Lesson 1: Academic reading and writing

Lesson aims:

• Understand the differences between school reading and writing requirements and
university reading and writing requirements
• Notice the difference between academic reading and writing and reading and writing
for other purposes
• Understand the requirements and expectations of this course

Prepare for class

Thorough preparation before class helps you understand the content discussed in class, and
enables you to contribute to the various discussions and tasks given in class.

Complete this section on your own before class.

Watch the video about academic writing. The purpose of the video is to introduce you to the
nature of the type of writing you will be asked to do at university. You do not have to make
notes of all the information in the video, but if something stands out, and you would like to
remember it, you can make notes in the space below. Feel free to pause the video at any
time if you want to write something down first. Click here to watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyTLosz6aHA (Watch time 7 min).

Try to answer the following questions as you watch the video:

1. What is academic English?

2. What is academic writing?
3. What are the general characteristics of academic writing?
4. Why is academic writing important?

Have your notes ready for class!

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 Notes:

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 In class

Thinking about the topic

Task 1

Take some time to think about the writing you had to do at school. Was it for essays, tests or
mainly for notes for yourself? Was it mainly for language subjects or did you have to do some
writing in other subjects, too? List the types of writing you had to do, below.

Task 2
Now that you have thought about your writing experiences at school and watched the video
about academic writing, it is time to organise this information by comparing the writing that
happens at school, with that of university. A useful way to think about similarities and
differences is to write them down in table format (to tabulate them).

In the table below, write down at least one difference and one similarity you can think of for each
aspect of academic writing.

Similarities Differences

High School University High School University

Kind of writing Kind of writing

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 Kind of texts to read Kind of texts to read

Level of complexity - reading Level of complexity - reading

Level of complexity - writing Level of complexity - writing

Amount of extra reading Amount of extra reading

Type of listening Type of listening

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 Amount of self-study and self-motivation Amount of self-study and self-motivation

Role of teacher/lecturer Role of teacher/lecturer

Type of note-taking Type of note-taking

Task 3
3.1. Now, write down your responses to the following questions and report back to the class.
What is an essay?

3.2. What is the purpose of an essay? In other words, why do lecturers give students essays to
complete?

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3.3. What is the structure of an essay?

Can you think of any similarities and differences between the type of essay you were required to
write in high school, and the type of essay you will be expected to write at university? A useful
way to think about similarities and differences is to write them down in table format (to tabulate
them). In the table below, write down at least one difference and one similarity you can think of
for each aspect of academic writing.
High school University
Similarities

Differences

3.4 What do you think is the main difference between writing at university and writing at school?

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3.5 Do you anticipate having trouble doing this? Why or why not?

Task 4

Now that we understand the differences and similarities between high school and university, let
us explore the differences in the kind of texts we will be reading at university in more depth.
Consider the following texts and complete the table that follows after the texts.

Text 1

Students’ lack of English proficiency affects their academic success in Higher

Education. In a well-structured essay, discuss the validity of this claim.
Effective teaching and learning is determined by the ability of the students to comprehend
what is being communicated to them in any textual form, and to communicate effectively with
peers and instructors. In any learning institution, where the medium of instruction is English,
the students’ lack of English proficiency has proved to be a hurdle to academic success. In
supporting the given assertion, this essay will discuss two major negative consequences that
are caused by the lack of proficiency in English, and how these two speak to the academic
success of students. The essay discusses the student’s stunted mental development and
lack of comprehension as negative consequences.

Proficiency in the language used in teaching and learning is a pivotal factor in determining
mental growth, which can be formally measured in academic success (Stephen, Welman &
Jordan, 2004). What this means is that students who are not proficient in English are failing

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to benefit from the academic experiences which are necessary to develop some of the
concepts and schema they need in order to deal with tertiary studies. Consequently, students
fail to make mental connections with content that is presented to them in a language that
they are not competent in. Furthermore, Aina, Ogunde and Olanipekun (2013), in their study
of the Nigerian education system, concluded that there is a relationship between language
proficiency, mental development and academic success. Their study found that students
who cannot converse articulately in English as a language of teaching and learning perform
poorly academically, and this also indicates a lack of mental growth. They further argue that
when students’ proficiency in the English language is high, this gets reflected in their
improved mental capabilities in dealing with the demands of Higher Education (HE) and this
leads to the improved academic performance of such students. From the above
observations, the lack of English language proficiency limits the mental development of the
students, hence the failure to deal with the demands and expectations of HE, and this leads
to poor academic performance.

Another challenge that students face that leads to poor academic performance, due to a
deficiency of proficiency, is the lack of comprehending what is being learnt and taught. This
lack is a barrier to communication and understanding of what needs to happen if any learning
is to take place. This means that the students struggle to understand and communicate with
their instructor and peers in a collaborative context. Furthermore, these students also
struggle to engage with the content that is presented to them as it will be mediated in the
English language. It is critical to note that this challenge is not limited to failure to
comprehend the content of the actual learning but also a failure to comprehend assessments
and the demands of the task or questions given in assessments (Jadie, Sonya, Laura &
Natasha, 2012). Kong, Powers, Starr and Williams (2012) state that due to lack of language
proficiency, students fail to perform better in assessments as they cannot express
themselves at a level expected by the assessor. In essence, to use Van der Berg’s
(2002:171) wording, language proficiency is a vital ‘single moderator of test performance’,
and comprehension plays a huge factor in the performance.

