ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES READING TEXTS CRITICALLY

WHAT IS ACADEMIC WRITING? CRITICAL READING

 Academic writing is a process that starts with posing a question,  involves scrutinizing any information that you read or hear. Critical
problematizing a concept, evaluating an opinion, and ends in reading means not easily believing information offered to you by a
answering the question or questions posed, clarifying the problem, text. “Read not to contradict and confute; not to believe and take for
and/or arguing for a stand. granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider” as
Francis Bacon stated in The Essays.
PURPOSE:  is an active process of discovery because when you read critically,
 to inform you are not just receiving information but also making an interaction
with the writer.
 to argue  The interaction happens when you question the writer’s claims and
 to persuade assertions and when you comment on the writer’s ideas.

It also addresses a specific audience; the audience is your teacher REQUIREMENTS in Critical Thinking:
(for the most part), your peers who will read and evaluate your work, 1. The ability to pose problematic questions.
and the academic community that may also read your work. 2. The ability to analyze a problem in all its dimensions----to define its
key terms, determine its causes, understand its history, appreciate its
Academic writing is thinking; you cannot just write anything that comes human dimension and its connection to one’s own personal
experience and appreciate what makes it problematic or complex.
to your mind. You have to abide by the set rules and practices in
3. The ability to find, gather and interpret data, facts and other
writing. You have to write in a language that is appropriate and formal
information relevant to the problem.
but not too pretentious. You also have to consider the knowledge and 4. The ability to imagine alternative solutions to the problem, to see
background of your audience. You have to make sure that you can different ways in which the question might be answered and different
back up your statement with a strong and valid evidence. Writing perspectives for viewing it.
academic paper requires deliberate, thorough, and careful thought 5. The ability to analyze competing approaches and answers, to
and that is why it involves research. construct arguments for and against alternatives and to choose the
best solution in the light of values, objectives and other criteria that
It was mentioned earlier that a formal but not pretentious language is you determine and articulate.
required. It is a misconception, however, that big and difficult words 6. The ability to write an effective argument justifying your choice while
have to be used because ultimately the purpose of writing is to acknowledging counter-arguments.
engage the readers. You are not just expected to inform or to
WAYS TO HELP YOU BECOME A CRITICAL READER:
persuade but you are also expected to engage the readers in a
1. ANNOTATE WHAT YOU READ
conversation by giving them clear ideas and points to evaluate and
One of the ways to interact with the writer is to write on the text. You
question. You have to make sure that your purpose (i.e., to react to can underline, circle, or highlight words, phrases or sentences that
an issue or an event, to convince readers to take your side) is clear contain important details, or you can write marginal notes asking
and that your language, style, and tone are appropriate to convey your questions or commenting on the ideas of the writer. There are no clear
purpose to your target readers. Your audience is varied and you have and definite guidelines to annotating a text; you can create your own
to make sure that when you write, you keep the readers in mind. style. For instance, you can circle unfamiliar words or underline ideas
that you think are questionable.
WRITING IS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION THAT IS SHAPED BY THE 2. OUTLINE THE TEXT
FOLLOWING FACTORS: In order to fully engage in a dialogue with the text or with the writer of
1. Topic- What is the text about? What details am I imparting to the the text; you need to identify the main points of the writer and list them
readers? down so you can also identify the ideas that the writer has raised to
2. Role- Who am I as a writer? Do I write as a sibling? A student? A support his/her stand. You don’t necessarily have to write a
son/a daughter? A customer? structured sentence or topic outline for this purpose; you can
3. Purpose- Why am I writing this in the first place? just write in bullet or in numbers.
4. Audience- Who is reading this piece? What knowledge does he/she
need to understand in my writing?
 3. SUMMARIZE THE TEXT AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
Aside from outlining, you can also get the main points of the text you
are reading and write its gist in your own words. This will test how What is PLAGIARISM?
much you have understood the text and will help you evaluate it Plagiarism could be any of the following:
critically. A summary is usually one paragraph long.  Deliberate copying of somebody else’s work and claiming that work to
4. EVALUATE THE TEXT be his/her own.
The most challenging part in critical reading is the process of  Using somebody else’s work or ideas without proper
evaluating what you are reading. This is the point where the other acknowledgement or citation; and
three techniques---annotating, outlining, summarizing---will be helpful.  Copying the text without paraphrasing it.
When you evaluate a text, you question the author’s purpose and
intentions, as well as his/her assumptions in the claims. You also PARAPHRASING is one of the ways to avoid plagiarism. It is rendering the
check if the arguments are supported by evidence and if the evidence essential ideas in a text (sentence or paragraph) using your own words.
are valid and are from credible sources.
Paraphrased materials are usually shorter than the original text. It is more
detailed than a summary. When you paraphrase, it is advised that you first
WRITING ACADEMIC TEXTS understand what the text is about and then write your rendition of the text
The Pre-Writing Process without referring to it as you write. The tendency when you have the text in front
of you is to copy the structure of the text and just change some of the words,
1. BRAINSTORMING which still qualify as plagiarism.
When you responded with ideas and concepts related to the broad
concept, you were already generating possible topics for your paper. Another way to avoid plagiarism is to directly quote the sentence or the
paragraph that you will use in your paper. Quotations must be identical to the
2. FREEWRITING original text. A direct quotation is preferred to a paraphrase when the author’s
Aside from brainstorming, you can also use freewriting to generate ideas are so important that paraphrasing them will change the essence of
ideas. Freewriting is similar to brainstorming in that you just write any idea that those ideas.
comes to your mind. The catch is to put down into writing the ideas that you
think of so that later on you will be able to generate ideas and narrow them
down into a single topic for your paper.
WRITING and REWRITING
3. CLUSTERING-means Ballooning or Mapping.
This technique provides a graphic representation of your ideas,  Developing Your Thesis Statement
allowing you to visualize the connections and/or relationships of your  A Thesis Statement is a claim or stand that you will develop in
ideas. your paper. It is the controlling idea of your essay. It gives your
In clustering, you can: readers idea of what your paper is all about.
 Write your main topic at the center of your paper then circle or box it.  A strong thesis statement usually contains an element of
 Think of subtopics and place them around the center circle until you uncertainty, risk, or challenge (Ramage, Bean and Johnson
feel that you have developed all the subtopics fully. 2006:34). This means that your thesis statement should offer a
debate claim that you can prove or disprove in your essay. The
4. FOCUS ON IDEA THAT YOU ARE GOING TO DISCUSS
claim should be debatable enough to let your readers agree or
THOROUGHLY IN YOUR PAPER.
disagree with you.
*narrowed down your topic that you are interested in developing in
your paper.  Your thesis statement should not merely announce something or
state of fact. “Women and men are born to perform specific roles”
5. KNOW YOUR PURPOSE AND IDENTIFY YOUR is not a good thesis statement because there is nothing to contest
READER/AUDIENCE in that statement; it is just stating that women and men have
The knowledge, interests, attitudes and needs of your reader will give specific roles to perform. You should give your thesis tension by
you an idea as to how you will organize your points and claims in such introducing ideas that may challenge your reader’s views. Your
a way that you can establish a common ground with your readers. analysis of your readers will be of help here.
 For instance, the sample thesis statement given earlier could be
improved into: “Although there seem to be a specific role
assigned to women and men, those roles should never dictate
 nor limit women and men to do other things that are beyond their For instance, if one writes a paper on the theory of relativity of physics
assigned roles.” This thesis statement challenges the and no mention of Einstein is given, the writer explicitly or implicitly claims that
stereotypical roles assigned to women and men, and not this theory is his or hers. Plagiarism of ideas has been committed.
everyone may agree to it so this is something that you can
explore in your paper. Also, you will have to gather evidence in 1. Author-oriented citation
