english for academic writing, Summaries of English

Download english for academic writing and more Summaries English in PDF only on Docsity! THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES (BASED ON K-12 ENGLISH COMPETENCIES) Prepared by: FETTY JAMIS GILO THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES INTRODUCTION A learning Module in English for Academic and Professional Purposes for Grade 11 Students is an interactive module designed to meet the needs of the 21st century learners. It is anchored on a holistic approach in developing the basic learning competencies of the K-12 Basic Education Curriculum. The lessons per quarter focus on the development of communication skills in English for academic and professional purposes. Academic writing is usually seen as lonely and frightening endeavour. Most of the time, students and even professionals cower when asked to hand in academic papers. They seem to have a notion that writing academic papers requires skills that very few possess. This imposing manner of looking at academic writing has to be changed; students have to see that academic writing accessible to senior high school students. This module aims to make learners realize that academic writing is personal and not just a technical and alienating endeavour. The author’s intent with this module is to lay the foundations for an exciting career in the academe and beyond. This is going to be the metaphorical torch of education handed down from one generation to another; it introduces a way of seeing, a way of thinking, and a way of writing that should help our learners in the future. In this lesson, academic writing will be introduce to you. You will find out what is and how it is different from other fields of writing. You will know that although academic writing adheres to certain standards, it is a personal activity and that your voice as a writer should still surface despite the product of your research and documentation. THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES Text B Mother Tongue (An Excerpt) Amy Tan (1) I am not a scholar of English or literature. I cannot give you much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country or others. (2) I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language -- the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all -- all the Englishes I grew up with. (3) Recently, I was made keenly aware of the different Englishes I do use. I was giving a talk to a large group of people, the same talk I had already given to half a dozen other groups. The nature of the talk was about my writing, my life, and my book, The Joy Luck Club. The talk was going along well enough, until I remembered one major difference that made the whole talk sound wrong. My mother was in the room. And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech, using the kind of English I have never used with her. I was saying things like, "The intersection of memory upon imagination" and "There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus- and-thus'--a speech filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, conditional phrases, all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother. (4) Just last week, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I again found myself conscious of the English I was using, the English I do use with her. We were talking about the price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: "Not waste money that way." My husband was with us as well, and he didn't notice any switch in my English. And then I realized why. It's because over the twenty years we've been together I've often used that same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with. …. (5) Lately, I've been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as 'broken" or "fractured" English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than "broken," as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. I've heard other terms used, "limited English," for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's perceptions of the limited English speaker. (6) I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say, that is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her. (7) My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she. In this guise, I was forced to ask for information or even to complain and yell at people who had been rude to her. One time it was a call to her stockbroker in New York. She had cashed out her small portfolio and it just so happened we were going to go to New York the next week, our very first trip outside California. I had to get on the phone and say in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, "This is Mrs. Tan." THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES (8) And my mother was standing in the back whispering loudly, "Why he don't send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money. (9) And then I said in perfect English, "Yes, I'm getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived." (10) Then she began to talk more loudly. "What he want, I come to New York tell him front of his boss, you cheating me?" And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, "I can't tolerate any more excuses. If I don't receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I'm in New York next week." And sure enough, the following week there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English. Your answer: Text C Your answer: Dear Prof. Lanuza: Congratulations for being chosen as one of the recipients of the ASEAN Educational Program Award. You are invited to the 5th Annual ASEAN English Teachers’ Conference. Our sponsors value the important work done by English language teachers and they are willing to support your professional endeavour by giving financial aid in the conference. The conference organizers and sponsors want to know more about your work and how the ASEAN English Teachers’ Conference will be able to help you. May we ask you to complete the attached questionnaire to help us provide that information? Also, we would appreciate the opportunity for members of our Sponsorship Profile team to talk with you about your work and the challenges and opportunities that you have identified in your study. If you have questions, just send me an email or check this link to the conference website. Thank you and we look forward to meeting you. Best regards, Prof. Hannah Lee THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES Text D Your answer: Your answer: Your answer: Your answer: Some students think that academic essays are difficult because they are written in long sentences that are mostly compound-complex and use words that hard to understand. How then do you distinguish an academic text from a business letter or a personal essay? Below is a table that will help you answer this question. Reread the four