CUC100 Academic Literacies

1. CUC100 Academic Literacies 1: Overview and Assignment 1: Prepare Reflection for Major Essay

2. Overview The specific aims of the unit are as follows: • to enable students to reflect on and evaluate their needs and plans for success in their university study and as graduates, • to enable students to develop skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking • to strengthen students’ research skills in regard to their ability to identify, access, evaluate, organise and communicate information • to ensure that students are able to make use of commonly required computing skills, such as word processing, Internet, email, and the university’s online learning environment, Learnline, and create visual presentations and spreadsheets • to help students appreciate the different ways of thinking and learning, particularly favoured by western academia • to provide students with the opportunity to become familiar with university culture, particularly the culture of Charles Darwin University.

3. Assessment

4. Assignment 1: Reflection on your Employability Skills • Assess yourself against the list of employability skills developed by DEST (2002). Write one paragraph for each of the three tasks listed, formatting as per the instructions below. • Compile reflection content: • Begin with a paragraph explaining what you are studying and how this study will enhance your future career. • Explain which of the DEST employability skills (on the next page) you already have and how these will help you in your studies and your proposed profession and why. • Which of the other employability skills will you still need to develop for your proposed profession and why?

5. Introduction to Task Employability skills are defined by DEST (2002), as: • ‘skills required not only to gain employment, but also to progress within an enterprise so as to achieve one’s potential and contribute successfully to enterprise strategic directions’ • When you graduate, you will need to be able to apply and continue to develop a range of skills in the workplace. This assignment encourages you to reflect on the skills you have and those you will need. It also serves as a preparatory reflection on your final assignment topic (Assignment 4) which asks you to consider employability skills relevant to your chosen profession.

6. Employability skills are defined by DEST (2002) • communication • teamwork • problem-solving • initiative and enterprise • planning and organisation • learning • technology

7. Presentation • Unlike most formal academic writing, this is a personal reflection and therefore it is appropriate to refer to yourself in the first person ‘I’. Note: this is the only assignment in this unit in which you can use the first person. • You must use conventional sentence and paragraph structure with no bullet points.

8. Formatting • Apply the following formatting to your assignment document: • Margins: Top & Bottom (3.00cm ), Left & Right ( 2.5cm) • Header and Footer – include personal details for this assignment. • Text Styles: Body text – set to Times New Roman, 12pt size, left alignment with 1.5 line spacing. Paragraph spacing – 0pt ‘before’ and 12pt ‘after’, with no additional spacing.

9. Checking and Referencing • Complete a spelling and grammar check. • Save your document with a concise file name – your surname, unit code and assignment number. Reference: Department of Education, Science and Training, 2002, Employability skills for the future, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, viewed 30 June 2009, <http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/training_skills/policy_issues_reviews/key_issues/es/default.htm>

10. Complete the checklist from wikibefore submitting via email CUC100 assignments.doc http://aseducation.wikispaces.com/CUC100+academic+literacies