Reading

is defined as a cognitive process that involves decoding symbols to arrive at meaning. It is an

active process of constructing meanings of words.
Reading with a purpose helps the reader to direct information towards a goal and focuses their
attention
The Reading Process
1. Pre-reading stage - This allows the reader to activate background knowledge, preview the
text, and develop a purpose for reading.
During this stage, a reader looks at the title of the selection and list all the information that
comes to mind about the title.
2. During reading- The reader makes predictions as he/she reads and then confirms or revises
the predictions.
3. After reading- This allows the reader to retell the story, discuss the elements of a story,
answer questions and/or compare it to another text.
Comprehension
is an intentional, active, and interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person
reads a particular piece of writing.
begins before the reader starts the text and is the mental process that allows the reader to
understand the text. This continues even after the reading has been finished.
Two elements of reading Comprehension
1. Vocabulary knowledge - The reader must be able to understand the vocabulary used by
the writer.
2. Text comprehension - reader puts together the vocabulary and different
comprehension strategies to develop an understanding of the text.
1. Skimming - is the process of speedy reading for general meaning. Concentrate on identifying
the central or main points.
✔ pre-view a selection of text prior to detailed reading;
✔ refresh your understanding of a selection of text following detailed reading.
2. Scanning - You can scan:
✔ the introduction or preface of a text;
✔ the first or last paragraphs of chapters;
 ✔ the concluding or summarizing chapter of a text;
the book indexes
3. Detailed reading and note taking
✔ underlining and highlighting to pick out what seem to you the most central or
important words and phrases.g
✔ keywords to record the main headings as you read.
✔ questions to encourage you to take an active approach to your reading
✔ summaries to check you have understood what you have read.
4. Making Inferences - is the ability of understanding implicit messages conveyed by a writer
based on the reader’s schema or background knowledge.
help improve the critical comprehension skill of the readers as they try to unravel the meaning
between, behind, and beyond words they read.
5. Drawing conclusion - gives the reader an experience to explore after reading the text.

 the readers are given the opportunity to utilize visual clues to figure out
something not directly stated.
 When one draws a conclusion, he/she develops the skill of putting together
various pieces of information to come up with an acceptable conclusion.
Thesis statement - is a sentence that bears the main idea of an article or an essay.
• It helps control the ideas within the paper. It is not just a topic.
• It tells the reader how he/she will interpret the significance of the subject matter under
discussion.
• It serves as the map for the paper. Thus, it gives the reader the idea on what to expect
from the material he/she is reading.
Example:
To make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you must procure the ingredients, find a
knife, and spread the condiments.
ACADEMIC TEXT
• it is written material in an organized way and in a specific manner.
• It must be clear on all levels of academic text such as the entirety of the material, each
section it presents, every paragraph it provides, and even in each sentence that bears a
concept or an idea.
• The most salient feature of an academic text is that, it is organized in a specific way.
Such text has a clear and well-defined structure.

IMRAD
I - Introduction
M - Methods and Materials
R - Results
D - Discussion
Aim
- The aim establishes the totality of the text and the components in all its parts.
This encapsulates what you intend to achieve in your study.
Research questions
- The aim in the academic text is usually general; hence, the aim can be trimmed
down into research questions.
Introduction
• The text needs to start with something that your reader can relate to, and something
that shows what field your research will contribute to, and how.
• The introduction should provide everything the reader needs to know in order to
understand your aim. This also helps the reader to understand why the aim is
important.
• Please note that the introduction may also be called background.
Body
• The ideas, concepts and results are discussed in the body of the academic text. The
writer must make it a point to develop and organize ideas that absolutely support the
article’s argument or stance. Keep in mind to make your sentences unified, coherent
and cohesive so as to give a good, well-written article to the readers.
Methods and Materials
• You have to discuss about what you have done in order to accomplish your aim and to
address the research questions.
• focuses on what you actually did in your study as well as the account for the choices you
made, when needed.
• QUALI/QUANTI/ QUESTIONAIRE/INTERVIEW/ STASTICAL TREATMENT
Results

 it is relevant that you present the results in an objective way. You do not make any
interpretation here since interpretation is done in the discussion part.
Discussion
• This is now the interpretation of the results. This requires you, as the researcher, your
in-depth analysis, assessment, and explanation of the results obtained from the study.
• What do your results mean?
• How may your method have affected your results?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the study? How do they affect your results?
• What kind of research is needed in the field in the future, and why?
Conclusion
• This is an expression of the fulfillment of your aim and what you have found in your
study. This provides you the opportunity to assess whether all parts of your academic
writing are interrelated with one another.
• Focus instead on what your results may imply – and it rarely hurts to note that more
research is needed.
 RESEARCH
• is the systematic investigation and study of materials, sources, etc. in order to
establish facts and reach new conclusions?
• It is an endeavor to discover new or collate old facts by the scientific study of a
subject or by a course of critical investigation [Oxford Concise Dictionary].
• is what we do when we have a question or a problem we want to resolve

SUMMARIZING and PARAPHRASING

• In reading articles needed for research, a student has to consider the text in its
different forms through three lenses:
• what does it say,
• how does it say,
• what does it mean to me?
Summarizing
• - is an important skill for learning. It is condensing the
• source material in just few lines.
Paraphrasing
• - is using your own words to express someone else's
• ideas while still preserving the main ideas of the
• original source. This is a restatement of the meaning
 • of a text or passage using other words.

Techniques in Summarizing
1. Selection
- It is essential to select major idea, key words and phrases, special terms and
interpretations presented in the original resource.
2. Rejection
- lt is a process of removing unnecessary data. As cited earlier, try to reject repetitions,
examples, illustrations, anecdotes, redundant, expressions, tables and statistical data.
3. Substitution
- It is a mode of combining several sentences into one sentence. It is recommended to use
sentence substitutions, short sentences to replace lengthy sentences. Use of one-word
substitutions is an added advantage in the summary writing process.

OUTLINING
- helps you identify the significant details you need to include and to eliminate the
irrelevant ones.

A reaction, review or critique paper weighs, assesses, and judges both the merits as well as the
weaknesses of a piece, may it be an article, a movie or a book.
Writing a reaction paper
requires the writer’s analysis.
Anything that uses the reader’s senses to create images can also be an object for review or
critique.
1.Know the scope and the purpose of the book.
2.Know the writer’s style of writing, his stylistic excellence and faults.
3.Know the theme of the piece of work.
Tips in Writing a Good Reaction Paper
1. If you are given a book or an article, read it very carefully. If it is a movie to watch, pay
full attention to the film.
2. Think about at least two major arguments or points you want to articulate in your
paper. You may discuss the strengths and the weaknesses of the material.
3. Describe each point clearly and provide an in-depth analysis of your discussion.
4. Cite credible sources or materials that will help make your stance strong.
5. Give examples when necessary.
There are also things that a write should AVOID doing in making his reaction paper.
First, just summarizing the book, the article or retelling the movie being watched is not writing
a reaction paper.
Your reader wants to know your opinions about the material and wants to read your insights
about the piece-not the summary.
Next, a writer should avoid stating arguments or discussing points with no evidences or
examples to back up the point; otherwise, the discussion is just a mere assumption or a much-
opinionated article.
Lastly, the writer should also avoid providing so many examples without making a careful and
deliberate effort in relating these examples to the points to be discussed and clarified.

APA format

✓ The title must be centered.

✓The paragraphs are aligned to the left.

✓Use 1-inch wide in all margins.

✓The first line of each paragraph must be indented.

✓Use Times New Roman, 12 points and should not be bold.

✓The number of the page is located at the top right corner.

✓Use double space throughout the whole text.

✓There should be in-text citation used.

✓Avoid using long quotations.

The following are the citation styles:

✓APA (American Psychological Association)

✓MLA (Modern Language Association)

✓The Chicago Manual of Style

✓ASA (American Sociological Association)

✓ACS (American Chemical Society)

✓The Vancouver System

Using the APA in-text citation, the writer uses the author’s last name and the year of
publication like: (Daing, 2016).
If you are using direct quotations, you have to include the page number. For example, (Daing,
2016, p.11).
If you cite sources from websites and e-books that have no page numbers, use a paragraph
number.
 Formalist Approach

 Biographical or Historical Criticism

 Gender Criticism

 Psychological Criticism

 Sociological Criticism

 Moral/Philosophical Approach

 Mythological Criticism

1. Formalist Criticism
is an approach regards literature as “a unique form of human knowledge that needs to
be examined on its own terms?” In other words, a formalist critic primarily looks at the
structural purposes of the text without considering any outside influence.
 There are several subdivisions within the realm of Formalism, the most notable of which
are New Criticism, Russian Formalism and New Formalism.
 Critics who use an approach of either the Russian Formalists or the New Critics focused
on elements and devices within the literary text in order to analyze how they create
meaning.

2. Biographical or Historical Criticism

 “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and
that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the
work.”
2. Gender Criticism
examines how sexual identity influences the creation of the literary text.
a. Masculinist Approach
is advocated by poet Robert Bly which focuses on the desire to work with men’s issues
and yields to the political conviction that feminism does not fit with the facts.
 b. Feminist Approach
attempts to correct the imbalance of sexes by analyzing and combating the patriarchal
attitudes that have dominated western thought.
4. Psychological Criticism
 is a criticism in which the method, the concept, or the form of the material is influenced
by psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud who expressed that psychoanalytic theories
changed our notions of human behavior in which authors explore new or controversial
areas like wish fulfillment, sexuality, the unconscious and repression.
5. Sociological Criticism
 evaluates a literary piece in the cultural, economic, and political context that explores
the linkage between the author and his society.
 Marxist criticism is an example of sociological criticism that highlights on the economic
and political elements of art focusing on the ideological content of literature.
 The Marxist critic simply is a careful reader or viewer who keeps in mind issues of
power and money and status qou.

6. Moral/Philosophical Approach
Focuses on themes, views of the world, morality, philosophies of the author and
the like for this approach establishes its purpose of teaching morality and investigating
philosophical issues.

7. Mythological Criticism
 emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works.”

 “explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses
myths and symbols common to different cultures and epochs.”
 One key concept in mythological criticism is the archetype, “a symbol, character,
situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response.”
Steps in writing a Critique Paper
 Read to understand the literary piece or any text provided for you to critique. When it is
necessary, re-read the text to have an understanding of the material.
 Determine the author’s purpose of writing.
 Analyze each segment or section very well. When needed, you may write the summary
in each segment.
 Decide which among the approaches in literary criticism you will be using to critique the
text.
 Compose your introduction, body and conclusion sensibly.

 Your introduction may have the author’s name, the book’s title, your source and the
thesis statement.
 In writing your body, you may discuss the strong points and the weak points of the
material in a logical, clear manner.
 In your conclusion, provide a generic opinion about the text.