Lesson 1_ Academic lang-WPS Office.docx

Lesson 1: Academic text **Academic text** - Is a written language that *provides information* - Contains ideas and concepts that are related to the particular discipline - (Ex. Essay, Research paper, Report, Project, Article, Thesis, and Dissertation.) *Parts of an Academic te...

Lesson 1: Academic text **Academic text** - Is a written language that *provides information* - Contains ideas and concepts that are related to the particular discipline - (Ex. Essay, Research paper, Report, Project, Article, Thesis, and Dissertation.) *Parts of an Academic text:* - **Structure** - - basic structure that is used by an academic text. Consists of Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. Which enables readers to follow and navigate arguments and texts. - A clear structure and logical flow are imperative to a cohesive text. - **Tone** - - The attitude conveyed in a piece of writing. - Arguments are fairly presented and with an appropriate narrative tone. - Biased language is not tolerated. - **Language** - - Important to use unambiguous language. - Clear topic sentences enable a reader to follow your line of thinking. - Formal language and 3rd person point of view should be used. - Technical language may be used but does not mean using \'big words\' just for the sake of doing so. - **Citation** - - citing sourced in the body of the paper, providing lists of preferences as either footnotes or endnotes is important in Academic text. - essential to always acknowledge sources of any ideas, research findings, or quoted texts in order to avoid allegations of plagiarisms. - **Complexity** - - Academic text addresses complex issues that require higher-order thinking skills. - **Evidence-based Arguments** - - opinions are based on a sound understanding of the pertinent body of knowledge and academic debates that exist within and often external to a specific discipline. - **Thesis driven** - - The starting point of an academic text is a particular perspective, idea or position applied to the chosen research problem, such as establishing, proving, or disproving solutions to the questions posed for the topic. *Features of Academic texts:* 1. **Complex** - - Written language has no longer words, it is lexically more varied vocabulary. - Written texts are shorter and the language has more grammatical complexity, including more subordinate clauses and more passives. 2. **Formal** - - Should avoid colloquial words and expressions. 3. **Precise** - - Facts are given accurately and precisely. 4. **Objective** - - has fewer words that emphasize on the information you want to give and the arguments you want to make - mostly use nouns (adjectives), rather than verbs (adverbs) 5. **Explicit** - - It is the responsibility of the writer in English to make it clear to the reader how the various parts of the text are related. 6. **Accurate** - - Uses vocabulary accurately - Most subjects have words with narrow specific meanings. 7. **Responsible** - - You must be responsible for and must be able to provide evidence and justification for any claims you make. 8. **Organize** - - Well-organized. - It flows easily from one section to the next in a logical fashion. 9. **Plan** - - Well-planned. - It usually takes place after research and evaluation, according to specific purpose and plan. Purposes of an Academic text: - To locate a main idea; - To scan for information; - To identify gaps in existing studies; - To connect new ideas to existing ones; - To gain more pieces of information; - To support a particular writing assignment; and, - To deeply understand an existing idea. Factors to consider in writing an Academic text: - State critical questions and issues; - Provide facts and evidence from credible sources; - Use precise and accurate words while avoiding jargon; - Take an objective point of view; - List references; and, - Use cautious language. **Academic Language** - - Needed by students to do work at school. - Includes discipline-specific vocabulary, grammar and punctuations, and applications of rhetorical conventions and devices that are typical for a content area. - Students who master academic language are more likely to be successful in academic and professional settings. **Social Language** - - Is the set of vocabulary that allows us to communicate with others in the context of regular daily conversations. Differences between Social and Academic Language: *Characteristics of Academic Language:* a. **Formal** - - should not sound conversational or casual. - Colloquial, idiomatic, and slang should particularly be avoided. - (Ex. Use \'consider or monitor\' instead of \'look at\') b. **Objective** - - unbiased, solely based on factd and evidence and are not influenced by peronal opinions or feelings. c. **Impersonal** - - avoids usind \'I\' and \'We\'. - instead of writing \"I will show.\" you might write \"this report will show.\" - Second person \'You\' is also avoided. **Common text structures:** - Refers to the way authors organize information in texts. - Recognizing and underlying structures of texts can help students focud attention on key concepts and relationships, anticipates what is to come, and monitor their comprehension as they read. *Why is Text structure important? :* The readers can significantly improve their comprehension and retention of information when they can identify and recognize the text structure of a text. It can also help them: 1\. Organize information and details they are learning in their minds while reading. 2\. Make connections between the details being presented in a text 3\. Summarize the important details shared in a text **Summarizing** - - is how we take larger selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials: - the gist, the key ideas, the main points that are worth noting and remembering. - Webster\'s calls a summary the \"general idea in brief form\"; - it\'s the distillation, condensation, or reduction of a larger work into its primary notions. ("Reading Quest Strategies \| Summarizing") *Basic Rules:* A. **Erase things that don't matter**. Delete trivial material that is unnecessary to understanding. B. **Erase things that repeat**. Delete redundant material. In note taking, time and space is precious. If a word or phrase says basically the same thing you have already written down, then don't write it again! C. **Trade, general terms for specific names**. Substitute superordinate terms for lists (e.g., flowers for daisies, tulips for roses). Focus on the big picture. Long, technical lists are hard to remember. If one word will give you the meaning, then less is more. D. **Use your own words to write the summary**. Write the summary using your own words but make sure to retain the main points. *Teachniques for Summarizing:* 1\. **Somebody Wanted But So.** - The strategy helps students generalize, recognize cause and effect relationships, and find main ideas. After answering the questions, combine the answers to form a summary: Little Red Riding Hood wanted to take cookies to her sick grandmother, but she encountered a wolf. He got to her grandmother's house first and pretended to be the old woman. He was going to eat Little Red Riding Hood, but she realized what he was doing and ran away, crying for help. A woodsman heard the girl's cries and saved her from the wolf. 2\. **SAAC Method.** - This method is particularly helpful in summarizing any kind of text. SAAC is an acronym for "State, Assign, Action, Complete." Each word in the acronym refers to a specific element that should be included in the summary. Summary: \"The Boy Who Cried Wolf,\" by Aesop (a Greek storyteller), tells what happens when a shepherd boy repeatedly lies to the villagers about seeing a wolf. After a while, they ignore his false cries. Then, when a wolf really does attack, they don't come to help him. 3\. **5 W\'s, 1 H.** - This technique relies on six crucial questions: who, what, when where, why, and how. These questions make it easy to identify the main character, important details, and main idea. 4**. First Then Finally.** - This technique helps students summarize events in chronological order. First: What happened first? Include the main character and main event/action. Then: What key details took place during the event/action? Finally: What were the results of the event/action? Here is an example using \"Goldilocks and the Three Bears.\" First, Goldilocks entered the bears\' home while they were gone. Then, she ate their food, sat in their chairs, and slept in their beds. Finally, she woke up to find the bears watching her, so she jumped up and ran away. 5\. **Give Me the Gist**. - This type of technique is like giving a friend the gist of a story. - In other words, they want a summary -- not a retelling of every detail.