MODULE 1:

WHAT IS
READING?
OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, you

will be able to:
1. understand reading as a
process and skill;
2. understand the nature of
academic texts;
3. illustrate the features of
academic language; and
4. comprehend the strategies of
reading academic texts.
OUTLINE:
A.What is Reading?
B.Reasons for Improving Reading Skill
C.What is an Academic Text?
D.Characteristics of Academic Writing
E. Why Read Academic Texts? Purposes of
Academic Reading
F. How to read Academic Texts
G.Reading Strategies for Specialized Texts and
Online Resources
A. What is Reading?
- Among the many definitions of reading that have arisen
in recent decades, three prominent ideas emerge as most
critical for understanding what "learning to read"
means:
1. Reading is the action or skill of recognizing
written or printed matter silently or aloud.
2. Reading is a process undertaken to reduce uncertainty
about meanings a text conveys.
3. Reading is a process that results from a negotiation of
meaning between the text and its reader.
B. Reasons
for Improving
Reading Skill
- Here are some reasons for improving reading skill:
1. Reading is the first step towards literacy in any language.
It gives validity to the written form of language and brings it
into action.
2. Reading is the first step of education. You may learn a lot
of things through real-life experience and by listening to the
people around you, but reading will provide you with an
experience which cannot be gained in real life. In fact,
reading will equip you with a sign discerning system. This
sign discerning system will eventually equip you with a sign
making skill which is called writing. If education is without a
written form, language cannot be stable. So, reading is
undoubtedly the first step towards education.
3. Reading provides readers with a scheme for writing.
Reading provides you with many sources of knowledge,
information, feeling, idea, content, style and language from
which you can enjoy a lot of benefits. Reading and writing
frame and complete one another.

4. A good reading skill helps you in many cases like tests

and exams. If you read a text efficiently, half of the job will
be done. Improving your reading skill will make you think
and act faster in exams and in real life situations also.
C. What is an Academic Text?
Here are some thoughts on what academic text is:
- There is no exact definition that we can give to what an
academic text is.
- An academic text is a text that is done in adherence to
requirements in the academe.
- An academic text is a scholarly paper published in journals
and books. Other professional texts published in other
platforms can also be regarded as academic texts.
- Unlike non-academic texts, all texts that are academic adhere
to a kind of language that is common to its kind.
D. Characteristics of Academic Writing
 The language of academic text is not the usual
language of the many texts you encounter. Their
language is complex, objective, specific, concise, and
formal.
1. Complex
- Written texts are lexically dense compared to spoken
language - they have proportionately more lexical words than
grammatical words.
- Written texts are shorter and have longer, more complex
words and phrases. They have more noun-based phrases, more
nominalizations, and more lexical variations.
- Written language is grammatically more complex than
spoken language. It has more subordinate clauses, more
"that/to" complement clauses, more long sequences of
prepositional phrases, more attributive adjectives and more
passives than spoken language.
- The following features are common in academic written
 - Sentences with complex structures:
Karen reads poems. (simple sentence/main clause/independent
clause)
1. Karen reads poems in the house. (prepositional phrase)
2. Karen reads poems in the yellow house. (noun phrase)
3. Karen reads poems which were written by Nick Joacquin.
(complement)
4. Karen reads poems written by Nick Joacquin. (participle)
5. The poems are read by Karen. (passive)
6. Karen reads epic, classical and lyrical poems. (lexical density)
7. Karen reads undying and widely-read poems. (lexical
complexity)
8. Karen reads classical poems. (attributive adjective)
9. The poems are classical. (predicative adjective)
10.Karen reads poems if she is not busy. (subordinate clause)
2. Objective
- Being objective means that the main emphasis should be
on the information that you want to give and the
arguments you want to make, rather than you. This is
related to the basic nature of academic study and writing,
in particular. Nobody really wants to know what you
"think" or "believe." They want to know what you have
studied and learned and how this has led you to your
various conclusions. The thoughts and beliefs should be
based on your lectures, reading, discussion and research
and it is important to make this clear.
- Compare these two paragraphs:
a. The question of what constitutes "language proficiency" and the nature
of its cross-lingual dimensions is also at the core of many hotly debated
issues in the areas of bilingual education and second language pedagogy
and testing. Researchers have suggested ways of making second language
teaching and testing more "communicative" (e.g., Canale and Swain,
1980; Oller, 1979) on the grounds that a communicative approach better
reflects the nature of language proficiency than one which emphasizes the
acquisition of discrete language skills.

b. We don't really know what language proficiency is but many people have
talked about it for a long time. Some researchers have tried to find ways for
us to make teaching and testing more communicative because that is how
language works. I think that language is something we use for
communicating, not an object for us to study and we remember that when
we teach and test it.
- In general, avoid words like "I," "me," "myself." A
reader will normally assume that any idea not referenced
is your own. It is, therefore, unnecessary to make this
explicit. Don't write:"In my opinion, this is a very
interesting study." Write: "This is a very interesting
study."

- Avoid "you" to refer to the reader or people in general.

Don't write: "You can easily forget how different life was
50 years ago." Write: "It is easy to forget how difficult
life was 50 years ago."
- Here are some expressions or prompts to make an academic
writing more objective:
a. Clearly this was far less true of France than ...
b. This is where the disagreements and
controversies begin...
c. The data indicates that ...
d. This is not a view shared by everyone; Jones, for example, claims
that ...
e. Very few people would claim ...
f. It is worthwhile at this stage to consider ...
g. Of course, more concrete evidence is needed
before ...
g. Several possibilities emerge ...
h. A common solution is ...
3. Specific
- In academic writing you need to be precise when you use
information, dates or figures.

- Do not use "a lot of people" when you can say "50 million people."

- Examples:

a. Chemists had attempted to synthesize quinine for the previous

hundred years but all they had achieved was to discover the
extreme complexity of the problem.
b. The volatile oily liquid beta-chloro-beta-ethyl sulphide
was first synthesized in 1854, and in 1887 it was reported
to produce blisters if it touched the skin. It was called
mustard gas and was used at Ypres in 19I7, when it
caused many thousands of casualties.

c. It is approximately eight inches in length and runs

from the urinary bladder, through the prostate gland,
under the front of the pelvis, and, passing through the
corpus spongiosum, it ends at the tip of the glans penis in
an opening called the urethral meatus .
4. Concise
- The language should not be verbose. It must be
straight forward to what it intends to convey. As
much as possible, always be brief on your statement.
Unlike literary texts, brevity and conciseness matter
in academic texts. By being concise, you can also
avoid different interpretations of the meaning you
want to say.
 Redundancy The Lean (Short) Version
12 midnight midnight
12 noon noon
3 am in the morning 3 am
absolutely spectacular spectacular
a person who is honest an honest person
a total of 14 birds 14 birds
biography of her life biography
circle around circle
close proximity proximity
completely unanimous unanimous
consensus of opinion consensus
Redundancy The Lean (Short) Version
he/she is a person who . . . he/she
important/basic essentials essentials
in spite of the fact that although
in the field of economics in economics/law enforcement
in the event that if
job functions jobs or functions
new innovations innovations
one and the same the same
particular interest interest
period of four days four days
personally, I think/feel I think/feel
personal opinion opinion
5. Formal
- In general this means that you should avoid:
a. colloquial words and expressions: ""stuff," "a lot of,"
"thing," "sort of."
b. contractions or abbreviated forms: "can't," "doesn't,"
"shouldn't."
c. sub-headings, numbering and bullet-points in formal
essays - but use them in reports.
d. asking questions3
3
http://www.uefap.com/writing/feature/featfram.htm
Examples of Informal and Formal Tone in Writing a Paragraph:
Informal:

I decided to write an extended essay on how hip-hop works

as protest of the lower classes because I think the music is
cool and really gets people dancing, inspiring those people
who wouldn’t normally think there’s any point in being
against anything to listen to the message. Being an
enthusiastic hip-hop dancer myself, I really wanted to find
out some more about this.
E. Why Read
Academic
Texts?
1. Information comes from reputable sources: Web
sites and blogs can be a source of insight and
information, but not all are useful as academic
resources. They may be written by people or companies
whose main purpose is to share an opinion or sell you
something. Academic sources such as textbooks and
scholarly journal articles, on the other hand, are usually
written by experts in the field and have to pass stringent
peer review requirements in order to get published.
2. Learn how to form arguments: In most college
classes except for creative writing, when instructors ask
you to write a paper, they expect it to be argumentative
in style. This means that the goal of the paper is to
research a topic and develop an argument about it using
evidence and facts to support your position. Since many
college reading assignments (especially journal articles)
are written in a similar style, you’ll gain experience
studying their strategies and learning to emulate them.
 3. Exposure to different viewpoints: One purpose of
assigned academic readings is to give students exposure to
different viewpoints and ideas. For example, in an ethics
class, you might be asked to read a series of articles
written by medical professionals and religious leaders who
are pro-life or pro-choice and consider the validity of their
arguments. Such experience can help you wrestle with
ideas and beliefs in new ways and develop a better
understanding of how others’ views differ from your own.
∙
F. How to Read Academic Texts
1. Preview: You can gain insight from an academic text
before you even begin the reading assignment. For
example, if you are assigned a nonfiction book, read the
title, the back of the book, and table of contents.
Scanning this information can give you an initial idea of
what you’ll be reading and some useful context for
thinking about it. You can also start to make
connections between the new reading and knowledge
you already have, which is another strategy for
retaining information.
2. Read: While you read an academic text,
you should have a pen or pencil in hand.
Circle or highlight key concepts. Write
questions or comments in the margins or in a
notebook. This will help you remember what
you are reading and also build a personal
connection with the subject matter.
3. Summarize: After you read an academic text, it’s
worth taking the time to write a short summary - even
if your instructor doesn’t require it. The exercise of
jotting down a few sentences or a short paragraph
capturing the main ideas of the reading is enormously
beneficial: it not only helps you understand and
absorb what you read but also gives you ready study
and review materials for exams and other writing
assignments.
4. Review: It always helps to revisit what you’ve
read for a quick refresher. It may not be practical
to thoroughly reread assignments from start to
finish, but before class discussions or tests, it’s a
good idea to skim through them to identify the
main points, reread any notes at the ends of
chapters, and review any summaries you’ve
written.
G. Reading Strategies for Specialized
Texts and Online Resources
- Below are some strategies for making different kinds of
text more approachable:
1. Get to Know the Conventions
- Academic texts, like scientific studies and journal
articles, may have sections that are new to you.
If you’re not sure what an “abstract” is, research
it online or ask your instructor. Understanding the
meaning and purpose of such conventions is not
only helpful for reading comprehension but for
writing, too.
2. Look up and Keep Track of Unfamiliar Terms and Phrases.
- Have a good dictionary such as Merriam-Webster handy (or find it
online) when you read complex academic texts, so you can look up the
meaning of unfamiliar words and terms. Many textbooks also contain
glossaries or “key terms” sections at the ends of chapters or the end of
the book. If you can’t find the words you’re looking for in a standard
dictionary, you may need one specially written for a particular
discipline. For example, a medical dictionary would be a good resource
for a course in anatomy and physiology.
- If you circle or underline terms and phrases that appear repeatedly,
you’ll have a visual reminder to review and learn them. Repetition helps
to lock in these new words and their meaning get them into long-term
memory, so the more you review them the more you’ll understand and
feel comfortable using them.
3. Look for Main Ideas and Themes
- As a student, you are not expected to understand every single word or idea
presented in a reading, especially if you haven’t discussed it in class yet.
However, you will get more out of discussions and feel more confident
about asking questions if you can identify the main idea or thesis in a
reading. The thesis statement can often (but not always) be found in the
introductory paragraph, and it may be introduced with a phrase like “In
this essay I argue that . . .” Getting a handle on the overall reason an
author wrote something (“to prove X” or “to explore Y,” for instance) gives
you a framework for understanding more of the details.
- It’s also useful to keep track of any themes you notice in the writing. A
theme may be a recurring idea, word, or image that strikes you as
interesting or important: “This story is about men working in a gloomy
factory, but the author keeps mentioning about birds and bats and
windows. Why is that?”
4. Get the Most of Online Reading
- Reading online texts presents unique challenges for some students. For one
thing, you can’t readily circle or underline key terms or passages on the screen
with a pencil. For another, there can be many tempting distractions—just a
quick visit to amazon.com or Facebook.

- While there’s no substitute for old-fashioned self-discipline, you can take

advantage of the following tips to make online reading more efficient and
effective:
a. Where possible, download the reading as a PDF, Word document, etc., so you
can read it offline.
b. Get one of the apps that allow you to disable your social media sites for
specified periods of time.
c. Adjust your screen to avoid glare and eye strain, and change the text font to
be less distracting (for those essays written in Comic Sans).
5. Look for Reputable Online Sources
- Professors tend to assign reading from reputable print and online
sources, so you can feel comfortable referencing such sources in class
and for writing assignments. If you are looking for online sources
independently, however, devote some time and energy to critically
evaluating the quality of the source before spending time reading
any resources you find there.
- Find out what you can about the author (if one is listed), the Web
site, and any affiliated sponsors it may have. Check that the
information is current and accurate against similar information on
other pages. Depending on what you are researching, sites that end
in “.edu” (indicating an “education” site such as a college, university,
or other academic institution) tend to be more reliable than “.com”
sites.
6. Pay Attention to Visual Information
- Images in textbooks or journals usually contain valuable
information to help you more deeply grasp a topic. Graphs and
charts, for instance, help show the relationship between
different kinds of information or data—how a population
changes over time, how a virus spreads through a population,
etc.
- Data-rich graphics can take longer to “read” than the text
around them because they present a lot of information in a
condensed form. Give yourself plenty of time to study these
items, as they often provide new and lasting insights that
are easy to recall later (like in the middle of an exam on
that topic!).
H. Check Your Understanding
(Please refer to the module for the questions and texts.)

1. TRUE or FALSE: Read each statement very carefully and analyze its
truthfulness or falsity. Write TRUE in the space provided if the
statement is correct, and FALSE if it is incorrect. (10 points)
2. COMPARE and CONTRAST: Read the poem and the abstract
below. Compare and contrast their languages. Write your answer in
the box provided. (10 points)
3. PARAGRAPH WRITING: Write a short paragraph about your
track (HumSS, ABM, ICT, GAS, STEM, etc). Observe the
features of academic language in your writing. Let a classmate
critic your work. Improve according to the comments of your
Rubric for Paragraph Writing:

5 3 2 1 Score

Main Strong main Adequate Weakly stated Unclear

Topic idea main idea main idea main idea
restated in restated in weakly not restated
the closing the closing restated in in closing
sentence sentence closing sentence
sentence

Supporti Three or Two One No

ng more supporting supporting supporting
Sentence supporting sentences sentence sentences
s sentences per per paragraph
per paragraph
paragraph

Grammar Few, if any, Several Many errors Many

Thank you!