Essential Study Skills
Reading Well
The authors present reading as a remedy for three prevalent cultural “vices”: distraction, hostility, and consumerism, which impact our ability to experience texts in concentration. They examine practices many students and avid readers employ, such as reading lists, reading logs, and discussion, demonstrating how these practices can be more effectively and intentionally harnessed to result in deep reading.
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Taking Notes
The resource outlines the three most effective methods for writing lecture notes with helpful illustrations.
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Participating in Class Discussions
Advice on preparing for class participation, from understanding the assigned topic, preparing for discussion, making informed comments, and asking thoughtful questions.
An outline of strategies for preparing and engaging in class discussion and advice on how to respectfully disagree.
A comprehensive advice book on all aspects of public speaking, formal and informal: delivering presentations, participating in class discussions, and talking with friends. The text provides practical exercises and strategies that will help you manage your fear and outlines the benefits of “authentic” and relying on your own voice and personality.
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An excellent guide to developing oral communication skills, with the emphasis on the ability to converse, to discuss, to argue persuasively, and to speak in public. This book will help you to become a good listener, express yourself clearly and persuasively, ask thoughtful questions in lectures and tutorials, contribute effectively to class discussions, prepare talks or presentations, and perform well in interviews.
Communicating Effectively
The book advises readers on how to put themselves in their audience’s shoes and tailor their message to the needs of decision makers through effective and persuasive communication. Advice on persuading a decision maker, mastering a confident and engaging delivery style, speaking with the voice of authority, conveying a professional image through dress and appearance, facilitating meetings, writing persuasive email messages, and other topics.
Teamwork, meeting deadlines, overcoming challenges, solving problems, writing and presenting well, and dealing with people are essential in any professional job. These same skills are also vital to becoming a strong student. This practical guide shows you how to master the critical skills and strategies for success at school, work, and in life. Also includes advice on managing your online presence and personal brand on social media, adapting to changing circumstances, developing positive attitudes, learning to network, and dealing with the transition from university to the workplace.
Concentrating
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Thinking Critically
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Writing Well
The University of Toronto Writing Centres provide a number of advice files on developing academic research and writing skills, including instructions on writing essays for specific disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. This resource outlines the major differences and expectations between high-school level and university-level writing.
Offers clear, accessible, and short chapters covering everything from writing a summary to quoting a source to putting sentences and paragraphs together. The book provide an introduction to some of the most important “basics” of writing for university courses as well as advice on how to write a conclusion and substantial overview of what professors want you to write and why.
Presenting
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A detailed guide to the preparation and delivery of both individual and group presentations: understanding the elements of engaged and effective presentations, developing content and structure, designing presentation slides, and answering questions from your audience.
Conducting Academic Research
An annotated bibliography to the major resources on each stage of conducting university level research, including consulting reference sources, locating books and journal articles, and evaluating different types of publications to the topic of your research.
This book shows researchers how to do comprehensive research on any topic. This includes not just lists of resources, but discussions of the ways to search within them: how to find the best search terms, how to combine the terms, and how to make the databases (and other sources) show relevant material even when you don’t know how to specify the best search terms in advance.
Reference
Working on a Group Project
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Designing a Research Poster
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This chapter from Presenting Your Research: Conferences, Symposiums, Poster Presentations and Beyond outlines the structure and organization of research poster presentation sessions at conferences and symposia. It also provides advice on considering the size, design, use and colour and branding of posters in the sciences and humanities.
Preparing for an Exam
Questions?
Please consult one of our reference librarians or schedule a research consultation if you have questions about the resources listed in the guide or if you would like to find additional books, articles or online sources and advice related to developing various study, research, and writing skills.
created by: Agatha Barc | updated: 8 August 2024