new AAEL Chapter 1

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy Chapter 1: Introduction to Research Writing (Advance Academic English Literacy) Objectives: After completing Chapter 1, learners will be able to 1. recognize the concept of research writing, 2. identify textual organization of the essay, and 3. express the significance of research writing Warm-up activity: Instruction: Write the definition of advanced academic English literacy according to your understanding on padlet on the link provided. Introduction to Research Writing 1

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy Chapter 1: Introduction to Research Writing Instructions: Answer the following questions 1. What kinds of text have you read and written based on your English learning experiences? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 2. Why did you have to read/write these tasks? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 3. Do you think what your problem(s) is/are when you have been assigned to read/write an academic paper? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 4. How did you figure out the problem(s)? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 5. How long did you spend to fix that/those problem(s) _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 6. What is/are your objective(s) to study a master's degree? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 7. What kinds of text will you read and write while studying master's degree? _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 8. What does academic English literacy mean? _______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Introduction to Research Writing 2

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy Definition of academic literacy: According to Weideman (2014), academic literacy is defined as the ability to:  understand academic vocabulary in context and connection of the different textual parts;  interpret and use metaphor and idiom, and identify the meaning of the word, wordplay, and vagueness;  interpret different text types (genres) and show understanding of the conveyed meaning of the text and the implied meaning of the audience aimed at, including interpreting and use language presented in a visual format;  aware of the logicality of the text genre from introductions to conclusions and identify the language use related in the different parts of a text;  recognize major and minor detail, fact and opinion, propositions and arguments, cause and effect, compartment and category handling data;  understand the communicative function of expression used in academic language (e.g., giving definition, describing, discussing);  see schematic or sequence of the text, produce a simple number of contextual sequences that are related to academic information, that allow comparisons to be made, and can be applied for an argument;  know what counts as evidence for an argument, infer information, and apply the information or its implications to other cases than the one at hand;  make meaning of an academic text beyond the sentence level. Types of Academic texts (genres) What is text type or genre? The word 'genre' has been appearing in academic works like a buzzword since the late 1960s. It was used to categorize the different patterns of literature, movies, novels, and poems (Abdullah, 2009), including text in the menus and shopping lists (Aston, as cited in Wallace, 1992). Besides, it has been used to determine academic and professional texts, for example, abstracts, essays, research articles, company audits, and brochures. In social and Introduction to Research Writing 3

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy cultural communication, the genre is referred to as “a set of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes” (Swales, 1990, p. 58) in spoken and writing interaction. In linguistics, it has been applied to examine the language used in terms of communicative purposes in text, form, and context in each disciplinary community. For the academic genre, it seems a group of texts demonstrates writers' language used normally to respond to recurrent ideas (Hyland, 2007). Sometimes, the genre can correspond in terms of text types that have been structured and used across disciplines. Despite the fact that genre has been used as a communicative event, text type can be more specific as a preferred vehicle of communication e.g., RAs, abstracts, review (book review/ review articles, essay format (descriptive, narrative, and argumentative), grant proposals, and Master's theses or Ph.D. dissertations as shown in Example I. Example I: (Literacy) Narrative Essay: Situation: Shanon Nichols, a student at Wright State University, describes her experience taking the standardized writing proficiency test that high school students in Ohio must pass to graduate. She wrote this essay for a college writing course, where her audience included her classmates and instructor. \"Proficiency\" The first time I took the ninth-grade proficiency test was in March of eighth grade.1 The test ultimately determines whether students may receive a high school diploma.2 After months of preparation and anxiety, the pressure was on.3 Throughout my elementary and middle school years, I was a strong student, always on the honor roll. 4 I never had a GPA below 3.0. I was smart, and I knew it.5 That is until I got the results of the proficiency test.6 Although the test was challenging, covering reading, writing, math, and citizenship, I was sure I had passed every part.7 To my surprise, I did pass every part—except writing.8 \"Writing! Yeah right! How did I manage to fail writing, and by half a point, no less?\"9 I thought to myself in disbelief.10 Seeing my test results brought tears to my eyes.11 I honestly could not believe it.12 To make matters worse, most of my classmates, including some who were barely passing eighth-grade English, passed that part.13 Introduction to Research Writing 4

