1:1 bookable appointments can be made with your Academic Skills Advisers for your subject area.
Students from Ipswich can book two appointments per week (if you are a student from the Learning Network, please contact your library) -
Appointments are scheduled in 30 minute slots.
Effective reading
Most information used in presentations will come from previous research for essays and reading texts: books, journals, reports, research articles, websites, professional guidelines, legislation, or other media. It is important to develop effective reading strategies and research skills in order to be able to locate the information that you need to inform your writing.
You should become familiar with skills such as skimming (reading for gist), scanning (searching for specific information) and intensive reading (detailed understanding).
In addition you need to be aware of purpose when reading in order to remain on task with answering the specific question you are asked to discuss.
It is also important to develop a critical awareness of the text you are reading, so that you can develop a critical perspective for your presentation, and are able to judge the validity of information, so that you can select accordingly.
Overview of effective reading
Effective note-taking
Reading and note-taking go hand in hand when compiling information for an essay assignment. Not only is note-taking a way of selecting information that is suitable to incorporate into the assignment, but it also helps understanding of the topic and allows the researcher to make connections between the information taken from different sources. In addition, note-taking, paraphrasing and summarizing helps to build the skills necessary to become a more accomplished writer.
It is important for effective note-taking to include the following elements: