Academic Writing and Literary Theories

Academic Writing and Reading Strategies

• Academic writing uses objectivity, avoiding words referring to the writer or reader.
• Repetition is not a reading strategy.
• Academic writing uses citations, acknowledging information sources.
• Reading strategies include text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-life connections.
• A thesis statement is the central idea and answers the central question of a paper.
• Reading academic texts involves finding the main idea, spotting information, and identifying gaps in previous studies.
• Academic criticism summarizes and evaluates a work or concept.

Critical Approaches in Literature

• The reader-response approach focuses on individual reactions to a text.
• The feminist approach examines how gender roles are shown or challenged in a text.
• A concept paper lays out the main ideas of a claim.

Citations and Objectivity

• Objective assessments rely on facts.
• Citing sources supports claims.

Literary Theories

• The structuralist approach examines how social, cultural, and psychological factors influence behavior.

Academic Texts

• Academic texts have a specific format.
• Magazines are not considered academic texts.
• Academic texts help find and understand information.

Vocabulary and Context

• A nemesis is someone causing misfortune.
• A concept paper gives a brief overview of a project.
• Reprisal means retaliation.
• "Explication" is not a critical writing technique.

Thesis Statements

• Thesis statements should not directly state the topic (e.g., "This essay will talk about...").
• Effective thesis statements are clear, specific, and present an argument or position.
• Thesis statements are complete sentences, not questions.
• Thesis statements express opinions or attitudes, not simply facts.
• Subtopics can make a thesis more specific.

Word Meaning and Contextual Use

• Incursion means invasion of territory.
• Reaction papers may include appeal/protest/reflection.
• Placid means calm and peaceful.
• Leadership is having influence.
• Avoiding plagiarism involves proper quoting and paraphrasing.

Literary Criticism Approaches

• Formalist criticism examines how literary elements create effect.
• Reader-response criticism involves emotional engagement and critical analysis.

Phrasal Verbs and Their Meanings

• Set up = establish
• Come up with = arise
• Carry out = accomplish
• Get rid of = remove
• Turn out = proved

Academic Writing Rules

• Academic writing avoids subjective opinions, rhetorical questions, and emotive language.
• Quoting sources properly follows specific guidelines.

Globalisation

• "Globalization is just a covert term for colonization".
• Academic writing avoids colloquial expressions and figurative language.

Thesis Statements

• A thesis statement presents an argument, while a topic sentence introduces a specific section of a paper.