FUNDAMENTALS OF

READING ACADEMIC
TEXTS
By the end of the lesson, you will have
been able to:
■ Determine the purpose of reading;
■ Identify the features of academic texts;
■ Differentiate academic texts from nonacademic texts;
■ Use critical reading strategy in reading academic texts;
■ Annotate academic texts;
■ Discuss key ideas or information; and
■ Write a synthesis of information from various academic texts read.
The texts you read in school are different
from the texts you read during your leisure
time.

■ While the texts you read ■ Academic texts are more

for pleasure, such as like the heavy main
graphic novels or course. More often than
magazines, can be not they need to be
likened to the appeal of chewed and savored for a
sweet desserts. long time before their
meanings can be fully
digested.
ACADEMIC TEXTS
■ Academic texts are objective. This ■ Academic texts often take years
means that they are based on to publish because of intense
facts with solid basis. The writing and review.
emotions of the authors cannot ■ Academic texts use formal words
be felt from texts or materials. and may contain technical terms
■ Academic texts are written by that are related to a certain field.
professionals in any given field ■ These kinds of texts usually
(e.g. medicine, architecture, include a list of references where
economics, etc.). These authors based their information.
professionals include doctors,
architects, economists, among
others.
NON-ACADEMIC TEXTS
■ Non-academic texts are non- ■ These are published quickly
objective. These texts tend to and can be written by
be more personal and based anyone. No specialization is
on opinions or one's point-of- needed.
view. Opinions are neither ■ Authors of non-academic
correct or incorrect. texts use casual, informal
■ Non-academic texts are language. These texts may
written for the mass public. also use slang.
There is no specific audience
for non-academic texts.
Examples of Academic Texts:
■ 1. ARTICLES ■ Experimental educational
networking on open research
– Published in scholarly issues; Studying PSS applicability
journals. and development in emerging
– This type of academic text contexts.
offers results of research
and development that can ■ This article is
either impact the academic considered academic because the
community or provide language is very formal and genre
relevance to nation- specific, there are two authors and
building. their credentials listed (these are
found at the end of the article), and
most importantly there is a list of
references.
■ CONFERENCE PAPERS
– These are papers
presented in
scholastic
conferences, and may
be revised as articles
for possible
publication in
scholarly journals.
■ REVIEWS
– These provide
evaluation or reviews
of works published in
scholarly journals.
■ THESES, DISSERTATIONS
– These are personal researches written by a candidate
for a college or university degree.
■ Based on the examples, it can be said that in
academic reading, full concentration and
comprehension are required for you to
understand the key ideas, information,
themes, or arguments of the text.
READING GOALS
■ It is important that you know your purpose for reading early on, so you
can save time and improve your comprehension.
– Before you read an academic text, ask yourself the following
questions.
■ Why am I reading this text?
■ What information or pieces of information do I need?
■ What do I want to learn?
– Below are some general purposes for reading an academic text.
■ To better understand an existing idea
■ To get ideas that can support a particular writing assignment
■ To gain more information
■ To identify gaps in existing studies
■ To connect new ideas to existing ones
CONTENT AND STYLE OF ACADEMIC
TEXTS
■ Academic texts include concepts and theories that
are related to the specific discipline they explore.
They usually exhibit all the properties of a well-
written text i.e organization, unity, coherence, and
cohesion, as well as strict adherence to rules of
language use and mechanics.
In general, authors observe the
following when writing academic texts:
■ They state critical questions and issues.
■ They provide facts and evidence from credible sources.
■ They use precise and accurate words while avoiding jargon
and colloquial expressions.
■ They take an objective point-of-view and avoid being
personal and subjective.
■ They list references.
■ They use hedging or cautious language to tone down their
claims.
CRITICAL READING STRATEGIES

■ Reading academic texts requires focus and

understanding. You have to interact with the text by
questioning its assumptions, responding to its
arguments, and connecting it to real-life-experiences
and applications.

■ Critical or Reflective reading helps you to identify the

key arguments presented by the author and analyze
concepts presented in the text.
 STRATEGIES TO BE EMPLOYED DURING
EACH STAGE OF READING
■ 1. BEFORE READING – Identify your attitude towards the author and the
text.
– Determine which type of
academic text you are reading. – State what you already know and what you want
– Determine and establish your to learn about the topic.
purpose for reading. – Determine the target audience
– Identify the author’s purpose – Check the publication date for relevance. It
for writing. should have been published at most five years
– Predict or infer the main idea earlier than the current year.
or argument of the text based
on its title. – Check the reference list while making sure to
consider the correctness of the formatting style.
– Use a concept map or a graphic organizer to
note your existing ideas and knowledge on the
topic.
DURING READING - Annotate important parts of the texts.
Annotating a text can help you determine essential ideas or information, main
ideas or arguments, and new information or ideas.

