Lecture 4

1. Lecture 4 • Investing in yourself

2. Learning through Talk • How well you learn from group discussion is greatly affected by what you experience in being in the group • Group learning can be very enjoyable and rewarding, and can build confidence and maintain morale... • But it can also be confusing frustrating and alienating. • Important to reflect on your reaction • Important to think about how to be productive in a group.

3. Learning through Talk • Discussion based learning: • Seminars, tutorials, group discussion, workshops • Size of the group, and type of control by the leader, are both important in determining what you learn from it.

4. Learning Through Talk • Discussion is communal: allows you to share the burden of understanding new ideas • Discussion helps develop your debate and thinking skills • Helps you to use and understand the specialist language of your subject • Lifts your morale: you realize you are not alone in your struggle to understand.

5. Learning Through Talk • Advice for getting benefit from discussion. • Make an effort to talk to group members before and after the group sessions. It will make a difference to your confidence. • Always show up. • Do any readings that you should so that you are prepared to speak. • If you are confused, say so. Otherwise you could get left out of the discussion.

6. Learning Through Talk • Advice... • Don't wait for something “important” to say. Set your sights low, and say simple things and give simple examples. • Don't worry about the quality of your contribution. Nobody will mind. • Share responsibility for keeping the group useful and interesting. Make contributions to the discussion.

7. Talk • Giving presentations: • Keep it simple and make it as clear as you can. • Use examples that the audience can understand. • Make your slides show the main points, and you can talk around these main points with examples. • Practice your presentation the day before. • Check the equipment and take your time. Cut your presentation length rather than rush.

8. Lectures • Learning in lectures does not come by just attending. • You have to listen to the lecturers argument • You have to think about what is said and make connections with what you already know • You must take notes of some kind.

9. Online research • Much good research can be done using online sources. • Use search engines outside China for english language queries. • Google, lycos, altavista are common choices for general searches • Often have “advanced” search capabilities • You should set up a web filing system. • Bookmarks folder in your browser.

10. Online research • When you need to do serious research about a topic/field start by finding: • Major portals or gateways • Databases • When searching, start with simple keywords. But choose alternative words and phrasing as well to check that you get different points of view. • You will begin to recognize the network of knowledge that is on the internet.

11. Online info: is it any good? • How do you know what you found is good? • PROMPT: • Presentation: does the site look professional or amateurish? Is it sensational, or sober? • Relevance. Is it what you are looking for? • Objectivity. Is the writing impersonal, objective?

12. Online info: is it good? • Method. • Are there indications of the method used to get the information? • Provenance. • What is the origin and authenticity of the information? Is the source reputable? Who trusts it? Do you trust it? • Timeliness. • When was it published? Is it up to date?

13. Online research. • Referencing. • Anything you find online you should make a note of, and reference it in your work. • The texts you find online are the intellectual property of whoever published them. Be careful to acknowledge them. • You can download entire webpages onto your hard drive for future reference, if you wish.

14. Writing Essays • Academic writing is a key learning process. • It deepens your learning of the subject. • It strengthens your power of self expression. • It is a major way in which you are graded.

15. Essay Writing • An essay should read as a logical argument with each point following on clearly from the preceding one. • In principle: • The argument in an essay should go from the title through to the conclusion without any interruption! • Everything in the essay should contribute in some way to the argument. • Anything which does not contribute should be left out.

16. Essay writing. • Make it clear that you have answered the question which the essay asks. • Your primary purpose is to arrive (in the conclusion) at an answer to the question in the title. • Answer can be yes/no/maybe/it depends on circumstances... • Key idea is to show that you have tried to answer the issue/question.

17. Essay writing • Make your arguments obvious. • “Spell it out” • Assume your reader needs lots of hand-holding to follow your argument. • Things you write can seem perfectly obvious to you, but be obscure to the reader. • Your points often need more explanation than you think. • When you reread an essay a few months later, you can find your own words a mystery...

18. Essay writing • After you make your arguments, you need to back up your argument. • Facts or statements from reputable sources • Proper referencing! • Harvard reference system is one choice. • Bring in concepts cases and authours from your course. • Remember that essays are used to evaluate you. Show what you have learned that is relevant.

19. Essay writing • Essays must have a structure • A poor essay structure seems to go from paragraph to paragraph without any obvious sequence or direction. You have to guess what it's all about and whether it works. • A good essay : you should think about the order in which you want to argue. It doesn't have to be clever, a simple structure is fine.

20. Essays • Beginning: • A short, “punchy” opening. POW! • A quick scenario, and a provocative question. • Or just a question, followed by why this is of interest.

21. Essays • Ending: • Briefly recap main flow of your arguments. • Conclude with how you have come to a conclusion of the issue/question raised at the start. • Crisp, direct, and to the point.

22. Essays • USE YOUR OWN WORDS. • This is a crucial part of using writing to “learn” • It helps your teacher to give you credit for what you have done. • It makes studying much more interesting (though harder too).