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mind. Allow yourself to daydream a little; visualize yourself in pleasant surroundings
with good friends. Don’t go back to work until you feel the tension release. Some-
times it helps to take a deep breath and shout “STOP!” and then proceed with clearing
your mind. Once your mind is clear, repeat a reasonable affirmation to yourself—“I
know this stuff”—before continuing your work.
Visualize success. Picture what it will feel like to get that A. Translate that vision into
specific, reasonable goals and work toward each individual goal. Take one step at a
time and reward yourself for each goal you complete.
It’s all about you! Don’t waste your time comparing yourself to other students in the
class, especially during the exam. Keep focused on your own work and your own
plan. Exams are not a race, so it doesn’t matter who turns in their paper first. Cer-
tainly you have no idea how they did on their exam, so a thought like “Kristen is al-
ready done, she must have aced it, I wish I had her skills” is counterproductive and
will only cause additional anxiety.
Have a plan and follow it. As soon as you know that an exam is coming, you can de-
velop a plan for studying. As soon as you get your exam paper, you should develop a
plan for the exam itself. We’ll discuss this more later in this chapter. Don’t wait to
cram for an exam at the last minute; the pressure you put on yourself and the late
night will cause more anxiety, and you won’t learn or retain much.
Make sure you eat well and get a good night’s sleep before the exam. Hunger,
poor eating habits, energy drinks, and lack of sleep all contribute to test anxiety.
Chill! You perform best when you are relaxed, so learn some relaxation exercises you
can use during an exam. Before you begin your work, take a moment to listen to your
body. Which muscles are tense? Move them slowly to relax them. Tense them and re-
lax them. Exhale, then continue to exhale for a few more seconds until you feel that
your lungs are empty. Inhale slowly through your nose and feel your rib cage expand
as you do. This will help oxygenate your blood and reenergize your mind. Chapter 10
“Taking Control of Your Health” has more tips for dealing with stress.
Welcome Center in the Bienvenue Student Center
at the Mid-City Campus. Photo by Joseph Smith
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Exercise: Talking Back to Boogie Talk
You’ve learned how negative thoughts contribute to test anxiety and keep you from
doing as well as you can. Take some time to disarm your most frequent offenders. From
the following list, select three negative thoughts that you have experienced (or write
your own). Then fill in the second and third columns for each statement, as shown in the
example.
I don’t know anything…What’s the matter with me?
If I fail this test, I’ll flunk the course.
I should have studied more…I’ll never make it through.
I just can’t think…Why did I ever take this course?
I know everyone’s doing better than I am.
If I fail this test, my dad (or husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, teacher) will be
mad. I don’t know how I can face them again.
I’m going to be the last one done again…I must really be stupid.
I’m getting really tense again; my hands are shaking…I can’t even hold the pen.
I can’t remember a thing…This always happens to me.…I never do well on any-
thing.
My boogie statement How rational is this thought? Reasonable reinforcing or
Example: I’m drawing Do you have any evidence that affirmation statements you can
a blank….I’ll never get it is true? use to replace it.
the answer….I must I’ve missed questions on things that I I studied this and know it. I’ll
really be stupid. visualize where it’s written in my
studied and knew before. notes to help me trigger my
memory.
6.2 Studying to Learn (Not Just for Tests)
You have truly learned material when you can readily recall it and actually use it—on
tests or in real-life situations. Effective studying is your most important tool to combat test
anxiety, but more important, effective studying helps you truly master the material and be
able to apply it as you need to, in school and beyond.
In Chapter 4 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering” and Chapter 5 “Reading to
Learn,” we set the foundation for effective learning. You learned how to listen and how to
take notes. You learned some tricks for improving your memory. You learned how to read
actively and how to capture information from written sources. Now we’ll follow up on some
of those key ideas and take the learning cycle to its conclusion and a new beginning.
The reviewing and applying stage of the learning cycle involves studying and using
the material you have been exposed to in your course. Recall that in Chapter 4 “Listening,
Taking Notes, and Remembering” and Chapter 5 “Reading to Learn” we emphasized the im-
portance of reviewing your notes soon after the class or assignment. This review is largely
what studying is all about.
Effective studying is an ongoing process of reviewing course material. The first and
most important thing you should know is that studying is not something you do a few days
before an exam. To be effective, studying is something you do as part of an ongoing learning
process, throughout the duration of the term.
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Studying Every Day
Studying begins after each class or assignment when you review your notes. Each
study session should involve three steps:
1. Gather your learning materials. Take time to merge your class notes with
your reading notes. How do they complement each other? Stop and think.
What do the notes tell you about your material? What aspects of the material
are you unsure about? Do you need to reread a part of your text? Write down
any questions you have for your instructor and pay a visit during office hours.
It is better to clear up any misconceptions and get your questions answered
soon after you are exposed to the material, rather than to wait, for two reasons:
(1) the question or doubt is fresh in your mind and you won’t forget about it
and (2) instructors usually build their lessons on material already presented. If
you don’t take these steps now, you are setting yourself up for problems later
in the course.
2. Apply or visualize. What does this material mean to you? How will you use
this new knowledge? Try to find a way to apply it in your own life or
thoughts. If you can’t use the knowledge right away, visualize yourself using
the knowledge to solve a problem or visualize yourself teaching the material to
other students.
3. Cement your knowledge. If you use the two-column note-taking method,
cover up the right side of your notes with a piece of paper, leaving the ques-
tions in the left column exposed. Test yourself by trying to answer your ques-
tions without referring to your notes. How did you do? If you are unsure about
anything, look up the answer and write it down right away. Don’t let a wrong
answer be the last thing you wrote on a subject, because you will most likely
continue to remember the wrong answer.
Studying in Course Units
At the end of each unit, or at least every two weeks or so, use your notes and textbook
to write an outline or summary of the material in your own words. (Remember the paragraphs
you wrote to summarize each class or reading? They’ll be very helpful to you here.) After
you have written the summary or outline, go back and reread your outline from the prior unit
followed by the one you just wrote. Does the new one build on the earlier one? Do you feel
confident you understand the material?
Studying before the Exam
At least a week before a major exam, ask yourself these questions: What has the in-
structor said about what is included on the exam? Has the instructor said anything about what
types of questions will be included? If you were the instructor, what questions would you ask
on an exam? Challenge yourself to come up with some really tough open-ended questions.
Think about how you might answer them. Be sure to go to any review sessions the instructor
or your section leader holds.
Now go back and review your outlines. Do they cover what the instructor has sug-
gested might be on the exam? After reviewing your outlines, reread the sections of your notes
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that are most closely associated with expected exam questions. Pay special attention to those
items the instructor emphasized during class. Read key points aloud and write them down on
index cards. Make flash cards to review in downtimes, such as when you’re waiting for a bus
or for a class to start.
More Tips for Success
Schedule a consistent study-review time for each course at least once a week, in
addition to your class and assignment time. Keep to that schedule as rigorously as you
do your class schedule. Use your study time to go through the steps outlined earlier;
this is not meant to be a substitute for your assignment time.
Get yourself in the right space. Choose to study in a quiet, well-lit space. Your chair
should be comfortable but provide good support. Remember that libraries were de-
signed for reading and should be your first option.
Minimize distractions. Turn off your cell phone and get away from Facebook, televi-
sion, other nearby activities, and chatty friends or roommates. All of these can cut into
the effectiveness of your study efforts. Multitasking and studying don’t mix.
If you will be studying for a long time, take short breaks at least once an hour.
Get up, stretch, breathe deeply, and then get back to work. (If you keep up with your
daily assignments and schedule weekly review sessions for yourself—and keep
them—there should be almost no need for long study sessions.)
Studying in Groups
Study groups are a great idea—as long as they are thoughtfully managed. A study
group can give you new perspectives on course material and help you fill in gaps in your
notes. Discussing course content will sharpen your critical thinking related to the subject, and
being part of a group to which you are accountable will help you study consistently. In a
study group, you will end up “teaching” each other the material, which is the strongest way to
retain new material. But remember, being in a group working together doesn’t mean there
will be less work for you as an individual; your work will just be much more effective.
Here are some tips for creating and managing effective study groups:
Think small. Limit your study group to no more than three or four people. A larger
group would limit each student’s participation and make scheduling of regular study
sessions a real problem.
Go for quality. Look for students who are doing well in the course, who ask ques-
tions, and who participate in class discussions. Don’t make friendship the primary
consideration for who should be in your group. Meet up with your friends instead dur-
ing “social time”—study time is all about learning.
Look for complementary skills and learning styles. Complementary skills make for
a good study group because your weaknesses will be countered by another student’s
strengths. When a subject requires a combination of various skills, strengths in each
of those skills is helpful (e.g., a group with one student who is really good at physics
and another at math would be perfect for an engineering course). Finally, a variety of
learning styles is helpful because each of you pick up differing signals and emphases
from the instructor that you can share with each other, so you will not likely miss im-
portant points.
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Meet regularly. When you first set up a study group, agree to a regular meeting
schedule and stick to it. Moving study session times around can result in nonparticipa-
tion, lack of preparation, and eventually the collapse of the study group. Equally im-
portant is keeping your sessions to the allotted times. If you waste time and regularly
meet much longer than you agreed to, participants will not feel they are getting study
value for their time invested.
Define an agenda and objectives. Give your study sessions focus so that you don’t
get sidetracked. Based on requests and comments from the group, the moderator
should develop the agenda and start each session by summarizing what the group ex-
pects to cover and then keep the group to task.
Include some of the following items on your agenda:
Review and discuss class and assignment notes since your last meeting.
Discuss assigned readings.
Quiz each other on class material.
“Reteach” aspects of the material team participants are unsure of.
Brainstorm possible test questions and responses.
Review quiz and test results and correct misunderstandings.
Critique each other’s ideas for paper themes and approaches.
Define questions to ask the instructor.
Assign follow-up work. If there is any work that needs to be done between meetings,
make sure that all team members know specifically what is expected of them and
agree to do the work.
Rotate the role of moderator or discussion leader. This helps ensure “ownership”
of the group is spread equally across all members and ensures active participation and
careful preparation.
6.3 Taking Tests
Types of Tests
All tests are designed to determine how much you know about a particular subject at a
particular point in time. But you should be aware of differences in types of tests because this
will help guide how you prepare for them. Two general types of tests are based on their ob-
jectives, or how they are intended to be used: formative assessments and summative assess-
ments.
Formative assessments include quizzes, unit tests, pop quizzes, and review quizzes
from a textbook or its Web site. Their main objective is to make sure you know the funda-
mental material before moving on to more challenging topics. Because these quizzes usually
don’t count much toward your final grade, many students think they are not very important.