texts and fill out this table based on your evaluation of the texts. Republic of the Philippines REGIONAL TRIAL COURT Judicial Region Branch , City EX-PARTE MOTION FOR EXTENSION TO SUBMIT COMPROMISE AGREEMENT Defendants, by the undersigned counsel and unto Honorable Court, respectfully state that: (1) On 5 January 2015, the Honorable Court, in open court, directed the Parties to submit their Compromise Agreement within ten (10) days therefrom, or on 15 January 2015. Said day being a Sunday, the Parties have until the next working day, 16 January 2015, to submit said Compromise Agreement. (2) Defendant Hannah Dy is presently abroad and needs to execute a Special Power of Attorney authorizing her brother and Co-Defendant Roland Dy to sign the Compromise Agreement on her behalf. (3) Thus, the Defendants respectfully pray that the Parties be given additional fifteen (15) days from today, or until 30 January 2015, within which to submit their Compromise Agreement. (4) This Motion is not intended to delay the instant proceedings but filed solely by reason of the foregoing. Moreover, the filing of the same will not result in any injustice or prejudice to any of the parties herein. TASK 3 THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES II. Evaluation: Answer the following questions in one paragraph. Each paragraph is worth 10 points. 1. What is academic writing? What are its features? 2. What is the importance of academic writing? 3. How is academic writing different form a letter? How about from a court order/ THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES READING TEXTS CRITICALLY The previous lesson established that writing academic papers goes hand in hand with research. Research must be done so you can find credible sources to support your claims in your paper. Ever since Google and Wikipedia have become readily accessible, hundreds of sources have become available, too. This is where critical reading comes into play. You have to be able to discriminate between the valuable and not so valuable sources if you want to write academic papers. I. Objectives: A. Explain what critical reading is, B. annotate, outline, summarize, and question the writers claim in a text, C. analyze a text by applying the different ways in reading critically, D. uses various techniques in summarizing a variety of academic texts (CS_EN11/12A-EAPP- Iac-4), E. outlines reading texts in various disciplines (CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Iac-8), F. states the thesis statement of an academic text 9CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Iac-6), and G. enhance learners’ knowledge of appropriate reading strategies for a better understanding of academic texts that will help them develop their skills to become globally competent and well- disciplined individuals. HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW IT What Is Critical Reading? Imagine that you are reading a magazine and you see the following statements:  Girls most likely do well in academics during high school years but boys get ahead of them in college.  Female teenagers are more concerned with their physical appearance than male teenagers. Do you believe and agree with the statements after reading them? Would you question their veracity? How would you react after reading the statements? If you question the validity of the statements by asking the person to give the basis for his/her assertions, then you are one step closer to becoming a critical reader. FOR GRADE 11 Let’s get started! THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES Critical reading involves scrutinizing any information that you read or hear. Critical reading means not easily believing information offered to you by a texts. It is an active process of discovery because when you read critically, you are not just receiving information but also making an interaction with the writer. The interaction happens when you question the writer’s claim and assertions and when you comment on the writer’s ideas. Ramage, Bean, and Johnson (2006) identified the following requirements in critical thinking:  The ability to pose problematic questions  The ability to analyze a problem in all its dimensions – to define its key terms, determine its causes, understand its history, appreciate its human dimension and its connection to one’s own personal experience, and appreciate what makes it problematic or complex  The ability to fin, gather, and interpret data, facts, and other information relevant to the problem  The ability to imagine alternative solutions to the problem, to see different ways in which the question might be answered and different perspectives for viewing it  The ability to analyze competing approaches and answers, to construct arguments for and against alternatives, and to choose the best solution in the light of values, objectives, and other criteria that you determine and articulate  The ability to write an effective argument justifying your choice while acknowledging counter- arguments The following are some suggested ways to help you become a critical reader: • On of the ways to interact with the writer is to write on the text. You can underline, circle, or highlight words, phrases, or sentences that contain important details, or you can write marginal notes asking questions or commenting on the ideas of the writer. There are no clear and definite guideline to annotating a text; you can create your own style. For instance, you can circle unfamiliar words or underline ideas that you think are questionable. You can use sample annotated essay below as your guide. ( if the text/s covered by the captions, you may refer to the first lesson in this module to uncover the texts) 1. Annotate what you read. THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES Before-Reading 1. Read the story, “Love Is a Fallacy” by Max Shulman, and pay close attention to its development as well as to the contradictions and ironic twist that you may find. (PDF copy can be downloaded through this link: https://www.filozofia.bme.hu) 2. Apply the four ways of reading critically. Annotate as you read then write a summary after reading. Comprehension Questions 1. How would you describe the narrator of the story? 2. Using your annotation and summary, identify the following: A. Purpose/intention of the author B. Assumptions of the author C. Claims of the author 3. Is the author successful in accomplishing his purpose? Why or why not? 4. If you were Polly, would you fall for the narrator or for Petey? 