - what is important
to remember
about?

TECHNIQUES IN SUMMARIZING ACADEMIC TEXTS

SUMMARIZING
- how we take larger selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials: the gist, the key ideas, the main points
that are worth noting and remembering

SUMMARY
- “the general idea in brief form” (webster)
- the distillation, condensation, or reduction of a larger work into its primary notions
BASIC RULES
A. erase things that don’t matter
B. erase thins that repeat
C. trade, general terms for specific names
D. use your own words to write the summary
TECHNIQUES
1. Somebody wanted but so
- helps to generalize, recognize cause and effect relationships, and find main ideas
2. SAAC method
- helpful in summarizing any kind of text
- “state, assign, action, complete”
3. 5 W’s, 1 H
- relies on six crucial questions:
Who, what, when, where, why, how
- questions make it easy to identify the main character, important details, and main idea
4. First, then, finally
- helps students summarize events in chronological order
5. Give me the gist
- giving a friend the gist of a story
- they want a summary – not a retelling of every detail
SELECTION – select the important
REJECTION – reject the unnecessary/unimportant
SUBSTITUTION - after reject, make sure to substitute
 THESIS STATEMENT
Thesis Statement
- one sentence summary
- controlling idea that you will develop in your paper
- usually found at the end of an introduction
- if necessary, can also be two or three sentences
- a claim or stand that needs to be developed in an essay
- must be debatable and supported with evidence
Elements of a thesis statement
1. Topic
- the topic of your paper
2. Argument/Claim
- depends on the paper you are writing
- argumentative paper – express your opinion
- research/explanatory paper – explain the purpose of your paper
3. Evidence
- the support for your argument/claim

OUTLINE
- An outline is a design to follow when writing a structure, a discourse, or an article. It arranges a material in a logical way
into main ideas, supporting ideas, and supporting details.
- The main idea or topic is the main topic of the outline.
- All main topics are indicated by Roman Numeral.
- Subtopics are noted by letters and supporting details are indicated by Arabic Numerals.
- An outline can be a sentence outline or topic outline. A sentence outline is written in full sentence while a topic outline
is in words or phrases.
Guidelines in Writing an Outline:
1. Place the title at the center above the outline.
2. Every level of the outline must have at least two items (I and II, A and B, 1 and 2).
3. Put a period after each numeral and letter.
4. Indent each new level of the outline.
5. All items of one kind (roman numerals, capital letters, Arabic numerals) should lineup with each other. 6. Capitalize the
first letter of each item.
7. The terms Introduction, Body, and Conclusion do not have to be included in the outline. They are not topics; they are
merely organizational units in the writer's mind.

OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT
Opinions are your own view of certain issues or concerns.
Some phrases that you can use when expressing your opinion:
- I think - From my point of view
- I believe - From my perspective
- I feel - In my view
- In my opinion - It seems to me that
- I would say

- You are entitled to your own opinions, but these opinions must be based on facts so that you will not be biased.
- It is very important that you will not be focused only on giving opinions. You must also look for information that will
help support your opinion because –
 This will add to the credibility and validity of your opinion; and
 More will believe you if what you express is strongly supported with information that are true and correct.
A very important expository discourse that you must learn how to write is:
- reaction paper
- review
- critique
It is mainly written to communicate a fair assessment of situations, people, events, literary and artistic works and
performances.

The text is a good reaction paper due to the following reasons:

1. Author’s opinions
2. Statistical data
3. Personal experience
4. You will most likely to disagree with the author. But if you disagree, it is alright as long as you also have enough facts to
support why you disagree with the author.
5. Facts are necessary in supporting opinions because these will make your opinion objective and not biased.

Approaches in Literary Criticism

1. Formalist Criticism
- A unique form of knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms
- all the elements are contained within the work itself
- elements of form-style, structure, tone, imagery
- primary goal is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to shape its effects upon readers
2. Gender Criticism
- "examines how sexualidently infuences the creation and rectoism of literary works."
- Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today includes a number of approaches, including the
so-called "masculinist" approach recenty nurbedied ay proat Robert Bly.
- in literature "full of unexamined 'male-produced' assumptions."
- attempts to correct this imbalance by analyzing and combatting suchattitudes-by questioning
- goals of feminist critics include "analyzing how sexual identity influences the reader of a text" and "examining how the
images of men and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social forces that have historically kept the sexes
from achieving total equality."
3. Historical Criticism
- "seeks to understand a literary work byinvestigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it- a
context that necessarily includes the artist's biography and milieu."
- key goal for historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.
4. Reader-response Criticism
- fundamental tenet that "literature" exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the
physical text and the mind of a reader.
- to describe what happens in the reader's mind while interpreting a text and reflects that reading, like writing, is a
creative process.
5. Media Criticism
- It is the act of closely examining and judging the media.
- Media bias is the perception that the media is reporting the news in a partial or prejudiced manner. Media bias occurs
when the media seems topush a specific viewpoint, rather than reporting the news objectively.
- This is the case in the news story about the puppies.
6. Marxist Criticism
- focuses on the economic and political elements of art, often emphasizing the ideological content of literature
- often argues that all art is political, either challenging or endorsing (by silence) the status quo, it is frequently evaluative
and judgmental, a tendency that "can lead to reductive judgment
- "can illuminate political and economic dimensions of literature other approaches overlook."
- Soviet critics rated Jack London better than William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Edith Wharton, and Henry James,
because he illustrated the principles of class struggle more clearly.

7. Structuralism
- human behavior is determined by social, cultural and psychological structures.
- offer a single unified approach to human life that would embrace all disciplines.
- "things cannot be understood in isolation, they have to be seen in the context of largerstructures which contain them.”

REACTION PAPER
Reaction Paper is a form of paper writing in which the writer expresses his ideas and opinions about what has been read
or seen.
- This paper writing may be informal, two pages long. As all essays, a reaction paper comprises introduction, body, and
conclusion.
- In introduction the writers states the main premise, in a body he expresses his ideas and in conclusion summarizes the
results
- The reaction paper is not a summary of the article although information should be included.
- A good example is that you may be asked to give a critique about a certain subject, and this would constitute a reaction
paper, or to write a review about a literature book; it also falls into the same group.
STRUCTURE
 Read the material carefully
 Read the material carefully
 Mark interesting places while reading/watching
 Write down your thought while reading/watching
 Come up with a thesis statement
 Compose an outline
 Construct your paper
- The first part of your paper should contain information on the author and the topic. Avoid your personal opinion in this
section.
- The second part should contain your personal thoughts on the subject. Focus on a main problem or address all of them
and describe your opinion.
Writing a reaction paper can be quite a challenging task, so many students use examples to learn more about its
structure and key features. Here are a few recommendations, which will help you complete an outstanding reaction
paper:
• Read the original article carefully and highlight the main ideas and points you want to discuss;
• Describe your point of view and back it with additional information if needed. Use vivid examples;
• Use various sources to make your statement more argumentative.

CONCEPT PAPER
Concept Paper is an academic paper which tells about a brief summary of a certain research project, its importance and
how it will be carried out. The main purpose of writing a concept paper is to convince your reader that your proposed
research project is worth doing.
- There are many types of concept paper such as discussions, business projects, commentaries, and academic research.
The structure of the paper depends mainly on the type of concept paper that the author or writer wants to write.
Seven important aspects to consider when writing a concept paper in academic research:
1. Title - this can be best presented in a question form.
2. Introduction - this is the brief overview of the topic or issue you wish to study.
3. Background - This section describes the current candition of the field you're researching, including the knowledge and
issues that the study will address. You can also include the reason why you want to investigate or study the topic.
4. Preliminary Literature review - In this section, you will write related studies and papers that will support your research
topic.
5. Methodology - This section contains the data analysis system, data gathering procedure, instruments to be utilized or
used, and participants of the study.
6. Timelines - provide a reasonable and achievable timeline for your project.
7. References - provides all the list of all sources of your research such as books, journals, and other resources cited in
your paper. You may use American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA) and the Chicago
style.
Ways in Explaining a Concept Paper
 A concept paper may be explained through different modes or patterns. This may be in the form of definition,
explication, and explanation.
1. Definition
- It is a technique for recognizing a phrase and clarifying its meaning; its primary goal is to clarify and explain concepts,
ideas, and issues.
Three ways in presenting definition:
a. Formal definition - Explains a term by clarifying where it originates from and the characteristic that distinguishes it
from others. This can be done also through term, class, and distinguishing features
b. Informal definition - It is done through brief explanation. It only includes the term to be defined and its class.
c. Extended definition - consists of at least one paragraph with a detailed description and facts.
Signal Words for Definition:
- as defined, for example, for instance, is defined as, means, such as, to illustrate
2. Explication
- It is an explanation method in which words, verses, quotes, or paragraphs are taken for a literary or academic work and
then interpreted and described in detail.
3. Clarification
- It is a method in which the points are organized from a broad abstract concept to more specific and particular details.
Signal Words
- After all, as an example, for instance, in other words, in particular, specifically, to clarify, to be specific