order for you to back up your thesis statement. -starts with the surname of the author, followed by the year of
publication in parentheses. Verbs of statement such as argues, posits, and
 Organizing Your Paper emphasizes at the start of paragraph or sentence may be used.
 Some people think that this is where the “real” writing begins Example:
Pulido (2012) believes that language in an online environment can be
because this is where you will support your thesis statement and
understood if other modes of online communication are further analyzed to
expound on it as well.
provide a full account of interaction in virtual worlds.
 Organizing Your Ideas means finding the connections of one
point to another and establishing a link from one idea to another. 2. Text-oriented citation
The challenge for you as the writer is to be able to “weave back In a text-oriented citation, a paragraph or sentence from a source is
and forth between generalizations and specifics” (Ramage, Bean, followed with the surname of the author of the work and the year of publication.
and Johnson 2006:40.) The citation must be enclosed in parentheses.
 Outlining is an effective way of ensuring the logical flow of your Example:
ideas. You may opt to use the standard outline complete with Unless educators realize the importance of reading and writing across
roman numerals and indentions or you may use lists, diagrams, subject areas, problems in comprehension of subject matter will be a prominent
or maps. issue in the teaching learning process (Estacio, 2010).
 Start your essay with writing the Introduction. The Introduction for
academic essay provides a background of your topic, poses a Another way of citation
question regarding the topic, explains how the question is Start the sentence or paragraph by using the phrase “According to…”
problematic and significant, and gives the writer’s thesis followed by the surname of the author and the year of publication enclosed in
statement. parentheses.
 After this one-or two-paragraph introduction to your essay, Example:
develop the body of your essay. This is where the bulk of the According to Mendoza (1990), by the end of the century, our fuel
essay is found and where you develop an answer or propose a reserves will be reduced to half, and scarcity of energy supplies will be a big
solution to the thesis statement that you have given in the problem.
introduction. You can outline your main points before writing the Aside from texts, movies, images and music should be cited if used on
body of the essay. In the body, you have to support your main your paper. The general rule is that the Author, title of work (may it be image,
points and include the other details that would support your thesis movie or music) and year it was produced (if applicable) be included in the
statement. citation.
 Your CONCLUSION should bring together the points made in
your paper and emphasize your final point. The conclusion may
also leave a thought-provoking idea that you wish your audience PLAGIARISM OF LANGUAGE
to consider. Do not just summarize your main points; make sure Happens when an author uses the language of another writer and claims it as
that you synthesize your main points and emphasize your thesis his or her own.
statement. Remember not to open a new topic in the conclusion.
To address plagiarism of language, effective note-taking techniques should be
used. As mentioned earlier, citations are used to attribute ownership of ideas to
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM authors. Note-taking techniques, on the other hand, allow you to rephrase
Is a serious form of academic dishonesty and is frowned upon in the academe. original text into your own.
Plagiarism is defined as the copying verbatim of language and ideas of other Three types of note-taking techniques:
writers and taking credit for them. a. Direct quotations
b. Summarizing
c. Paraphrasing
PLAGIARISM OF IDEAS
-Occurs when credit for a work is ascribed to oneself untruthfully.
Using DIRECT QUOTATIONS is employed for statements that are so closely SUMMARIZING is a short restatement of the main idea of a text. Ideally, it is a
associated that altering the words may lose its rhetorical impact. For instance, third of the original text of your paper. For developing your summary, the
the statement of Ninoy Aquino, “The Filipino is worth dying for” is too short to following tips may be helpful.
be summarized, and the rhetorical impact of the work is lessened if the 1. Make sure to read the text thoroughly and highlight the important details
statement is paraphrased. in the text. Bear in mind that certain details have relationships (cause and
effect for example) and these need to be noted as well.
Some points to consider for employing direct quotations (NOTE THAT 2. After getting the main idea/s, use your own words in your summary.