5. Do you agree that love is a fallacy? Why or why not? • Aside from outlining, you can also get the main points of the text you are reading and write its gist in your own words. This will test how much you have understood the text and will help you evaluate it critically. A summary is usually one paragraph long. 3. Summarize the text. • The most challenging part in cirtical reading is the process of evaluating what you are reading. This is the point where the other three techniques- annotating, outlining, summarizing - will be helpful. When you evaluate a text, you question the author's purpose and intentions, as well as his/her assumptions in the claims. You also check if the arguments are supported by evidence and if the evidence are valid and are from credible sources 4. Evaluate the text. TASK 1 TASK 2 THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES Expand you knowledge Make an outline out of the story “Love Is a Fallacy” by Max Shulman using the format given as an example during the discussion and kindly indicate the thesis statement clearly. II. Evaluation: Answer each of the following questions in one paragraph. Each paragraph is worth ten points. 1. What does it mean and take to be a critical reader? 2. Why is critical reading considered an active process of discovery? 3. Why is critical reading important? In what way is critical reading related to critical writing? 4. What are the different ways to become a critical reader? Do you agree with them? Why or why not? TASK 3 Thesis statement: Supporting details: Point 1: Point 2: Point 3: THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES WRITING ACADEMIC TEXT In the previous lesson, you were taught to be a critical reader. It was emphasized that critical reading is a requirement in order to become a critical writer. Reading gives you more knowledge about the world and makes you aware of the different issues happening around you, helps you explore and discover new things, etc. reading, in this sense, can enrich your writing. I. Objectives: A. Illustrate that writing is a process and that re-writing is part of that process, B. uses knowledge of text structure to glean the information he/she needs (CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Iac- 4), C. construct a clear thesis statement, D. distinguish between paraphrasing and quoting and use them appropriately in the paper, E. document the sources properly using MLA, and F. develop learners’ knowledge about writing to enhance their skills to become well-disciplined and academically competent individuals globally. HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW IT To fully understand the process of writing, follow each of the steps in this activity: 1. Jot down all the terms or ideas that you like or curious about. Write two paragraphs using those ideas. Do not worry about coherence and clarity; just write anything that you can think of. 2. Reread what you have written and decide which of the ideas are connected to each other. Group the similar ideas in one category. You may use a graphic representation (chart, map, arrows, and table) to show the relationships of the ideas. 3. Examine the ideas that you mapped out and identify which ideas are broad and/or general and which ideas are specific. Separate the broad topics from the specific ones. 4. Understand why you are writing the paper. Are you writing to inform, to describe, to persuade, or to entertain? 5. Think of the people who will possibly read your paper. Try to envision who they are, what they know about your topic, what they need to know about your topic, how they feel about your topic, what their attitudes, are toward your topic, and what would be the reasons they would read your paper. Did you realize that you have already followed the step in pre-writing? FOR GRADE 11 Let’s get started! THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES Expand your knowledge A PDF copy of “Documenting Sources in MLA Style” will be given through the link below. This contains everything you need to know about Modern Language Association (MLA) formatting style guide, which is often used in the arts and humanities. Make sure to read the document and familiarize yourselves with the format in citing sources. Organizing your Paper Developing your Thesis Statement Introduction provides a background of your topic, poses a question regarding the topic, explains how the question is problematic and significant, and gives the writer's thesis statement. Body answer or propose a solution to the thesis statement. You have to support your main points and include details that support the thesis statement. Conclusion should bring together the points made in your paper. May leave a thought-provoking idea that you wish your audience consider. Synthesize the main points and empathize your thesis statement. Organizing your Ideas Outlining TASK 3 Documenting Sources in MLA Style https://www.mtroyal.ca TASK 4 This part should offer a debatable claim that you can prove or disprove in your essay. It should introduce ideas that may challenge your reader’s view. THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES Expand your knowledge To further expand your knowledge on how to write an effective essays, read Paul Robert’s essay, “How to Say Nothing in Five Hundred Words” in this link provided below (Downloadable PDF: https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA1000195/Centricity/Domain/1300/How%20to%20say%nothing%in%20500% 20words.pdf). This essay was written in the 1950s but the tips that he gave are still very relevant, especially to young writers like you. The Post-Writing Process There are two processes involved in post-writing: revising and editing. According to Murray (2005:273), revising is “re-seeing the entire draft so that the writer can deal with the large issues that must be resolved before he or she deals with the line-by-line, word-by-word issues involved editing.” Murray (2005:275) provided checklist for revising in this downloadable link in PDF form (https://wac.clostate.edu/jbw/v3n3/murray.pdf) Carry this out! Before the teacher will check your essay you to do this Self Evaluation Check. Critique the essay that you made during the previous activities, follow the revision guide in doing so. Give comments and feedback to yourself. Be guided by Donald Murray’s questions in the revision checklist. Add the following questions on format and mechanics. Format and Mechanics  Are the sentences well-constructed?  Are words appropriately used?  Is grammar (agreement, tense, articles, pronouns, prepositions) correct?  Are the paper format and conventions of style properly observed?  Did the writer observe proper scholarly referencing and documentation?  Are punctuations, paragraph divisions, spelling, and parallel constructions observed? Rubrics:  Content = 35%  Organization = 30%  Language and Style = 20%  Format and Mechanics = 15% Let’s see if we match! TASK 5 TASK 6 TASK 7 THE NEW EL SALVADOR COLLEGES, INC. MODULES II. Evaluation: Answer the questions below: 1. What makes a writing process? 2. What is a thesis statement? What is the importance of thesis statement in your essay? 3. What are the nine pieces of advice in writing that Paul Roberts gave?