Summary of Reading and Writing Skills

  • Purposeful Writing in the Disciplines: Academic writing helps in understanding foundational concepts and offers exercises to engage reading and writing skills.

  • Writing a Book Review/Article Critique:

    • Length: 250 to 750 words, not just a summary, but a critical assessment.
    • Must include proof and logical reasoning to support opinions.

  • Structure of a Book Review/Article Critique:

    • Introduction (5%): includes title, writer's name, thesis statement, and objectives.
    • Summary (10%): key points and findings.
    • Review/Critique (75%): assesses methodology, theoretical soundness, coherence of ideas.
    • Conclusion (10%): overall impression and suggestion for future research.

  • Key Questions for Reviews:

    • What is the topic and purpose?
    • Who are the intended readers?
    • What are the major claims or issues?

  • Literature Review: Overview of a specific topic based on scholarly work.

    • Justification of research questions and presentation of relevant information.

  • Structure of a Literature Review:

    • Introduction: purpose, scope, and selection criteria.
    • Body: presents theoretical frameworks and viewpoints.
    • Conclusion: restates argument and discusses agreements/disagreements.

  • Guidelines for Writing a Literature Review: Evaluation, analysis of articles, proper citations following APA, MLA, or Chicago formats.

  • Parts of a Research Report:

    1. Title Page
    2. Abstract
    3. Introduction
    4. Literature Review
    5. Methodology
    6. Results
    7. Discussion
    8. Conclusion
    9. References

  • Steps in Writing a Research Report:

    1. Select a topic.
    2. Gather references.
    3. Formulate thesis statement.
    4. Prepare outlines.
    5. Conduct experiments and gather data.

  • Research Types: Includes book reviews, proposals, and literature reviews to enhance critical thinking skills.

  • Citing Formats: Follow specific citation styles (APA, MLA, Chicago) depending on guidelines.