You may find that the way you are expected to study at university in Britain
is quite different from how you have previously studied. Students at British
universities are expected to engage in independent study on a regular basis
and to perform some quite advanced types of study activity. It is important
to be aware of these so that if necessary, you can identify any that are new
to you and find out what they involve and how to do them.
These activities will help you to become familiar with the range of particular
study skills that you will need and allow you to find out what they involve.
Activity 1: Vocabulary describing academic study activities
The way of studying at university involves a number of common activities.
The list of verbs below represent some of the common activities that you will
need to be able to do while you study at university in Britain.
Drag and drop each verb into a box next to its definition.
Then check your answers:
Don't worry if you are unfamiliar with some of these advanced types of
study activity. there will be time, once your university course begins to
learn how to do them and have an opportunity to practise them.
Activity 2: Assessing how ready you are for independent study activity
Now that you have some understanding of what these study activities involve
you should consider whether any of them are new skills for you. Which ones
will you need to develop and practise? This activity will help you to assess
how much experience you already have of the study activities required for
most university courses in Britain.
For each study activity below select the statement which
applies to you from the three options available. Then check the comment where
you will find further advice.
1. Doing academic research
I have had a lot of experience of this
I have had some experience of this
I have had no experience of this
Even if you are not studying for a PhD or on a masters course involving
research, there is a possibility that you may need to do some research during
your course. For an overview of what is involved in academic research, select
the following weblink:
This is a necessary skill for all students to have if they are going to
study at a British university. It is likely that you already have experience
in this area if you have studied at university level before. If you have
just completed school studies you may not yet have learned how to do this.
The following university website provides some useful tutorials on a range
of academic skills, including note-taking:
University
of Southampton Academic Skills http://www.academic-skills.soton.ac.uk/index.htm
[No responsibility is taken for content or information contained on external
web pages]
3. Synthesising ideas from different sources and presenting the ideas of
others in your own words
I have had a lot of experience of this
I have had some experience of this
I have had no experience in this
This can be quite a challenging activity particularly in a second language.
The difficulty for many students is in finding a concise way of synthesising
the source information in English. This, of course, involves paraphrasing
and not simply copying the authors' words (which is plagiarism
if unacknowledged). Practice can help you become much better at this.
For further guidance on gathering information from various sources, look
at this part of a university library website:
Gathering
information and using the library http://www.academic-skills.soton.ac.uk/studytips/gather_info.htm
[No responsibility is taken for content or information contained on external
web pages]
4. Keeping details of all the source material that you use while you research
I have had a lot of experience of this
I have had some experience of this
I have had no experience in this
This is an organisational skill that will help save you a lot of time.
Every student should be able to manage their own study and this includes
keeping paper or electronic files and folders of notes organised and up-to-date
as well as the more specific skill of recording details of the source materials
that you use for essays and reports as you read. This is necessary so that
when you start writing your first draft you have the information you need
to complete in-text references and the accompanying bibliography.
There are resources available which can help you to collect and organise
your source references as you study. You may wish to download a trial version
of one such resource called Endnote, for instance:
Endnote http://www.endnote.com/ [No responsibility
is taken for content or information contained on external web pages]
5. Using library databases to locate sources of information
I have had a lot of experience of this
I have had some experience of this
I have had no experience in this
Nowadays university libraries have electronic catalogues of the vast amounts
of resources that they contain. This makes it relatively easy to find out,
for example, whether the library has any books or journals on a specific
topic and whether they are currently available for loan or consultation.
However, you need to be able to navigate within them and understand how
they work in order to use these search facilities effectively.
A popular catalogue search tool used by many university libraries is called
WebCat. With this tool you can carry out a range of simple
and more advanced functions. Find out more about WebCat and try using it:
WebCat http://www.library.soton.ac.uk/index.shtml
[No responsibility is taken for content or information contained on external
web pages]
6. Using search engines effectively to find sources of information and articles
on the internet
I have had a lot of experience of this
I have had some experience of this
I have had no experience in this
Internet-based search engines are a very valuable tool for students. However,
their effective use depends on the skill of the user. Most users know how
to carry our single word searches using these tools but how confident do
you feel about running string searches?
There are several useful websites where you can learn how to carry out
advanced searches using internet-based research tools:
Search
Engine Watch: Search engine tutorials http://searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156611
[No responsibility is taken for content or information contained on external
web pages]
Google.com:
Advanced search made easy http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html
[No responsibility is taken for content or information contained on external
web pages]
Produced for the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics
and Area Studies Materials Bank www.llas.ac.uk/mb
Author: Julie Watson, eLanguages, University of Southampton
