PCOMM REVIEWER MIDTERMS Purpose of Academic Writing

Academic Writing

- It is the process of writing analytically — the breaking

down of ideas with the purpose of presenting
information that depicts a clear understanding of a
certain subject.
- Academic writing is the process of presenting ideas in
a rational, organized, systematic, reasonable, and
logical way

Characteristics of Academic Writing

- Planned and focused: answers the question and

Audience of Academic Writing
demonstrates an understanding of the subject.
- Structured: is coherent, written in a logical order, and - Audience is the actual person(s) who will be reading
brings together related points and material. your paper.
- Evidenced: demonstrates knowledge of the subject - In an academic setting, your audience is generally your
area, supports opinions and arguments with evidence, professor, your classmates and sometimes other
and is referenced accurately. professors who may be assessing your work at the end
- Formal in tone and style: uses appropriate language of the semester.
and tenses, and is clear, concise and balanced. - It is, therefore, critical to consider how you will
articulate your ideas in order to reach the desired
objective for that specific audience.
A List of Documents Where Academic Writing Is Used
Rhetoric and Style of Academic Writing
- Book reviews
- Essays Academic papers are written in formal academic tone, so they
- Research report must be free of cliches and slang language. You must also
- Research proposal ensure that your writing does not include language that may be
- Scientific paper considered offensive or sexist.
- Academic journal
- Dissertation and Thesis - These are written to obtain - Ex: “I think the author is wrong about this issue” vs. “ I
an advanced degree at a college or university. disagree with the author’s perspective on this issue”
- Abstract - This is a short summary of a long document. - Ex: “She was acting crazy” vs. “Her behavior was
unacceptable”
- Avoid making generalizations about a given point,
Types of Academic Writing especially when you are providing strong evidence to
defend your claim. Instead, use like “most”, “may”, “it
Expository
seems”…etc
- The purpose of an expository paper is explain, discuss, - Ex: “Teenagers love Apple products” vs. “Most
or inform your audience about a given topic. teenagers love Apple products” or “It seems that most
- Therefore, the expository approach offers an ideal teenagers are attracted to Apple products”
structure for identifying features and characteristics in
Sentence Structure
a given topic as in most research-driven papers,
comparison-contrast essays, reaction essays, and - While your goal is not to impress your audience,
business writing. academic writing is certainly more involved and
requires a higher level of sophistication compared to
Narrative
high school writing.
- When you write a narrative paper, you are “narrating” - You are, therefore, expected to vary your sentence
or telling a story. forms, using complex and compound sentence
- A strong narrative essay is one that paints a vivid image structures.
of the story using a variety of writing techniques - Transitions help you establish relationships between
(characterization, descriptions, plot…etc). ideas and paragraphs and improve the overall quality
- Like other types of essays, a narrative paper must have of your writing.
a clear structure and must include an introduction, body - The most common transitions are conjunctive adverbs
paragraphs and a conclusion. such as “moreover, therefore, consequently…etc” and
transitional phrases like “ in addition, in contrast…etc)
Descriptive
Content
- In a descriptive essay, you describe an experience, a
character, an object, a state of mind…etc. - Consider your readers’ familiarity with the content of
- While this essay form comes with a level of freedom by your writing.
allowing you to decide how to approach the task, you - Assess your readers’ background knowledge of the
still need to effectively structure your ideas. topic and their ability to understand implications and
- Use vivid structures that are rich in sensory language references.
to help your readers not only understand what you are - In general, the less your audience knows about your
describing, but visualize it. topic, the more details you must present to ensure
clarity.
Argumentative
Structure of Academic Writing
- The primary objective of an argumentative essay is to
establish a point of view in regards to a particular topic Introduction
and defend that point of view using logical arguments
The introduction (opening paragraph) basically accomplishes
and relevant examples.
the following goals:
- Your point of view or perspective must be clearly stated
in the thesis statement (generally in the introduction) - Gives an overview or background on the topic in broad
that needs to be supported in the body of the essay terms
using supporting evidence, counter-arguments and - Then narrows the scope of the topic to the presentation
refutations. Prepares the reader for what is to come in the following
writing
- Provides main points that will be discussed and why
those are most important to the subject matter
 - Grabs the readers attention - Deals more with the process of creating meaning and
experiencing a text as we read. A text is an experience,
not an object.
Body - The text is a living thing that lives in the reader’s
imagination.
Developmental paragraphs (body paragraphs) are the heart of
an essay.
READER + READING SITUATION + TEXT =
- Contains only one main idea stated by the topic MEANING
sentence of that paragraph
2 Important Ideas in Reader-Respone
- Analyzes the evidence
- Directly supports the thesis statement* 1. An individual reader’s interpretation usually changes
- Paragraphs are arranged in logical progression over time.
- The paragraphs should flow smoothly from one to the 2. Readers from different generations and different time
next and have internal fluidity while presenting periods interpret texts differently.
supporting evidence to the paragraph’s main point