In fact, these quizzes are very important, particularly to you; they can help you to identify
what you know and what you still need to learn to be successful in the course and in applying
the material. A poor result on a quiz may not negatively affect your final grade much—but
learning from its results and correcting your mistakes will affect your final grade, on the posi-
tive side, when you take midterms and finals! More on this in Chapter 6 “Preparing for and
Taking Tests”, Section 6.6 “Using Test Results”.
Summative assessments include midterms and finals. They are used by the instructor
to determine if you are mastering a large portion of the material, and as such, they usually
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carry a heavy weight toward your final grade for the course. Because of this, they often result
in high levels of test anxiety and long study periods.
In addition to this classification by objective, tests can also be grouped into various
categories based on how they are delivered. Each type has its own peculiar strategies.
Paper tests are still the most common type of test, requiring students to write an-
swers on the test pages or in a separate test booklet. They are typically used for in-
class tests. Neatness and good grammar count, even if it’s not an English exam.
Remember that the instructor will be reading dozens of test papers and will not
likely spend much time trying to figure out your hieroglyphics, arrows, and cross-
outs.
Open-book tests allow the student to consult their notes, textbook, or both while
taking the exam. Instructors often give this type of test when they are more inter-
ested in seeing your thoughts and critical thinking than your memory power. Be
prepared to expose and defend your own viewpoints. When preparing, know
where key material is present in your book and notes; create an index for your
notes and use sticky notes to flag key pages of your textbook before the exam. Be
careful when copying information or formulas to your test answers, because noth-
ing looks worse in an open-book exam than misusing the material at your dis-
posal.
Take-home tests are like open-book tests except you have the luxury of time on
your side. Make sure you submit the exam on time. Know what the instructor’s
expectations are about the content of your answers. The instructor will likely ex-
pect more detail and more complete work because you are not under a strict time
limit and because you have access to reference materials. Be clear about when the
test is due. (Some instructors will ask you to e-mail your exam to them by a spe-
cific time.) Also find out if the instructor allows or expects you to collaborate with
classmates. Be sure to type your exam and don’t forget to spell-check!
Online tests are most commonly used for formative assessments, although they
are starting to find their way into high-stakes exams, particularly in large lecture
classes that fulfill a graduation requirement (like introductory psychology or his-
tory survey courses). The main advantage of online tests is that they can be com-
puter graded, providing fast feedback to the student (with formative tests) and al-
lowing the instructor to grade hundreds of exams easily (with summative assess-
ments). Since these tests are computer graded, be aware that the instructor’s judg-
ment is not involved in the grading. Your answers will be either right or wrong;
there is no room for partially correct responses. With online tests, be sure you un-
derstand the testing software. Are there practice questions? If so, make sure you
use them. Find out if you will be allowed to move freely between test sections to
go back and check your work or to complete questions you might have skipped.
Some testing software does not allow you to return to sections once they are “sub-
mitted.” Unless your exam needs to be taken at a specific time, don’t wait until the
last minute to take the test. Should you have technical problems, you want to have
time to resolve the issues. To avoid any conflicts with the testing software, close
all other software applications before beginning the testing software.
Electronic tests in the classroom are becoming more common as colleges install
“smart classrooms” with technology such as wireless “clicker” technology that in-
structors may use to get a quick read of students’ understanding of a lecture. This
testing method allows for only true-or-false and multiple-choice questions, so it is
rarely used for summative assessments. When taking this kind of quick quiz, take
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notes on questions you miss so that you can focus on them when you do your own
review.
Presentations and oral tests are the most complete means for instructors to eval-
uate students’ mastery of material, because the evaluation is highly interactive.
The instructor can (and likely will) probe you on certain points, question your as-
sumptions, or ask you to defend your point of view. Make sure you practice your
presentation many times with and without an audience (your study group is good
for this). Have a clear and concise point of view and keep to the allotted time.
(You don’t want to miss delivering a killer close if your instructor cuts you off be-
cause you weren’t aware of the time!) Chapter 7 “Interacting with Instructors and
Classes” covers public speaking and class presentations in more detail. Use the
same strategies in oral exams.
Tips for Taking Tests
You’ve reviewed the material for a test and feel confident that you will do well. You
have brought your test anxiety into control. What else can you do to ensure success on a test?
Learn and apply these top ten test-taking strategies:
1. Learn as much as you can about the test. What has the instructor told you about
the test? Will it be open book? What types of questions will be on it? Are there
parts of the test that will be worth more points than others? Will it be cumulative
or just cover the most recent material? Will you have choices about which ques-
tions to answer?
2. Try to foresee the questions likely to be on the test. What kinds of questions
would you include if you were the instructor? Brainstorm possible questions with
your study group. Look for possible questions in your notes. Review past quizzes
and tests to see what kinds of questions the instructor likes to ask. Above all, take
it seriously whenever your instructor warns, “This will be on the test.”
3. Don’t be tempted to stay up late cramming. Get some exercise and watch
what you eat. Cramming is not a substitute for doing your assignments and study-
ing consistently over time. It is far more important to get a good night’s sleep and
face your test fresh and well rested. A good workout the day before an exam will
help you be fresh and stay focused during the exam (provided you already like to
work out; if not, find time to take a long walk). A healthy diet the night before and
the day of the exam will give you energy and concentration to do well on the
exam. Include “brain foods,” such as those rich in omega-3 oils, and avoid
“heavy” foods that are rich in fat and sugar. (After the exam, you can celebrate
with a cheeseburger, fries, and milkshake—but not before the exam!)
4. Get to the test site early. Take out all your allowable tools (pencils, pens, calcu-
lator, etc.). Turn off your cell phone (yes, all the way off, not on vibrate) as a way
of disconnecting from your everyday world. Do some of the relaxation exercises
described earlier for controlling test anxiety.
5. Create a test plan. Listen carefully to the directions given by the instructor.
When you receive your test, scan the entire test first. Evaluate the importance of
each section. Then create a time allocation plan. Decide how much time you
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should dedicate to each section. You don’t want to spend 80 percent of your time
on a question worth 10 percent of the grade.
6. Write it down. Take a couple minutes to write down key facts, dates, principles,
statistics, and formulas on a piece of scratch paper or in the margin of the exam
paper. Do this while you are still fresh and aren’t yet feeling time pressure (when
it will be harder to remember them). Then you can refer to these notes as you take
the exam.
7. Read the directions carefully. Then reread them. Do you understand what is ex-
pected of you? If not, ask the instructor to be sure you are clear. Too many stu-
dents lose points simply by not following directions completely!
8. Do the easy questions first. By getting the easy questions out of the way, you’ll
feel more confident about the test and have more time to think about the tougher
questions. Start with the objective sections of the exam first (multiple choice, true
or false, and matching columns). As you answer these questions, keep an eye out
for facts or concepts you may want to use later in an essay question.
9. Keep an eye on the time. Keep as close to your plan as possible. If you see that
you are running out of time, don’t panic. Move to those questions you think you
can still answer accurately within the remaining time.
10. Check your work. This doesn’t mean going through all your calculations again.
Start by ensuring that you have complete answers according to the directions.
Then look for other common mistakes, such as a misplaced decimal point,
dropped words (especially those that can modify the answer, like “not”), and any
incomplete or incomprehensible phrases.
Strategies for Math and Science Exams
Math tests require some special strategies because they are often problem based rather
than question based.
Do the following before the test:
Attend all classes and complete all assignments. Pay special attention to working on
all assigned problems. After reviewing problems in class, take careful notes about
what you did incorrectly. Repeat the problem and do a similar one as soon as possible.
It is important that the last solution to a problem in your mind is a correct solution.
Think about how each problem solution might be applied in a real-world situation.
This helps make even the most complex solutions relevant and easier to learn.
In your study group, take turns presenting solutions to problems and observing and
correcting everyone’s work.
If you are having difficulty with a concept, get help right away. Remember that math
especially builds new material on previous material, so if you are having trouble with
a concept now, you are likely to have trouble going forward. Make an appointment
with your instructor, your teaching assistant, or a skilled classmate. Check with your
college’s academic support office to see about a tutor. Don’t be shy about asking for a
tutor—tutoring is not just for students needing remedial help; many successful stu-
dents seek them out, too.
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Do the following during the test:
Review the entire test before you start and work the problems you feel most confident
with first.
Approach each problem following three distinct steps:
1. Read the problem through twice: the first time to get the full concept of the
question, and the second time to draw out pertinent information. After you
read through the problem the first time, ask yourself, “What is this problem
about?” and “What is the answer likely to look like?” The second time
through, consider these questions: “What facts do I have available?” “What do
I know?” “What measurable units must the answer be in?” Think about the op-
erations and formulas you will need to use. Try to estimate a ballpark answer.
2. Compute your answer. First, eliminate as many unknowns as possible. You
may need to use a separate formula for each unknown. Use algebraic formulas
as far as you can before plugging in actual numbers; that will make it easier to
cancel and combine factors. Remember that you may need two or more tries
before you come up with the answer.
3. Check your work. Start by comparing your actual answer to the estimate you
made when you first read the problem. Does your final answer sound likely?
Check your arithmetic by opposite operations: use multiplication to check di-
vision and addition to check subtraction, and so on.
You should consider using these three steps whenever you are working with any math
problems, not just when you get problems on tests.
Science tests also are often problem based, but they also generally use the scientific
method. This is why science tests may require some specific strategies.
Before the test, review your lab notes as well as your class notes and assignments.
Many exam questions build upon lab experience, so pay close attention to your notes,
assignments, and labs. Practice describing the experimental process.
Read the question carefully. What does the instructor expect you to do? Prove a hy-
pothesis? Describe an experiment? Summarize research? Underline the words that
state the objective of the question.
Look carefully at all the diagrams given with the question. What do they illustrate?
Why are they included with the question? Are there elements on the diagram you are
expected to label?
Many science questions are based on the scientific method and experimental model.
When you read the test question, identify the hypothesis the problem is proposing; be
prepared to describe an experimental structure to prove a hypothesis. When you check
your work, make sure the hypothesis, experimental steps, and a summary of results
(or expected results) are clear. Some of these elements may be part of the question,
while others you may need to provide in your answer.
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6.4 The Secrets of the Q and A’s
You can gain even more confidence in your test-taking abilities by understanding the
different kinds of questions an instructor may ask and applying the following proven strate-
gies for answering them. Most instructors will likely use various conventional types of ques-
tions. Here are some tips for handling the most common types.
Multiple-Choice Questions
Read the instructions carefully to determine if there may be more than one right an-
swer. If there are multiple right answers, does the instructor expect you to choose just
one, or do you need to mark all correct options?
Read each question carefully and try to answer it in your head before reading the an-
swer options. Then consider all the options. Eliminate first the options that are clearly
incorrect. Compare the remaining answers with your own answer before choosing one
and marking your paper.
Look for clue words that hint that certain option answers might be correct or incor-
rect. Absolute words like “never,” “always,” “every,” or “none” are rarely found in a
correct option. Less absolute words like “usually,” “often,” or “rarely” are regularly
found in correct options.
