Fundamentals of Reading Academic Texts

Question 1

What are articles?

Answer 1

An article is a type of academic text published in scholarly journals, which contains results of research that can have an impact to the academic community.

Question 2

What are examples of academic texts?

Answer 2

Articles, Conference papers, Reviews, Theses/Dissertations

Question 3

What are conference papers?

Answer 3

An example of academic text. These are papers presented in scholastic conferences. They can be revised into articles for possible publication in scholarly journals.

Question 4

What are Reviews?

Answer 4

An academic text that provides an evaluation of works/articles published in scholarly journals.

Question 5

What are theses/dissertations?

Answer 5

A type of academic text. They are personal studies/researches made by a candidate for a college or university degree.

Question 6

What do you need when reading academic texts?

Answer 6

When reading an academic text, you need to give it your full concentration so that you will be able to understand the main ideas, information, or arguments written in the academic text.

Question 7

Why do you need academic writings as a source for your research paper?

Answer 7

Academic writings are written by experts in their field, and it’s the most credible source to have because they usually undergo a peer view process where other experts read and approve the work before it gets published.

Question 8

Why are articles published in scholarly journals instead of magazines or newspapers?

Answer 8

If articles are published in scholarly journals, other professionals who have the same interests will be able to reach the article, unlike in magazines or newspapers.

Question 9

What are academic texts?

Answer 9

Academic texts are specialized texts, written by experts or professionals of a given field using formal language. They are objective in nature, so the authors of these texts are impartial, they depend heavily on facts and pieces of evidence.

Question 10

Why are non-academic texts not good sources for research studies?

Answer 10

Non-academic texts are usually written by people with no deep and proper knowledge about the given topic. And since this type of writings is informal, they’re not based on facts/evidence, but rather, based on their author’s personal opinions.

Question 11

What are non-academic texts?

Answer 11

Unlike academic texts, they are informal, personal, and subjective in nature, and are dedicated to lay audiences. Since they are subjective, non-academic texts are heavily influenced by their authors’ personal opinions.

Question 12

What is the typical point of view employed in non-academic texts?

Answer 12

First and second-person point of view. These points of view are actually inappropriate for academic texts because those points of view give us a glimpse of the author’s insights about a topic. In academic writing, authors simply impart facts ad their personal opinions don’t matter.

Question 13

Why do you need to know your purpose before reading an academic text?

Answer 13

Knowing your purpose would help you save time and improve your comprehension.

Question 14

What are the general purposes for reading an academic text?

Answer 14

To gain information and process new ideas. Reading academic text would also help you in deeply understanding existing ideas or gaining new ideas and connecting them to what you’ve learned.

Question 15

What is a text structure?

Answer 15

They are the organization of information in texts.

Question 16

What is the content and style of academic texts?

Answer 16

Academic texts contain ideas, concepts, and theories that are related to the specific discipline they explore. They are formally well-written, with strict adherence to the rules of language and mechanics.

Question 17

Why do people struggle with text comprehension?

Answer 17

Because they fail to recognize the organizational structure of the text that they’re reading, thus giving them a poor performance when comprehending the text.

Question 18

What is the structure of academic texts?

Answer 18

Academic texts are formal, having an introduction, body, and conclusion, where information from credible sources is included. Those sources are properly cited, and a list of references is also used when writing an academic paper.

Question 18

What is the structure of academic texts?

Answer 18

Academic texts are formal, having an introduction, body, and conclusion, where information from credible sources is included. Those sources are properly cited, and a list of references is also used when writing an academic paper.

Question 19

What do authors observe when writing academic texts?

Answer 19

They state critical questions and issues, they provide facts and evidence from credible sources(which are properly cited in turn), they use precise and accurate formal words, they are objective and avoid being personal, they list references, and they use hedging to tone down their claims.

Question 20

What is hedging?

Answer 20

Hedging is the use of cautious language, which expresses hesitation or uncertainty, as well as politeness or indirectness.

Question 21

What are examples of hedging?

Answer 21

Modal auxiliary verb
Modal lexical verb
Probability adjectives
Nouns
Adverbs
Indicators of degree, quantity, frequency, and time
Introductory Phrases
"If" Clauses
Compound hedges: double hedges, trembles hedges, quadruple hedges

Question 22

What is critical reading?

Answer 22

Critical reading is an active way of reading. It involves analyzing what you are reading to fully comprehend them and for you to be able to identify the key concepts of the text.

Question 23

What should you do before reading?

Answer 23

Establish your purpose, identify the author’s purpose for writing, predict the main idea based on the title, check its relevance, identify what you already know, and identify what you want to learn.

Question 24

what is the advantage of annotating?

Answer 24

it determines essential ideas/information, main ideas or arguments.

Question 25

how do you annotate?

Answer 25

write keywords or phrases on margins in bullet form, highlight important words, write questions regarding information that you find confusing, write your comments or a summary of what you have read……

Question 26

what do you do after reading