Mantex

Tutorials, Study Guides & More

  • HOME
  • REVIEWS
  • TUTORIALS
  • HOW-TO
  • CONTACT
>> Home / Study skills

Study skills

writing and study skills for academic work, research, and projects

writing and study skills for academic work, research, and projects

How to be a Student

July 10, 2009 by Roy Johnson

100 great ideas and practical habits on student life

There are lots more guidance books on study skills than there used to be. In the past it was assumed you would pick up the necessary skills as you went along, or by some sort of mystical osmosis. It’s good that educational institutions have been forced to make themselves more transparent – but there’s still a long way to go, which is what makes books like How to be a Student helpful for would-be students. It would be useful for anyone entering further or higher education.

How to be a StudentThis spells out what’s required at a really basic and practical level. Making sure you turn up to your lectures for instance, and what to do when you get there. Learning about the complexities of plagiarism, and how to develop your own voice when writing essays. How to deliver presentations with confidence and style. Everything is spelt out in short, clear manageable chunks, so there is nothing which should overwhelm the people who the book is aimed at.

And it’s not all study skills. The authors also cover topics such as dealing with periods of boredom and knowing when it’s time to teak a break; preventing small problems from growing to become big obstacles; plus dealing with finance and not letting money problems get in the way of your studies.

The good thing about this book is that it’s based on real life and it deals with the actual problems many students face. There’s advice about phoning home, drinking, personal relationships, dealing with boredom, coping with bureaucracy, and even what to eat to feel better.

They cover writing skills, reading skills, revision and exam skills too – but these are taken alongside all the other personal issues as sources of potential worry and uncertainty which these guidance notes seek to dispel.

If you need advice on all these topics written in a manner which is friendly and non-patronising manner, this is a good place to start.

© Roy Johnson 2005

How to be a Student   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to be a Student   Buy the book at Amazon US


Sarah Moore and Maura Murphy, How to be a Student, Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005, pp.138, ISBN: 0335216528


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: Education, Students, Study skills

How to choose a dictionary

November 1, 2009 by Roy Johnson

from pocket-size to the world’s largest reference

Dictionaries can be something of a personal matter. People become very attached to their favourite amongst the most-used of all reference books. However, a few guidelines on how to choose a dictionary can easily be established. The first thing to understand is that they are not all the same. They have their own characters and peculiarities, and they are created for different users.

How to choose a dictionary - Oxford MinidictionaryLet’s start with the question of size. The smallest dictionaries, which you really can fit into your pocket, are only suitable for a quick check of spelling and meaning in most commonly used words. These are mini-books the size of cigarette packets, which often end up in your desk drawer. The Oxford English Minidictionary manages to pack 40,000 entries and 50,000 definitions into a miraculously small space – and throws in a few extra pages which offer solutions to common problems. Keep this in your briefcase, or take it along to the pub quiz, but for serious work you’ll need something bigger.

 

How to choose a dictionary - The Little Oxford Dictionary The Little Oxford Dictionary is the next size up. This is a more serious attempt to be useful, with 51,000 entries and supplementary information on each word, including how it should be pronounced. It also includes occasional panels of advice on grammar and good usage, plus a supplement of words which have come into the language during the 1990s. This is one for the desktop or your briefcase, and probably the smallest you can go if you are going to consult a dictionary regularly.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Pocket DictionaryCollins offer an alternative to the Oxford domination of the dictionary market. Their books are popular because they generally make clear page layout a priority. The Collins Pocket Dictionary contains 44,500 definitions, plus advice on grammar and common problems. It claims to be ‘in colour’ – but all this turns out to mean is that headwords and their variants are printed in red – which makes the pages look as if they’ve got measles.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Heineman DictionaryAmongst the ‘portables’, the Heinemann English Dictionary is specially designed for use in schools. Not only is each entry very clearly presented, but parts of speech are spelt out in full, not abbreviated as is usual in dictionaries. Pronunciation is explained, and there are pull-out boxes with gems of etymology on certain words. It has been created with the UK National Curriculum in mind – and has proved to be popular as a reference for the classroom.