In a nutshell, lack of English language proficiency is detrimental to a learner’s academic

success. Students fail to mentally connect and understand what they are supposed to learn
due to lack of competence in the language used in teaching and learning. What remains is
for HE institutions to come up with interventions that provide students with a linguistically

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 balanced diet and to build linguistically complete learners who can be global citizens, not
just discipline citizens.

Text 2

Subject: Use of loudspeakers

Dear Sir,

The use of loudspeakers in our part of Bloemfontein has become a nuisance. Almost every
night someone or other plays music on the loudspeakers. It is impossible to read or sleep with
the loudspeaker blaring well into the night. I am not opposed to anybody enjoying music at
home, but nobody has the right to force it on others, particularly at a time when people go to
bed. I suggest that the district administration should impose restrictions on the use of
loudspeakers in residential areas.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Terblanche

(Adapted from: bankof info.com)

Text 3

FS annual Women’s Breakfast event not to be missed

Story by Leonie Bolleurs

Women of the UFS, and now also elsewhere in South Africa, can look forward to yet another
Women’s Breakfast event to commemorate National Women’s Day. The event will be
coordinated by the Division of Organisational Development and Employee Wellness.
Burneline Kaars, Head of the division, says this year’s event will look a bit different from past
events, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual event will be interactive and engaging,
with a balance of serious topics and light-hearted humour.
The theme of the event is ‘From surviving to thriving’. Kaars says they will be honouring all
the remarkable women for their ability to thrive despite ongoing difficulties.
And with guest speaker duo, Shaleen Surtie-Richards and Hannes van Wyk – who will charm
and dazzle attendees – this is definitely an event not to be missed.

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“We will also relate experiences of strength and resilience that every woman can draw upon,
as well as provide additional entertainment with musical productions performed by local
Bloemfontein artists,” adds Kaars.
Not only UFS women, but women across South Africa are invited to join the Division of
Organisational Development and Employee Wellness for this year’s UFS Women’s Breakfast.
(https://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item/campus-news/2020/august/ufs-annual-women-s-
breakfast-event-not-to-be-missed)

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Question Text 1 Text 2 Text 3
Is there a specific focus in the
writing?

How does the writer indicate where

information/evidence/examples are
from?

How does the writer make sure

ideas are easy to follow? Think
about language and about
organisation.

How ‘formal’ is the use of

vocabulary? Give specific
examples.

Who is the audience?

What other differences do you

notice?
Discussion
Below are some of the textual aspects that can differ among different text types.
Read through the following table. Ask your peers and facilitator if anything is unclear to you.

Academic Writing vs Non-academic Writing

Definition Academic writing is a formal Non-academic writing is an

and impersonal style of informal and often subjective
writing that is intended for a style of writing that aims to
scholarly or academic address the mass public
audience

Audience Academia / lecturers Mass public

Purpose Inform / persuade the readers Inform, entertain or persuade

with solid evidence readers

Style Formal and impersonal Personal, impressionistic,

emotional, or subjective

Structure Standard structure No rigid structure

Language Formal language; avoids Informal and casual

colloquialisms language; may contain
colloquialisms

Citations and reference Contain citations and Often do not contain citations
references and references

Examples Academic essays and case Newspaper and magazine

studies, research papers, articles, memoirs, letters,
dissertations, scholarly digital media, etc.
articles
(Adapted from www.differencebetween.com)

Some further insights into academic reading and writing:

Often, successful academic reading, writing and listening depends on a three-part process.
There are things you do before reading, writing and listening. There are also useful things you
can do during and after reading, writing and listening. You will learn more about these
processes this year.
 Before reading, writing and listening
Preparation
Prediction
Planning

During reading, writing and listening

Note-taking
Engagement
Thinking
Planning
Learning

After reading, writing and listening

Reviewing
Editing
Sharing

Task 4

Read the following short paragraph. What do you think about the style of the paragraph?

• Underline all the aspects of the paragraph you think are inappropriate.
• Rewrite the paragraph so that it demonstrates a more academic style.

Another problem with native speaker teachers is that their teaching methods are sometimes really
weird for international students. I had a native-speaker teacher who always wanted us to work in
pairs or discuss stuff in groups - totally different to what I’d done at school and although it was
quite good fun it did make me really uncomfortable at first. My teacher always wanted us to
correct ourselves - giving the answer wasn’t really her style. At first this was pretty odd and I was
a bit confused but I can see that she really wanted us to learn for ourselves and it wasn’t that she
didn’t know the answer!

Your rewrite:

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Reflection

• What aspects of academic reading and writing are clear to you?

• What aspects of academic reading and writing are still unclear?

• What do you expect to learn this year?

• What strategies will you use to cope with the amount of reading and writing you will do?

References
Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. 2002. Teaching and researching reading. Harlow: Longman.

End of lesson one.