Self-study (you know it makes sense...)

The otter second from the right loves reading..

Reading... Is the written word dying? Have people stopped reading books? Will the internet eventually replace the book, the magazine, the newspaper?
Probably not in the next one or two years so it's important for you to READ in English.
Of all the students I've taught, I've generally found that those who read a lot are the ones who have the greatest range of expression, who express themselves best in writing. Part of your self-study this week is to find something to read ( a book, a journal, a magazine, a serious newspaper [The Guardian, Independent,Times etc - these newspapers tend to have more in-depth analysis of issues, writers usually express themselves in a more formal style of English which is closer to the type of academic article you will need to read on your course] - The Metro, unfortunately for you, is not enough... you need to set your standards higher than that!) Find something related to your subject, or find something that you enjoy reading (if you enjoy reading about your subject, that's perfect.) I want to know the title, how much you read, what it was about and I'd like you to write brief notes or a summary of what you learnt through your reading.
(you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs...)

Friday Self-Study

Today I would like you to work more on your paraphrasing, summarising and referencing skills. In the final draft of your essay you will be given credit for effective use of these techniques, and if I see them used well I will cry with happiness.

You are going to use the resources of UEFAP, an excellent academic English site from the University of Hertfordshire. Click on 'Reporting' on the left and read through the information. Do some of the exercises - if you scroll down the page after clicking on the Exercises tab, you will find an interesting exercise on globalisation (your favourite subject....)

There's some very good advice and a few practice activities at this website.

Read an article WHICH INTERESTS you from a UK newspaper and post a summary of the article on the blog.

Read this short guide from Deakin University about Harvard referencing. On your blog, post the answers to these questions:
Why is Harvard an author-date system?
What is the difference between an in-text citation and a list of references?
What are two different ways to use in-text citation?
What should you do if the book has more than 3 authors?
What information should be included for a book in the list of references?

Note down one or two more relevant facts which you learnt about referencing.

Thursday Week 1 Self-study

Can you find the answers to the following questions?

1. What is Google Scholar?

2. What are peer-reviewed journals?

3. What is Intute? Do you know any other similar sites?

4. How can you tell if a website is a reliable source of information?

Think about it and post some comments.

Your blog tasks this week

Nice to see you all again! As I said in class, I am going to set you 2 specific tasks each week for your self-study. Please do your best to complete these tasks and post anything else you do on your blog. I'd like you to try to focus on your own weaknesses and show me that you know what these are and that you are working to improve them. A good place to start is with this first task, the language self-assessment pages from the Open University.
If you are a new student and are having trouble setting up your blog, please ask me for help.
The other important task this week is to start researching the topic (globalisation) and thinking about how it is related to your own specific subject (eg pharmaceutical science, jewellery design, astrophysics etc.) There are some websites on pages 21 and 31 of your book to get you started.

Something to think about for next month..

I'd like you to do some reflective writing on your blog. Think about the second month of pre-sessional English which you have just completed. What did you learn? How did you improve? What did you understand about your own skills (or lack of them..)? Which areas do you need to work on for next month? How ready do you feel to start your course? Reflective writing is becoming more common on all types of university course - to find out more about it, have a look here - What exactly is reflective writing?


What is 'academic style'?

How can I improve cohesion in my writing?

How can I practice my pronunciation?

Where can I learn more about writing for my subject?

How can I found out about referencing my work properly?

What is plagiarism?

Am I ready to study in English?

How can I improve my academic vocabulary?

Where can I find online resources for my subject?

Alternatively, go to Steve's blog and watch an episode or two of the sitcom 'Coupling'....

Self study - Privacy

Here's an excellent site for research on the issue of PRIVACY.

Self-study and plagiarism

Please remember that self-study should be your own work! (that's why it's called SELF study..)
It is not acceptable to cut and paste from somebody else's website without acknowledging it. I'm interested in your ability to manage your own learning, demonstrate a variety of sources of information and a range of different learning activities and your awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses. I'm not interested in how well you can cut and paste...

In the meantime, here's some practice of Articles.

Self-study Friday

Lecture and seminar preparation:

1. Look for the following words/terms and find a definition. One way to do this is to type, for example, biometrics definition into Google and this will give you the meaning and links to relevant sites.

surveillance
footprints
fingerprints
biometrics
facial recognition
DNA profiling
CCTV
number plate recognition
electronic tagging
police database

SELF-STUDY TASK

Read p.43 which describes the topics and issues which you will discuss in Monday's seminar. Start your research for the seminar by visiting websites, taking notes on what you find and posting your comments / ideas on your blog. What you post must NOT be just cut and pasted from articles. What I want to see is YOUR OWN IDEAS AND ANALYSIS of what you have found out. Try to THINK CRITICALLY about what you read and relate it to the topics on p.43.