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy Until that time, I loved writing just as much as I loved math.14 It was one of my strengths.15 I was good at it, and I enjoyed it.16 If anything, I thought I might fail citizenship.17 How could I have screwed up writing?18 I surely spelled every word correctly, used good grammar, and even used big words in the proper context19. How could I have failed?20 Finally, I got over it and decided it was no big deal.21 Surely I would pass the next time.22 In my honors English class I worked diligently, passing with an A.23 By October I'd be ready to conquer that writing test.24 Well, guess what?25 I failed the test again, again with only 4.5 of the 5 points needed to pass.26 That time I did cry, and even went to my English teacher, Mrs. Brown, and asked, \"How can I get A's in all my English classes but fail the writing part of the proficiency test twice?\"27 She couldn't answer my question.28 Even my friends and classmates were confused.29 I felt like a failure.30 I had disappointed my family and seriously let myself down.31 Worst of all, I still couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.32 I decided to quit trying so hard.33 Apparently—I told myself—the people grading the tests didn't have the slightest clue about what constituted good writing.34 I continued to excel in class and passed the test on the third try.35 But I never again felt the same love of reading and writing.36 This experience showed me just how differently my writing could be judged by various readers.37 Obviously, all my English teachers and many others enjoyed or at least appreciated my writing.38 A poem I wrote was put on television once.39 I must have been a pretty good writer.40 Unfortunately the graders of the ninth-grade proficiency test didn't feel the same, and when students fail the test, the state of Ohio doesn't offer any explanation.41 After I failed the test the first time, I began to hate writing, and I started to doubt myself.42 I doubted my ability and the ideas I wrote about.43 Failing the second time made things worse, so perhaps to protect myself from my doubts, I stopped taking English seriously.44 Perhaps because of that lack of seriousness, I earned a 2 on the Advanced Placement English Exam, barely passed the twelfth-grade proficiency test, and was placed in developmental writing in college.45 I wish I knew why I failed that test, because then I might have written what was expected on the second try, maintained my enthusiasm for writing, and continued to do well.46 By Shannon Nichols Key features: Nichols’ narrative focuses on her emotional reaction to failing the proficiency test that she should have passed easily. The contrast between her demonstrated writing ability and her repeated failures creates a tension that captures readers’ attention, so the readers want to know what will happen to her. Introduction to Research Writing 5

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy A well-told story Literacy narrative essay mostly presents some sort of situation that needs to be resolved. This need for resolution can give readers to keep on reading. As such, the reader might want to know whether Nichols ultimately will pass the proficiency test. Some literacy narrative essays simply explore the role that reading or writing played at some time in people's life by assuming. Vivid detail The details can bring a narrative to life for readers by giving them vivid mental images of the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of the world in which your story takes place. The details you use when describing something can help the reader picture places, people, and events; dialogue can help them hear what is being said. As seen, “To my surprise, I did pass every part—except writing.8 ‘Writing! Yeah right! How did I manage to fail writing, and by half a point, no less?\"9 I thought to myself in disbelief.10 Seeing my test results brought tears to my eyes.11” Some indication of the narrative’s significance Literacy narrative essay tells something the writer remembers about learning to read and write. The writer needs to make clear why the incident matters to him or her, so you should reveal the significance in various ways. For example, as Nichols does it when she says she no longer loves to read or write. Example II: Comparative and Contrastive Essay: Instructions: Identify the organization of the comparative and contrastive essay by answering the questions below. Using Technology in Our Communication Before the advent of computers and modern technology, people communicating over long distances used traditional means such as letters and the telephone.1 Nowadays we have a vast array of communication tools that can complete this task, ranging from email to instant messaging and video calls.2 While the present Introduction to Research Writing 6

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy and previous means of communication are similar in their general form, they differ regarding their speed and the range of tools available.3 One similarity between current and previous methods of communication relates to the form of communication.4 In the past, both written forms such as letters were frequently used, in addition to oral forms such as telephone calls.5 Similarly, people nowadays use both of these forms.6 Just as in the past, written forms of communication are prevalent, for example via email and text messaging.7 In addition, oral forms are still used, including the telephone, mobile phone, and voice messages via instant messaging services.8 However, there are many differences in the way we communicate over long distances, the most notable of which is speed.9 This is most evident concerning written forms of communication.10 In the past, letters would take days to arrive at their destination.11 In contrast, an email arrives almost instantaneously and can be read seconds after it was sent.12 In the past, if it was necessary to send a short message, for example at work, a memo could be passed around the office, which would take some time to circulate.13 This is different from the current situation, in which a text message can be sent immediately.14 Another significant difference is the range of communication methods.15 Fifty years ago, the tools available for communicating over long distances were primarily the telephone and the letter.16 By comparison, there are a vast array of communication methods available today.17 These include not only the telephone, letter, email, and text messages already mentioned, but also video conferences via software such as Skype or mobile phone apps such as We chat, and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.18 In conclusion, methods of communication have greatly advanced over the past fifty years.19 While there are some similarities, such as the forms of communication, there are significant differences, chiefly in the speed of communication and the range of communication tools available.20 There is no doubt that technology will continue to progress in the future, and the advanced tools which we use today may one day also become outdated.21 Source: http://www.eapfoundation.com/writing/essays/candc/ 1. Based on the above essay, please identify Introductory paragraph: Sentences _________________ Body paragraph: Sentences ________________________ Concluding paragraph: Sentences __________________ 2. Where is hook located in? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 3. Where is the thesis statement? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ Introduction to Research Writing 7