Conclusion Formalist
emphasizes the form of a literary work to determine its meaning,
The conclusion is the summary paragraph. It should accomplish focusing on literary elements and how they work to create
the following: meaning.
- Clearly restates the thesis sentence but not in verbatim - Examines a text as independent from its time period,
form social setting, and author’s background. A text is an
- Briefly summarizes the evidence presented in the independent entity.
writing - Focuses on close readings of texts and analysis of the
- Provides a final judgement on the subject matter effects of literary elements and techniques on the text.
discussed by tying all themes and ideas together
2 Major Principles of Formalism

Citing Sources 1. A literary text exists independent of any particular

reader and, in a sense, has a fixed meaning.
Why use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries? 2. The greatest literary texts are “timeless” and
“universal.”
- Are required for each main point since the author
cannot include personal feelings or opinions
- Are clearly identified in proper required formatting form Psychological/Psychoanalytical
and style
- Provide evidence to support the argument of the writing views a text as a revelation of its author’s mind and personality.
- Are used at strategic places in the writing to support It is based on the work of Sigmund Freud.
statements made
- Also focuses on the hidden motivations of literary
characters
- Looks at literary characters as a reflection of the writer

Marxist

emphasizes economic and social conditions. It is based on the

political theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

- Concerned with understanding the role of power,

politics, and money in literary texts

Feminist

is concerned with the role, position, and influence of women in

a literary text.
Writing to Analyze
- Asserts that most “literature” throughout time has been
Analytical Writing written by men, for men.
- Examines the way that the female consciousness is
- Writing that asks the questions “Why” and “How” depicted by both male and female writers.
- Writing that challenges both its writer and its readers to
look beyond surface presentations, and disassemble Historical
“complete things” to examine their parts.
- A branch of history which looked at literature of
- Writing that proposes and expresses an informed and
evidence about economic and political events going on
supported point of view
at the time at which the works were produced, and that
- Helps to explain why people interpret the same story in
also looked at historical events to explain the content
different ways
of literary works.
- Perspective is likened to a lens to which one can look
- insisted that to understand a literary piece, we need to
to examine a text
understand the author’s biography and social
- Using different perspectives/lenses in reading a literary
background, ideas circulating at the time, and the
text often helps one to discover something new,
cultural milieu
intriguing, or unexpected
Archetypal/Myth

- assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images,

Different Literary Perspectives/Lenses
characters, and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that evokes
Reader-Response basically the same response in all people
- identifies these patterns and discusses how they
- asserts that a great deal of meaning in a text lies with function in the works
how the reader responds to it. - asserts that these archetypes are the source of much
- Focuses on the act of reading and how it affects our of literature's power.
perception of meaning in a text (how we feel at the
beginning vs. the end)
Writing to Investigate

Investigative Writing Defined According to use

- Investigative writing sets out to investigate a topic and Basic/Pure Research

report the findings to the reader.
- It is a document that sparks some sort of action based - If it answers questions with theory
on - This is done purely to verify the acceptability of a given
- The investigation report is also a record of the steps of theory or to know about a certain concept
the official findings it presents the investigation. It can
Applied Research
be used to prove that your investigation was timely,
complete and fair - Is conducted when a decision must be made about a
specific real-life problem
Research

- is careful, systematic study in a field of knowledge,

undertaken to discover or establish facts or principle According to Discipline
(Webster in David, 2002 Garcia, 2008)
- finding new truths about specific discipline (Javier, - Science, applied science, technology
2004) - Social science, health, education, psychology
- A systematic process of collecting and analyzing data - Humanities, history, philosophy
to find an answer to a question or a solution to a
problem to validate or test an existing theory; a process
that follows systematic procedures, ask appropriate According to Research Goals
questions and use reliable & valid instruments (David,
2002) Descriptive
- The collection of data in a rigorously controlled
situation for the purpose of prediction & explanation - Describes a phenomenon/na includes case study,
(Quinton, 2006). survey, field, library, documentary