 

How to choose a dictionary - New Oxford DictionaryThe New Oxford Dictionary focuses on English as it is really used in the late 20th century. Compiled after in-depth analysis of computerized databases of current English, this dictionary is the first to base its coverage on the evidence of real English. A rapid-reference page design separates out parts of speech, word histories, and phrases. The most modern meaning of each word, as used by the majority of people, is placed first within each entry. Contemporary rules are given on question of usage, providing relevant advice on problems old and new. Word history notes explain the linguistic roots of words and tell the story of how a word’s meaning and form have changed over time. Modern pronunciations are also given, using the internationally recognized system.

If you are buying a dictionary for serious use, paperbacks can be a false economy. Very often, hardback editions only cost slightly more – and they will last you a lifetime. Treat yourself!

How to choose a dictionary - Chambers DictionaryIt’s official! The word techie – a devotee of technology – has made it into the Chambers Dictionary. And there are a slew of other net-specific words too, including netiquette, browsing, applet, spam, cybersex and cybercafé. It just goes to show how the world of computing and electronic communications has advanced and changed our world. Of course, there are also those other little things that have become part of our lives: Prozac, sound bite, cellulite…

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Millenium DictionaryCollins dictionaries have always scored well on contemporary relevance and accessibility. The latest ‘Millennium’ edition of the Collins English Dictionary has increased the previous content by twenty percent, and there are useful guiding headers at the top of the pages, and the headword entries are printed in a no-nonsense non-serif font which I find unexpectedly easy to read. Besides answering the questions usual to dictionaries there are many encyclopedic entries which make this a valuable work of general reference. It also carries notes on language use which might be studied by those who think they speak English correctly.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Dictionary and ThesaurusCollins also have on offer a ‘two-books-in-one’ Dictionary and Thesaurus. This carries 71,000 entries, plus a quarter of a million synonyms. Normal dictionary entries appear in the top half of each page, whilst the bottom half presents lists of synonyms and antonyms. This is a simple but very effective device which encourages browsing and learning about language. A useful choice if you need to combine two sources of reference in one.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Concise Oxford DictionaryThe most popular of the one-volume desktop dictionaries is the Concise Oxford Dictionary. This contains explanations, pronunciation, and the etymology of over 40,000 headwords. It also adds notes on any disputed or controversial terms, and includes American spellings. This is a great favourite with writers and students, and a basic minimum for a civilized library. If you can only afford one dictionary – make it this one.

 

How to choose a dictionary - EncartaIf you want an illustrated dictionary, Encarta has recently been released as one volume – to some acclaim. It represents both the diversity of English as a language spoken around the world, and an attempt to capture up-to-date usage. If you want a picture of an aardvark and details of zygotes – Encarta has them. It offers variant spellings, meanings, and pronunciations in more than 100,000 entries comprising some 3.5 million words. If, for example, your Asian correspondent asks you for your biodata, you can quickly and painlessly learn that she needs your curriculum vitae. There are more than 3,000 black-and-white illustrations and 10,000 biographical and geographical entries. This is Microsoft making good use of its linguistic database.

 

How to choose a dictionary - New Shorter Oxford DictionaryMoving towards the heavier, more serious resources for writers, students, and teachers who want the sort of books in their homes which are normally only available in libraries, the New Shorter Oxford is a firm favourite. It’s big, comprehensive, and scholarly, and is based on the monumental Oxford English Dictionary. All entries have been re-written to reflect contemporary usage. This is one which should be considered as a minimum for serious writers and researchers. It comes in two handsomely-produced volumes, which are a sound investment. Its also just been re-issued in a Oxford’s new easy-to-read format.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Compact Oxford English DictionaryThe Compact OED [an accurate but amazingly misleading title] is just about as far as you would need to go without being a library acquisitions officer or a professional lexicographer. It’s a two-volume version of the complete OED – but photo-reduced, so that the text is laid out in a font size of about six points. The volumes are issued as a cased set with a magnifying glass – and you’ll need it. But here’s the good news. It works. So you save on storage space, yet have access to the contents of the twenty volume version. I picked one up second hand, and use it all the time.