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy 4. What is the main idea of paragraphs 2, 3, and 4? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 5. What is the conclusion of the essay? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ Example III: Expository Essay: Instructions: Identify the organization of the expository essay by answering the questions below. Dimensions of Health Essay It is widely known that a completely healthy human being is a person that is healthy in every single aspect of the term “health”.1 Health is maintained not only by physical exercising, and having a nice fit and strong body cannot be a guarantee of real \"health\".2 This is because health has various dimensions.3 These dimensions include every single part of the life of a human a man, a woman, or a child.4 The violation of the functioning of any of these dimensions may have a deep impact on the weight management of a person.5 Before starting analyzing the exact ways these dimensions influence weight management it is necessary to mention all of them.6 The seven dimensions of health are the next: physical dimension, spiritual dimension, emotional (psychological) dimension, social, mental (intellectual), occupational and environmental dimensions.7 The psychical dimension is the first one to mention concerning weight management as the primary aim of weight management is the prevention of gaining weight and maintaining the body at its lower weight.8 It is obvious that the abuse of alcohol, drugs, smoking make a negative influence on the physical development of a person.9 Physical fitness in its turn may help to keep the body in a rather good condition.10 Spiritual dimension is responsible for the principles and believes that guide the person throughout life.11 If the person cannot be the way he is it can cause a large number of problems.12 Therefore the case of any interruptions, a misbalance in this dimension may result in the person's escape in passiveness.13 This in its turn will have an outcome in weight management.14 Emotional (psychological) dimension is closely related to the previous one.15 It deals primarily with the self-esteem of the individual, with the possibility of any emotional expressions he considers to be appropriate.16 This goes alongside the ability to overcome stress.17 If the person has low self-esteem, cannot accept himself and share his feeling it may influence weight management through gaining weight or losing too much weight.18 This completely depends on the peculiarities of the organism and the duration and power of stress.19 As for the social dimension of health, it is important to say that it is connected with the relations between the person and the outer world.20 It especially deals with family relations and relations with friends.21 Introduction to Research Writing 8

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy The lack of support from the side of these groups hits the health of a person by making the person feel needed and loved.22 Therefore any activity stops within the sphere of life of this individual once again resulting in the corruption of weight management.23 The mental dimension deals with the constant refill of intellectual knowledge, a constant seeks for new information.24 If the intellectual developments stop is starts stopping the functioning of other spheres too, influencing the weight management not at once, but throughout them.25 Occupational and environmental dimensions are related to the skills and talents of a person and the environmental possibility of their realizations, along with the general condition of the earth surface.26 All the mentioned dimensions altogether form the image of an ideal and balanced man.27 To be completely healthy and maintaining the proper weight it is required to keep them in perfect balance.28 Source: http://custom-essays.org/samples/Dimensions_of_Health.html 1. Based on the above essay, please identify Introductory paragraph: Sentences _________________ Body paragraph: Sentences ________________________ Concluding paragraph: Sentences __________________ 2. Where is hook located in? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 3. Where is the thesis statement? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 4. What is the main idea of paragraphs 2 and 3? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 5. What is the conclusion of the essay? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ Introduction to Research Writing 9

