The Foursth Step to Improving my Academic Writing

First, second, third, fourth, etc.

"Fours" would just be a plural of the number four.

Other people’s ideas can be a foundation for an essay; a kind of base for writing an academic text.

You don't really need the second part of the sentence since you convey the same idea through "a foundation for an essay". Otherwise if you did keep it a semicolon wouldn't be the right choice since I think a semicolon connects two independent clauses (or basically things that could just be their own sentence).

The main principles that help to adopt those ideas in academic texts are: using direct quotation, paraphrasing and summarizing.

You need "that" because you're listing the main principles. If you were just saying that the main principles help to adopt those ideas, or how they do that.

So, what kind of preference should students have here?

Or "a student" could work as well.

KA key approach is to keep track an amount of numbers in theof the length of each quotation, because a long quotation shows that the student cannot separate useful information from useless information, and the teacher can have areach the conclusion that the student cannot think critically.

You need an article before "key approach", and since there are other key approaches, "a" would be the best choice (it has the same effect as "one of the key approaches".

You would "keep track of (something)", although when "track" is used alone, you don't need "of" (that would make grammatical sense here, but it doesn't feel right here given the context)

"the length" or "the amount" because it's a specific quantity/measurement (applying specifically to each quotation).

With you original, I would say "words" instead of "numbers", as "numbers" is both very nonspecific (what are the numbers counting?) and kind of becomes redundant here since "amount" implies that it would be related to numbers ("amount" can often be replaced with "number").

"the quotation" --> "each quotation" because "the quotation" makes it sound like you're only talking about one, specific quotation and no others. "Each" shows that you're still only concentrating on one at a time, but overall you may look at many (depending on the number of quotations).

"a long quotation shows" or "long quotations show" (both general, and both work).

"the student" because you need an article (since it's singular), and it's a specific student (a student that has used a long quotation).

I think that because you say "useful information", you should also say "useless information". But anyone would still be able to understand what you meant as you originally had it.

I added in a comma to break the sentence up slightly, but that's optional.

I would say something like "reach" instead of "have" because it would show the link between the student using a long quotation and the teacher having that conclusion a little more clearly. ("have a conclusion" wouldn't give any idea of when or why they reached/created that conclusion).

"the conclusion": "the" because it's a specific conclusion (not just any random one, but the one where they feel that the student can't think critically).


OPTIONAL: I think you could also use "quote" and "quotation" alternatively. Traditionally (and maybe more formally), "quote" is a verb, but it is now also often used as a noun (the shortened version of "quotation").

These three techniques help to add intelligibility, authority and base in the essay.

I think this would be ok, but I would probably recommend adding a little more information to "base"

Two core strategies that are applied for paraphrasing are changing the worlds and transforming the grammar.

You're listing the two core strategies, so you would add in "that".

The Foursth Step to Improving my Academic Writing

Other people’s ideas can be athe foundation for an essay;, a kind of base for writing an academic text.

The main principles help to adopt those ideas in academic text are: using direct quotation, paraphrasing and summarizing.

KA key approach is to keep track an amount of numbers in theof length of each quotation, because a long quotation shows that the student cannot separate useful information from useless information and the teacher can have aonclude [or, come to the conclusion] that the student cannot think critically.

These three techniques help to add intelligibility, authority and a base inof knowledge to the essay.

Two core strategies that are applied for paraphrasing are changing the worlds and transforming the grammar.