Navigating university life can be a challenge due to longer assignments that necessitate increased information, communication, and critical thinking skills compared to what high school students may already be familiar with.
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Use all possible sources of information
Students are often unaware of the wealth of resources available to them. By utilizing the rubric, they can understand the criteria for achieving high grades and the course objectives.
Lecture recordings, reading lists, sample assignments and discussion boards can all be found in the learning management system (LMS), such as Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, and iLearn. Studies have demonstrated that students who make use of the available LMS resources tend to achieve higher grades.
2. Referencing is important
Plagiarism is a form of cheating and is taken very seriously in the academic world. It can easily occur when students are unaware of referencing styles or do not have the ability to put the information from their sources into their own words.
To avoid this mistake, students should take advantage of the resources offered by their university such as academic support units, library workshops, online resources, and referencing management software like EndNote, Mendeley, and Zotero. These software programs are useful for quickly storing sources, retrieving citations, and creating reference lists.
It is still important for students to become familiar with their discipline‘s citation style and edit the formatting accordingly.
3. Plan what you write
If you are writing an academic paper, the key to success is careful planning. Research indicates that students who create a detailed outline before beginning the paper produce higher quality texts.
Additionally, this careful preparation can also save time in the long run, as you will not have to spend time agonizing over what to write next. To make planning easier, make use of programs like Microsoft Office‘s OneNote or Outline for Mac. These programs allow you to organize information in tabs, which can then be rearranged for later drafting. Furthermore, navigating through the tabs is much simpler than scrolling through a long Word document.
Just like building a house, you wouldn’t start laying bricks at random; the same principle applies to writing an academic paper – careful planning is essential.
4. Choosing the right words is important
At university, the language used is more formal and complex than what one would typically use in conversation with friends or on social media. Academic words tend to be longer, and their meanings more exact. For example, the phrase “climate change“ implies more than just a hotter planet.
To help find the right words, SkELL can be utilized; it categorizes words according to their grammatical properties and provides examples of commonly used words associated with a search entry. Alternatively, the Writefull app does a similar job without requiring an online browser.
5. Edit and proofread your paper
If you’re approaching the deadline for an assignment and find yourself typing the last paragraph, you are skipping an essential part of the writing process: editing and proofreading. Studies have proven that students who incorporate planning, drafting and editing in their writing do much better on exams.
While spellcheckers and grammar checkers are useful, they are not a guaranteed way of avoiding errors in your written communication. To further improve your grammar and writing skills, it is recommended that you look into courses offered by your university’s academic support services.
Universities are investing in support services, such as face–to–face workshops and online courses, to help students in this area. You can also find several web–based resources, such as spell checkers, vocabulary tools and referencing software, which can be used for free.
With dedication and effort, you can develop excellent written communication skills that will benefit you during your studies and beyond.
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