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy Example IV: Cause and Effect Essay: Instructions: Identify the organization of the cause and effect essay by answering the questions below. How does Smoking Affect Your Health? Smoking is one of the main issues that mankind today is confronted with in the world.1 Smoking is known to have started as early as 1439 A.D. Rodrigo de Jerez was the first ever smoker in Europe, and the development of cigars was originated by the Native American people.2 In the twentieth century, cigars were advertised all over the world as a harmless, anti-stress product with little or no side effects.3 Smoking was eventually become widespread all over English-speaking continents and was even popular among women.4 As technology became more advanced, the adverse effects of smoking on human health have increased exponentially.5 Researchers officially declared smoking as a harmful habit that in most cases is fatal.6 There are many reasons why people resort to smoking; many of the choices are based on the individual’s decisions.7 Much of the temptation to start smoking is based on the advertising propaganda carried out by cigarette manufacturers.8 People at home see the images of smoking people on their television screens, in newspapers, and in magazines.9 Children are influenced by their parents and maybe misled into thinking that smoking poses no danger.10 Statistics show that about nine out of ten tobacco users start smoking before they are eighteen years old.11 Peer pressure is another main reason why teenagers choose to do things they shouldn’t do: befriending the wrong group of people who might represent a negative example.12 Quite often it is the friends who persuade each other to start smoking or purchase a pack of cigarettes only to try what smoking is all about.13 Smoking is often portrayed in today’s society as a “cool” and “hip” thing to do.14 Moreover, on many occasions, smoking can contribute to the status of a person.15 The fact that it makes you look “cool” can tempt a person to light up and eventually harm his or her health.16 Culture can also have a powerful impact on whether smoking is accepted by society.17 For example, in Turkey, it might not be as frowned upon as in Switzerland.18 Some surveys point out that smoking is usually perceived as producing a relaxing effect; this can particularly appeal to businessmen and people who have stressful occupations.19 The harmful effects of smoking usually manifest themselves in one’s health over a long-term period.20 A cigarette contains three harmful substances that can lead to fatal illnesses.21 Nicotine is one of the most harmful chemicals in a cigarette.22 Nicotine is an addictive substance that can lead to having just one puff of a cigarette into buying numerous packets and smoking them all.23 Addiction can also result in absolutely unnecessary expenses, but most importantly this habit is very hard to part with which eventually leads to mostly irreversible damages to health.24 Most adults who start smoking in their teen years never expected to become Introduction to Research Writing 10

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy addicted.25 Tar is another component in a cigarette that contributes to the harmful effects of smoking.26 It is a brown, tacky chemical that is left behind on the end of the cigarette filter.27 It stains the smoker’s teeth and fingers and it also coats everything with a brownish-yellow film.28 The build-up of tar in the lungs can eventually cause cancer; it is now the most common cause of death among regular smokers.29 Moreover, cigarettes produce carbon monoxide which is, when inhaled, reduces the oxygen intake by red blood cells.30 This leads to shortness of breath, overall fatigue, and complications with the heart and lungs.31 What makes smoking frowned upon by society is that it not only affects the individual smoker’s health but also other civilians around.32 Second-hand smokers are also highly affected by the same damaging effects produced by cigarettes.33 The causes and effects of smoking are being discussed frequently in our society, and more and more solutions to resolve this issue are being brought up worldwide.34 Being in the media age, propaganda and commercial advertising play a big part in the indoctrination of our generation.35 People see what they believe about smoking and are led to thinking it’s a solution to problems like peer pressure, stress, and feeling left out.36 However, the actual effects of smoking include a high risk of cancer, addiction, and fatigue. 37 Men, women, and children are informed constantly of these circumstances, but still today, smoking remains a recurring topic on the list of the main issues around the world.38 Source: http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/tobacco/smoking.html 1. Based on the above essay, please identify Introductory paragraph: Sentences _________________ Body paragraph: Sentences ________________________ Concluding paragraph: Sentences __________________ 2. Where is the hook located? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 3. Where is the thesis statement? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 4. What is the main idea of paragraphs 2, 3, and 4? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ 5. What is the conclusion of the essay? Please identify. __________________________________________________________________ Introduction to Research Writing 11

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy Introduction Body Conclusion Figure 1: Organization of essay Weaving reading (examining) and writing the academic genre It is recognized that reading and writing are two sides of one coin. People can read what a writer writes and can write the text for someone (reader). For example, when writing a letter, an essay, or a research proposal, you should identify what the text should have and look like. Indeed, despite beginning a salutation with ‘Dear Prof. Seward', you can email your friend with ‘Hi, Seward'. It denotes that your social status between you and Seward is friends even Seward's career is a professor in a university. It seems that you know whom you write to and how to use language features to share communicate purpose with people. In the academic genre, people can share a set of communication in terms of spoken and written language. \"Text produced in each situation (or genre) was shaped by the communicative purposes, by the genre characteristics within different contexts, and by the systematic language- context connection.” (Phichiensathien, 2017, p19) Generally, you are acquainted with each kind of writing (text types or genres), so you should know how to start and what you will conclude at the end of the text. Moreover, Morrow (1990) insisted that there is some connection between reading and writing. Particularly, in university composition courses, when students have been assigned to read some books or reflect on what they have read in writing activities, they need the interpretation skill to comprehend the texts. Students can familiarize themselves with the language used from the model text in course materials provided by teachers. This strategy helps students to Introduction to Research Writing 12