Be on the lookout for the word “not” in the stem phrase and in the answer choice op-
tions; it is an easy word to miss if you are reading too quickly, but it completely
changes the meaning of the possible statements.
True-or-False Questions
Most of the tips for multiple-choice questions apply here as well. Be particularly
aware of the words “never,” “always,” “every,” “none,” and “not” because they can
determine the correct answer.
Answer the questions that are obvious to you first. Then go back to statements that re-
quire more thought.
If the question is stated in the positive, restate it to yourself in the negative by adding
the word “not” or “never.” Does the new statement sound truer or more false?
If you still are unsure whether a statement is true or false and must guess, choose
“true” because most tests include more true statements than false (but don’t guess if a
wrong answer penalizes you more than one left blank).
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Matching Columns
Start by looking at the two columns to be matched. Is there an equal number of items
in both columns? If they are not equal, do you have to match some items in the shorter
column to two or more items in the longer column, or can you leave some items un-
matched? Read the directions to be sure.
If one column has a series of single words to be matched to phrases in the other col-
umn, read all the phrases first, then all the single words before trying to make any
matches. Now go back and read each phrase and find the word that best suits the
phrase.
If both columns have single words to be matched, look to cut down the number of po-
tential matches by grouping them by parts of speech (nouns with nouns, verbs with
verbs, etc.).
As always, start by making the matches that are obvious to you, and then work on the
ones that require more thought. Mark off all items you have already used so you can
easily see which words or phrases still remain to be matched.
Short Answer Questions
Short answer questions are designed for you to recall and provide some very specific
information (unlike essay questions, which also ask you to apply critical thinking to that in-
formation). When you read the question, ask yourself what exactly the instructor wants to
know. Keep your answers short and specific.
Essay Questions
Essay questions are used by instructors to evaluate your thinking and reasoning ap-
plied to the material covered in a course. Good essay answers are based on your
thoughts, supported by examples from classes and reading assignments.
Careful planning is critical to answering essay questions effectively. Note how many
essay questions you have to answer and how difficult each question seems. Then allo-
cate your time accordingly.
Read the question carefully and underline or circle keywords. Watch for words that
describe the instructor’s expectations for your response (see Table 6.1 “Words to
Watch for in Essay Questions”).
If time allows, organize your thoughts by creating a quick outline for your essay. This
helps ensure that you don’t leave out key points, and if you run out of time, it may
pick up a few points for your grade. Jot down specific information you might want to
use, such as names, dates, and places. Chapter 8 “Writing for Classes” discusses out-
lining and other aspects of the writing process in more detail.
Introduce your essay answer, but get right to the point. Remember that the instructor
will be grading dozens of papers and avoid “filler” text that does not add value to your
answer. For example, rather than writing, “In our study of the Civil War, it is helpful
to consider the many facets that lead to conflict, especially the economic factors that
help explain this important turning point in our nation’s history,” write a more direct
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and concise statement like this: “Economic factors help explain the start of the Civil
War.”
Write neatly and watch your grammar and spelling. Allow time to proofread your es-
say. You want your instructor to want to read your essay, not dread it. Remember that
grading essays is largely subjective, and a favorable impression can lead to more fa-
vorable grading.
Be sure to answer all parts of the question. Essay questions often have more than one
part. Remember, too, that essay questions often have multiple acceptable answers.
Table 6.1 Words to Watch for in Essay Questions
Word What It Means What the Instructor Is Looking For
Analyze Break concept into key Don’t just list the parts; show how they work together and illustrate any
parts patterns.
Compare Show similarities (and Define the similarities and clearly describe how the items or ideas are
sometimes differences) be- similar. Do these similarities lead to similar results or effects? Note that
tween two or more con- this word is often combined with “contrast.” If so, make sure you do
cepts or ideas both.
Contrast Show differences between Define the differences and clearly describe how the items or ideas are
two or more concepts or different. How do these differences result in different outcomes? Note
ideas that this word is often combined with “compare.” If so, make sure you
do both.
Critique Judge and analyze Explain what is wrong—and right—about a concept. Include your own
judgments, supported by evidence and quotes from experts that support
your point of view.
Define Describe the meaning of a Define the concept of idea as your instructor did in class – but use your
word, phrase, or concept own words. If your definition differs from what the instructor presented,
support your difference with evidence. Keep this essay short. Examples
can help illustrate a definition, but remember that examples alone are not
a definition.
Discuss Explain or review Define the key questions around the issue to be discussed and then an-
swer them. Another approach is to define pros and cons on the issue and
compare and contrast them. In either case, explore all relevant data and
information.
Explain Clarify, give reasons for Clarity is key for these questions. Outline your thoughts carefully. Proof-
something read, edit, proofread, and proofread again! Good explanations are often
lost in too many words.
Illustrate Offer examples Use examples from class material or reading assignments. Compare and
contrast them to other examples you might come up with from additional
reading or real life.
Prove Provide evidence and Instructors who include this prompt in an exam question have often
arguments that something proven the hypothesis or other concepts in their class lectures. Think
is true about the kind of evidence the instructor used and apply similar types of
processes and data.
Summa- Give a brief, precise Keep it short, but cover all key points. This is one essay prompt where
rize description of an idea or examples should not be included unless the instructions specifically ask
concept for them. (For example, “Summarize the steps of the learning cycle and
give examples of the main strategies you should apply in each one.”)
