Academic Text Thesis, Dissertation

A formally, structured written material which critically Personal researches written by a candidate for a college
discusses a concept with use of extensive knowledge and or university degree
research
Required skills
These are text which:
→ Have clearly structured introduction, body, and → Full concentration
conclusion → Comprehension (key ideas, themes, or arguments of
the text)
→ Include information from credible source which are
properly cited Reading goals

→ Include concepts and theories that are related to the Purpose

specific discipline they explore a. To better understand an existing ideas

→ Usually exhibit all properties of a well - written text b. To get ideas that can support a particular writing
organization, unity, coherence, and adherence to the assignments
rule of language and mechanics
c. To gain more information
Introduction
 Thesis statement d. To identify gaps in existing studies
 Background information
 Questions/ quotations e. To connect new ideas to existing ones

Body Context and style of academic text

 Claims/ stand
 Evidence Adheres to the following
→ They state critical question and issues
Conclusion
 Summary → They provide facts and evidence from credible
 Restate your thesis statement sources
 Leave a question, quotation, suggestion →
→ They use precise and accurate words while avoiding
Types of academic text jargon and colloquial expressions
 Critique/ reaction paper - (c) is a detailed analysis →
and evaluation of scholarly work or design → They take an objective point-of-view and avoid being
(r)- a short essay that present a writer’s response or personal and subjective
reaction →
→ List references
 Concept paper - a summary document of a project
proposal that tells what the project Hedging Expression
Refers to how the writer expresses certainty or uncertainty
 Position paper - presents an arguable opinion about
an issue Types of hedging expression

 Research paper - academic writing that provides an Modal auxiliary verbs

in-depth analysis Examples: may, might, can, could, would, should

Articles Modal lexical verbs - doubting and evaluating rather than

A written piece of scholarly work published in a journal, merely describing
magazine, or online platform that presents original
research, review, theories or critical analysis on a specific Example: to seem, to appear, to believe, to assume, to
topic estimate, to tend

Conference papers Critical or reflective reading

The logical glow and contentedness of ideas within a Helps the reader identify the key arguments presented by
paper the author and analyze concepts presented in the text

Reviews Before reading

Provides evaluation or reviews of works published in → Determine which type of academic text you are
scholarly journals reading
→ Determine and establish your purpose of reading  Cause and effect
Shows how one events lead to another. It explains the
→ Identify the author’s purpose for writing reasons and result

→ Predict or infer the main idea or argument of the text  Compare and contrast
based on its title Similarities and differences between two or more subjects
are explored. This help in understanding how things are
→ Identify your attitude towards the author and the text alike and different

→ State what you already know and what you want to  Problem and solution
learn about the topic Problem is presented followed by one or more solution

→ Determine the target audience  Descriptive

Central argument or claim of your paper or essay. 1 or 2
→ Check the publication date for relevance. It should sentence that clearly express your main idea and the point
have been published at most five years earlier that you intend to make. It must be specific, arguable and
the current year concise

→ Check the reference list while making sure to Specific - clearly defines the topic and the scope of the
consider the correctness of the formatting style argument. Avoid vague language

→ Use a concept map or a graphic organizer to hole Arguable - present a point that could be agreed or
your existing ideas and knowledge on the topic disagreed

During reading Concise - straight to the point without unnecessary words

→ Annotate important parts of the text
Tips for crafting a thesis statement:
→ Determine essential ideas or information, main ideas
or arguments, and new information or ideas  Start with a question
Turn the topic into a question and then answer it
→ Write keywords or phrases on the margin or in bullet
form  Be clear and specific
Avoid vague words and phrases. Make sure your thesis
After reading provides a clear direction for your paper
→ Reflect on what you learned
 Revise and refine
→ React on some part of the text through writing
Main idea
→ Discuss some parts with your teacher or classmate Critical point of the most important concept that an author
wants to communicate to the reader
→ Link the idea of the text to what you already know
Linguistic register
SQ3R Are certain registers of language (type of language use)
1. Survey peculiar to specific professions such as medical science,
2. Questions engineering, and business
3. Read
4. Recite Stylistic variation: degrees of formality in language
5. Review use
→ Registers are marked by a variety of specialized
KWL vocabulary and turns of phrases, colloquialism and
1) Know the use of jargon
2) Want
3) Learn → A register can be considered a unique way a speaker
uses language in different circumstances
Advance reading
Text structure → Registers encompass all the ways in which humans
How information within a written text is organized communicate to one another in specific parameters

Key types of text structures

 Chronological order
Events are presented in order they occurred
Characteristic of Good Thesis Statement 4. Write all the key ideas and phrases you identified on
the margins or on your notebook in a bullet or outline
-A good thesis statement takes a stand on the prompt. form.
-A good thesis statement is specific. 5. Without looking at the text, identify the connections
-A good thesis statement is unified and expresses one of these key ideas and phrases using a concept map.
main idea. 6. List your ideas in sentence form in a concept map.
-A good thesis statement does not simple stage a fact but 7. Combine the sentences into a paragraph. Use
set the stage for analysis.
appropriate transitional devices to improve cohesion.
8. Ensure that you do not copy a single sentence from
2nd Quarter
the original text.
Summarizing- used to determine the essential ideas in a book, 9. Refrain from adding comments about the text. Stick to
article, book chapter, an article or parts of an article. the ideas it presents.
Summarizing is: 10. Edit the draft of your summary by eliminating
-Keeping redundant ideas.
-Deleting 11. Compare your output with the original text to ensure
-paraphrasing accuracy.
12. Record the details of the original source (author's
Summarizing is important skills because it helps: name/s, date of publication, title, publisher, place of
1. Deepen your understanding of the text; publishing, and URL [if online]). It is not necessary to
2. Learn to identify relevant information or key ideas; indicate the page number/s of the original text in
3. Combine details or examples that support the main citing sources in summaries
ideas; 13. Format your summary properly. When you combine
4. Concentrate on the gist or main idea and key words your summaries in a paragraph, use different formats
presented in the text; and to show variety in writing.
5. Capture the key ideas in the text and put them
together clearly and concisely.

What is NOT summarizing?

-write down everything;
-write down ideas from the word-for-word;
-write down incoherent and irrelevant ideas;
-write down ideas that are not stated in the text; or
-write down a summary that has the same length or is longer
than the original text.

Formats in summarizing
1. Idea heading format- a specific format where the
summarized idea comes before the citation.
2. Author Heading Format- a specific format where the
summarized idea comes after the citation
3. Date heading format- a specific format where the
summarized idea comes after the date when the
material was published.

Reporting verb- is a word used to discuss another person’s

writings or assertion.

Guidelines in Summarizing:
1. Clarify your purpose before you read.
2. Read the text and understand the meaning. Do not
stop until you understand the message conveyed by
the author. Locate the gist or main idea of the text,
which can usually be found either at the beginning, in
the middle, or in the end.
3. Select and underline or circle the key ideas and
phrases while reading, another strategy is to annotate
the text,