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy examine the read texts from theory to practice by discussing and analyzing approaches. As suggested by Bartholomae and Petrosky (1986), students or novice writers will learn how to use academic discourse in the course by ‘using exploratory drafting with ideas for writing', so that it leads the novice writers to become better readers. To understand texts, it is necessary to create the connectivity between reading and writing with genre analysis to differentiate a variety of genres and translate the texts (as shown in Figure 1). As noted, the genre is defined as a class of communicative events in a discourse (or disciplinary) community. People in a community share a set of purposes, and experts in the community identify these purposes like the regular pattern of a specific discipline (Bhatia, as cited in Phichiensathien, 2017). In addition, a staged event can differentiate textual sequence from ways of structuring, choice of content, and writing style in the community (Swales, as cited in Phichiensathien, 2017). Writing an academic genre at the graduate level is related to how the graduate students create the textual convention with the effective use of scientific research. To fulfill the Master's and Doctoral degrees, the novice writers are supposed to publish their research report or results of the investigation (e.g., RAs, theses, and dissertation). Therefore, they should recognize the knowledge of academic writing with raising genre awareness in order to develop their academic writing skills. Reading Analyzing - Lexical Writing choices, - V tenses, - Sentence structures, - Organization Figure 2: Weaving reading, analyzing, and writing Introduction to Research Writing 13

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy Understanding of Research Process and Writing Research Report After you discuss with your friends about doing research and share the ideas with your friends, do you know how many stages are there in a research process? In fact, like the writing process, there are three main stages to write a research report: prewriting, writing, and revising. Identifying problems and choosing topic Reporting the Finding reliable results (data sources for literature analysis) review Planning Formulating research research design: Data collection objective(s) and research question(s) Figure 3: The writing process for doing research adapted from Beck and Mingo (2021) You should identify the problems or brainstorm your ideas in the prewriting stage. After narrowing down the issue by choosing an interesting topic, you should find the resources to search for the general background and the key ideas. Then, you can search the reliable articles for reviewing your research (literature review) in university libraries and other resources, e.g. e-journals, textbooks, and RAs in peer-reviewed journals. Since you (as a researcher) should consider if those selected articles are useful enough for your study. The sources can be evaluated based on the three criteria below. 1. The reputation of the sources (e.g., the title of writers, publishers, and journals). Introduction to Research Writing 14

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy 2. Quality of printing matter and publication 3. Timeliness of the source (e.g., publication date) should be updated (5- 7 years back) except the ground theory of the studies. Moreover, you can evaluate your source according to the Graduate Students Seminar: Writing an academic paper (www. slideshare.net). Figure 4: Finding information Before the writing stage, you should formulate the research objective(s) or research question(s) and plan your research design and identify how to collect your data. You may collect quantitative and qualitative data depending on your objective(s) or research question(s). The famous instruments used for data collection are the questionnaire and interview questions. The next process is data analysis. The raw data will be revealed quantitatively and qualitatively from the instruments; therefore, you should discuss the data according to the research objective(s) or research question(s). The findings of the study will be reviewed and concluded in the research report. As noted, you should plan a research design after reviewing the related (or previous) studies. The preparation of the research may be called a research proposal with the three main Introduction to Research Writing 15

1006712 Advanced Academic English Literacy parts (introduction, review of related literature, and data collecting method), you may ask to write the proposal or draft of the research report. Consequently, the writing process starts from these stages. For data analysis, you just have to report the result of your study and identify similarities and differences of the key findings and unexpected outcomes when comparing to the previous studies at the end of the report. Although you have done the research process, writing the research report never ends with that process. That is, you should revise your research report in terms of correctness (structure, organization, grammar, and citation), and the research process. Finally, you as a researcher are required to publish your article in an academic journal. END OF THE CHAPTER What have you learned from chapter 1? Notes: _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Introduction to Research Writing 16