EMPLOY TEXT ORIENTED CITATIONS) Make sure to check if the relationships between ideas are established.
1. 1.Using direct quotations means to lift text and enclose them in 3. When done with your summary, recheck your output with the original to
quotation marks. In addition to the author’s name, the page numbers see if your output does not stray from the original text. You may seek your
are included. teacher or peer’s feedback to be sure.
Example:
“Globalization is just a covert term for colonization.” (Reyes, 1994, p. 2). PARAPHRASING is a restatement in your own words of the main idea and
supporting details of a text.
2. If the text is too long, you may omit certain parts and replace them
Consider the following tips in crafting your paraphrases.
with an ellipsis (three dots). If the words omitted are at the end of the
1. Read the text thoroughly, noting both main ideas and supporting
statement, another dot is added, making it four.
details. In confronted with a long text, you may outline these ideas to
Example:
distinguish the major points from the minor ones.
“Smartphones resulted from global innovations in technology… and
2. 2. After identifying these, carefully state the major and minor points in
therefore, consumers need to be updated on the latest trends if they want to
your own words, making sure that the relationships between and
maximize opportunities offered by these gadgets to make daily activities more
among these ideas are observed.
convenient.” (De Claro, 2010, p. 7).
3. Finally, when the paraphrase is done, compare your work with the
original to make sure that the original intentions of the author are not
3. Interpolation may be done to insert notes within the directly quoted
changed.
passage to help readers understand the context of the statement.
Interpolation is marked by open and closed brackets.
The following are also several ways in paraphrasing:
Example:
1. Literal paraphrasing- This type only replaces vocabulary terms from
“De Quiros, Zabala, Uy and Lee believe that the education sector
the original text.
should address the material conditions of schools to improve teaching and
2. Structural paraphrasing- This type changes the sentence structure as
learning.” (Danao, 2011, p. 7).
well as the word class of key words of the original text.
“[Educators] believe that the education sector should address the
3. Alternative paraphrasing- In this type, the writer poses questions
material conditions of schools to improve teaching and learning.” (Danao, 2011,
about the text such as what the text is about, how the main idea is
p. 7).
supported, and the stand of the author about the topic. Then, the
writer answers these questions using his/her own words after reading
4. Using too many direct quotations does not reveal your identity as an
the text; making sure that all ideas are connected.
author. Specifically, it is important that you develop your own voice
and style of writing in expressing ideas. Using others’ statements help
in arguments but does not show your originality and strength in
THESIS STATEMENT AND OUTLINE READING TEXT
making claims. Therefore, as a rule of thumb, twenty percent of the
THESIS STATEMENT:
total length of the work may employ direct quotations. For instance, if
A thesis statement is the controlling idea that you will develop in your
the prompt of the essay requires you to write in at least 1000 words, paper. This can be found usually at the end of an introduction. A thesis
you may only have a total of 200 words allotted for direct quotation. statement can be one sentence. However, if necessary, it can also be two
Example: or three sentences.
“Smartphones resulted from global innovations in
technology… and therefore, consumers need to be updated on the ELEMENTS OF A THESIS STATEMENT
latest trends if they want to maximize opportunities offered by these 1. TOPIC
The topic of your paper.
gadgets to make daily activities more convenient.” ( De Claro,
2010, p. 7).
2. ARGUMENT/CLAIM 6. Capitalize the first letter of each item.
This depends on the type of paper you are writing. If it is an 7. The terms Introduction, Body, and Conclusion do not have to be
argumentative paper, then this should express your opinion. If it is a included in the outline. They are not topics; they are merely organizational
research or explanatory paper, this should explain the purpose of your units in the writer’s mind.
paper.
3. EVIDENCE Example:
The support for your argument/claim. Benjamin Franklin – Scientist and Inventor
If you already have the three elements, you can combine them to create I. Experiments with Electricity
your thesis statement. A. Studied nature of Electricity
B. Discovered Lightning Equals Electricity
Example 1: (ARGUMENTATIVE) C. Invented Lightning Rod
1. Topic--- The Harry Potter book series II. Other Scientific Work
2. Argument---stole many fantastical elements from The Lord of the A. Inventions
Rings series 1. Bifocal Glasses
