General Study Skills

STUDY SKILLS The habit of taking useful notes is one that you will practise again in the record-keeping you do on the job.

So how do you make notes in classes and lectures? Do you try to write down everything your tutor says,? Do you try to write neatly, and do you worry about the correct spellings? Do you have to ask the person next to you to find out what you've missed? If you've said yes to any of these, then you are not doing it properly.

Do not be fooled into thinking that note taking is just for classes and lectures - it's not. What about staff meetings, planning meetings, child observations, interviews with parents? Making good, concise and easily readable notes is a skill that will be valuable to you throughout your career, so make sure you employ a method that suits you and continue to improve on it.

Note-taking is a personal activity, and no two people will do it the same way, but there are a few rules to consider.

FIRST THINGS FIRST * Decide on the format you want to use for storing your notes. Will you use an A4 ring-binder and file paper, a reporter's notebook or a large pad? * Whichever you choose, always write the date, subject or unit and the topic at the top of the paper, as this will make it easier to organise your notes when you get home. Don't just make notes and then forget all about them. * When you get home, re-read your notes and add to them if necessary. * Check spellings in a dictionary and look up anything you don't understand in your textbooks, or make a note to ask your tutor during the next session. * File your notes carefully; they will be very useful for assignments and exam revision. * If you are using loose file paper, make sure you put your name on each sheet, as they often have the habit of sneaking out of folders and getting lost.

MAKING NOTES There are many ways of making notes and, of course, it will be personal to you, but think about your learning style.

If you are a sequential learner, that means you prefer to learn step by step, so you may prefer to record your notes as a list. If so, put each separate topic under a new heading.

If you are a holistic learner, you prefer to see the big picture first. You may find it easier to use a 'spiderchart' with topic boxes and arrows linking ideas, or even mind-mapping, where individual themes or topics are set along branches off the main heading. This system also suits visual learners very well.

Ask your tutor for handouts or notes before the session so that you have an idea of content and spelling.

WRITING AN ASSIGNMENT The worst thing you can do is sit with a blank piece of paper in front of you, trying to think how to start.

1 Clarify the task - ask your tutor for advice and make sure before you do any research exactly what it is you have to do. Make sure you understand the task or question and brainstorm, or write notes of what you already know about the subject.

2 Collect and record information - keep a record of each piece of information you use. This includes television programmes, videos and interviews as well as books.

3 Organise and plan - organise your work using colour-coded notes, large charts or an outline plan of what needs to be included.

4 Reflect and evaluate - now think about how you intend to approach this assignment. Do you have to tackle it from a particular viewpoint? Do you have evidence to show the opposite point of view if you are presenting an argument?

5 Write an outline plan and first draft – perhaps open a Word document and type in all the subjects you will need to address as headings, and then add to each section as you find that piece of information. This can also be done by hand using separate sheets of file paper.

6 Work on your first draft - once you have written your first draft, put it away for a while and come back to it later with fresh eyes.

7 Final draft - read your work out loud to make sure it 'flows, and continue to rework it until you are sure it is complete.

REFERENCING PLAGIARISM Plagiarism means using someone else's work and passing it off as your own.

If you are found to be doing this, your tutors will take it very seriously indeed, and your work will not be marked. If you need to use the exact words from a book, make sure you put them in quotation marks and give the author's name and the date the book or journal was published. In addition, remember, moving the words around a bit is still plagiarism.

THE HARVARD SYSTEM Get to know the Harvard System. Some of the awarding bodies are no longer insisting that you use the Harvard System when referencing, but it is a useful tool and once you have a system you are less likely to make mistakes.

You must always give the reference when you are using a direct quotation, but many people forget to do this when they have 'paraphrased' - that is, they have changed the words around a little.

In your work you only have to write the name of the author and the date.

All the other information goes into the reference list at the end of your work. So, you could say something like, 'According to Cottrell (2003), "In academic writing it is essential to state the sources of ideas and information".'

Don't use huge quotes - keep it brief and make sure you include the exact words and the same punctuation from the book. If you need to leave anything out of the quote, use three dots (...) to show where you have done this, and if you add anything that was not in the original quote (put it in square brackets).

Don't forget you also need to acknowledge the source of pictures, tables and statistics. To see how you should record the titles of the books you have used in your work look at the 'reference and bibliography' section.

When it comes to listing all of the books you have used for your assignment, it may be useful to write two separate lists: a reference list of books you have used and quoted from in your work, and a bibliography containing all the books you have read for this particular piece of work but not necessarily referred to in the text.