Academic Reading and Writing Notes

Academic Writing in the Discipline

Book Review/Article Critique

• A specialized form of academic writing.
• Evaluates the contribution of knowledge of scholarly works.
• Length: 250-750 words.
• Critical assessment.

Introduction

• Title of the book/article.
• Writer's name.
• Writer's thesis statement.

Summary

• Writer's objectives/purpose.
• Methods used (if applicable).
• Major findings/claims.

Review Critique (in no particular order)

• Appropriateness of methodology to support arguments.
• Theoretical soundness.
• Relation to other available information and experts.
• Benefits to the intended audience.
• Suggestions for future directions.
• Sufficiency of information.
• Other perspectives in explaining the idea/concepts.
• Coherence of ideas.
• Soundness of explanation.

Conclusion

• Overall impression of the work.
• Scholarly value of the reviewed article/book.

Literature Review

• A type of academic writing.
• Provides an overview of a topic.
• An advanced form of academic writing.
• Analyzes relationships between/among different scholarly works.
• Can be written as a stand-alone paper or as a part of a research paper (explaining theoretical framework and related studies).
• Unlike an annotated bibliography, which presents a summary of a book or article.
• Surveys scholarly work such as:
  • Academic books (not textbooks)
  • Computerized databases
  • Conference proceedings
  • Dissertations/theses
  • Empirical studies
  • Government reports
  • Historical records
  • Journal articles
  • Monographs
  • Statistical handbooks
• Combines both summary and synthesis (linking different sources).

Annotated Bibliography

• Summarizes references.
• Explains how important they are in addressing research questions.

Book Review vs. Literature Review

• Book Review: Evaluates a book.
• Literature Review: Reviews a significant number of scholarly works to identify what is known and not known about a topic.
• Doing a literature review tests the ability to evaluate studies, their validity, and reliability.
• Involves research, critical appraisal, and writing.
• A student may take 40 hours to finish a well-written literature review.

Structure of a Literature Review

• Introduction
  • Purpose for writing the literature review.
  • Importance of the topic being reviewed.
  • Scope of the review.
  • Criteria used for selecting the literature.
  • Organizational pattern of the review.
• Body
  • Historical background; relevant theories; relationship between and among the studies, and how each study advanced a theory.
  • Strengths and weaknesses of each paper.
  • Various viewpoints on the topic.
  • Summarize and synthesize.
  • Analyze and interpret.
  • Critically evaluate.
  • Structured paragraphs.
• Conclusion
  • Restatement of the main argument or thesis.
  • Main agreements and disagreements in the literature.
  • If stand-alone paper: Conclusions, implications, and directions for future studies.
  • Part of thesis/paper: Linking of the literature reviews to the research questions.
  • Overall perspective on the topic.
  • Sum of the main takeaways.
  • Show how your research addresses gaps and contributes new knowledge.
  • If stand-alone paper, it summarizes major findings and implications and makes suggestions for future research.

Stand-alone vs Research paper

• Stand-alone Paper
  • Give background on the topic.
  • Discuss the scope.
  • State your objective.
• Research Paper
  • Restate your research question.
  • Emphasize the timeliness of the topic.
  • Highlight a gap in the literature.

Summarize and Synthesize

• Summarize
  • Overview of main points.
• Synthesize
  • Combine sources to make overall point showing similarities and differences between them.

Analyze & Interpret

• Own interpretation.
• Discuss significance of findings in relation to the literature.

Critically Evaluate

• Evaluate sources to identify and discuss strengths and weaknesses.

Structured Paragraphs

• Sentences and paragraphs are cohesive.
• Use transitions and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

Boolean Operators

• "AND"
• "OR"
• "NOT"

Literature Search

• Use resources like ERIC, Google Scholar, etc.
• Review the citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago) that you will adopt and be familiar with its format in relation to writing a literature review.
• Choose and focus on a topic you will explain.
• Determine the kind and number of sources you'll be using.
• Survey available online databases relevant to your topic.
• Use relevant new keywords when searching for scholarly documents.
• Always include landmark studies or papers.
• Always evaluate the sources for coverage and currency.

Evaluation and Analysis of Articles

• Once you've obtained the articles for your review, analyze them before writing the actual literature review.
  1. Skim the articles and read their abstracts.
  2. Group articles and other documents according to their categories.
  3. Take down notes: research questions, methodology used, major findings & explanations & conclusions.
  4. Summarize details using a concept map: similarities, differences among articles.
  5. Write a synthesis of the references.
  6. Create an outline.
     • Focuses on: main argument.

