EAPP-3rd Quarter

• Academic writing


  The discipline of writing like management, understanding, and communication discipline
• Writing is one of the most challenging skills that second or foreign language learners are expected to acquire as it requires the mastery of a variety of "linguistic, cognitive, and sociocultural competencies"
• Academic text reading material


  • Provides information which include concepts and theories that are related to the specific discipline
  • Written by professionals in the given field
  • Well edited and takes years to publish
  • Contains list of sources and references
  • Main goal is to advance human understanding in a particular discipline
• Academic texts


  • Typically formal
  • Have clearly structured introduction, body and conclusion
  • Include information from credible sources which are, in turn, properly cited
  • Include list of references used in developing the academic paper
• Types of academic text

  • Articles
  • Conference papers
  • Reviews
  • Theses, dissertations
• Types of academic writing

  • Descriptive
  • Analytical
  • Persuasive
  • Critical
• Non-academic text


  • Written for mass public
  • Often does not involve research or sources
  • Uses informal and conversational language
  • Personal, emotional, impressionistic or subject in nature
• Examples of non-academic text

  • Blog posts
  • Fiction books
  • Letters
  • Personal journals and diaries
• Language used in academic texts across disciplines

  • Mathematics texts
  • Business texts
  • Social science texts
  • Natural science texts
  • Literature and the arts
• Thesis statement


  The central or the main point of the essay, it is a simple sentence that makes a statement or expresses an attitude, condition, opinion, position or feeling about the subject
• Thesis statement presents/describes the point of an essay, is usually presented in the abstract or executive summary or found at the last part of the introduction, and is written in a declarative sentence
• Thesis statement tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion, is a roadmap for the paper, makes a claim that others might dispute, and is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper
• Misconceptions about thesis statements

  • Using general statement
  • Stating facts
  • Making announcements
• Paraphrasing


  Expressing the meaning of something using different words, stating something in different words in a shorter and simpler form, restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form
• Plagiarism


  Using ideas, data, or any relevant information of another without giving proper credit or acknowledgment
• Plagiarism can occur in small cases, like quoting a sentence or two without quotation marks and citation, or in more grave situations, like using big chunks of original text without attribution
• Differences between summarizing, paraphrasing, and direct quoting

  • Summarizing - does not match the source word for word, presents a broad overview, is usually much shorter than the original text
  • Paraphrasing - does not match the source word for word, changes the words or phrasing of a passage but retains the original meaning
  • Direct quoting - matches the source word for word, cited part appears between quotation marks
• Guidelines for summarizing


  • Clarify your purpose before you read
  • Read the text and understand the meaning
  • Select and underline or circle the key ideas and phrases
  • Write all the key ideas and phrases in a bullet or outline form
  • Identify the connections of these key ideas and phrases using a concept map
  • List your ideas in sentence form in a concept map
  • Combine the sentences into a paragraph
  • Ensure that you do not copy a single sentence from the original text
  • Refrain from adding comments about the text
  • Edit the draft of your summary
  • Compare your output with the original text
  • Format your summary properly
• Formats for summarizing


  • Idea Heading Format
  • Author Heading Format
  • Date Heading Format
• Reporting verbs


  Words used to discuss another person's writings or assertions, generally used to incorporate the source to the discussion in the text
• Outlining


  A summary that gives the essential features of a text, shows how the parts of a text are related to one another, a tool used to organize written ideas about a topic or thesis into a logical order
• Why do we outline text?

  • It gives an overview of the topic and enables us to see how various sub topics relate to one another
  • Recording the information in our own words tests our understanding of what we read
  • It is an effective way to record needed information from reference books you do not own
• Types of outline


  • Topic outline
  • Sentence outline
• Concept paper


  • A summary of what the project is all about, the reasons for conducting the project, and how it will be carried out
  • Provides an overview of the project and helps funding agencies eliminate proposals that are likely to be disapproved
  • A summary written by students embarking on research to gather and present preliminary ideas: to review a field of study, state a research question, identify methods, and indicate the significance of a line of research, often including a budget and timeline
  • Tells the reader what the research is, why it is important and how it will be carried out
• Concept Paper


  A summary of what the project is all about, the reasons for conducting the project, and how it will be carried out
• Concept Paper


  • It provides an overview of the project and helps funding agencies eliminate proposals that are likely to be disapproved
  • It is a summary written by students embarking on research to gather and present preliminary ideas: to review a field of study, state a research question, identify methods, and indicate the significance of a line of research, often including a budget and timeline
• Concept Paper


  It tells the reader what the research is, why it is important and how it will be carried out
• Concept Paper


  • It can be considered as a research plan
  • It enables the student to choose an adviser at the onset of his/her studies which will help him/her establish a longer professional relationship with his/her mentor, allow him/her longer time in discussing the direction and future plans (most probably publication) of his/her research and suits the requirements of his/her courses according to the demands of his/her research
• 3 ways of explaining a concept

  • Definition
  • Explication
  • Clarification
• Definition


  The method of identifying a given term and making its meaning clearer
• Definition presented in 3 ways

  • Informal
  • Formal
  • Extended
• Informal Definition


  The writer uses known words or examples to explain an unknown term. These definitions may be synonyms or antonyms introduced by or, in other words, or like.
• Formal Definition


  Consists of three parts: the term, the part of speech to which it belongs, such as a noun or a verb, and all the traits or characteristics that are specific to that term.
• Extended Definition


  Generally have components of both informal and formal definitions. However, the author uses a number of other techniques to define a word, concept, or phrase, including listing and describing the parts, etymology, examples or anecdotes, negation, evoking the senses, environment or sector, ramifications, historical references
• Explication


  Explanation method in which sentences, verses, quotes, or passages are taken from a literary or academic work and then interpreted and explained in a detailed way
• Clarification Definition


  Method of explanation in which the points are organized from a general abstract idea to specific and concrete examples. It entails the analysis of the concept by looking at examples and specifying some of its characteristics to arrive at on working definition which can be used throughout the paper.
• Signal Words for Clarification


  • after all
  • for example
  • in other words
  • that is
  • as an example
  • in particular
  • put another way
  • to be specific
  • consider the following
  • in short
  • specifically
  • to clarify
  • for instance
  • in other words
  • stated differently
  • to illustrate
  • namely
  • to illustrate
• Parts of a Concept or Project Paper

  • Cover Page
  • Introduction
  • Rationale or Background
  • Project Description
  • Project Needs and Cost
  • Contact Information
• Guidelines in Writing a Concept or Project Paper

  • Cost and methodology should be reasonable
  • The budget, methodology, and timeline should be clearly aligned
  • Use statistics and figures when discussing the rationale for the project
  • Use no more than five pages (single-spaced) excluding the cover page. Do not overwhelm the readers with details
  • Never request funding for planning the proposal
  • Adjust your language to the intended readers
  • Include the overview of the budget, if it is required. If not, then skip the budget section
  • Be sure that basic format details, such as page numbers, are incorporated
  • Cite your references
• Critique/Review


  A careful analysis of an argument to determine what is said, how well the points are made, what assumptions underlie the argument, what issues are overlooked, and what implications are drawn from such observations. It is a systematic, yet personal response and evaluation of what you read.