Academic Skills
Academic Skills Overview
Learning Services can assist you in developing the academic skills you need to study at University. By developing these skills, you will become a better learner and improve your marks!
We will advise on:
- Time management and organisation
- Note-making
- Reading strategies
- Referencing
- Assignment writing
- Exam strategies
We offer basic support with:
- Searching the library catalogue and databases
- Word documents
- Excel spreadsheets
- PowerPoint presentations
We offer both group sessions and one-to-one support, covering study skills, information skills and ICT skills. We also provide online resources to help you help yourself, including videos, links and downloadable guides. You will find these by clicking on the Academic Skills Videos and Academic Skills Guides tabs at the top of this page.
Academic Skills Workshops
Learning Services runs a series of workshops at specific times during the academic year, depending on demand. The workshops are advertised on the GO Portal and include:
- What makes a good assignment?
- Finding and using the right sources.
- Reading and critical thinking.
- Editing and proofreading
- Referencing and avoiding plagiarism
One-to-one Support
You can book a 30 minute session with an Academic Skills Advisor for advice on any aspect of your studies. We base these on your particular requirements so please bring an assignment you are working on. If you want advice on improving your marks, please bring a marked assignment and tutor feedback.
For advice on Harvard Referencing, please make sure you have accessed the Frequently Asked Questions and the Harvard Guide before seeking advice from us.
What we don't do
- We don't proofread work but will advise you on proofreading strategies.
- We don't offer subject tuition. You should speak to your tutors if you have any concerns about your subject or topics.
Contact
To book a one-to-one or for any academic skills query, contact:
1st Floor Ask Desk, University Library, Ormskirk
Phone: 01695 584372
Email: librarian@edgehill.ac.uk
Academic Skills Videos
This series of videos will give you a basic introduction to some of the key academic skills you will need during your time at University. You will find further useful resources by clicking on the Academic Skills Guides tab at the top of this page.
Academic Skills – Studying at University
An introduction to studying in higher education
Academic Skills – Your Reading Lists
A demonstration of how students can access their reading lists in the library catalogue
Academic Skills – Using the Library
Demonstration of browsing the library catalogue to find resources.
Academic Skills – Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism
An introduction to the principles of referencing
Academic Skills – Planning your Assignment
A brief guide to planning and structuring an academic essay
Academic Skills – Introduction to Academic Writing
An introduction to academic writing
Academic Skills Guides
Learning Services has a number of academic skills guides which might help with your planning, starting your writing as well as punctuation.
Resources in the Library
- The Ultimate Study Skills Handbook is a concise guide to all the skills you need to manage your studies, utilise resources and write assignments.
- Write Great Essays is just one of the many guides we have in the University Library to help with essay structure and style.
- Quick Solutions to Common Errors in English: An A-Z Guide to Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar gives examples of typical errors students make with grammar, spelling and punctuation, and how to avoid them.
- You can also try some searches of your own, such as 'critical thinking', 'dissertation writing' or 'study skills' to explore the wide range of study materials in the University Libraries.
Academic Writing
Academic writing is about writing in the style of your subject (your discipline), for example, a scientific report will be very different from a critique of a novel. Writing in your discipline is a skill you will develop over time, however, there are some general techniques you can use to help you plan, write, edit and proofread effectively.
The Open University has advice and activities to help with academic style, structure and using evidence in assignments. You need to register to use some of the resources but registration is free: http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/assignments.php
La Trobe University has a study skills book which covers all aspects of academic study. Chapter 6 is about essay writing and contains example questions, outline plans, and paragraphs: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/health/study/learning-support
The Academic Phrasebank has a wide range of words and phrases to help you structure your discussion and introduce your references effectively: http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/
English Club has definitions and examples of grammar to help make sentences clear and concise: http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/
Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for Students in Higher Education is an American website that has very good and simple advice on punctuation: http://www.uefap.com/
Referencing
Referencing the sources of information you use is an essential part of academic writing, and it's important to get it right. At Edge Hill, we generally use the Harvard referencing style. Our handy guide explains what referencing is and how to do it correctly:
- Harvard Referencing [PDF]
Here is the Harvard Referencing script that will allow you more easily to add references to your work and compile bibliographies.
Right click HarvardEdgeHill3.XS and choose 'save link as' and save it in this folder: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\Bibliography\Style\
This is only supported in Office 2007 and the above folder is the standard installation folder but may be different on your system.
Once installed you'll be able to follow this Citations and Bibliographies Guide [PDF]
RefWorks is a tool that allows you to manage and output your references in the style of your choice. For more information take a look at the RefWorks Guide.
