Study Skills For Dummies®

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Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organised

Part I: Study Skills Basics

Part II: Becoming an Active Learner

Part III: Gathering Your Evidence

Part IV: Getting It Down on Paper

Part V: Final Reckoning: Surviving (And Enjoying) Exams

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go From Here

Part I: Study Skills Basics

Chapter 1: Planning for Success

Getting to Grips with Student Life Basics

Finding your way around

Checking out who’s who

Other important locations

Behaviour and Etiquette

Departmental culture

Sorting out problems

Organising Your Study

Putting together your timetable

Group study

Keeping a Learning Diary

Give Me a Break! Using Your Downtime

Taking daily breaks

Working out weekly breaks

Chapter 2: Tutors and Student Support

Working Out Your Welfare

Getting Set for Student Life

Using the Student Union

Finding help, support or counselling

Living on campus

Getting Help with Health Issues

Facing financial matters

Coming to Terms with Tutors

Personal tutors

Examining Study Support

Behaviour and Responsibilities

Knowing your responsibilities

Preventing plagiarism

Chapter 3: Becoming a Critical Thinker

What Is Critical Thinking?

Scoping out the skills of critical thinking

Making an academic argument

Analysing Claims and Evidence

Necessary and sufficient conditions

Evaluating the evidence

Having an academic opinion

Developing your academic voice

Chapter 4: Embracing ICT Skills

Understanding the Technology You Need

Handling the hardware

Surveying the software

Connecting to the Internet

Working out WiFi

Browser beware: Restricted access material

Sampling Systems Learning and Support

Assessing ICT Pitfalls

Part II: Becoming an Active Learner

Chapter 5: Learning Actively in Lectures, Seminars and Tutorials

Preparing for a Lecture

Looking at Lectures

Sizing Up Seminars

Sorting out types of seminar

Preparing to participate in seminars

Knowing who does what in seminars

Perusing personality types in seminars

Testing Out Tutorials

Personal tutorials

Subject or project tutorials

Chapter 6: Grappling with Group Work: Workshops, Seminars and Presentations

The Benefits of Group Work

Working Out Workshops

Using workshops for self-study

Using workshops for preparation

Getting the workshop organised

Giving Presentations in Seminars

Kinds of seminar

Engaging your audience

Managing the seminar

Chapter 7: Taking Notes During Lectures

Matching Your Expectations Against Reality

Preparing the Ground for Great Notes

Identifying different types of lectures

Taking your place

Handling handouts

Weighing Up Ways of Note-taking

Making notes on paper

Making notes on a laptop

Organising Your Thoughts

When and what to note

After the Lecture: Adapting and Reflecting on Your Notes

Building a bibliography

Following up on lecture notes

Chapter 8: Making Use of Feedback

Finding Out About the Formal Feedback System

Knowing what you get feedback on

Understanding the marking system and minimum requirements

Bouncing back from a low grade

Getting Early Feedback on Coursework

After the Event – What Tutors Say and What They Mean

Putting yourself in your tutor’s shoes

Understanding how tutors think

Making feedback a two-way process

Part III: Gathering Your Evidence

Chapter 9: Research Methods and Tools

Developing Hypotheses

Devising a Theoretical Framework

Choosing a theoretical framework

Relating framework to hypothesis

Choosing Your Research Method

Qualitative research

Quantitative research

Longitudinal studies

Delving into Data Sources and Access

Reviewing Your Research Tools

Developing research questions

Constructing case studies

Querying with questionnaires

Outlining observation

Evaluating experiments

Approaching action research

Investigating interviews

Assessing storytelling

Avoiding Pitfalls

Chapter 10: Finding Answers: Reading and Research

Reviewing Reading Lists

Identifying what you really need to read

Balancing your reading

Reading as Research – Finding Answers to the Right Questions

Creating research questions

Refining your reading and researching techniques

Homing In On How Texts Are Organised

Section organisation, function and usefulness

Paragraph structure

Exploring Other Media Resources

Using audio-visual resources

Sharing Resources and Reading Groups

Chapter 11: Taking Notes for Your Purposes: Not the Book’s

Knowing What You Need from Your Note-Taking

Getting Credit for Reading

Choosing the right sources

Understanding your purpose in reading and note-taking

Developing Your Note-Taking Skills

Tabulating notes from several sources

Summary skills

Comparing and contrasting

Analysis

Critiquing and text analysis

Citation/quotation and note cards

Chapter 12: Using the Internet as a Research Tool

Online Dos and Don’ts

Browser beware: inappropriate web pages

Accommodating balance and bias

Avoiding Internet plagiarism

The Internet as a Life-Saver

Sourcing books

Online research tools

Approaching E-Learning

Chapter 13: Tackling the Building Blocks: Numbers and Figures

Dealing with Numbers

Statistics and statistical significance

Percentages

Fractions, formulae and decimals

Mean, median and mode

Standard deviation

Illustrating Your Data

Pie charts

Bar charts

Histograms

Bell curves

Flow charts

Technical diagrams

Graphs

Tables

Part IV: Getting It Down on Paper

Chapter 14: Pulling Your Ideas Together in Writing

Understanding the Anatomy of Academic Writing

Paying attention to parts and functions

Exploring alternative methods

Using Models

Where to find models

Knowing what to be wary of

Surveying Set Titles

Using what you know

Mind maps and initial ideas

Guideline ‘wh’ questions

Creating Working Titles

Considering Your Orientation

Making Outline Plans

Discussing your ideas with friends

Seeking agreement from tutors

Chapter 15: Grasping Writing Process Basics

Organising Your Writing

Organising Your Information

Presenting Your Information

Using tables

Using graphs and charts

Using diagrams and other visual representations

Reviewing Your Writing Order

Looking at overall logic

Getting draft feedback

Chapter 16: Looking at Form, Function and Style

Balancing Formality and Personal Voice

Using Citations, References, Footnotes and Quotations

Placing footnotes

Using longer quotations

Watching Your Back – Making Claims and Hedging

Observing Other Language Features

Gender awareness

Use of pronouns

Avoiding passive forms

Cutting out contractions

Addressing the dreaded apostrophe

Other punctuation

Acting on Acronyms

Part V: Final Reckoning: Surviving (And Enjoying) Your Exams

Chapter 17: Mastering Memory Strategies

Key Information and Memory Strategies

Remembering Key Points and Sequences

Mastering Mnemonics

Assessing audio stimuli

Learning with loci

Other ways to remember key facts

Making Memory and Logical Links

Developing a historical perspective

Making memory maps

Revising from Notes

Making Memories

Collating and Recycling Information

Reflecting on Beliefs and Feelings

Chapter 18: Preparing for Your Exams

Examination Requirements and Conditions

Assessing the importance of your exams

Touching on timetabling

Sorting out your individual needs

Allowing for illness and anxiety

Perusing Past Papers

Reading Up on Rubrics

Essay-type questions

Multiple-choice questions

Strategies to identify common topics

Testing Yourself

Timetabling the Pre-Exam Period

Chapter 19: Coping with the Countdown to Your Exams

A Time and Place for Everything

Making time for revision – and life’s necessities

Keeping a healthy mind in a healthy body

The economics of time, self-bribery and treats

Getting Down to It: Sitting Your Exams

Last minute exam behaviour checks

Exam Day Preparation

Approaching Oral Exams

After the Exams

Understanding the marking process

Querying an exam mark

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 20: Ten Time-saving Techniques

Asking Direct Questions

Planning to Do Things at the Best Time

Prioritising Your Workload

Nobody’s Perfect – Thank Goodness!

Avoiding Procrastination

Learning to Say ‘No’

Having a Quiet Place and Time

Building In Some Flexibility

Using Big Blocks of Time for Big Tasks

Big Projects Need Big Plans

Revisiting Reading Lists

Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Have Fun While Studying

Being the Best Host

Throwing Perfect Parties

Joining Up

Getting Out in the Local Community

Supporting Sweet Charity

Working as a Student Helper

Reporting for Duty

Discovering DJing

Diving into Student Politics

Being a Mentor or Coach

Chapter 22: Ten Essay Writing Tips

Getting Feedback You Can Use

Defining Your Terms

Finding Your Voice

Avoiding Style Giveaways

Sorting Out Your Verb Grammar

Using Gerunds

Exchanging Essays

Allowing Reflection Time and Self-criticism

Assessing Your Satisfaction Levels

Overcoming Blocks

Cheat Sheet

Study Skills For Dummies®

by Doreen du Boulay

Study Skills For Dummies®

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
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E-mail (for orders and customer service enquires): cs-books@wiley.co.uk

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Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to permreq@wiley.co.uk, or faxed to (44) 1243 770620.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher, the author, AND ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN PREPARING THIS WORK make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-470-74047-7

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain, Ltd., Glasgow

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

About the Author

Doreen du Boulay taught undergraduate and postgraduate subject courses in Education and Applied Linguistics, study skills and skills for specific subjects at the universities of Aberdeen, Warwick and Sussex for longer than she cares to remember – over twenty years. She taught students from a range of backgrounds and with many different needs, and wrote the Sussex University study skills web pages.

She was an assessor of pre-university courses for overseas students in British universities for BALEAP (British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes) for ten years, a consultant with the British Council for training courses in Algeria, Poland and Zambia and for Banque Indo-Suez training courses in English for employees. She was seconded by the University of Aberdeen to work in local oil and gas companies with their overseas employees.

