This document provides an overview of different types of academic texts, including their structures, audiences, and purposes. It discusses textbooks, student essays, dissertations, research articles, case studies, and reports. The key aspects of each text type are defined to help readers better understand academic writing conventions.

1. DIFFERENT ACADEMIC TEXTS
MODULE 2

2. Spot the difference

3. 1. What have you learned on the activity?
2. How challenging is the activity for you?
3. How important to know the differences of the picture?

4. The following words are being defined for your better understanding.
Structure: To refer to the way the text is organized.
Audience: To refer to the author's intended readers of the text.
Purpose: To refer to the author's reason for writing the text.
Cite: To refer to an author or work in order to provide evidence or
justification for an argument, usually in an academic text.
Tone: The general attitude of a piece of writing.
Formality: The following of conventions.
Interpretation: An explanation or way of explaining.
Appendix: An extra section of writing at the end of a book or piece of
academic writing.
Context: The situation within which a thing exists or occurs, and that can help
explain it.
Vocabulary Development

5. Understanding Types of Academic Text
Textbooks
Textbooks are specifically designed to help the learner.
For example, they might have summaries or review quizzes.
Textbooks vary in style, tone and level depending on their
audience. They are a good place to start when learning about
a new topic.

6. Shorter student texts: essays
Student essays vary in length and formality, but they usually
contain three sections: Introduction, Main body, Conclusion. They
usually need to include citation of sources. Essays help teachers to
see what students have learnt and how deeply. Try to read
examples of student essays in your discipline to become more
familiar with what is expected of you.

7. Longer student texts: dissertations and theses
You will probably have to write longer texts at
postgraduate level. Longer texts include dissertations
(typically 10,000 to 20,000 words) at Master's level, and
theses (typically 60,000 to 80,000 words) at Doctor's level
(PhD). These texts are the result of a long period of reading,
research and reflection – perhaps several months or years.

8. The structure and style varies across disciplines but is
likely to include the following:
Introduction
Background
Literature Review
Research Design/Methodology
Results/Findings
Discussion/Interpretation
Recommendations
Conclusion

9. Research articles
Research articles are written mainly for a specialist
audience – researchers, academics and postgraduate
students.

10. They usually contain the following:
Introduction to the research
Literature review
Background to the research and method
Results or main findings
Discussion, including authors' interpretation of the results
Recommendations: ideas for future research
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix (optional) to give information such as tables of raw
data from the research

11. Case studies
Case studies may be found in any discipline, though they
are most common in disciplines such as business, sociology
and law. They are primarily descriptive. A typical structure is
as follows: Context (what is the focus, where, when?)
Description of the setting (person, company or place) An
account of how this changed over the period of time under
investigation Headings help the audience work through the
text

12. Reports
The purpose of reports is to describe what happened (e.g. in a
piece of research) and discuss and evaluate its importance.
Reports are found in different disciplines, such as science, law
and medicine.

13. They typically include some or all of the following:
Context/Overview (Title, Contents etc.)
Introduction
Methodology/Description of the event (e.g. piece of
research) Findings/Main points
Discussion/Evaluation
Conclusion

14. QUIZ # 1
Get your notebook and prepare for
quiz.

15. Analyzing text: Different kinds/ types of academic texts, audience
and purpose
The term 'genre' refers to the typical structure and
organizational patterns of a text, its intended audience and its
purpose.
All texts are written to communicate with a specific
audience – this audience could be experts, or it could be
newcomers to the topic. The audience becomes part of a
community when interacting with the genre, based partly on
what they expect from it and their understanding of its
purpose.

16. The purpose of a particular genre might be to:
● Present and explain information
● Persuade the audience to accept a new
argument
● Describe a process.
At a greater level of detail, the purpose of a particular
genre could be to:
Present a claim → offer citations to support the claim → provide
explanation and examples to help understanding → evaluate this
material.

17. You will be able to manage your studies more
effectively when you have developed a good
understanding of the main types of text you will read
(and listen to), as well as those you need to write (and
speak).

18. QUIZ # 2
Get your notebook and prepare for
quiz.

19. Answer “What I can do in your Module.