Academic Texts

Articles - These are published scholarly journals, a type of academic text that offers results in research and development that can either impact the academic community or provide relevance to nation-building.

Conference papers – These are papers presented in a scholastic conference and may be revised as articles for possible publication in scholarly journals.

Reviews – These provide evaluationreviewsofworkspublishedinscholarlyjournals.evaluation reviews of works published in scholarly journals.

Theses, Dissertations – These are p**ersonalresearcheswrittenbyacandidateforaCollegeoruniversitydegree.ersonal researches written by a candidate for a College or university degree.**

\ Academic texts are typically %%formal and have a clearly structured introduction, body, and conclusion.%% They also include information from credible sources which are, in turn, %%properly cited.%%

Well-structured academic papers share certain characteristics:

  • all asked questions have been answered or addressed
  • the reader understands where the writer is going
  • all accounts appear to be relevant to the whole
  • the theory you have described is used to analyze and interpret data
  • the method is described well and corresponds to your research issue
  • the results correspond to the aim  the discussion links empirical data, theor,y and method together
  • the conclusions are justified by the results of the discussion

\ %%Critical reading%% means engaginginwhatyoureadbyaskingyourselfquestionsengaging in what you read by asking yourself questions such as, ‘what is the author trying to say?’ or ‘what is the main argument being presented?’

As a critical reader you should reflect on:

  1. What the text says: after %%critically reading a piece you should be able to take    notes, paraphrasing - in your own words%% - the key points.
  2. What the text describes: you should be confident that you have understood the text sufficiently to %%be able to use your own examples and compare and contrast with other writing on the subject in hand.%%
  3. Interpretation of the text: this means that you %%should be able to fully analyze the text and state a meaning%% for the text as a whole.

\ Critical reading means beingabletoreflectonwhatatextsays,whatitdescribes,andwhatitmeansbyscrutinizingthestyleandstructureofthewritingbeing able to reflect on what a text says, what it describes, and what it means by scrutinizing the style and structure of the writing, the language used as well as the content

SQ3R is a well−knownstrategyforreadingwell-known strategy for reading. SQ3R can be applied to a whole range of reading purposes as it is flexible and takes into account the need to change reading speeds. SQ3R is an acronym and stands for:

  • Survey
  • Question
  • Read
  • Recall
  • Review

This relates to speed-reading, scanning and skimming the text.

\ Question

It is important that, before you begin to read, you have a question or @@set of questions that will guide you@@ - why am I reading this? When you have a purpose for your reading you want to learn and retain certain information.

Read Now you will be ready for the main activity of reading. This involves @@careful consideration of the meaning of what the author is trying to convey@@ and involves being critical as well as active.

Recall make a @@concerted effort to recall what you have just read@@, you will forget a lot of the important points. @@Recalling from time to time allows you to focus upon the main points@@

Review The final step is to @@review the material that you have recalled in your notes.@@

review the text again to make sure and clarify.

KWL method guides you in reading and understanding a text.

Toapply thee KWL method, simply make a table with three columns. In the first column, write what you knowaboutthetopic(K);know about the topic (K); in the second, listdownwhatyoulearn(W);list down what you learn (W); and in the last column, writedownwhatyoulearned(L).write down what you learned (L).