Exploratory
Criteria Observed by the Researcher
- Tests & predicts causal relationships effects of
Accuracy intervention

- the correctness or truthfulness of something Pilot Studies

- ability to avoid errors the ability to be precise and avoid
- Research on new systems, new setups, or intervention
error
Evaluative
Precision
- Comes up with impact results, effects, outcomes &
- exactness or accuracy
assessment research
Replicability
Policy Analysis
- faithful copy of something: an accurate reproduction
- generates information relevant to policy-making & its
of an object.
impact
- faith copy of artwork: a scrupulous copy of a work of
art, especially one made, authorized, or supervised by Feasibility Studies
the original artist
- decide the factors for viability or success of any plan or
Validity course of action
- effective: bringing about the results or ends intended
- justifiable: reasonable or justifiable in the
circumstances. According to Research Design

Reliability Case Study

- trustworthy - having a detailed study about one person’s situation

- able to be relied on within a considerable unit of time

Being Systematic Survey

- done methodically: carried out in a methodical and - gathering relatively limited data from a relatively large
organized number
- manner
Library Research
- well organized: habitually using a method or system
for organization - making use of a working bibliography available in the
- based on system: constituting, based on, or library
resembling a system
Field Research

Documentary
General Classifications of Research
- gathering information by examining records and
According to Who does the Research documents
- Academic Research- ex. Term paper, reports, theses, Participatory
dissertations, seminar paper, etc.
- Professional Research– ex. Proposals, feasibility - the people themselves who develop their own theories
studies participate in the research for solutions to problems
- Government Research- ex proposals, feasibility
studies
- Private Research– ex. Position paper
Writing a Research Report The Reference Section

Research Report o References/ Bibliography

o Appendices
- is a completed study that reports an investigation or
exploration of a problem, identifies questions to be
addressed, and includes data collected, analyzed, and
interpreted by the researcher The Introductory Section

Title Page
Difference Between Research Report & Research Proposal
- identifies the title of the report, the name of the
Research Report researcher, the name of the guide, institution, month
and year of submission.
- is prepared after a study is completed - The title should communicate what the study is about.
- communicates what was actually done in a study and A well constructed title makes it easy for the reader to
what resulted understand and

Research Proposal Acknowledgments

- is prepared before a study begins - This page permits the writer to express appreciation to
- communication a researcher’s plan for a study persons determine the nature of the topic .

Table of Contents

Difference Between Research Report & Article - The table of contents is an outline of the report that
indicates the page number on which each major
Research Report section and subsection begins
- is a primary source List of Tables
- It reports the method and results of an original study
performed by the researcher - A list of all the tables included in the report along with
the page numbers should be provided.
Article
List of Figures
- Is a secondary source
- It does not report original research by the author - A list of all the figure included in the report along with
the page numbers should be provided.

Abstract
Structure of a Research Report
- The abstract is a brief but comprehensive summary of
The Introductory Section the research report
- It includes a concise statement of the goal of the
a) Title Page
research, the type of participants and instruments,
b) Acknowledgments (if any)
outlines the
c) Table of Contents
- Abstract must be limited to a specific number of words,
d) List of Tables (if any)
methods, major results and conclusions. usually
e) List of Figures (if any)
between 100 and 500 words
f) Abstract

The Body of the Report

The Body of a Report
2.1. Introduction
Introduction
a) Statement of the Problem
b) Significance of the Problem - The Introduction section provides the theoretical
c) Purpose framework of the study within which the research has
d) Statement of Hypothesis been conducted, background information of the topic
e) Assumptions as well as the need for and rationale for the research,
f) Limitations to make the material more logical, useful and
g) Definition of important Terms interesting for readers.
- The introduction begins with a description of the
2.2. Review of Related Literature (analysis of previous
research problem or topic and includes objectives,
research)
significance of the problem, research questions,
2.3. Design of the Study statement of hypothesis(if any)
- It also includes the assumptions of the study(if any),
o Description of Research Design and Sources of Data definition of important terms, limitations and
o Sampling Procedures delimitations of the study
o Methods and Instruments of Data Gathering
o Statistical Treatment Review of Literature