■ Write key words or phrases on the ■ Write notes on the reliability of the
margins in bullet form. text.
■ Write something on the page ■ Comment the author’s biases.
margin where important information
■ Use a concept map or any graphic
is found.
organizer to note down the ideas
■ Write brief notes on the margin. being explained.
■ Write questions on information that ■ React on the arguments presented
you find confusing. in the text.
■ Write what you already know about ■ Underline the important words,
the ideas. phrases, or sentences.
■ Write the limitations of the author’s ■ Underline or circle meanings or
arguments. definitions.
■ Mark or highlight relevant/essential parts of the text.
■ Use the headings and transition words to identify relationships in the text.
■ Create a bank of unfamiliar or technical words to be defined later.
■ Use context clues to define unfamiliar or technical words.
■ Synthesize author’s arguments at the end of chapter or section.
■ Determine the main idea of the text.
■ Identify the evidence or supporting arguments presented by the author and
check their validity and relevance.
■ Identify the findings and note the appropriateness of the research method
used.
AFTER READING
■ Reflect on what you learned.
■ React on some parts of the text through writing.
■ Discuss some parts with your teacher or classmates.
■ Link the main idea of the text to what you already know.
SQ3R Method of Reading

■ The SQ3R method stands for Survey (or Skim),

Question, Read, Recite (or Recall), Review.
STAGE Guidelines
SURVEY • Skim the target text.
• Check the headings and tables, diagrams, or figures
presented in the text.
• Read the first and last sentences of the text to determine
key information.
• Get a feel of the text.
QUESTION • Annotate the headings with your questions.
• Develop questions on the types of information you expect
from the text.
READ • Look for answers to your questions as you read the text.
• Stop and slow down if the passage is not clear.
• Make sure to proceed reading only when you already
understand the previous texts.
RECITE • Recount the main points of the texts.
• Recall by reciting a summary or synthesis based on what you
understand of the text.
• Highlight or underline the important points you read.
REVIEW • After finishing the text, go back and re-read the questions you
wrote and see if you can answer them; if not, refresh your
memory.
• Evaluate what you learned to ensure that you are convinced
and satisfied with the information presented in the text.
KWL Method

■ The KWL Method guides you in reading and understanding

a text. To apply the KWL method, simply make a table with
three columns. In the first column, write what you know
about the topic (K);
■ In the second, list down what you want to learn (W);
■ And in the last column, write down what you learned (L).
 K W L
What I [K]now What I [W]ant to Learn What I Have [L]earned

• There is a connection • Are women really • Women are reported

between language and more talkative than to speak 20,000
gender. men? words a day while men
• Women and men are • What accounts for the speak an average of
on different levels of difference in the 7,000 words.
talkativeness. frequency of language • Foxp2 protein is one
use between men and the genes associated
women? with language.
• It was shown that
women have higher
levels of this protein
than men.
Read the title of the following study by Murthy et al. Based on
the title, make an inference on the content or main idea of the
study. Share your inference with your seatmate

“Do We Tweet Differently From Our

Mobile Devices? A Study of Language
Differences on Mobile and Web-Based
Twitter Platforms.”
 Given that the influence of mobile technologies on tweeting patterns has been
understudied, we sought to bridge this gap by examining whether tweets from mobile
and web-based sources differ significantly in their linguistic styles. We studied 6 weeks
of Twitter spritzer stream data, containing 235 million tweets. We focused on the
analysis of tweets by source-specifically mobile versus web-based sources may be
similar to or different from web sources. We used word lists from social psychology to
test for levels of egocentricity, gender style, emotional content, and agency in both
mobile and web tweets.
Ultimately, we found that mobile tweets are not only egocentric in language than
any other group, but that the ratio of egocentric to nonegocentric tweets consistently
greater for mobile tweets than from nonmobile sources. We did not find that mobile
tweets were particularly gendered. Regardless of the platform, tweets tended to employ
words traditionally associated as masculine. We did find that negative language is used
more frequently by mobile users at any point of time, a finding that would benefit
further research. The ratio of negative to positive unigrams was also found to be
consistently greater for mobile tweets than web tweets. Lastly, we did not find that
mobile-based tweets are agentic than web-based tweets. Rather, both platforms
tended to employ language that was associated with communal behaviors.