ENGLISH FOR

ACADEMIC AND
PROFESSIONAL
PURPOSES
EXAMPLES OF ACADEMIC
TEXTS
1. ARTICLES
2. CONFERENCE REPORTS
3. REVIEWS
4. THESIS/ DISSERTATIONS
ARTICLES
• Published 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 REPORTS
• These are papers presented in
scholastic conferences, and maybe
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.
STRUCTURE OF ACADEMIC
TEXTS
1. Typically formal.
2. Clearly structured introduction.
3. Clearly structured body.
4. Clearly structured conclusion.
5. Information from credible source which in
turn, properly cited.
6. Include list of references.
CONTENT AND STYLE OF
ACADEMIC TEXTS
1. …state critical questions and issues.
2. …provide facts and evidence from credible
source.
3. …use precise and accurate words.
4. …take an objective point-of-view.
5. …list references.
6. ..use hedging or cautious language to tone
done claims.
READING GOALS/ PURPOSE
OF READING
1. …to better understand an existing idea.
2. …to get ideas that can support a particular
writing assignment.
3. …to gain more information.
4. …to identify gaps in existing studies.
5. …to connect new ideas to existing ones.
CRITICAL READING
STRATEGIES
3 STAGES OF READING
1. BEFORE READING
2. DURING READING
3. AFTER READING
BEFORE READING
Ask the following
questions.
1. Why am I reading this text?
2. What information or pieces of
information do I need?
3. What do I want to learn?
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.
• Infer the main idea or argument of the text based on the title.
• Identify your attitude towards the author and the text.
• State what you already know and what you want to learn.
• Determine the target audience.
• Check the publication date for relevance. (5 year earlier)
• Check the reference list while making sure and consider the correctness of
formatting style.
• Use a concept map or graphic organizer to note your existing ideas and
knowledge on the topic.
Comprehension Drill
Read the title of the following study by Murthy et. al. Based on the
title, make an inference on the content or main idea of the study.
(Write your inference/s on the board.)

Do We Tweet Differently From Our Mobile Devices?

A Study of Language Differences on Mobile and Web-Based Tweeter
Platforms

source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12176/pdf
DURING READING
ANNOTATE IMPORTANT PART OF THE TEXT.
• Write keywords/phrases in bullet form.
• Write something on the page margin where important information is found.
• Write a brief notes on the margin.
• Write questions on the information you find confusing.
• What you already know about the ideas.
• Write limitations of the author’s arguments.
• Write notes on the reliability of the text.
• Comment on the author’s biases.
• Identify the evidence or supporting arguments presented by the author and check their
validity and relevance.
• Identify the finding and note the appropriateness of the research method used.
DURING READING
ANNOTATE IMPORTANT PART OF THE TEXT.
• Use concept map or graphic organizers.
• React on the arguments presented in the text.
• Underline important words/phrases.
• Underline or circle meanings or definitions.
• Mark or highlight relevant/essential part of the text.
• Use heading and transition words to identify relationships in the text.
• Create a bank of unfamiliar/technical words.
• Use context clues to define unfamiliar/technical words.
• Determine the main idea.
• Synthesize the author’s arguments at the end of the section/chapter.
Read the following excerpt from the conclusion of Dhiraj et al’s study. To
understand the text better, apply any of the “During Reading” previously
discussed.
Given that the influence of mobile technologies on tweeting
patterns has been understudied, we sought to bridge this gap by
examining whether tweets from mobile and web-based sources differ
significantly in their linguistic style. We studied 6 weeks of Tweeter
spritzer stream data, containing 235 million tweets. We focused on the
analysis of tweets by source – specifically mobile versus web-based
sources by the time of day. This involved evaluating several categories
or subsets in which mobile sources may be similar to or different from
the we sources. We used word lists from social psychology to test for
levels of egocentricity, gender style, emotional content, and the agency
in both mobile and web tweets.
 Ultimately, we found that mobile tweets are not only more
egocentric in language than any other group, but that the ratio of
egocentric to non-egocentric tweets is consistently greater for mobile
tweets than from non-mobile sources. We did not find that mobile
tweets were particularly gendered. Regardless of platform, tweets
tendered to employ words traditionally associated as masculine. We
did find that negative language is used more frequently by mobile users
at any point of time, a finding that would benefit from further research.
The ratio of negative to positive unigrams was also found to be
consistently greater for mobile tweets than web tweets. Lastly, we did
not find that mobile-based tweets are more agentic than web-based
tweets. Rather, both platforms tended to employ language that was
associated with communal behaviour.
AFTER READING
• Reflect on what you learned.
• React on some part through
writing.
• Discuss some parts with your
teacher or classmate/s.
• Link the main idea of the text to
what you already know.
OTHER READING STRATEGIES
SQ3R
• SURVEY
• QUESTION
• READ
• RECITE
• REVIEW
SURVEY
• Skim the text.
• Check the headings, tables,
diagrams, or figures presented
in the text.
• Read the first few and last
sentence of the text to
determine the key information.
• Get a feel of the text.
QUESTION
• Annotate the headings
with your questions.
• Develop questions on
the types of the
information you expect
from the text.
READ
• Look for answers to your
questions as you read.
• Stop and slow if the
passage is not clear.
• Make sure to proceed
reading only when already
understand the previous
texts.
RECITE
• Recount the main points of the text.
• Recall by writing a summary or
synthesize based on what you
understand on 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.
Reading Comprehension
Based on the information you learned from the conclusion of the study.
Answer the following questions.
• What do you think is the implication of this new study on how you
use the Twitter or any SNS? Explain your answer.
• Do you think one’s personality affects the use of technology? Or do
you think technology affect’s one’s personality? Explain your answer.
• How does this knowledge affect your notion about Twitter user?
Discuss your idea.