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6.5 The Honest Truth
Throughout this book we have focused on the active process of learning, not just on
how to get good grades. The attitude of some students that grades are the end-all in academ-
ics has led many students to resort to academic dishonesty to try to get the best possible
grades or handle the pressure of an academic program. Although you may be further tempted
if you’ve heard people say, “Everybody does it,” or “It’s no big deal at my school,” you
should be mindful of the consequences of cheating:
You don’t learn as much. Cheating may get you the right answer on a particular
exam question, but it won’t teach you how to apply knowledge in the world after
school, nor will it give you a foundation of knowledge for learning more advanced
material. When you cheat, you cheat yourself out of opportunities.
You risk failing the course or even expulsion from school. Each institution has its
own definitions of and penalties for academic dishonesty, but most include cheating,
plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification. The exact details of what is allowed or not
allowed vary somewhat among different colleges and even instructors, so you should
be sure to check your school’s Web site and your instructor’s guidelines to see what
rules apply. Ignorance of the rules is seldom considered a valid defense.
Cheating causes stress. Fear of getting caught will cause you stress and anxiety; this
will get in the way of performing well with the information you do know.
You’re throwing away your money and time. Getting a college education is a big
investment of money and effort. You’re simply not getting your full value when you
cheat, because you don’t learn as much.
You are trashing your integrity. Cheating once and getting away with it makes it
easier to cheat again, and the more you cheat, the more comfortable you will feel with
giving up your integrity in other areas of life—with perhaps even more serious conse-
quences.
Cheating lowers your self-esteem. If you cheat, you are telling yourself that you are
simply not smart enough to handle learning. It also robs you of the feeling of satisfac-
tion from genuine success.
Technology has made it easier to cheat. Your credit card and an Internet connection
can procure a paper for you on just about any subject and length. You can copy and paste for
free from various Web sites. Students have made creative use of texting and video on their
cell phones to gain unauthorized access to material for exams. But be aware that technology
has also created ways for instructors to easily detect these forms of academic dishonesty.
Most colleges make these tools available to their instructors. Instructors are also modifying
their testing approaches to reduce potential academic misconduct by using methods that are
harder to cheat at (such as in-class essays that evaluate your thinking and oral presentations).
If you feel uneasy about doing something in your college work, trust your instincts.
Confirm with the instructor that your intended form of research or use of material is accepta-
ble. Cheating just doesn’t pay.
References
Undergraduate Academic Conduct Committee of Northwestern University, “Defini-
tions of Academic Violations,” http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/defines.html (accessed July 13, 2010)
164
Examples of Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty can take many forms, and you should be careful to avoid them. The follow-
ing list from Northwestern University is a clear and complete compilation of what most institutions
will consider unacceptable academic behavior.
Cheating: using unauthorized notes, study aids, or information on an examination; altering a graded
work after it has been returned, then submitting the work for regrading; allowing another person to do
one’s work and submitting that work under one’s own name; submitting identical or similar papers for
credit in more than one course without prior permission from the course instructors.
Plagiarism: submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one’s own work without attributing those same
portions to their correct source.
Fabrication: falsifying or inventing any information, data or citation; presenting data that were not
gathered in accordance with standard guidelines defining the appropriate methods for collecting or gen-
erating data and failing to include an accurate account of the method by which the data were gathered
or collected.
Obtaining an Unfair Advantage: (a) stealing, reproducing, circulating or otherwise gaining access to
examination materials prior to the time authorized by the instructor; (b) stealing, destroying, defacing or
concealing library materials with the purpose of depriving others of their use; (c) unauthorized collabo-
ration on an academic assignment; (d) retaining, possessing, using or circulating previously given ex-
amination materials, where those materials clearly indicate that they are to be returned to the instructor
at the conclusion of the examination; (e) intentionally obstructing or interfering with another student’s
academic work; or (f) otherwise undertaking activity with the purpose of creating or obtaining an unfair
academic advantage over other students’ academic work.
Aiding and Abetting Academic Dishonesty: (a) providing material, information, or other assistance to
another person with knowledge that such aid could be used in any of the violations stated above, or (b)
providing false information in connection with any inquiry regarding academic integrity.
Falsification of Records and Official Documents: altering documents affecting academic records;
forging signatures of authorization or falsifying information on an official academic document, grade
report, letter of permission, petition, drop/add form, ID card, or any other official University document.
Unauthorized Access to computerized academic or administrative records or systems: viewing or alter-
ing computer records, modifying computer programs or systems, releasing or dispensing information
gained via unauthorized access, or interfering with the use or availability of computer systems or infor-
mation.
6.6 Using Test Results
So far, we have focused on how to study for and take tests effectively. This section
discusses how to use test results to their greatest benefit. Some of your most important learn-
ing begins when your graded test paper is returned to you. Your first reaction, of course, is to
see what grade you received and how you did compared with your classmates. This is a natu-
ral reaction.
Make sure you listen to the instructor as the papers are returned. What is the instructor
saying about the test? Is there a particular point everyone had trouble with? Does the instruc-
tor generally think everyone did well? The instructor’s comments at this point may give you
important information about what you should study more, about the value of review sessions,
and even about possible questions for the next exam.
165
Although you may be tempted to throw away the exam, don’t. It is a very helpful tool
for the next phase of preparing for learning. This is a three-step process, beginning with eval-
uating your results.
Evaluating Your Test Results
When you receive your test back, sit quietly and take a close look at it. What ques-
tions did you get wrong? What kind of mistakes were they? (See Table 6.2 “Exam Errors and
How to Correct Them”.) Do you see a pattern? What questions did you get right? What were
your strengths? What can you learn from the instructor’s comments?
