Tag: University of Reading

Top tips on proof reading

Daren Mansfield / / Study Skills

At this most frantic time of year, proof-reading becomes a crucial part of the pre-submission process of any assignment and especially for those dissertation students who have been working so hard for several months on their research. Nothing can go wrong – or can it?  According to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), too many employers were having to invest in literacy lessons for their staff, and an online entrepreneur reckons that millions are lost in online sales because of poor spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and so forth (BBC, 2011).  With online sales accounting for over £500 million a week, proof reading skills need to be acquired before a business student graduates. Fortunately, there is a plethora of online materials to help those students before they choose the submit button on Turnitin. Or to be more specific, the University of Reading with its insightful list of effective proof reading tips, is a useful place to start.

https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/studyadvice/StudyResources/Writing/sta-proof.aspx

Ah, YouTube. A Wealth of Material for the Enquirer. Be warned though, as some (other) videos on proof reading contained mistakes! For those wishing to delve into more about proof reading, East Tennessee State University, offers some suitable academic advice. Perhaps easier to follow if you’re tired, rather than reading a list. Basically, the rule is not to leave it to the last minute, and avoid proof reading on the bus (too bumpy, being tired & probably not paying attention anyway).

Becoming an active note-taker

Daren Mansfield / / Study Skills

Do you really need all the information relayed in a lecture? Of course not, but how do you determine what is relevant and what is going to crowd out any relevant information? What gems were overlooked as a result of poor note-taking? Have you heard of active note-taking? No, neither have I…until today. But it makes perfect sense.

Capturepen

Apparently active learning helps you to prize meaning from what you learn whilst inferior passive learning is ‘allowing yourself to be an empty vessel into which knowledge is poured with no way of organising or making meaning from it’ (University of Reading, 2016). A mess in other words. Passive learning means you may forget what you’ve been taught,  and you’ll be re-reading your notes while you’re writing assignments, and repeating the unenviable process when the exam period looms. Lectures might simply be floating over your head.

 

Passive note-taking includes:

  • underlining words
  • cutting and pasting from online documents
  • trying to write everything you hear in a lecture
  • copying slides from the screen
  • copying lots of direct quotes rather than putting the ideas in your own words
  • writing notes on everything you read, because you’re not sure what will turn out to be important
    not evaluating or criticising the sources you use, but just accepting them as suitable evidence

Active note-taking means:

  • thinking about what you want to get out of your research before you start
  • looking for answers to any questions you may have about the topic
  • looking for connections within the topic you’re studying, and to other topics on your course
  • writing notes mostly in your own words – your own explanation of what something says or means
  • recording direct quotes only when it’s important to have the exact words that someone else has used (i.e. when how they say something is as significant as what they say)

When I read this sound advice from the University of Reading (2016) I realise that when I was an enthusiastic undergraduate keen on absorbing as much information as possible, at most lectures I attended I comprehensively covered all the passive note-taking elements listed above. Knowing what I know now, the trick with writing essays and carrying out research is to be selective. It’s a brave step away from the security of hoarding dense notes, and adding everything to an assignment before the long adventure of redrafting. It’s not efficient to be a passive note-taker, and wastes a huge amount of time. With the amount of assignments that need to be submitted for an undergraduate degree, managing your time effectively increases your chances of submitting work on time and allows the requisite space for redrafting without the uncertainty of not knowing what was relevant from a pile of passively taken notes.