2.4. Analysis of Data text with appropriate - The Review of Related Literature indicates what is
known about the problem or topic.
o Tables - Its function is to educate the reader about the area
o Figures under study.
2.5. Results and Discussion Design of the Study
Major Findings (reject or fail to reject Ho) - This section provides a detailed description of the
methodology used in the study. e.g. population, sample
2.6. Summary and Conclusions
size and sampling techniques and tools used in the
o Conclusions study.
o Recommendations for Further Investigation - The purpose of this section is to describe in detail how
a researcher
- performed the study so that someone should be able
to replicate the study
- based on the information that a researcher provide in
this section
 - For a qualitative study, this section may also include a Types of Plagiarism
detailed description of the nature and length of
interactions with the participants. The description of Direct Plagiarism
participants includes information about how they were
- Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a
selected and mainly representative of the population.
section of someone else’s work, without attribution and
- The description indicate the purpose of the instrument
without quotation marks.
and the validity and reliability of the instrument
- The deliberate plagiarism of someone else's work is
Analysis of Data unethical, academically dishonest, and grounds for
disciplinary actions, including expulsion
- This section describes the statistical techniques or the
inferential interpretations that were applied to the data Self Plagiarism
and the result of these analyses.
- Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or
- Tables and figures are used to present findings or
her own previous work, or mixes parts of previous
graphic form which add clarity in findings for a reader
works, without permission from all professors involved.
- For example, it would be unacceptable to incorporate
part of a term paper you wrote in high school into a
Results and Discussion paper assigned in a college course.
- Self-plagiarism also applies to submitting the same
- The Results section is to tell the reader what was piece of work for assignments in different classes
found in the study. without previous permission from both professors
- it includes the descriptive statistics for the relevant
variables (e.g mean, standard deviation).Then tell the Mosaic Plagiarism
reader what statistical test you used to test your
hypothesis and what you found. - Mosaic Plagiarism occurs when a student borrows
- The Discussion section is where the researcher phrases from a source without using quotation marks,
interprets and evaluates the results. or finds synonyms for the author’s language while
- The discussion of a research report section presents keeping to the same general structure and meaning of
the theoretical and practical implications of the findings the original.
and make recommendation for the future research. - Sometimes called “patch writing,” this kind of
- Discuss the results of the current study, explaining paraphrasing, whether intentional or not, is
exact academically dishonest and punishable – even if you
footnote your source

Accidental Plagiarism
Summary and Conclusions
- Accidental plagiarism occurs when a person neglects
- Conclusions is a summary of the main ideas that come to cite their sources, or misquotes their sources, or
out from the discussion. unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar
- it draws all arguments and findings together. words, groups of words, and/or sentence structure
- It indicates whether hypothesis were accepted or without attribution.
rejected. - Students must learn how to cite their sources and to
- It summarizes major findings of the study. take careful and accurate notes when doing research.
- The purpose of this section is to evaluate interpret the
result, especially with respect to the original research
question
How to Avoid Plagiarism

Summarize
The Reference Section
- You must reference the original source
- provides the reader with all the information needed to
- Your summary should be shorter than the text you are
seek out and obtain all original sources used in the
summarizing
research. it is written in the alphabetical order.
- You must use your own words, usually with a very
Appendices limited use of quotations

- provides a place for important information.it includes Paraphrase

tools prepared by the researcher and used in the
- You must reference the original source
study.it may be lettered, interview, names, raw data
- The text you produce may be shorter or longer than the
and data analysis sheet
original text
- You must use your own words

Avoiding Plagiarism Quote

Plagiarism - You must reference the original source

- The text produced is the exact length of the original text
- Passing of someone else’s work as your own, whether quoted (unless ellipses are used)
done deliberately or not. - You must use the original author’s exact words and you
- Not acknowledging when using information (i.e. data, must put quotation marks around them
tables, figures or graphics) from other writers. - You must include the page number of the source from
- Inadequately paraphrasing a source. which you borrowed the author’s original language
- THE ACT OF PRESENTING ANOTHER’S WORK OR - You can introduce quotes with phrases like According
IDEAS AS YOUR OWN to Bob Jones, “xxx” or Bob Jones stated

Provide a References page

What does Plagiarism Look Like?
- All the sources cited in the paper must be put in the
- Copying someone’s work References page found after the Recommendation
- Citing a source improperly part of the paper
- Failure to cite a source
- Creation of false sources Include documentation
- Turning in another person’s work as your own
- All visual images, charts, and graphs from printed and
electronic sources must be properly documente