Now think of the way in which you prepared for the exam and the extent to which you
applied the exam strategies described earlier in this chapter. Were you prepared for the exam?
Did you study the right material? What surprised you? Did you read the entire test before
starting? Did your time allocation work well, or were you short of time on certain parts of the
exam?
Table 6.2 Exam Errors and How to Correct Them
Type of Error Examples Corrective Steps
Study and Preparation I did not study the material for that Practice predicting possible ques-
Errors question (enough). tions better.
Focus Errors or I ran out of time. Join a study group.
Carelessness Read the entire test before start-
I did not prepare enough. ing. Allocate your time.
Content Errors
I did not read the directions care- Allocate exam time carefully.
Mechanical Errors fully.
I confused terms or concepts that I Give yourself time to read care-
actually know well. fully and think before answering
I misread or misunderstood the a question.
question.
I studied the material but couldn’t Seek additional help from the in-
make it work with the question structor.
I didn’t understand what the in- Go to all classes, labs, and review
structor wanted. sessions.
Join a study group.
I confused terms or concepts. Check and practice your active
reading and listening skills.
The instructor misread my writing. Schedule regular study time for
I didn’t erase a wrong answer com- this course.
pletely (on a computer-graded an-
swer sheet). Slow down! Don’t rush through
I forgot to go back to a question I the exam. Take the time to do
had skipped over. things right the first time.
I miscopied some calculations or
facts from my worksheet.
166
Based on your analysis of your test, identify the kind of corrective steps you should
take to improve your learning and test performance. Implement those steps as you begin your
preparation for your next class. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, you are doomed to re-
peat them; if you don’t learn from your successes, it will be harder to repeat them.
Correcting Your Mistakes
The second step in making your test work for you is to correct your wrong answers.
The last time you wrote the information (when you took the test), you created a link to wrong
information in your memory, so that must be corrected.
For multiple-choice questions, write out the question stem with the correct answer to
form a single correct sentence or phrase.
For true-or-false questions, write the full statement if it is true; if it is false, reword it
in such a way that it is true (such as by inserting the word “not”). Then write the new
statement.
For math and science questions involving calculations, redo the entire solution with
the calculations written out fully.
You need not rewrite an entire essay question if you did not do well, but you should
create a new outline for what would be a correct answer. Make sure you incorporate
any ideas triggered by your instructor’s comments.
When you have rewritten all your answers, read them all out loud before incorporat-
ing your new answers in your notes.
Integrating Your Test into Your Study Guide
Your corrected quizzes and midterm exams are an important study tool for final ex-
ams. Make sure you file them with your notes for the study unit. Take the time to annotate
your notes based on the exam. Pay particular attention to any gaps in your notes on topics that
appeared in the quiz or exam. Research those points in your text or online and complete your
notes. Review your exams throughout the term (not just before the final) to be sure you ce-
ment the course material into your memory.
When you prepare for the final exam, start by reviewing your quizzes and other tests
to predict the kinds of questions the instructor may ask on the final. This will help focus your
final studying when you have a large amount of coursework to cover.
If You Don’t Get Your Test Back
If your instructor chooses not to return tests to students, make an appointment to see the
instructor soon after the test to review it and your performance. Take notes on what you had
trouble with and the expected answers. Add these notes into your study guide. Make sure you
don’t lose out on the opportunity to learn from your results.
Ways to Excel in Life Sciences 167
1. Embrace your college experience!
After many years of having to attend school, college is something you have chosen to
do for yourself. College is more than simply job preparation. It is an opportunity to
discover what you want your life to be about. College can transform you in very good
ways!
2. Excel in your prerequisites!
While you only need a “C” in a prerequisite class to take the required class, remember
that a “C” means average!! The better you understand the prerequisite, the easier you
will find the next class.
3. Take advantage of your Professor’s office hours!
You really can come to my office for help. Really. If you don’t understand something I
said in class, or something in the reading, seeing me away from the classroom, away
from classmates, can be a very good place to start!
4. Your study strategies may need to change.
In college, most of your learning occurs outside of the classroom! This can be a big
change from a student’s high school experience. Again, building on a conference with
me, I can suggest ways to prepare and study that could help you learn this subject bet-
ter.
5. Consider brain science and the way we learn.
Much has been written about how we learn new information. Reading assigned chap-
ters before the lecture, taking good notes, reviewing your notes immediately after the
lecture or within 24 hours of the class and periodically thereafter support deep learning.
All these skills are taught in your CSSK class.
Adapted by Dr. Marcella Hackney, Associate Professor of Biology, from Shushan, Jamie. Pocket Guide
to College Success. Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2nd edition, ©2017. Page 14.
168
Chapter 7: Reading to Learn
Where Do You Want to Go?
On a scale of 1 to 10, where “1” means VERY POOR, and “10” means VERY STRONG,
how would you rate your level of academic reading at this time? In the following list, circle
the three most important areas in which you think you can improve.
Very Poor Very Strong
Your 8 9 10
Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Preparing for reading
Understanding what you read
Staying focused while reading
Selecting the best location for reading
Selecting the best time for reading assignments
Breaking down assignments into manageable pieces
Working my way through a difficult text
Setting priorities for reading assignments
Reading faster
Taking notes while reading
Finding strategies for highlighting and marginal notes
Reading primary source documents
Improving my vocabulary
Are there other ways in which you can improve your reading? Write down other things
you feel you need to work on.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
169
Reading to Learn
Sure you can read. After all, that’s what you are doing now, at this moment. But read-
ing to learn is active reading, a process that involves much more than the mechanics of con-
verting a set of letters into meaningful words. It is a process that you will use for gathering
much of the new information you get in school—and in life.