Critical Thinking
Good writers are good critical thinkers. Critical thinking involves asking questions, seeking answers and looking for evidence. Follow these links to explore more features of critical thinking:
Learn Higher offers some useful definitions of critical thinking, some models to help you think and reflect and an example of the difference between description and analysis. There are also several activities to help you identify and practise critical thinking.
Greg Haskins Guide to Critical Thinking. Haskins discusses some of the misconceptions students have about critical thinking and he examines the barriers that can hinder critical thinking. He lists 5 practical steps to becoming adept at reading, evaluating and creating critical arguments.
QualiaSoup on YouTube is a short and easy to follow video, explaining scepticism and critical thinking: what they are and why they are useful for study and in the workplace.
Research and Information Skills
Being information literate means being able to find and evaluate the information you need for your academic work. There's a lot more to finding the right information than just searching Google! The resources below will help you develop your skills and become an information literate learner.
Intute has online tutorials to help you find copyright free resources:
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/video/
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/audio/
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/imagesearching/
SAFARI – Skills in Finding, Accessing and Reviewing Information is an interactive tutorial from the Open University. It contains 7 sections that help with understanding, finding and evaluating the vast amount of resources available to students. The tutorials range from 1 hour to 3 hours in length, so we suggest you only use them when you have time. They would be very useful to work through over the summer months, as a refresher.
Skills@Library – Basic Searching at Leeds University has a short, interactive tutorial that you can download to help you break down assignment titles and use key words for effective information searches.
Reading and Note Making
Good writers are also good readers. Reading critically and choosing appropriate evidence is crucial for effective academic writing.
www.criticalreading.com has some excellent examples of how to read texts in-depth and critically:
http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_reading.htm
The University of Toronto also offers some good reading tips.
Glendale Community College shows some short videos that demonstrate techniques for helping you pace your reading: http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/methods.html
Taking useful notes in lectures and seminars, and when reading, is one of the first steps to producing good writing. The websites below have some good techniques and resources with critical questions to consider when making notes.
English Companion has many visual examples of note-making, and some worksheets, to help you focus on specific questions to ask before, during and after reading or in lectures and seminars.
The University of Portsmouth's short guide to note-making contains several exercises to help you assess your current strategies for paraphrasing and abbreviating.
Punctuation
The guides below will give you a brief overview of how to use punctuation correctly. See also the resources under Academic Writing above.
RefWorks Guide
1 What is RefWorks?
RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic management tool that allows you to create a database of references. References can be added manually or imported from electronic journal collections and Google Scholar. You can easily produce formatted bibliographies in the referencing style of your choice, including: Harvard, APA and MHRA. An add-in to Word enables you add references to your paper or essay as you write it.
2 Accessing RefWorks
RefWorks can be accessed both on and off-campus from the Library Catalogue - just search for RefWorks.
The first time you login you need to supply a few details about yourself to create an account
3 Introductory tutorials
Get started by looking at these introductory online tutorials. Just click on the title to run, alternatively you can look at the accompanying PDF file.
Note: Flash is needed to run the tutorial. If needed, click here to download the Adobe Flash Player plug-in.
| Navigating Around RefWorks (2:26 min.) | |
| Adding References via Direct Export (3:15 min.) | |
| Adding References via Manual Entry (3:18 min.) | |
| Organizing References with Folders (4:38 min.) | |
| Searching Your RefWorks Database with Quick Search (2:18 min.) | |
| Creating a Standalone Bibliography (1:06 min.) |
4 Exporting from Edge Hill journal collections and databases
Many of the journal collections and databases Edge Hill University subscribe to allow you to directly export into RefWorks. As the way to export varies between the various journal collections and databases a guide to exporting from each database is available, familiarise yourself with the Using RefWorks guide now. Export instructions for the electronic journal collections and database are available in the Sidebar area on the bottom left hand corner of the page (a direct link to the list is available - click here).
Some electronic journal collections and databases do not allow you to export directly into RefWorks, but they often do allow you to save export references into a text file and import this into RefWorks. The tutorial below shows how to do this. It can seem a bit complicated at first so the Using RefWorks guide provides additional information on the filters to apply in these cases.
| Adding References by Importing Text (2:14 min.) |
5 Using Write-N-Cite
Write-N-Cite enables citations to be inserted and bibliographies created into Microsoft Word documents.
| Inserting Citations and Creating Bibliographies with Write-N-Cite (11:45 min.) |
Note: This feature will only be available in RefWorks 2.0 from January 2012.
6 Further information
For further information on RefWorks go to the RefWorks website where you can sign up for free webinars and access tutorials, or use the tutorials within RefWorks.
Contact the Learning Services Helpdesk if you need assistance.