 

How to choose a dictionary - The Oxford English Dictionary CompleteOf course when we get to the biggest and best dictionary of the English Language, and a towering monument of bibliographic scholarship – then it’s the complete Oxford English Dictionary. This is now twenty printed volumes and had become rather expensive to produce. There are the two options available. You can have the convenience, speed, and reliability of the whole database on a single disk. Keep it in your D: drive and the world’s biggest lexical resource can be summoned with a mouse-click. The alternative is to subscribe to the online version, which will be permanently updated. It’s worth noting that the OED editors have decided to adopt an all-inclusive policy. New English, slang, jargon, and even obscenities are all listed.

© Roy Johnson 2009


More on dictionaries
More on language
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: Dictionaries, How-to guides, Study skills, Writing Skills Tagged With: Choosing a Dictionary, Communication, Creative writing, Dictionaries, Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford English Dictionary, Reference

How to Find Information

July 17, 2009 by Roy Johnson

skills for locating, evaluating, and recording information

The recent news that Google intends to scan the contents of several research libraries into its database should serve to remind us that not everything is available on the Internet. But good researchers still need to be able to find information from a variety of sources. This book shows you how to do it. Sally Rumsey includes all the most obvious topics concerned with the information gathering process, such as how to use a library, how to identify existing research, and how to use the World Wide Web for locating information.

How to Find Information You would expect that from any serious guide of this kind. But she also includes chapters on aspects of research which many people find baffling. These include actually identifying an information need in the first place; citation searching; locating and evaluating resources; citing references; keeping records; and how to keep up to date with the latest trends.

Everything is tackled in a very thorough and methodical manner. If like me you’re one of those people who learn from seeing, you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of diagrams, tables, and flow charts to illustrate her suggestions.

So, for instance, the chapter on using a library covers types of libraries, classification systems, and how to search the catalogue using a variety of techniques.

Of course a great deal of attention is devoted to online searching – and quite right too. It includes search terms, Boolean operators [and/or/not] and how to interpret the results.

With the very welcome expansion of online resources however, there is a danger that a lot of people will simply do an Internet search, then give up immediately if they don’t find what they are looking for. Serious researchers need to be more persistent.

In fact all information search skills will need to become more sophisticated as time goes on – but we shouldn’t forget that for the moment the majority of the world’s assembled wisdom resides in the form of what Nicholas Negroponte calls “ink pressed onto dead trees”.

I was glad to see a chapter on plagiarism and copyright – though I think at postgraduate research level the niceties of plagiarism warrant spelling out in a lot more detail.

The audience for this book is quite wide – serious undergraduates, all postgraduates, librarians, researchers, and even tutors who have an interest in keeping up to date with information skills.

It’s written in a friendly and approachable style and laid out in a user-friendly way, and there’s a glossary, a bibliography, an index, and a webliography or whatever we eventually decide to call a list of web addresses.

© Roy Johnson 2008

How to Find Information   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to Find Information   Buy the book at Amazon US


Sally Rumsey, How to Find Information: a guide for researchers, Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2nd edition, 2008, pp.223, ISBN: 0335226310


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: How to Find Information, Information management, Research, Searching, Study skills

How to Get a Good Degree

July 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

making the most of your time at university

The quick answer to how to get a good degree is of course to graduate with first class honours from a world class university. But such advice is about as reductively simplistic as Paul Getty’s ironic formula for getting rich: “Rise early. Work late. Strike oil.” Obviously there’s a lot more to it than that, and Phil Race’s guidelines are based on the realistic supposition that most students need support and guidance throughout the whole of their three years as an undergraduate. It’s a supposition that is sadly true more than ever in the current academic climate (in the UK at least). Tutors are under government pressure to produce ‘research’ (which few people read) and many of their original teaching commitments have been sub-contracted to part-time teachers and postgraduate students.

How to Get a Good DegreeThe net result is that students need the skills to support themselves through their coursework and assessments. Race starts off by covering issues such as motivation and self-awareness via a series of checklists in which students make a judgement of their current attitudes – with a view to enhancing them to improve their chances. In this way they can come to understand the basic processes of successful learning.

Students are urged to make an audit of their strengths and develop the skills of effective time-management. This is followed by learning to get more out of lectures, plus the significant differences between taking and making notes.

He also covers the skills required to make profitable use of small group tutorials, seminars, field work, laboratory work, and even work-based learning. There’s a whole chapter on learning from feedback on written work, showing students what they can gain in addition to the assessment of quality based on the mark awarded.

