Tutorial 3 In Class Groups Research Skills Supporting (providing evidence for) your points Research skills Reading skills Referencing

Learning outcomes for this session At the completion of this session, students will: Know: About the importance of using academic sources, particularly journal articles, in HE study. The importance of developing strategies for reading and understanding academic materials. Why referencing is important in HE. Be able to: Book themselves in to a library session on database searching. Compare reading strategies and identify the one/s that will be the most useful to them. Begin developing academic skills, such as referencing and paraphrasing, that will allow them to avoid plagiarism. 2

Academic Writing (cont’d) As we discussed yesterday, academic writing requires evidence (you have to be able to PROVE your point). This evidence can come from two places: Research (you do an experiment and analyse the results) Academic literature (such as textbooks, journal articles and reports)

Let’s look at the impact of having evidence in your writing: Academic writing Increased protection for paramedics is vital, as every individual has the right to a safe working environment (Safe Work Practices Act, 2011). Frontline services- such as paramedics, doctors and nurses- report a 90% increase in workplace violence over the past three years (Wilson, 2015) and the police have linked this to significant increases in the amount of drugs being brought into Australia (Tyers, 2016). Informal writing I think that it’s really important to have more protection for ambulance officers who are just doing their jobs. It’s terrible that they have to put up with people punching and kicking them, yelling abuse or whatever, probably because they’re on drugs or something. Words are more formal Based on facts and data (from references) Includes contractions, informal sayings, personal opinion.

1. Pages 162-163: ‘Using material of suitable quality and content’ Research Skills To provide the evidence (facts, data) to support your academic writing, you need to develop good research skills. You need to: Identify academic/reliable sources of information (i.e use things with references- but not Wikipedia!) Search for relevant journal articles on the library databases (you will need to do a course with our library staff) Develop your academic reading skills (we’ll work on this next) Understand referencing (find out what the required referencing style is for your course?) The Study Skills Handbook 1. Pages 162-163: ‘Using material of suitable quality and content’

What does a journal article look like? Activity- provide each student with a copy of a (fairly user-friendly) journal article. Discuss the purpose of journal articles Explain what ‘peer-reviewed’ means for an article Read the Abstract as a class (discuss what the research is about) Explore the references (in-text and end text) Discuss the writing style (impersonal – there are no ‘first person’ references; objective - based on facts, not emotions or opinions)

Academic reading Textbooks Journal articles Reports Case studies Manuals You don’t need to read everything! Learning to read selectively, and to use reading strategies such as skimming, scanning and critiquing, will help you to manage the amount of reading that you need to do.

Reading strategies Read selectively The Study Skills Handbook 2. Read pg. 164 (take notes and discuss with the class) 3. Do the self-evaluation on pg.s 165-167: ‘Am I a smart reader?’. Read selectively Use the structure of the book (i.e the chapter outlines; index; headings) or article (i.e the Abstract, Intro, Discussion) to help you find key information quickly ALWAYS take notes when you are reading, and make sure your notes include the source’s title and author (so that you have a record of where the information came from) Learn to skim and scan: Your teacher will lead you through the activity: “Read an academic article in 30 minutes”

Referencing Harvard or APA? The basics are the same It depends which course you are studying (ask your lecturer) The basics are the same In the text: note the author’s surname/s and the year the item was published At the end of the text (i.e on the ‘References’ list): list ALL of the following information- Who wrote it (author, initials) When (year) What it is called (title of article, book or website) Where it is published (publication details vary depending on the type of document. Use the Guides provided by the Chisholm Library. The Study Skills Handbook 4. Work through pages 177-179 of your textbook (read, take notes, and answer the questions)

Now let’s try this together Write 2-3 paragraphs (approx. 300 words) summarizing the article we read earlier. Paraphrase the article (i.e explain the main ideas in your own words) Include in-text references (at least one per paragraph) Reflect on the article (i.e do you agree with the findings? Why or why not?) We will write the end-text reference as a class (but make sure you add it to the bottom of your own work too ) Finish this activity (for homework, if you do not complete it in class) and submit it to YourTutor. Bring the activity, AND your feedback from YourTutor, to tomorrow’s class.

Sources Used: Images: https://www.shutterstock.com/ Textbook: All of the page numbers quoted on these slides refer to pages in: Cottrell, S., 2013. The study skills handbook. 4 ed. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave.