St.

Anthony’s College
San Jose, Antique
HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

LESSON 1: READING ACADEMIC TEXTS

ACADEMIC TEXTS DESCRIPTION
Articles Published in scholarly journals, this type of
academic text offers results of research and
development that can either impact the academic
community or provide relevance to nation-building.
Conference Papers These are papers presented in scholastic
conferences, and may be revised as articles for
possible publication in scholarly journals.
Reviews These provide evaluation or reviews of works
published in scholarly journals.

Theses, Dissertations These are personal researches written by a

candidate for a college or university degree.

General purposes in reading academic texts:

● to better understand an existing idea

● to get ideas that can support a particular writing assignment

● to gain more information

● to identify gaps in existing studies

● to connect new ideas to existing ones

ACADEMIC TEXTS:
● they state critical questions and issues

● they have a clearly structured introduction, body, and conclusion

● they provide facts and evidence from credible sources

● they use precise and accurate words while avoiding jargon and colloquial expressions

● they take an objective point-of-view and avoid being personal and subjective

● they list references

● they use hedging or cautious language to town down their claims

NON ACADEMIC TEXTS:

● written for the mass public

● are published quickly and can be written by anyone

● language is informal, casual and may contain slang

● the author may not be provided and will not have any credentials listed
 ● no reference list

● can be found in periodicals similar to Time, Newsweek or Rolling Stone

READING STRATEGIES
a. SQ3R – Survey (Skim), Question, Read, Recite (Recall) and Review

Stage Guidelines
Survey (Skim) • Skim the target text
• Check the headings, diagrams, or figures presented in the
text
• Read the first few and last sentences of the text to
determine key information
• Get a feel of the text
Question • Annotate the headings with your questions
• Develop questions on the types of information you expect
from the text
Read • Look for answers to your questions as you read the text
• Stop and slow down if the passage is not clear
• Make sure to proceed reading only when you already
understand the previous text
Recite • Recount the main points of the text
• Recall by writing a summary or synthesis based on what
you understand of the text
• Highlight or underline the important points you read
Review • After finishing the text, go back and re-read the questions
you wrote and see if you can answer them; if not, refresh
your memory
• Evaluate what you learned to ensure that you are
convinced and satisfied with the information presented in
the text

b. KWL

What you KNOW? What do you WANT to learn? What have you LEARNED?