MODULE 8.

COMMUNICATION FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
 review related concepts in academic writing;
 write a research-based essay on any topic of their choice; and
 collaborate with someone to improve written outputs and to give constructive feedback.

Module Overview

Welcome to Module 8! This module provides guidelines for writing academic papers using appropriate
styles, conventions, and reference styles. Further, this allows students to have an online experience in
conducting a collaborative research of their own choice. It is important to learn how to write because
being able to do such is an indication of one’s communicative competence. This module contains
activities and video presentation to better appreciate and apply the concepts, and later on accomplish the
succeeding activities and exercises.

Features of Academic Writing

Embedded video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=254dy15s0Lc

Some of the texts that you will read in this module are academic texts. They are so
called academic texts because their contents are formal. Further, they are structured to
strictly adhere to conventions including but not limited to language choice or diction,
M8. Lecture tone, style, pattern of development, grammar, etc. In a practical sense, there are texts
Notes that a student normally encounters in his or her formal schooling or the texts usually
assigned by a teacher for the students to analyze. Although there are still other forms of
academic writing, those examples illustrate its basic feature.

In this module, we will be tackling one of the major forms of academic writing, which
is writing a research paper.

What is a Research?

1. It is a systematic study or investigation of something in order to find new

information or validate certain theories or findings obtained in other research
studies.
2. It is a process of formulating research questions, testing hypotheses, gathering
relevant information, and analyzing this information to come up with a
conclusion.
3. It is a systematic method of inquiry and discovery which involves experiments,
survey, interviews, and data analysis for quantitative research and
comprehensive exploratory analysis for qualitative research.

What are the steps in writing a research paper?

1. Choosing a research topic

2. Narrowing down the topic
 3. Surveying or gathering resources
4. Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing
5. Making an outline
6. Writing the first draft
7. Referencing

1. Choosing a Topic

The topic is the main subject of your research paper. Therefore, it has to be properly
identified and carefully thought of. In searching for or conceptualizing a research topic,
consider one that you are interested in and which would also be of interest to others. A
topic’s relevance and availability of material related to it are also very important.
Topics to avoid are those which may arouse controversy and those which cannot be
backed by credible resources.

To further help you in your topic search, consider the following tips and guidelines:

1. Randomly write down all possible topics you can think of.
2. Brainstorm with your classmates and peers.
3. Conceptualize topics based on socially relevant issues.
4. Be updated on current events by reading the newspaper and watching the
news.
5. Ask suggestions from professionals and experts in the fields that are connected
to your possible topics.
6. List down questions you want to answer.
7. Look for recommendations from research papers that are of interest to you.
8. Observe possible problems present in your community.
9. Look at issues from different perspectives.

2. Narrowing Down a Research Topic

When starting with a really broad topic, you need to narrow down the focus of such
topic. For instance, if you aim to analyze the aspects of technology; you must specify
what exactly about technology you will research on since it is a very broad area. To do
this, you can use an inverted pyramid to break down a topic from its general form to a
more specific one.

Here are some steps that you can follow in narrowing down a research topic:
1. Ask yourself what you think about the topic or what you know and want to say
about it.
2. Determine your controlling idea or thesis statement.
3. Check whether it is suitable for an authentic scholarly inquiry.
4. After checking the appropriateness or scholarly worth of your narrowed down
topic, you may now formulate your tentative research title and research
questions.

Formulating a Thesis Statement

Part of narrowing down your topic is determining the controlling idea of your research
paper. Ask yourself: “What is my opinion about the topic? What exactly do I want to
prove in my research? What are the issues I am passionately about? What are my
claims about them?” Your answers to the questions above can be used to formulate the
controlling idea of your research. This idea contains your opinion about the topic
which is your thesis. In other words, a thesis statement is the view or perspective that
you make out of your topic. When translated to an equation, it would appear as:

Definite Topic + Definite Claim = THESIS STATEMENT

3. Gathering Resources or Materials

Types of Sources

After specifying the research topic, gathering research materials or sources

comes next. These materials can be categorized into primary and secondary
sources.

1. Primary Sources – contain first-hand information about the topic. In other

words, you can get first-hand information and a direct personal view of the
topic through this source. Examples: interviews, autobiographies,
photographs, films, and diaries.
2. Secondary Sources – serve as interpretation and analysis of primary
sources. They provide elaborations and clarifications about the main
source of information. They offer more unbiased views than the main
sources. Examples: scholarly journals and books, reviews, encyclopedia
entries, editorials.

4. Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

In writing a research paper, quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are

necessary when incorporating your own ideas with ideas from the sources you have
gathered. Ideas which you have gathered from other sources should be cited properly
according to the citation format required of you to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone else’s work and presenting it as your
own. When you fail to cite and acknowledge sources, whether directly or indirectly, it
is considered plagiarism. This is why quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing with
corresponding citations are necessary in research writing.