Having begun her career as an organisation and methods analyst, she turned to secondary school teaching, first in Zambia, then in Shropshire and Scotland, before becoming a university teacher. She has always benefited from having several feet, centipede-like, in several camps – as a subject tutor, skills tutor and course assessor, and working in industry – and has always tried to pass on insights from this mixture of experience. She took early retirement due to vision problems and now works freelance.

Dedication

To Zoe, Jan and Huw, my children: always an inspiration.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the colleagues and students over many years who taught me so much, especially Godfrey Yeung, Scherto Gill and Earl Kehoe, who allowed me to refer to their work.

I would also like to thank editors Simon Bell and Wejdan Ismail for their support and suggestions in producing this book during a difficult time in my life.

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Development Editor: Simon Bell

Content Editor: Jo Theedom

Commissioning Editor: Wejdan Ismail

Publishing Assistant: Jennifer Prytherch

Copy Editor: Anne O’Rorke

Technical Editor: Eileen Lafferty

Executive Editor: Sam Spickernell

Executive Project Editor: Daniel Mersey

Cover Photos: © Somos/Veer

Cartoons: Ed McLachlan

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Lynsey Stanford

Layout and Graphics: Christin Swinford

Proofreader: Laura Albert

Indexer: Claudia Bourbeau

Introduction

Welcome to Study Skills For Dummies! So, what are study skills, and why do you need them? Read on. While your subject of study is concerned with what you learn, study skills are to do with how you learn. Study skills help you use the content of your course as efficiently as possible, so that you get the most out of the efforts you put into your work. They provide you with a basic toolkit of resources to select from and apply to any situation, and each new situation gives you more practice and more confidence in yourself. The skills you practise at college or university will also stand you in good stead in the world of work afterwards. They can help you, for instance, present yourself well at interview, network effectively or challenge with confidence the small print in contracts or other documents.

For most people, going to college or university is their first experience of independence and it can be daunting as well as exciting. For this reason, in this book I take a broad view of study skills so as to include wellbeing as a basic requirement for fruitful studies. The people you meet and interact with, as well as being a joy in themselves – or a problem to solve – contribute to your learning process and skills development. Good students are lively, chatty and well-rounded people who learn from each other as well as their tutors.

About This Book

Study Skills For Dummies aims to help every student get the most from themselves and their studies. Not by burning the midnight oil in a garret and forsaking everything and everyone else – far from it. This book explains some of the reasoning behind how things work in the academic world, the duties and responsibilities of students and their tutors and how and where to seek out answers when something is not clear to you. Knowledge is power and helps to put you in charge of your learning.

The book offers practical strategies to help you use your time effectively and avoid stress, with suggestions for particular tasks like understanding essay titles and taking notes. Regular preparation, followed by discussion or self-reflection on what you’ve learned or how your views have changed in the light of these experiences, are the bedrock of your learning experience. This process of revisiting what you’ve learned strengthens not only your memory for information – a great help later on, when the exams come round – but also your own ideas and views. It also helps you construct your arguments in favour of your views: this process is central to your academic development. In other words, wherever possible, this book shows you how to kill at least two birds with one stone, but you can dip into any chapter and find practical suggestions for solving the problems or tackling the tasks at hand.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate through this book, I’ve set up a few conventions:

Italic is used for emphasis and to highlight new words or terms that are defined.

Boldfaced text is used to indicate the action part of numbered steps.

Website addresses appear in monofont, so that they stand out on the page.

Sidebars (the grey boxes you come across from time to time) are extra background information that you can take or leave.

What You’re Not to Read

Because this book is about putting you in charge so that you can easily find what you need, I’ve also made it easy for you to identify ‘skippable’ material. This stuff, although interesting and related to the topic at hand, isn’t essential for you to know:

Text in sidebars: The sidebars are fun, and you’ll learn from reading them, but they aren’t essential reading. They share anecdotes, examples or background information only, although I hope they are helpful.

The stuff on the copyright page: Save your time. You should only read what you need to and there’s nothing here of any interest, even if you’re doing a publishing degree.

Foolish Assumptions

In writing this book, I’ve assumed that one of the following is true about you.

You are in your last year of school considering embarking on a course of study at college or university.

You have already started a course at college or university.

You are returning to education after a break to take a higher degree and need some revision.

You are taking a Foundation course instead of ‘A’ levels.

You want the best value from your investment (both financial and physical) in education at university, and you want to know how to get it.

How This Book Is Organised

Study Skills For Dummies is divided into six parts, with each part broken into several chapters. Each chapter is, in turn, broken up into several sections. Each part brings together related material. The table of contents gives you more details of each chapter.