Writing the Literature Review

• Once all the materials are ready and you have a clear outline of the ideas you want to express, you may now start the actual writing process.
  1. State clearly your thesis or main argument and be guided by it accordingly.
  2. If you say that no studies have been conducted on one aspect of your topic, justify it.
  3. Direct the readers to other related literature reviews that cover items which you do not intend to cover. You may use the citation format "(see Author, year)" or follow the format prescribed by your chosen documentation style.
  4. Never treat a literature review as a series of annotated bibliographies.
  5. Use headings and subheadings to classify the parts of your topic. For each topic heading, analyze the differences among studies and look for gaps. Note that each paragraph should focus on one aspect of the topic.
  6. Use effective transitions to make your review easier to read and understand.
  7. The body of the literature review can be organized thematically, methodologically, or chronologically.
  8. Use direct quotations sparingly.
  9. Clarify important definitions.

Research Report

• Compass: Guiding Question
• Map: Outline
• Backpack: Resources
• Flag: Conclusion

Definition

• A research report is an expanded paper that presents interpretations and analyses of a phenomenon based on experiments and previous information so that the readers can better understand it.
• It is laborious work produced through formal investigation and scientific inquiry.

Parts of a Research Report (TAIL MRDCR)

1. Title Page

   • Contains an informative title that describes the content of the paper, the name of authors, addresses or affiliations, and date of submission.
   • Examples of an informative title:
     • Effects of Facebook on the Academic Achievement of First Year Students
     • Development and Validation of a Software for Detecting Plagiarism

2. Abstract

   • Overview of the research.
   • Contains the summary of the research findings and conclusions.
   • Briefly presents the context of the study, research questions or objectives, methodology, and major findings, conclusions, and sometimes implications.
   • An abstract does not contain any citation or a great deal of statistical results.
   • Its length ranges from 100 to 250 words.

3. Introduction

   • Explains the current state of the field and identifies research gaps.
   • It is also the part where the research focus is presented by addressing the identified gaps in the topic.
   • It puts the research topic in context.
   • It is usually three to five paragraphs long.

4. Literature Review

   • Contains the summary and synthesis of all available sources directly related to the study.
   • In a research report, the literature review is divided into two sections: related concepts and related studies.
     • Related concepts present some of the fundamental concepts needed by the readers to better understand the study. Concepts and theories are defined, explained, and described.
     • Related studies are based on previously conducted studies directly related to the paper.
   • Both the related concepts and studies will help the writer explain the phenomena that may arise in the study.
   • This section ends with a paragraph that synthesizes all of the studies presented and puts the study in context.
   • Hence, the last paragraph may include the topic and specific research problems.
   • The length may range from two to three pages.
   • In some cases, the literature review is integrated into the introduction section.

5. Methodology

   • Describes how the experiments or tests in the research were conducted.
   • It presents the context within which the study was conducted, the participants, the instruments used, data gathering procedure, and the data analysis.
     • In discussing the context of the study and the participants, the number and the demographic profiles of the participants are explained, as well as the place where the study was conducted.
     • The discussion of the instrument used presents the tools in gathering data. These tools may be in the form of a questionnaire, interview, focus group discussion, survey, and tests, among others.
     • All of the instruments used should be described in detail, along with the explanation of how they were validated. The data gathering sections present the details on how the data were collected, while the data analysis section presents how the data were analyzed, either qualitatively (coding scheme) or quantitatively (statistical tools).
     • The past tense is used in writing the methodology.

6. Results

   • Factually describes the data gathered and the tables and graphs that summarize the collected data.
   • Along with the tables and graphs are their respective interpretations.
   • The flow of the results section should follow the flow of the research questions/problems/objectives.
   • It is expected that for each research problem or objective, corresponding results are presented.

7. Discussion

   • Provides an explanation of all the results in relation to the previous studies presented in the literature review.
   • In this section, the research problems or objectives, as well as the major findings, are restated in the first paragraph.
   • The succeeding paragraphs should explain whether the study supports or rejects the previous findings and explain the reasons for this.
   • New findings uncovered in the research should also be stated.
   • Similar to the flow of the results, the discussion part follows the flow of the research problems or objectives.

8. Conclusion

   • Contains the restatement of the major findings, the limitations of the study, the recommendations, and the implications.
   • In some cases, the conclusion is integrated into the discussion.

9. References

   • Contain the different sources used in the study.
   • These may be academic books, journals, and other online sources.
   • Its format depends on the school, teacher, or field of study.

Guidelines in Writing a Research Report

1. Fifty to seventy-five percent of the paper should be devoted to results and discussion.
2. Be sure to cite all your sources whether they are paraphrased or directly quoted.
3. As with the previous types of written works, use direct quotations sparingly; paraphrase as much as possible.
4. Strictly follow the required documentation style.
5. Topics should be relevant, interesting, current, and manageable in terms of resources, skills needed, and time. They should not be too sensitive and too controversial.
6. Research questions should directly address the given topic or thesis statement.

