A comprehensive programme of academic skills workshops for all students begins on 6^th October 2014. The Assignment Skills for Undergraduates and the Critical Thinking and Writing Skills workshops have both undergraduate and postgraduate versions (see table for details).

For rooms and times, please see below.  1pm sessions last for 50 minutes and 5pm sessions last for 75 minutes, unless otherwise stated.

The last drop-in appointments this term will be on Thursday (12th December). However, they will start again on Friday 3rd January.

These appointments are 50 minutes long, are available every afternoon from 14:00 (except Wednesdays) and can be booked on the day.

Call us on 020 7040 0246 or come to Learning Success reception (in the Student Centre at Northampton Square), and we will tell you when the tutor is available.

If you can’t get an appointment, then you could find the information you need on our moodle course (http://moodle.city.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2966), or ask us via Twitter: @CityUniLS.

The slides for this workshop are here:

Memory techniques slides

And you can find the worksheet here:

Memory and revision worksheet

Always a contentious subject, the slides are here:

Referencing and Plagiarism

and the plagiarism test is here:

Plagiarism test

Spoiler alert! Answers over the fold …

(more…)

This week we looked at critical reading and thinking. You can find the slides here:

Critical reading and thinking slides

Plus the worksheet:

Critical reading and thinking worksheet (with answers)

What you need to do is to be careful when you’re doing assignments where it’s tempting for you to describe what you’ve found out about the subject (for example, if it’s a subject you’re already very interested in). Critical discussion requires putting some distance between you and the subject, and that’s difficult if you’re too emotionally close to it.

‘Never choose an subject you’re interested in for your assignment’ would be a terrible thing to say, because it’s that extra reading and knowledge that adds value to your qualification. However, bear in mind that this will be a temptation.

In these sessions, we looked at note-taking, and paragraphs and topic sentences. You can find the lecture slides here:

Note-taking slides

Topic sentences slides plus worksheet

Note-taking is something which will feature in the future following your course, if only in meetings. I mentioned something about this, and you can further explore in this post at the ever-excellent Lifehacker:

http://lifehacker.com/167307/geek-to-live–take-great-notes

However you do it, just make sure that you write down enough information so that you can reference the source later – otherwise you could be accused of plagiarism.

So far, the workshops have looked at understanding your assignment, assignment structure, and time management and procrastination.

The handouts are on our moodle course, in the ‘Workshop materials’ section. If you haven’t already enrolled on the course, you’ll be automatically asked to enrol when you look at the handouts.

If you can’t make it to the workshops, I’ve created some videos which contain the slides from the workshop, plus a recorded commentary to explain what they mean.

Week 1: understanding your assignment

Week 2: assignment structure

No week 3 yet due to storm destruction! In the meantime, any comments are welcome.

PS Is having the workshops 13:00 – 14:00 ok for most people? If there are other times which would be more suitable, please let me know here, or via academiclearningsupport@city.ac.uk or @CityUniLS.

Thanks

Richard

All workshops will take place between 1:00 and 1:50 at the Northampton Square campus. No booking is necessary: you can simply turn up on the day

The handouts will be available on moodle: tiny.cc/learningsuccess, and the workshops are suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students

The schedule is as follows:

From 19th February, we will be running two programmes of writing workshops.

The first programme is on types of assignment. These workshops will cover common assignment types, such as essays and reports, as well as more unusual ones, such as poster presentations, and annotated bibliographies.

The second programme looks at dissertation writing skills, including an overview of common dissertation structures, reviewing the literature, and discussing your results.

• you do not need to book: you can simply turn up on the day
• the workshops will be suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students
• the workshop handouts and materials will be available on our moodle course, with supplementary materials; if you can’t make it to any of the workshops, there will also be a video recording of each workshop

Details of both programmes are below. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, or email us: academiclearningsupport@city.ac.uk.