Then comes a major section on making the best of ‘learning resources’. These can be anything from lecture handouts, student support services, to the library and making intelligent Internet searches.

But the life of a student isn’t all intellectual work and enquiry. So he also covers personal aspects of student life – such as where to live, how to cope with a part-time job, and how to develop your computer skills.

Finally, though it might well have come first, he deals with the issue of improving your assessed course work. This includes essay writing skills, making presentations, completing projects, and how to do practical work. He tops this off with revision and examination skills, so by the time you come to the end of the book, just about every conceivable aspect of undergraduate life has been covered.

After that, it’s up to any student to apply all this excellent advice. If that’s done as thoroughly as it’s all been explained, the result should be a good degree.

© Roy Johnson 2007

How to Get a Good Degree   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to Get a Good Degree   Buy the book at Amazon US


Phil Race, How to Get a Good Degree, Open University Press: Maidenhead, 2nd edn, 2007, pp.272, ISBN: 033522265X


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: Education, How to Get a Good Degree, Study skills

How to get a PhD

July 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

research, writing, and information management skills

Nothing can quite prepare you for a PhD. It’s likely to be the longest piece of research and writing you ever undertake in your life. How to get a PhD is a guide to the process, and a survival kit for doctoral candidates. The authors are particularly good on the meaning and structure of a PhD, how to develop time management skills, and the difficulties of communicating with supervisors and how to overcome them. Much of this would apply to online PhD students too.

How to get a PhD If you are intending to embark on a research degree it will introduce you to the system and help you to improve your choice of university, college, department, and even supervisor. The first part of the book deals with the process of becoming a postgraduate student, how to get into the academic system at this level, and the special demands and exact nature of the PhD qualification. There is then advice on how to do research and a discussion of the structure required in this form of writing.

Phillips and Pugh then pass on to the substance of the task so far as the candidate is concerned – the long slog through three years of reading, writing, note-taking, and data collection.

They cover the special problems of groups such as women, part-time, and adult students, plus the tricky issues of dealing with supervisors and an environment which is based on the deeply entrenched privileges of old, white, Anglo-Saxon males (some of them already dead).

New for this fourth edition is a diagnostic questionnaire for students to monitor their own progress, plus a new section on the increasingly popular professional doctorates such as EdD, DBA, and DEng.

And then suddenly, and rather strangely (though true to its subtitle) the subject of its address changes from student to tutor. They discuss how supervisors can improve the support they give to students – largely by making the effort to see the process from the student’s point of view.

As a supervisor myself, I found this section instructively chastening. They offer a number of useful suggestions for making feedback more effective, and then end with notes on the responsibilities which institutions have to provide an adequate overall service for research students.

This is a book which is standing the test of time. First published in the 1980s, new material has been added for the latest (fourth) edition, which now includes information technology, publishing your work, and teaching and working towards a PhD in a practice-based discipline. There are very few guides to help people at this level of academic work. Anyone about to embark on the three year odyssey would do well to read this first – then pass it on to your supervisor.

© Roy Johnson 2010

How to get a PhD   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to get a PhD   Buy the book at Amazon US


Estelle M. Phillips and Derek S.Pugh, How to get a PhD: A handbook for students and their supervisors, Buckinghamshire: Open University Press, 5th edn, 2010, pp.220, ISBN: 0335242022


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: Academic writing, How to get a PhD, PhD, Postgraduate studies, Research, Theses

How to get an academic teaching job

August 8, 2011 by Roy Johnson

advice, tips, and templates for humanities PhDs

An academic teaching job is a golden objective, but not an easy goal to achieve. If you’ve made it through your first degree, then a masters or a PhD, the chances are that you would really like a university teaching post. After all, this would mean a light work load; long holidays; free sabbatical terms; conference trips abroad; you’re paid to read and write; and the job carries a little bit of social prestige. It’s an attractive proposition. But everyone knows that the number of available posts is shrinking fast, and the competition to secure them is enormous.

Academic teaching Job It’s increasingly difficult to get your foot even onto the first rung of the ladder. University departments everywhere are packed with young (and not so young) graduate teaching assistants hoping that their few hours of part-time teaching are going to be magically transformed into a full time post.