Business Letters, Memos, and Electronic Mails

Business Letters

• Used by professionals and organizations.
• It elicits the expected response from the readers through a concise, tactful, and accurate writing style.
• Serves purposes such as sale efforts, complaints, information dissemination, relationship building, and problem-solving.

Parts of a Business Letter

• Letterhead: Identifies the writer, address, and contact numbers.
• Date: Placed between the letterhead and the inside address.
• Inside Address: Identifies the reader's name, position, company, and address; placed immediately below the date.
• Attention Line: Used when the writer wishes to address the whole company but wants to bring it to the attention of a particular person in the company.
  • Two formats:
    • Attention Dr. Gilda Cores
    • Attention: Dr. Gilda Cores
• Salutation: The writer's greeting to the reader.
  • Three formats:
    • Dear Sir:
    • Sir:
    • Dear Mr. Garcia:
• Body: Contains the message of the letter.
  • Paragraphs are single-spaced internally but double-spaced to separate paragraphs.
  • If the letter is too short, the body can be double-spaced and triple-spaced from separate paragraphs.
• Complimentary Close: The expression used to end a letter.
• Signature Block: Includes the signature and the typed name of the sender.
  • The typed name can be in all caps (HARRY DAMUS) or CLC format (Harry Damus).
• Identification Initials: Indicates the typist's initials if the sender is not the one who personally typed the document.
• Enclosure Notation: Indicates attachments to the letters.
  • Three formats:
    • Enclosure (2) - Two attachments
    • Enclosure - One attachment
    • enc./encl. - Shorthand version of enclosure
• Copy Notation: Indicates secondary recipients of the letter, indicated by cc:

Three Formats of Business Letters

1. Full Block: Most commonly used format.
2. Modified Block: Used format.
3. Semiblock: Least-used style.

Guidelines in Writing a Letter

1. Use correct format, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.
2. Present ideas clearly using language appropriate for the target readers.
3. Arrange ideas logically.
4. Use an active voice as much as possible; apply a direct but tactful tone.
5. Focus on the readers by using the "you" approach.
6. Specify the name of the receiver. If impossible, use a generic title (e.g., Dear Sales Director).
7. Leave three to five blank lines for a signature before typing your name.
8. Never use plain numerals for dates; use January 2, 2016, or 2 January 2016 instead of 01/02/16.

Memorandum or Memo (Internal/Within Organization)

• Comes from the Latin term "memorare," meaning "to remember."
• Meant to inform and persuade people within an organization.
• Follows an inverted pyramid structure, with the most important information first.

Advantages of Using a Memo

1. Reaches a large number of readers at the same time.
2. Serves as a written record that can be accessed any time.
3. Allows detailed and accurate delivery of the message.

Parts of a Memo

1. Letterhead: Identifies the company, address, and contact numbers.
2. Date Line: Serves as a chronological record for reference purposes.
3. To Line: Indicates the name and title of the receiver.
4. Attention Line: Used when addressing the whole company but wanting to bring it to a particular person's attention.
   • Two formats:
     • Attention Dr. Gilda Cores
     • Attention: Dr. Gilda Cores
5. From Line: Indicates the name of the sender, who should affix their initials on the right side of their name for verification.
6. Subject Line: Announces the main content or topic of the memo; "Subject" is preferred over "Re."
7. Body: Contains the message of the memo.
   • Paragraphs are single-spaced internally but double-spaced to separate paragraphs.
   • If the memo is very short, the body can be double-spaced and triple-spaced to separate paragraphs.
   • Paragraphs are not indented.
   • When discussing subtopics, use topic headings for quick information location.
   • Never indent the first line of each paragraph. If the memo exceeds one page, begin the following page with the recipient's name, date, and page number three lines from the top of the page (e.g., Mr. Roxas, July 14, 2016, page 2).
8. Identification Initials: Indicates the typist's initials if the sender is not the one who personally typed the document.
9. Enclosure Notation: Indicates attachments to the memo.
   • Formats:
     • Enclosures (2)
     • Enclosure
     • enc./encl.
10. Copy Notation: Indicates secondary recipients of the letter, indicated by cc (carbon copy or courtesy copies).

Guidelines in Writing a Memorandum

1. Use the correct format and standard language.
2. Use a bullet or numbered list to enumerate information.
3. Use a positive tone, concise wording, and active verbs.
4. Use headings to highlight topics.
5. Check for and remove grammatical and typographical errors.
6. Sign beside your typed name (sender).
7. Flush left the To, From, Date, and Subject lines.
8. Conclude the memo simply with "Thank you" or a directive action (e.g., For your compliance, For your immediate action).
9. Never use plain numerals for dates; use January 2, 2017, or 2 January 2017 instead of 01/02/17.