Part I: Study Skills Basics

This part introduces you to the nitty-gritty of being at university telling you about the overall set-up, academic requirements, how things work and how you can develop the basic tools you need to be a successful student. Here’s where you find out about critical thinking, and those essential ICT skills you have to have in modern college education.

Part II: Becoming an Active Learner

One thing you need to get straight from the start is that a college or university education is not something that just happens to you. It’s something you do. Active learning is about asking questions of the information you are taught, and using your critical skills to transform simple facts into understanding. This part covers the various sorts of learning experience you are going to become accustomed to, from intimate seminar groups to lectures in which you might be one of a hundred or more participants. It also stresses the two-way nature of education, accustoming you to the idea of seeking and giving feedback.

Part III: Gathering Your Evidence

This part deals in detail with an area which might be relatively new to you: independent research. At college or university you are in control of your own learning. Part III takes you through all you need to know about acquiring the raw material for knowledge and understanding. I tell you how to find the information you need, where to find it, and how to go about incorporating it into your own work.

Part IV: Getting It Down on Paper

Being able to express your views concisely in writing is a key skill for any student, almost regardless of which course they are on. The chapters in this section show you how to structure your written work effectively and how to use the sort of language appropriate to academic communication. They also stress the key principles of academic communication: honesty, clarity, relevance, and reality. Whether you’re writing lab reports or a dissertation, this part shows you how to get your thoughts down in the most efficient way you can. Writing is about showing what you know and using that as a basis to find out new things – about yourself as well as your subject. Just as poems and whodunits have an expected form, so does academic writing. This part helps you to base your ideas in academic ‘fact’ and be creative.

Part V: Final Reckoning: Surviving (And Enjoying) Exams

Even if you’re studying a subject where a large component of your final grade is made up of coursework, the chances are that you’ll have to sit exams at some point. This part deals with understanding exam questions, tips for remembering detailed information and advice on making the exams period as enjoyable as it possibly can be. If you prepare properly for your exams, there’s really nothing to worry about, and this section shows you how to develop the confidence to sail through with flying colours.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

It’s a For Dummies book, so there must be a Part of Tens. The chapters in this section offer chunks of sound advice to enhance your experience of student life. I talk about how to maximise the time you have available, how to work and have a good time at university, and finish up with ten great ideas for making your essays stand out from the crowd.

Icons Used in This Book

The icons used in this book help you to find different kinds of information that may be useful to you.

This icon highlights practical advice to make study skills work for you. Tips are the inside info you need to make the most of your study time.

This icon is a friendly reminder of important points to take note of. Carry these away with you, and you won’t go far wrong.

You’ll find this icon beside real-life instances of the particular topic I’m discussing, to help you get a grip on the issues.

The ideas and information you’ll find next to this icon tend to be a bit more technical or mathematical than the rest of the book. I’m not saying the info isn’t interesting, but don’t get bogged down in it. You can still get the big picture, so feel free to skip this stuff.

This icon marks things to avoid of be wary of. If you see this icon, steer clear of whatever it is I’m warning you against.

Where to Go From Here

For Dummies books are organised so that you can dip in practically anywhere. You don’t have to start at Page 1 and keep going until the index. In fact that isn’t a great idea at all.

Having said that, it might be an idea to start with Part I, which really does cover the basics of student life. After that, the world – or at least the book – is your oyster. Use the Contents Pages and the Index to find the stuff you really need and want to know about. And enjoy!

Part I

Study Skills Basics

In this part . . .

So now you’re a student. What do you do now? This part gets you up to speed on the essentials of student life. In it I cover the people and places you need to know, the ways in which you need to organise yourself and both your responsibilities as a student and those of others towards you.

I also talk about the very basic skills you need to acquire to be a successful and engaged student. Not just the techie stuff, although I cover that, but the crucial skills of critical and analytical thinking which underpin your time as a student – and set you up for life.

Chapter 1

Planning for Success

In This Chapter

arrow How course elements fit together – who’s who and what’s what

arrow Reviewing rules and behaviour

arrow What’s in store and taking control

arrow Balancing work and leisure

A very exciting phase in your life is about to start – new teachers, new classmates, new things to study about your chosen subject. If you’re away from home for the first time, you need to work out new strategies to get yourself up on time without the person or pet that used to perform that function. You’ll discover, sadly, that the washing fairy who used to transform piles of discarded clothes into sweet-smelling, smoothly ironed wearable articles is a myth – or didn’t accompany you to your new address. You’ll learn a lot about yourself. You might turn out to be a highly talented omelette maker, write the best essay on fluoridisation and freedom in your study group or score a hat trick at hockey, a sport you never played at school.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!