Kathryn Hume is a professor of English at Penn State University, and she has obviously made a close study of the job application process. This guidance manual is packed with tips to help you succeed or at least survive the many applications you will have to make before you land that appointment.

The American system of application is preliminary (conference) interviews to draw up a shortlist of possible candidates. These are followed by in-depth on-Campus interviews and presentations. UK and European readers can be sure that armed with the suggestions and advice laid out here, they will be well prepared for anything that can be thrown at them.

The first part of the book is concerned with making sure your documentation is in order. You need to present yourself on paper as persuasively as possible – and she explains how maximise your chances of being selected for an interview. There are all sorts of interesting little tips – such as the fact that your curriculum vitae does not need ‘Your Name – Curriculum Vitae’ as a bold heading – because it is obvious that’s what it is, and it will only be looked at along with everybody else’s.

The same goes for the interview. She recommends lots of practice – answering questions out loud to yourself or with friends. You should learn how to describe your own thesis in about ninety seconds without using jargon – because you will be speaking to people from other disciplines. And you should even practise wearing your interview clothes beforehand, so that you don’t feel uncomfortable. But there’s a lot more, thoughtful, and in-depth detail and warnings.

Remove whimsical quotations from the signature in your email. Clean up your online presence. Remove all photos of yourself looking drunk or less than properly clad from Facebook, Flickr, and other such networking sites. Even pictures of you enjoying a beach vacation will suggest that you have not been devoting yourself to serious professional work … committees routinely check out such sites, and deans take seriously any party-animal pictures or blogs that rant (no matter what the subject matter or stance).

Even if you succeed at the interview, it’s not all over. Because there’s the very delicate yet crucial issue of the job offer. You are in a very vulnerable position – because you want the job. The crucial piece of advice here is – don’t accept any offer until it’s in writing. The grounds for this argument are that the head of the interview panel might make you a verbal offer, the conditions and salary of which are changed when the head gets back to ratify matters with the budget-holding dean of the faculty.

Whilst searching for a job, you will also need to be converting your dissertation (or preferably thesis) into a book. This too is immeasurably more difficult than it used to be – because of cutbacks in educational funding and the cost of producing academic publications, which are only likely to sell to a small audience. You need to know quite a lot about how specialist and academic presses work to even secure a chance of being considered, let alone published. And – brace yourself! – you may even need to secure funding to generate a ‘subsidy’ for the publisher.

She even covers the worst case of what do you do if you don’t manage to secure a job. The main options are visiting professorship; postdoc work; an appointment in further education or a community college; a non-teaching post in administration or publishing; and the somewhat dangerous option of teaching abroad. It’s dangerous because you may never get back.

The advice doesn’t stop there. She even continues on the assumption that you manage to secure an untenured appointment, where you will be on probation for quite some time. Here you need to become aware of what she calls ‘academic politics’. Her advice is essentially a very cautious ‘keep your head down and stay out of trouble’ approach – but I enjoyed her accounts of departmental in-fighting and the secret codes and booby-traps of staff meetings.

The book also has a huge set of appendices offering multiple practical examples of CVs, letters of application, thesis descriptions, pedagogic philosophies, teaching portfolios, and evidence of teaching effectiveness. All of these cover a wide range of humanities subjects, including English, Rhetoric, Communication Skills, History, Art History, Comparative Literature, and French.

Buy the book at Amazon UK

Buy the book at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2011


Kathryn Hume, Surviving your Academic Job Hunt: Advice for Humanities PhDs, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2010, pp.227, ISBN: 0230109462


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: How-to guides, Literary studies, Study skills Tagged With: Academic teaching, CVs and Job Applications, Education, Teaching skills

How to Research

May 26, 2009 by Roy Johnson

complete guide to post-graduate research methods

Research should not be undertaken lightly. It requires advanced skills, and it’s a big step up from the undergraduate essay. Studies in graduate programs require a lot of research to succeed, so you have to be prepared. Fortunately, there are more and more writing guides available to help – and this is a good one. How to Research deals with the basics in a thorough and thoughtful way.

how to ResearchHow to choose a research topic. What to do if you can’t think of something specific. How to select a suitable supervisor. These are important issues, because getting off on the wrong foot can waste an awful lot of time. It also covers research methods – surveys, experiments, and case studies – and explains their advantages and shortcomings of each one.