3. Evidence---giant spiders, dangerous hooded undead creatures 2. Franklin Stove
(Dementors and Nazgul), and a wise mentor. 3. Daylight Saving Time
The Harry Potter book series stole many fantastical elements from the B. Scientific Studies
Lord of the Rings series. Some of the uncanny similarities include giant 1. Charted Gulf Stream
spiders, dangerous hooded undead creatures, and a wise mentor that the 2. Worked on Soil Improvement
hero must learn to survive without. III. Importance as a Scientist
A. Scientific Honors
Example 2: (RESEARCH/EXPLANATORY) B. Writing Translated into Other Languages
1. Topic--- Cheese C. Experts’ Comments
2. Argument---has healthy tendencies
3. Evidence---calcium helps bones and teeth, boosts the growth of good
bacteria in the gut, and the protein helps cells repair themselves OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT
Research has shown that cheese has healthy tendencies because its What is the difference between objective assessment and subjective
calcium provides necessary nutrients for the growth of bone and teeth, it assessment?
boosts the growth of food bacteria in the gut, and it has protein that helps  Subjective assessment- means making assumptions, making
cells repair themselves. interpretations based on personal opinions without any verifiable facts.
 Objective assessment- means making an unbiased, balanced
observation based on facts which can be verified.
OUTLINE:
An outline is a design to follow when writing a structure, a discourse, or an
article. It arranges a material in a logical way into main ideas, supporting Opinions are your own views of certain issues or concerns.
ideas, and supporting details.
There are words that you can use when expressing your opinion.
The main idea or topic is the main topic of the outline. All main topics are Here are some phrases that you can use:
indicated by Roman Numeral. Subtopics are noted by letters and
supporting details are indicated by Arabic Numerals. I think from my point of view
I believe from my perspective
An outline can be a sentence outline or topic outline. A sentence outline is I feel In my view
written in full sentence while a topic outline is in words or phrases. In my opinion It seems to me that
I would say
Guidelines in writing an outline:
1. Place the title at the center above the outline. These are examples of ways to express your opinion:
2. Every level of the outline must have at least two items (I and II, A and B, I think technology is harmful.
1 and 2). In my view, technology is not useful and helpful.
3. Put a period after each numeral and letter. In my opinion, technology is very important nowadays.
4. Indent each new level of the outline.
5. All items of one kind (roman numerals, capital letters, Arabic numerals) You may also just state your opinions without using those phrases. You can
should line up with each other. just say, Technology is harmful but only when you are in an informal
 situation. If you are in a formal setting, it would be appropriate to use those
phrases. READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM
 Is concerned with the reviewer’s reaction as an audience of a literary
You are entitled to your own opinions, but these opinions must be based on work
facts so that you will not be biased.  This criticism is focused on the message of the text

It is very important that you will not be focused only on giving opinions. You MEDIA CRITICISM
must also look for information that will help support your opinion because –  It is the act of closely examining and judging the media.
 We often find instances of media bias.
• this will add to the credibility and validity of your opinion; and  Media bias occurs when the media seems to push a specific
• more will believe you if what you express is strongly supported with viewpoint, rather than reporting the news objectively.
information that are true and correct.

APPROACHES IN LITERARY CRITICISM

CRITICIZE – To judge or evaluate someone or something

CRITIQUE – The paper or essay; the product of criticizing

CRITIC – The person doing the criticism

What is Literary Criticism?

It is the process of:
 Analyzing
 Evaluating
 Describing
 Interpreting Literature

FORMALIST CRITICISM
 Claims that literary work have intrinsic properties and treats each work
as a distinct work of art
 Formalism is about the elements of the text being criticized

FEMINIST CRITICISM
 Focuses on how literature presents woman as subjects of socio-
political, psychological, and economic oppression.
 Tends to reveal the patriarchal aspects of our culture

HISTORICAL CRITICISM
 Seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social,
cultural, and intellectual context that produced it
 A context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography. Including
facts about the author’s life and the historical and social
circumstances of the time.