The following websites (some of them are in your book p.43) will be useful:


Cybercrime

Electronic tagging

Police National DNA database

CCTV

DNA Databases

Privacy International

Biometrics

Privacy lecture

Online Surveillance

Good luck and have a great weekend!

Friday Self-study

There are several aims to today's self-study session:

1) To make sure that you have your own self-study blog set up. If you are having trouble, please ask another student who already has a blog to help you.

2) There is a selection of online exercises for you to work through which will help you with your research and with your writing.

• The first exercise is 'The Internet Detective' and will help you choose reliable sources of information online.
  

3) If you have time, or for self-study over the weekend, have a look at the UEFAP site again and work through the information and exercise on 'Hedging':

The exercise itself is at the bottom of the page.

4) If you're still hungry for more, look at this information about Cause and effect. There are some decent exercises to try at the bottom of the page.

So much work, so little time..!

What can I do for self-study?

Sometimes students are not sure what is meant by 'self-study'. I've decided to give you a list of suggested activities to help you organise your own study and so you know what to include on your own blog.

• Write a profile about yourself for me and your classmates - you don't need to write a full auto-biography, just a few lines...
• Find a book, journal or website related to your master's subject. Read part or all of it and write a few notes on your blog saying what you learnt/how difficult it was/your ideas and opinions about the subject
• Any extra study you do related to grammar and vocabulary which you look at in your first class, or extra activities for the second class can be posted on the blog - write a few examples using the grammatical structure or new words that you practised. This can include any homework you were given by your teachers.
• If you find a website/video/article/lecture which you think would be useful for other students, post it on your blog.
• Practise your academic vocabulary from some of the websites posted on my blog - which new words have you learnt?
• Write about a place you visited in London/the UK - where was it? What was it like? Would you recommend it to other students?
• Show some evidence of reflection and understanding of your own weaknesses in English, and some attempt to practise and improve in those areas. This could be in grammar, pronunciation, writing structure, vocabulary, speaking, listening - almost anything in fact.
• Can you think of anything else?

Have a look at some of the other students' blogs from last month for more ideas (you can find these listed on the left on my blog).
Most studetns who have done this kind of blog find it very useful. I hope the same goes for you - Good luck with it and I look forward to seeing your work!

Welcome Newcastle!

I'll be encouraging you to write your own self-study blog this month. This is a really good way for you to organise your own learning outside class and it helps me to get a good idea of what you are doing and what you need to do to improve your English. Have a look at some of the blogs on the right hand side (Pierre's blog/Jaguar's blog for example) to see what a good blog looks like. You can find out how to set up your own blog here:
http://selfstudying.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-do-i-create-self-study-blog.html

If you do not have internet access yet, you can start your self-study on paper, then set up your blog when you get online. Good luck!

Friday Self-study - You've got work to do!

A. You are going to use the Internet to find some information about how to write an introduction to an academic essay. Remember – your written assignments this month involve writing an introduction (200 – 250 words) to an essay.

Visit these websites from British universities:

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/introductions.htm

http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

Read the information carefully and try to answer these questions:(post the answers on your blog, or write them down if you don't have a blog)

1. Looking at the information on both the websites – what should a good introduction contain?

2. On the University of Manchester page, look at the suggested language for different sections of the introduction. Which verb tenses are most commonly used in each section? (write down a verb tense and an example for each…)

Establishing the importance of the topic:

Establishing the importance of the topic (time frame given):

Highlighting a problem or controversy in the field of study:

Highlighting a knowledge gap in the field of study:

Focus and aim:

Outline of structure:

B. Now visit this site:

http://www.englishforuniversity.com/search/label/Writing%20an%20introduction

1. What is the introduction a chance for you to do?

2. Why do you think planning is important when you are writing an introduction?

3. Look at the example essay question: "Is the present level of immigration in the United Kingdom beneficial to the country?" Read the introduction (below the plan). You should be able to see that the introduction contains all the elements from your answer to question 1 in the Section A. Also, notice the use of verb tenses.

4. I would like you to rewrite this introduction (to the same question) using the language suggestions from the University of Manchester website and post it on your blog by the end of this class. If you do not have a blog, write it on a separate sheet of paper to give to me by the end of class.

Excellent! Well done.
Maybe over the weekend you could write down what you find difficult about writing introductions and more generally about academic writing in English.
Have a good weekend!