Every chapter has its own annotated bibliography – that is, not just details of recommended texts, but a few words of assessment on their value and purpose. The chapters are full of the boxed highlights, questions, and self-assessment exercises which are typical of the Open University’s successful style of distance learning techniques.

The authors cover research reading skills – from gutting a book in five minutes, to longer readings and taking notes. Internet reading is also included. There are useful chapters on time management and data gathering – including some interesting comments on the ethics of interviewing.

If you reach this point in your research, the data then has to be analysed and written up. There’s plenty of guidance on these later stages, including the value of drafting, re-drafting, and editing. Keep that in mind. It can’t all be done in one pass.

The manual is aimed at those who are doing research in the social sciences, as well as in related subjects such as education, business studies, and health and social care. It will be particularly suitable for those who are less experienced. After all, not many people undertake research projects just for the fun of it.

It’s written in a fresh, jargon-free style, and the latest edition has been revised, with up-to-date bibliographies, and it now has new sections on choosing the appropriate research method and searching the Internet.

© Roy Johnson 2010

How to Research   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to Research   Buy the book at Amazon US


Lorraine Blaxter et al, How to Research, Buckingham: Open University Press, (fourth edition) 2010, pp.328, ISBN: 033523867X


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: Academic writing, How to Research, Research, Research skills, Study skills

How to Survive your Viva

July 11, 2009 by Roy Johnson

defending a thesis in an oral examination

This is the first book of its type (in the UK) to focus entirely on this one short but vital part of the PhD process. It’s a vital stage in gaining your degree, yet most people make surprisingly little preparation for it. Rowena Murray starts off with a look over research on the viva in an attempt to learn what we know about what goes on ‘behind closed doors’. The answer is that we don’t know a lot, which is her justification for writing the book. How to Survive your Viva gets straight down to defining the viva and its purpose – which is not as easy as it might seem, because practice varies from one institution to another, and the process is often shrouded in secrecy.

How to Survive your VivaShe makes this even more scary by pointing to the reason: there isn’t even a set of universally agreed criteria for what constitutes a successful PhD. Her advice is grounded in experience, and is perfectly sound. For instance, on the common occurrence of ‘pass subject to revisions’ which often seems so disappointing when candidates hear the words spoken, she offers this reassurance:

The viva is built up to be ‘the end’ of the doctoral process, but in reality the doctorate does not end with the viva. There is almost always some more work to do… Since the most common outcome is a pass with revisions and/or corrections, then you are not quite finished. Nor is it the end of the world if you have to do some more work; most people do. Do not, therefore, let the stakes get too high, so that it will seem like the end of the world if you have more work to do. Do not do that to yourself.

When it comes to preparing for the viva, she offers an amazingly thorough checklist of questions to ask your institution. These range from ‘Can I have a copy of the university’s code of practice on the conduct of the doctoral examination?’ to ‘Can I have a copy of the examiner’s form to be used in my viva?’

Students have far more extensive ‘consumer powers’ these days, and you have every right to ask for such information. You will certainly be much better prepared with it in your possession.

Her next chapter offers a timetable of what to do in the last few weeks leading up to the event, followed by how to handle the different types of questions likely to be raised in the interview, including what to do if you get stuck or flummoxed.

There is even a whole chapter on answering questions, striking the right attitude, responding to challenges, and even doing presentations. She also recommends mock vivas, shows you how to cope with the revisions, and how to recover from the whole experience afterwards.

My own PhD viva had some bad moments because I invited an extra examiner who didn’t really need to be there – and he decided to make waves (because he had no personal investment in the process). If I had read this book first, I wouldn’t have made that mistake. It’s a crucial moment in your academic career. The price of a book like this will repay itself a hundredfold in your first year of subsequent employment.

