MODULE 1
ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL TEXTS: AN INTRODUCTION
Academic and professional writing, which is typically formal and objective, involves specialized writing done by experts from
or intended for particular fields of expertise.
An excellent starting point to improve your professional and academic writing skills is to fully understand meanings in
various texts and expand your vocabulary.
Reading is a lifelong skill that could power your communication skills, both in oral and written forms. It helps expand
knowledge by widening your vocabulary, sharpening your analytical skills, and encouraging your critical thinking.
It also helps in building a healthy self-image and cultivating your capacity to foster connection with other people, ultimately
leading to vast, fruitful personal and professional relationships.
Reading- the process of perusing and inferring meaning from written texts, promotes mental fitness as it improves focus,
challenges comprehension, and enhances memory.
READING STRATEGIES
Previewing refers to getting an overview of a text without fully reading its body. This could be done by checking for
headlines and titles contained in a work, getting a glimpse on how its contents are organized, quickly looking at
end-of-chapter questions or activities, and briefly looking at chapter summaries, or at the material's foreword and
afterword.
Skimming refers to quickly reading the text, so you get an idea of what it is about. Compared with previewing,
skimming involves quickly reading the actual text and picking up ideas from paragraphs, without going too heavy
on details.
Scanning also involves rapid reading, but it is done with the intention of finding a particular information in mind
prior to reading. For instance, when you want to know the definition of an important word used in a textbook, you
quickly direct your eyes to the keyword on the page it appears in without reading the whole page or paragraph.
Detailed reading- as the term implies, it pertains to the careful perusal, analysis, and interpretation of a text.
Though time-consuming and requiring more effort, this strategy is deemed most appropriate in holistically
determining the contents of a written material and in fully understanding its meanings.
FINDING THE MAIN THESIS/IDEA OF A TEXT
The main thesis idea of a text is the central concept around which details center.
A main idea may be explicitly or implicitly mentioned in the text.
Some of the helpful and quick ways to determine the main idea of a text include reading the text and analyzing it for
an explicitly stated main idea; paying close attention to the text's opening and closing sentences; stating the text in
your own words in terms of how you remember and understand its meaning; and identifying ideas or concepts that
are emphasized (repeatedly stressed) in the text.
VOCABULARY BUILDING
A wide vocabulary enriches all possible areas of communication. It sharpens one's listening, speaking, reading,
and writing skills.
It also allows for clear comprehension of content heard or viewed and invites deeper and more meaningful
questions and perceptions about the world.
Academic and professional writing often requires specific vocabulary to communicate a message in an objective
and formal manner.
Some common ways to enrich your vocabulary are checking the dictionary for the lexical definitions of words,
examining their structure, and analyzing the context within which they are used in the text.
As for word structures, prefixes and suffixes often offer a clue on what words mean. It is hence useful to place a
sharper focus on affixes to predict meanings of words that are unfamiliar to you.
CONTEXT CLUES
Context clues are hints about the meaning of an unfamiliar word. These clues are found in the sentence or
paragraph containing the unfamiliar word and may appear before, after, or close to it.
Context clues appear as definitions or descriptions of the unfamiliar word and are set off by commas, dashes, or
parentheses.
Phrases such as which is, that is, could also imply hinted meaning.
Meanwhile, phrases like such as, like, for example imply examples, which are also a form of context clue.
The presence of synonyms and antonyms in a sentence likewise guides you on the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
Written Activity no.1
A. Identify whether the following statements apply to academic and professional writing. If they do, write Yes on the space
provided; if not, write No
_______ 1. Academic writing has its own conventions, tone, and structure.
_______ 2. Good reading and comprehension skills have no impact on strong academic writing.
_______ 3. Academic writing is normally objective and formal in tone.
_______ 4. Academic writing rejects specialized language.
_______ 5. Reading strategies aid in improving comprehension.
B. Answer the following.
1. Why is it important to learn academic and professional writing?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
2. What skills are necessary to become a strong academic and/or professional writer?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
3. How is a strong vocabulary linked to improved reading comprehension and good academic writing skills?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
4. How can you continuously expand your vocabulary?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
5. In what ways is your field of expertise improved or enriched by academic and professional writing?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Written Activity no.2
Read the text below. Then, answer the activity that follows.
At a time of artificial intelligence, big data, and other scientific and technological strides, the world paradoxically finds itself
grappling through an unprecedented, though not unlikely, enemy: a pandemic. A year after its declaration as an
international health crisis, the COVID-19 virus has rapidly and negatively impacted some 200 countries, infecting
approximately 110 million, and killing more than 2.5 million individuals.
Predominantly transferred through direct contact with respiratory droplets from an infected person, communities worldwide
have been forced on lockdowns to help contain contamination from the virus.
This necessitates temporary closure for commercial establishments and educational institutions, halting face-to-face
business and classroom interactions. Businessmen and educators have since been confronted with the challenge of
exploring alternative modes of communication in an effort to ensure continued operations despite the pandemic. As for
experts in science and technology, the race for a medical solution to definitively tackle the virus remains. Posing an added
challenge to battling the pandemic are the iterative nature of scientific information and the politically charged environment
surrounding the health issue
Thought leaders propose ensuing efforts to involve collaborated, coordinated action among all individuals concerned. This,
plus science-guided research, are man's best hope for beating this enemy once and for all.
A. The following are the bold words in the selection you read. Infer their meaning through context clues. Circle the
letter of your answer.
1. paradoxically
a. obviously b. ironically c. interestingly d. faultily
2. pandemic
a. health improvement b. health status c. health emergency d. health program
3. approximately
a. roughly b. ideally c. majority d. accordingly
4. necessitates
a. leads to b. is caused by c. concerns d. requires
5. ensuing
a. ensuring b. succeeding c. promising d. foregoing
B. Put your reading comprehension to the test. Read the questions and circle the letter of your answer.
1. What is the main idea of the text?
a. how the COVID-19 pandemic disabled global interactions
b. expanding business and education amid the COVID-19 pandemic
c. impacts of and potential actions to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic
d. charting future directions for global health experts in fighting COVID-19
2. The text mentions effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the following EXCEPT-
a. engineers b. educators c. businessmen d. scientists
3. Aside from its unknown nature, what poses an added challenge to the fight against COVID-19?
a. Economics b. Physics c. Genomics d. Politics
4. What does the author mean by the statement "iterative scientific information surrounding the health concern"?
a. Scientific information on COVID-19 is evolving.
b. Scientific information on COVID-19 is limited.
c. Scientific information on COVID-19 is well-ordered.
d. Scientific information on COVID-19 is superior.
5. The text mentions the following to likely end the pandemic EXCEPT-
a. science-guided studies
b. medical solution such as vaccines
c. strengthened immunity in all countries
d. coordinated action among stakeholders involved