Five Types of Memo

1. Instruction Memo: Provides information needed to accurately perform directions.
   • Example: Directing employees on how to have their annual checkup at the company clinic.
2. Request Memo: Asks readers to provide certain information or take certain actions.
3. Announcement Memo: Provides information about an event, person, or thing.
   • Example: Announcing the arrival of a new employee.
4. Transmittal Memo: Serves as a cover note for a more formal or lengthy document.
5. Authorization Memo: Gives permission.

Electronic Mails (Email)

• Sending and receiving digital messages; faster than a digital letter/postcards.
• Revolutionized interpersonal communication.
• Used for directives, transmittals, documentations, confirmations, explanations of procedure, recommendations, status reports, and inquiries.

Advantages of Communicating Through Email

1. Reaches the target reader fast.
2. Confirmation of acceptance is easy.
3. Cheaper and easy to use.
4. Original messages can be easily attached via thread.
5. Environment-friendly because it requires no paper.
6. Automated email feature notifies the sender if the receiver is on vacation or will not be able to access their email soon.

Disadvantages of Communicating Through Email

1. May carry a virus.
2. Not all official documents can be sent via email due to their nature.
3. Sometimes used as a tool for scamming; requires utmost caution.
4. Prone to technical glitches and dependent on Internet connection.

Guidelines in Writing an Email

1. Reflect if sending an email is the best mode of correspondence compared to a face-to-face meeting, phone conversation, or memo.
2. Connect the subject line to your reader's needs and interests; readers often delete messages based on the subject line.
3. Do not change the subject line when you reply to an email.
4. Make the subject line short, simple, and specific (e.g., "Adjustment in Seminar Schedule" instead of "Schedule").
5. The To line should only contain primary readers; secondary readers must be placed in the cc line.
6. Be accurate in typing the email addresses of the recipients.
7. Keep messages brief and straightforward.
8. Never publish an email without the creator's permission.
9. State your business in the first sentence of the text.
10. Store sent and received messages in folders using descriptive names (e.g., trainings, directives, minutes).
11. Use a standard memo format; never capitalize all the letters of your text.
12. For important messages, compose them first using a word processor.
13. Maintain professionalism; be careful in using emoticons and informal Internet jargon like LOL and BRB.
14. If attaching a file, make the filename meaningful (e.g., "jessiebarrot-coverletter" instead of "jsbletter").
15. If your email has an attachment, be sure that it is accurate and can be easily downloaded or accessed by the receivers.

Project Proposal

• A highly persuasive and informative document that aims to address a particular issue or problem.
• Length: 1000-2500 words.
• Goals/Objectives: Empathy
• Project Plan: Financial, human, and technical resources.
• Budget

Types of Project Proposals (based on context, sender, receiver)

1. Solicited Internal: Responds to a specific request within the organization; problem identified within the organization.
2. Unsolicited Internal: Self-initiating; no one asked for it; target audience within the organization.
3. Solicited External: Responding to a specific request not from the company; someone who is already known.
4. Unsolicited External: Self-initiated, no one asked for; proposing the project to another organization; not identified yet unknown; problem not identified yet.

Parts of a Project Proposal (CTACPPPBM R C)

1. Cover Letter: Introduces the project; key points and highlights.
2. Title Page: Title, organization, date, place, proponents' names.
3. Abstract/Executive Summary: Summarizes objectives, highlights key points; total cost within 200-250 words.
4. Context of Proposal: Socio-economic, cultural background, relevant data from other sources.
5. Project Justification: Rationale, problem statement, justification, target group needs.
6. Personnel Involved: Approach/strategy.
7. Project Implementation Summary: Schedule of activities (activity plan, time, place (timeline), resource plan (items needed), personnel in charge).
8. Budget: How much money is spent, expected income/expenses.
9. Monitoring Evaluation: Monitor project (schedule, methods, and things need to be monitored); timetable (Gantt Chart).
10. Reporting Scheme: Schedule for reporting the project (macro and micro aspects).
11. Conclusion: Summarize the project.
12. References: List all references.

Guidelines in Preparing/Writing a Project Proposal

1. Identify the problem and solution.
2. Choose an approach/framework.
3. Identify activities, outputs, resources, methods.
4. Team with a leader.
5. Funding organizations.
6. Team meeting (discuss plans).
7. Planning time.
8. Assign roles/responsibilities/tasks.
9. Ensure realistic objectives within a given time.
10. Clarify unclear items.
11. Consider the perspective of the project proposal recipient.

Guidelines in Writing

1. The title page should not be numbered.
2. Don't use abbreviations.
3. Attach curriculum vitae of the personnel who are involved.
4. Use Gantt chart in project implementation.
5. Write the abstract after completing the report.
6. Study other successful project proposals that are similar.
7. Use factual and technical terms sparingly.
8. Reader-friendly format.
9. Use action words.