1. Direct Quote – is used when you mention the exact words of an author in your
research. When following the APA citation style, a direct quote must be
followed by an in-text citation containing the author’s surname, year of
publication, and the page number from where the quote is lifted.
2. Paraphrase – is the restatement of the author’s ideas in the researcher’s own
words without changing the meaning intended by the author. In the APA style,
the in-text citation to be followed in paraphrasing includes the author’s
surname and year of publication enclosed in parentheses.
3. Summary – is a restatement of the author’s main ideas. It is usually shorter
than a paraphrase as it only focuses on the key concepts of the author. It
provides general overview about the subject matter or topic. The in-text
citation for summaries following the APA style is also the same with
paraphrases.
5. Preparing an outline

An outline is the general framework of your paper. It can be likened to the

“blueprint” of an architect or an engineer. The outline and blueprint can be considered
planning tools before the actual research, building, and artwork are done, respectively.
An outline can be a topic outline or a sentence outline. A topic outline lists down all
the main topics in phrases. In a sentence outline all ideas are expressed in complete
statements or sentences.

6. Writing the Draft

Writing the Introduction

The first section of the IMRD format is the introduction. It consists of the following:

1. Background of the Study- This provides your readers an overview of your

topic and contextualizes the problem at hand. It provides a review of previous
studies and recent developments and identifies the gap in the literature
presented which your current research seeks to fill.
2. Research Problem/ Aims of the study- This indicates the specific research
questions which are expected to be answered in the results and discussion
section of your paper.
3. Significance of the study- The introduction section also indicates how the
study will benefit others and what contribution it will make to the current field
of study.
4. Scope and Limitation- The introduction may indicate the scope and limitation
of the study. The scope and limitation of the study. The scope pertains to the
specific aspect of your topic and the reason why it was specifically chosen.
Over other aspects, it includes the coverage of your study. The limitation
usually pertains to the decision made pertaining to the respondents,
methodology, resources used, and other possible challenges associated with the
conduct of the study.
5. Definition of Terms- When necessary (e.g., If the topic at hand is too technical
or if there are many concepts that might confuse the readers), the introduction
provides the operational definition of some of the technical terms used in the
paper and how they are used in the context of the study.

Writing the Methodology

The second section of the IMRD format is the methodology. It consists of the
following:

1. Research Design- This part contains how the methods used fit the
framework of the research.
2. Research Locale/Participants- It also specifies the respondents involved in
the research. It also includes the demographics of the participants and all
details relevant to the research. This part discusses how the participants
were chosen, especially in the context of the quantitative research.
3. Instruments- This part lays down the research instruments used in the
research, whether they are surveys, tests, interviews, and others. This part
also specifies how the interviews and survey questions were formulated. It
 also lays down the particulars of every research instrument used.
4. Procedure/ Data Collection and Data Analysis- The main goal of the
methodology is to address questions related to how data were gathered and
analyzed. This part elaborates on the nature of the research and how it
handles data.

Writing the Results and Discussion

The third section of the IMRD format is the results and discussion. It consists of the
findings, the theories or related studies, and the analysis.

1. Findings- This part contains the answers that are not only expressed in the text
but should also be illustrated in tabular or graphical form when necessary,
especially if you used survey as a research method. This way, your readers can
easily interpret and analyze the results of your study.
2. Theories or Related Studies- The responses should be supported by a
theory(ies) or related study(ies) to substantiate, prove, or disapprove, or
validate or invalidate your findings. This will make your work more scholarly
and more credible.
3. Analysis- It is not enough that you write about what you found out from your
research. The inference you made from them is equally important. An
inference is the conclusion reached which is backed by reasoning.

Writing the Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations

The fourth section of the IMRAD format consists of the summary, conclusions and
recommendations.

1. Summary- This section is a restatement of the introduction, purpose of the

study, methodology and findings obtained from the study.
2. Conclusions- This section synthesizes the analysis of information based on the
findings. It is parallel with the research questions.
3. Recommendations- This section provides possible suggestions or actions to be
undertaken by the stakeholders who will be impacted by the research. So, it
will become more useful for them. It also includes suggestions on how the
research work can be done by other researchers.

For examples and further explanation, watch the following videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEuul8hBip8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69qP8kFJp_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zud3lIXxdM

Summary Research can be defined in various ways. One good definition is that, it is a systematic
method of inquiry and discovery which involves experiments, survey, interviews, and
data analysis for quantitative research and comprehensive exploratory analysis for
qualitative research. The steps in writing a research paper include the following:

1. Choosing a research topic

2. Narrowing down the topic
3. Surveying or gathering resources
4. Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing
 5. Making an outline
6. Writing the first draft
7. Referencing

Useful links Six Reasons Why Research is Cool: Quique Bassat at TEDxBarcelonaChange.
and resource Retrieved on July 03, 2020 from.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b3iteSyg1I

Textbook Ambida, R.S., Galicha J.P. & Oandasan, R. L. (2019). Purposive Communication.
Quezon City. C&E Publishing, Inc.

Madrunio, M.R. & Martin, I.P. (2018). Purposive communication: Using

English in multilingual contexts. Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc.