EAPP Midterms Reviewer

Academic Texts, Outlining, Summarizing, Thesis Statements, Concept Papers, Evaluative Papers

1. Academic

2. Literary

3. Transactional

4. Informative

LITA

The 4 main types of texts

Academic text

• Type of text

• Defined as critical, objective, specialized texts

• Written by experts/professionals

• Uses formal (and technical) language

1. Essay

2. Research

3. Reaction paper

4. Journal

5. Book review

6. Synthesis

7. Review of the literature

RRRJEBS

Types of academic text (7 items)

1. Observes structure

2. Applies appropriate tone

3. Uses clear language

4. Cites sources of information

5. Addresses complex issues

6. Provides evidence-based arguments

7. Thesis-driven

CAAPOUT

Nature & characteristics of academic texts (7 items)

1. Complex

2. Formal

3. Precise

4. Objective

5. Explicit

6. Accurate

7. Cautious (hedging)

8. Responsible

9. Organized

10. Well-planned

POOR-FAE-WCC

Features of academic texts (10 items)

1. Locate main idea

2. Scan information

3. Identify gaps in existing studies

4. Connect new ideas to existing ones

5. Gain more information

6. Support a writing assignment

7. Understand an existing idea

SSIC-LUG

Purposes of reading academic texts (7 items)

1. Purpose

2. Audience

3. Perspective

4. Language

PALP or PPAL or LAPP

4 factors to consider in writing academic texts

1. States critical issues

2. Provides facts and evidence

3. Uses precise and accurate words

4. Objective POV

5. References

6. Cautious language

SOUP-RC

Language of academic texts

Formal

• Characteristic of academic language

• It should not sound conversational or casual

• Avoid colloquial, idiomatic, slang or journalistic expressions

Impartial

• Characteristic of academic language

• Involves avoiding the personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘we’

Objective

• Characteristic of academic language

• Unbiased

• Based on facts and evidence and are not influenced by personal feelings

1. Reporting verbs

2. Lexical verbs

3. Modals

4. That clauses

5. Adverbs of frequency

MART-L

Types of hedging language

Outline

• Organized list of

  • steps

  • ideas

  • information

• Arranged hierarchically under headings and subheadings

• Visual strategy

• Helpful in organizing, clarifying, and structuring information and ideas

• Research, organize and compile information in an orderly manner

• Compare, prioritize and decide on topics and ideas to be included

• Derive a general structure to work with

RCD

Outlining helps …

• Filter unnecessary information

• Organize information

• Get an overview of the task at hand for better planning

FOG

By writing outlines, you can …

1. Format

   1. Topic outline

   2. Sentence outline

2. Style

   1. Alphanumeric

   2. Decimal

Types of outlines

Topic outline

• Uses keywords and phrases

• Rely heavily on parallelism

Sentence outline

It expresses each point as a complete sentence

Alphanumeric

The traditional outline format

Decimal

The standard outline format

1. Parallelism

2. Coordination

3. Subordination

4. Division

PC-SD

The 4 principles of outlining

Parallelism

• Principle of outlining

• All items in formal outlines must be parallel in grammar and structure

  • If 1 starts with a verb, the others must as well

  • However, reasonableness and flexibility of form is preferred to rigidity

Coordination

• Principle of outlining

• Each point should have the same relationship to your main point

Subordination

• Principle of outlining

• Each point in the outline goes from general headings to more specific subpoints

Division

• Principle of outlining

• Each main point (or heading) on your outline must have at least two subpoints

1. Reduce cognitive load

2. Organizing & chunking

3. Visual representation

4. Prioritizing information

5. Active learning

6. Transfer knowledge

PAVORT

What is the connection between outlining and information processing? (6 items)

Summary

• A condensed version of a longer text

• Includes the main idea, major supporting points, and should reveal the relationship between them

• To increase comprehension and retention of information

• To keep track of your observations

• To make convincing analyses of sources

• To record what you’ve read and help distinguish your ideas from those of your sources

ACOD

Why should you summarize? (4 items)

1. Read the original text

2. Underline the main idea

3. Extract major details

4. State the main idea in your own words

5. Introduce the source of information

RUE SI

5 steps of summarizing

1. Informative

2. Descriptive

2 types of summaries

Informative summary

• Type of summary

• Adopts the tone of the original text, simply presenting the information it contains in shorter form

Descriptive summary

• Type of summary

• Adopts a more distant perspective, describing the original text rather than directly presenting the information it contains

1. Academic writing

2. Citations

3. Reporting verbs

(1) requires you to use (2) to refer to the original source when you have used someone else’s ideas or concepts in your writing. One of the most common ways to incorporate these (2) into your writing is to use (3) to present the information.

1. Balanced

2. Objective

3. Brief

4. Original

BOBO

4 principles of an effective summary

Thesis statement

• The main idea of a composition

• Provides the controlling idea

• Specifc topic + specific claim

1. Is an answer to a research question

2. Predicts, controls and obligates

3. Is an indicator of position/belief about a particular idea

4. Different from the topic sentence

DAPI

A good thesis statement … (4 items)

1. It should provide a clear line of focus

2. It must set limits on a topic

3. It isn’t the topic/title/question

Pitfalls in writing thesis statements (3 items)

1. Too specific

2. Expresses more than 1 idea

3. Vague

VET

Bad theses are … (3 items)

1. Fact/Definition

2. Cause

3. Value

4. Policy

4 types of claims

Claim of fact/definition

• Type of claim

• Argues about what the definition of something is or whether something is a fact

• Support:

  • Formal and extended definition

  • Quotes from authorities

  • Comparison and contrast

Claim of cause

• Type of claim

• Argues that something/someone caused another thing

• Support:

  • Facts or statistics

  • Induction or deduction

  • Cause-effect organization

Claim of value

• Type of claim

• Made of what something is worth

• Whether we value it or not

• How we would rate or categorize something

• Support:

  • Appeal to audience’s values

  • Quotes from authorities

  • Claim-reason-evidence pattern

Claim of policy

• Type of claim

• Argues for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem

• Support:

  • Facts or statistics

  • Problem-solution pattern

Explicit

When the thesis outlines the main idea and the organization of the essay for the reader

Implicit

When the thesis introduces the topic, but doesn’t outline the supporting ideas

1. Clear

2. Contestable

3. Concentrated

4. Complex

5. Compelling

6. Connected

6 Cs of theses

1. Ask a question

2. Create a declaration

3. List three reasons why

4. Combine #2 and #3 and write the thesis

AC-LC

4 steps of writing a thesis

Concept paper

• It aims to clarify a concept which can be about any topic from any field

• Short summary that tells the reader what a project is, why it’s important and how it’ll be carried out

• It aims to capture the thoughts and ideas (Lango, 2019)

1. Length

2. Format and design

2 features of a concept paper

500 to 2K words

Usual length of a concept paper

Per the funding agency of

Usual format and design of a concept paper

1. Project

2. Research

2 types of concept papers

1. Cover page

2. Introduction

3. Rationale or background

4. Project description

5. Project needs and cost

5 parts of a project proposal/concept paper

1. Title page

2. Background of the study

3. Preliminary literature review

4. Statement of the problem or objectives

5. (Abridged) methodology

6. Timeline

7. References

7 parts of a research proposal/concept paper