ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

TEXT - stretch of language which is perceived as a purposeful connected whole.

- Spoken or written
- Created by text-internal cohesion and text-external coherence
- Interchanged with “discourse” -Collins & Hollo 2000

ACADEMIC TEXT – product of communication or piece of language used for academic purposes

- Articles, conference paper, scholarly essays, theses, dissertations

NON-ACADEMIC TEXT – written for the mass/public

- Informal, casual, may contain slang

- Internet posting, newspaper reports and novels

PROFFESIONAL TEXT – produced in a specific field of discipline

- Jargons of the text is different

READING GOALS

A. CONTENT
B. 1
DEFINITION
DESCRIPTION
RECOUNT OF A SEQUENCE – chronological narration of a historical period, a sequential
description of a process of a procedure - transitional words
CAUSE-EFFECT – presents a reason why a situation is obtained.
PROBLEM-SOLUTION – starts off with a negative situation(problem) and ends with a positive
situation(solution)
COMPARISON AND CONTRASY – similarities and differences are presented.
ENUMERATION – listing of characteristics, examples, etc.
CLASSIFICATION – presents groupings, types, classes
THESIS-EVIDENCE – serve the purpose of arguing point/ position or interpretation – may be
arranged deductively or inductively

B.2 TEXT STRUCTURE

Anstract-Body-Conclusion Introduction-Body-Conclusion

Mathematics Texts – use of symbols – uses letters with special meanings – notation numbers and
formulas – problem-solution

Business Texts – uses jargons – compound nouns – problem-solution

Social Science Texts – Political Science; Sociology; Psychology

Natural Science Texts – technical terms, symbols, and abbreviation – diagrams and drawings

Literature and the Arts

C. LANGUAGE USAGE
- Sentence Structure
o Range of Complexity – combine ideas effectively to avoid redundancy
o Nominalization – words are made central as they denote action
o Passive Construction – subject is receiver of the action results of actions are highlighted.
D. LANGUAGE USE (LEXICON/VOCABULARY)
- Use of precise and accurate words; jargons and colloquial expressions are avoided.
- Hedging or cautious language to tone down claims when stating hypothesis, drawing
conclusions, and referencing other words
(JARGON): MEDICALESE – language of doctors – used in the field of medicine
(JARGON): LEGALESE – language of lawyers – used in the field of law
(JARGON): COMMERCIALESE/MERCANTELESE
(JARGON): JOURNALESE – language of journalists
(JARGON): TECHNICALESE – language of technocrats
(JARGON): DIPLOMATESE – language of diplomats – used in the field of foreign service
(JARGON): TEACHERESE – language of teachers – used in the field of education
(JARGON): COMPUTERESE – language of computer technologists – used in the field of
information technology
E. STYLE
- Objective(avoid personal pronouns) avoid personal and subjective
- Avoid rhetorical questions as it marks closeness to the reader
- Avoid emotive language that shows biases and lessens objective
- Level of Formality(Formal-Frozen Speech style)