Lesson 3: PHASES AND STRATEGIES OF READING ACADEMIC TEXTS

Purpose

1. Get an overview of the text and activate schemata

2. Monitor comprehension and organize information

3. Evaluating and using information

Strategies

Techniques that we can use in reading an academic text

1. Scanning, skimming, and checking the features of the academic text

2. Note-taking, highlighting, creating marginal notes and graphic organizers

3. Critical thinking and critical reading

Phases

Stages of reading

Pre-reading

• Little to no reading happens

• Asses if the text is academic or not

• Activate the schema

• Techniques: Scanning, Skimming, and Checking the Features Of (Academic) Texts

While reading

• Make sense of the text

• Understanding the text and lifting different important information from it

• To monitor comprehension or understanding

• To organize information

• Techniques: Note Taking, Annotating, Outlining, and Creating Graphic Organizers

Post Reading

• Evaluate the pieces of information and use them for your own writing

  • “Is this information helpful to my paper?”

• Techniques: Critical Thinking and Critical Reading

Critical Reading

• It is an active process of discovery

• It involves interaction with the writer

• It involves scrutiny of any information heard or read

• It means not easily believing information that you received

Requirements in Critical Reading

1. Ability to pose problematic questions

2. Ability to analyze a problem in all its dimensions

3. Ability to find, gather, and interpret data, facts, and other information relevant to the problem

4. Ability to imagine alternative solutions to the problem, see different perspectives, and see ways of answering the problem

5. Ability to analyze competing approaches and answers, state arguments for and against alternatives, and choose the best solution based on identified values and criteria

6. Ability to write a compelling argument justifying your choice while acknowledging counter arguments.

Forms Of Critical Reading

1. Annotating → Writing on the side notes of the reading material

2. Outlining → Breaking down information from a text into smaller and more comprehensible forms focusing only on the major and minor points of the text

   • Roman numerals → Capitalized letters → Arabic numerals → Lowercase letters

3. Evaluation → Ability to scrutinize the information to test its credibility

4. Spotting flawed arguments → Ability to judge an argument whether it is fallacious or not—an argument that is seemingly sound and compelling at face value but offers poor and invalid reasoning

Summarize the text

• Writing the gist of the text in your own words in usually one paragraph

• Summaries can range in length from two sentences to several pages

• Don’t quote extensively. If you quote, use quotation marks

• Intext-citations: (Alba, 2025), If with page num. (Alba, 2025. p. 17)

• If the quote is more than forty words, format is as a block quotation

• If the author’s idea was written in the past, use present tense (often called the historical present tense) to summarize the author’s argument

Evaluate the text

• Question the author’s purpose, intentions, and assumptions in the claims

• Check if the arguments are supported by valid and credible evidence

In evaluating texts:

1. Does the writer have the authority to discuss the study/topic in the given discipline?

2. How credible are the sources cited in the text?

3. What was the manner by which the information/data was collected?

4. Are there any biases in choosing samples?

Paraphrasing

• Restating the ideas of another using your own words and sentence style

• An essential component of academic writing to transform knowledge and avoid plagiarism

  • Possibly shorter, equal, or a little longer than the original text

  • Devoid of opinion and can be used for a sentence or a paragraph, NOT a whole article

Synthesizing

• Ability to logically connect various information from multiple sources to help readers understand more the topic being discussed

• This critical reading is a level higher than summarizing

• Providing essential unified information or new insight/analysis that is drawn from various texts

Explanatory Synthesis

• The primary goal of explanatory synthesis is to present various information from multiple sources to offer insights or explanations and shed light on the subject matter without necessarily taking a stance.

• The purpose is mainly to inform the readers

• Example: Systematic Review, RRL

Argument Synthesis

• Presents various information from multiple sources to be able to put forward an argument, claim, or position

• It aims to persuade