professional english seminar 3 is about the following part of speaking in academia

seminar 3

1. Professional English in Journalism and Communication 3. Reading Asst. Prof Zheng Jingwei

2. Activit y Identify your Ordinary World as Research Context, Research Problem; Crossing Threshold = Methodology Identify your Research Problem as Ghost , i.e., as Unprocessed data / Research problem Identify your Inmost Cave/ Supreme Ordeal Crisis/Climax as = Contribution to Knowledge Tell the story of your thesis proposal!

3. Activit y

4. Reading How to read?

5. Reading How to read? Use AI translation/Deep neural network translation Problems?

6. Necessity of Reading Skills Most LLM (Large Language Models) are trained to be general artificial intelligence Lacking the knowledge of context-specific knowledge Especially for social science (e.g., comm, media studies) Translate the following words: frame, cultivation, hugging face

7. Types of Reading Books (Literature/Academic) Academic papers Technical papers (in tech companies) Social media

8. Find Proper English Reading Resources Google Google Scholars Medium AI-assisted Search Perplexity (Recommended) Connected papers Elicit.org

9. Build Your Feed So You Don’t Get Addicted to Social Media

10. R eading Strategies Skim through the whole selection to get a sense of the purpose of writing. Look for the organization pattern ;e.g.,cause-effect,comparison-contrast,general-specific,problem-cause-solution,pros and cons, argument-evidence. Read again for the central ideas ; underline important phrases and main points . Look for generalizations but omit supporting details. Look for topic sentences/concluding sentences of each paragraph. Mark any significant statements that you want to quote .

11. R eading Strategies It is wasteful to read a book slowly that deserves only a fast reading; speed reading skills can help you solve that problem. Read at different speeds —and know when the different speeds are appropriate Skimming or pre-reading is necessary when you do not know whether the book/article you have in hand is worth reading carefully. You cannot comprehend a book /article without reading it analytically ; analytical reading is undertaken primarily for the sake of comprehension (or understanding). Do not try to understand every word or page of a difficult book the first time through.

12. R eading Strategies Skim through the whole selection to get a sense of the purpose of writing. Look for the organization pattern ;e.g.,cause-effect,comparison-contrast,general-specific,problem-cause-solution,pros and cons, argument-evidence. Read again for the central ideas ; underline important phrases and main points . Look for generalizations but omit supporting details. Look for topic sentences/concluding sentences of each paragraph. Mark any significant statements that you want to quote .

13. R eading Strategies In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without ever stopping to look up or ponder the things you do not understand right away. “Most of us were taught to pay attention to the things we did not understand. We were told to go to a dictionary when we met an unfamiliar word. We were told to go to an encyclopedia or some other reference work when we were confronted with allusions or statements we did not comprehend. We were told to consult footnotes, scholarly commentaries, or other secondary sources to get help. But when these things are done prematurely, they only impede our reading, instead of helping it .” Ref: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading by Mortimer J. Adler (Author), Charles Van Doren (Author)

14. Elementary Reading Purpose: Build automatic decoding and basic comprehension so attention can shift from “what the words say” to “what the text means.” Focus areas: Word recognition and morphology (prefixes, roots, suffixes Vocabulary in context; sentence parsing and punctuation cues. Fluency: accuracy first, then pacing, then expression

15. Elementary Reading Practice prompts: Identify 3 unknown words; infer meaning; verify with dictionary Rewrite a long sentence into two shorter ones without losing meaning Common pitfalls: Speed over sense; skipping punctuation; not checking unknown terms

16. Inspectional Reading (Systematic Skimming) Purpose: Get the map before the journey—grasp structure, scope, and relevance quickly. What to scan (order matters): Title/subtitle, author bio, publication date (context/bias) Preface/intro, table of contents, index (find key terms/themes) Chapter openers/closers, headings/subheadings, visuals/tables Topic sentences and paragraph summaries

17. Inspectional Reading (Systematic Skimming) Questions to answer in 5–10 minutes: What kind of book is this? What problem or question does it tackle? How is it organized? What are the major parts? What depth is required for my purpose—skim, study, or skip? Output of a good skim: One-sentence statement of the book’s unity List of major parts in order 3–5 guiding questions you’ll read to answer

18. Analytical Reading (Deep Understanding) Adler’s three core tasks: Understand the book as a whole (unity, parts, their relation) Understand what is being said in detail (terms, propositions, arguments) Decide whether it’s true, and why it matters Techniques: Make a structural outline: Part → Chapter → Sections → Functions Define key terms in the author’s sense; list central propositions Distinguish evidence types (facts, examples, analogies, authorities) Paraphrase each chapter in 1–2 sentences to test grasp

19. Analytical Reading (Deep Understanding) Diagnostic checks: Could you teach the chapter without the book? Can you state the thesis and 3 supporting reasons from memory? Typical errors: Critiquing before comprehending; quoting instead of paraphrasing

20. Analytical Reading (Deep Understanding) Classify the book: practical vs theoretical; discipline/genre State the unity in one sentence; list major parts in order Define the author’s key terms; locate main propositions Identify the central problem(s) and the proposed solutions Know the author’s arguments: conclusions and supporting reasons Don’t dispute until you can summarize the author fairly Distinguish knowledge vs opinion; note assumptions and scope limits Evaluate truth/validity, then relevance/significance

21. Syntopical Reading (Comparative Reading) Purpose: Answer your own questions by consulting multiple books, not just absorbing one author’s answers. Process: Formulate your guiding question(s) in neutral terms Build your own “neutral vocabulary” (avoid adopting one author’s jargon) Create a concept map that aligns comparable claims across authors Note agreements, disagreements, and differences in assumptions/methods

22. Syntopical Reading (Comparative Reading) Tools and outputs: Concept matrix: rows = concepts/questions; columns = sources Excerpts with standardized tags (term, claim, evidence, method) Synthesis paragraph that states patterns and open disputes Evaluation criteria: Breadth (enough diverse sources), fairness (charitable summaries), clarity (your own stance separated from authors’)