© Roy Johnson 2009

How to Survive your Viva   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to Survive your Viva   Buy the book at Amazon US


Rowena Murray, How to Survive your Viva, Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2009, pp.208, ISBN: 0335233821


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: Education, How to Survive your Viva, Oral examinations, Postgraduate studies, Research, Study skills

How to Win as a Final-year Student

July 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

writing, study, and life skills for undergraduates

This is a book of skills and strategies for students facing their last year of undergraduate studies. It covers the problems of writing longer essays, reports, and dissertations, passing exams, and preparing for future employment. A final-year student faces a particular set of challenges. What you do in your final year is critical to your future. You must cope with revision for final exams, as well as completing course-work and sometimes working on extended dissertations or projects. At the same time you need to be taking strategic decisions about your future career. You might also be handling job applications and interviews, or going though the selection process for entry into postgraduate study.

Final-year StudentPhil Race has produced a guide which covers all these problems. His basic approach is very practical. The book is packed with checklists, action plans, and self-assessment exercises. All the advice is sensible and realistic, and it is geared to help you work out your best solutions. What I particularly liked was the fact that it recognises the uncertainties of the final year. You often need to plan for two or three different eventualities, depending on the outcome of your exam results. This is very stressful – and Race recognises the fact, then provides solutions for coping.

In the latter part of the book, Race even looks ahead to preparing you for job interviews. How to assemble a curriculum vitae; how to prepare for interviews; and how to get through tests. However, not all final year students want to go into business, so he also covers what should be taken into account if you are contemplating post-graduate research.

This is a good addition to the excellent series of study skills guides from Open University Press. I only wish books like this had been available when I was in my final year.

© Roy Johnson 2005

How to Win as a Final-year Student   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to Win as a Final-year Student   Buy the book at Amazon US


Phil Race, How to win as a final-year student: essays, exams and employment, Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, 2005, pp.181, ISBN: 0335205119


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills Tagged With: Education, How to Win as a Final-year Student, Study skills, Writing skills

How to Write Critical Essays

July 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

advice on writing academic essays – from start to finish

David Pirie’s sub-title here is ‘a guide for students of literature’ – but his advice will be useful for anybody in the arts or humanities. What he offers is to talk you through the process, from understanding the question to producing and submitting the final draft. He adopts a very sensible approach, and the advice he offers is timeless. The essay as an academic exercise has endured because it is both a form of intellectual self-discovery and a flexible yet taxing means of assessment. He starts with analysing and understanding questions, then organising the ‘research’ for your answer – including detailed advice on taking notes. All this quickly becomes an introduction to literary criticism.

How to Write Critical EssaysHis chapter on devising a suitable structure for an essay explores the standard approaches to this task. These are discussing the arguments for and against a proposition; following the chronological order of events; and constructing a logical sequence of topics. I think a few more concrete examples would have been helpful here. The chapter on how to make a detailed case is more useful, precisely because he examines a series of concrete examples, showing how to quote and examine selected passages. The same is true of his chapter on style, where he illustrates his warnings against repetition, vagueness, generalisation, plagiarism, and overstatement.

There’s something eloquent yet curiously old-fashioned about his prose style. The voice is like an audio recording of someone speaking to us from an earlier age. And he uses phrases which flatter his readers. He talks about students ‘writing criticism’ – as if their coursework exercises were about to be published.

It’s a shame there is no bibliography or index. These are omissions which should be rectified if the book ever makes its long-overdue second edition.

© Roy Johnson 2005

How to Write Critical Essays   Buy the book at Amazon UK

How to Write Critical Essays   Buy the book at Amazon US


David Pirie, How to Write Critical Essays: a guide for students of literature, London: Routledge, 1985, pp.139, ISBN: 0415045339


More on study skills
More on writing skills
More on online learning


Filed Under: Study skills, Writing Skills Tagged With: Academic writing, How to Write Critical Essays, Literary studies, Term papers, Writing Essays, Writing skills

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 6
  • Next Page »

Reviews

  • Arts
  • Biography
  • Creative Writing
  • Design
  • e-Commerce
  • Journalism
  • Language
  • Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Media
  • Publishing
  • Study skills
  • Technology
  • Theory
  • Typography
  • Web design
  • Writing Skills

Get in touch

info@mantex.co.uk

Content © Mantex 2016
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Clients
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Links
  • Services
  • Reviews
  • Sitemap
  • T & C’s
  • Testimonials
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2025 · Mantex

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in