Does the following sound familiar? You’ve had a full day of classes, so you go to the
gym to get in a workout. Afterward, you meet a friend who suggests going out for a quick
bite; you get back to your room around eight o’clock and settle in to work on your reading as-
signment, a chapter from your sociology text entitled “Stratification and Social Mobility.”
You jump right in to the first paragraph, but the second paragraph seems a bit tougher. Sud-
denly you wake up and shake your head and see your clock says 11:15 p.m. Oh no! Three
hours down the drain napping, and your book is still staring back at you at the beginning of
the chapter, and you have a crick in your neck.
Now, picture this: You schedule yourself for a series of shorter reading periods at the
library between classes and during the afternoon. You spend a few minutes preparing for
what you are going to read, and you get to work with pen and paper in hand. After your
scheduled reading periods, by 5:30 p.m. you have completed the assignment, making a note
that you are interested in comparing the social mobility in India with that in the United States.
You reward yourself with a workout and dinner with a friend. At 8 p.m., you return to your
room and review your notes, feeling confident that you are ready for the next class.
The difference between these two scenarios is active reading. Active reading is a
planned, deliberate set of strategies to engage with text-based materials with the purpose of
increasing your understanding. This is a key skill you need to master for college. Along with
listening, it is the primary method for absorbing new ideas and information in college. But
active reading also applies to and facilitates the other steps of the learning cycle; it is critical
for preparing, capturing, and reviewing, too.
In this chapter, you will learn the basics of active reading. Follow all the recom-
mended steps, even though at first you may think they take too long. In the end, you will be
able to cut your reading time while increasing what you learn from reading. Read on!
7.1 Are You Ready for the Big Leagues?
Think back to a high school history or literature class. Those were probably the clas-
ses in which you had the most reading. You would be assigned a chapter, or a few pages in a
chapter, with the expectation that you would be discussing the reading assignment in class. In
class, the teacher would guide you and your classmates through a review of your reading and
ask questions to keep the discussion moving. The teacher usually was a key part of how you
learned from your reading.
If you have been away from school for some time, it’s likely that your reading has
been fairly casual. While time spent with a magazine or newspaper can be important, it’s not
the sort of concentrated reading you will do in college. And no one will ask you to write in
response to a magazine piece you’ve read or quiz you about a newspaper article.
In college, reading is much different. You will be expected to read much more. For each hour
you spend in the classroom, you will be expected to spend two or more additional hours stud-
ying between classes, and most of that will be reading. Assignments will be longer (a couple
of chapters is common, compared with perhaps only a few pages in high school)
170
and much more difficult. College textbook au-
thors write using many technical terms and in-
clude complex ideas. Many college authors in- Textbook “Anatomy”
clude research, and some textbooks are written
in a style you may find very dry. You will also
have to read from a variety of sources: your text- Good textbooks are de-
book, ancillary materials, primary sources, aca- signed to help you learn, not
demic journals, periodicals, and online postings. just to present information.
Your assignments in literature courses will be They differ from other types
complete books, possibly with convoluted plots of academic publications in-
and unusual wording or dialects, and they may tended to present research
have so many characters you’ll feel like you
need a scorecard to keep them straight. findings, advance new ideas,
In college, most instructors do not spend or deeply examine a specific
much time reviewing the reading assignment in subject. Textbooks have many
class. Rather, they expect that you have done the features worth exploring be-
assignment before coming to class and under- cause they can help you under-
stand the material. The class lecture or discus- stand your reading better and
sion is often based on that expectation. Tests, learn more effectively. In your
too, are based on that expectation. This is why textbooks, look for the ele-
active reading is so important—it’s up to you to
do the reading and comprehend what you read. ments listed in the table on the
Note: It may not always be clear on an in- next page.
structor’s syllabus, but a reading assignment
listed on any given class date should be read before coming to class on that date.
7.2 How Do You Read to Learn?
The four steps of active reading are almost identical to the four phases of the learning
cycle—and that is no coincidence! Active reading is learning through reading the written
word, so the learning cycle naturally applies. Active reading involves these steps:
1. Preparing
2. Reading
3. Capturing the key ideas
4. Reviewing
Let’s take a look at how to use each step when reading.
Preparing to Read
Start by thinking about why your instructor has chosen this text. Has the instructor
said anything about the book or the author? Look at the table of contents; how does it com-
pare with the course syllabus? What can you learn about the author from the front matter of
the book (see Table 7.1 “Anatomy of a Textbook”)? Understanding this background will give
you the context of the book and help define what is most important in the text. Doing this ex-
ercise once per textbook will give you a great deal of insight throughout the course.
171
Now it is time to develop a plan of attack for your assignment. Your first step in any
reading assignment is to understand the context of what you are about to read. Think of your
reading assignment in relation to the large themes or goals the instructor has spelled out for
the class. Remember that you are not merely reading—you are reading for a purpose. What
parts of a reading assignment should you pay special attention to, and what parts can you
browse through? As we mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, you will be expected to
do a considerable amount of reading in college, and you will not get through it all by reading
each and every word with a high level of focus and mental intensity. This is why it is so im-
portant to learn to define where to invest your efforts.
Open your text to the assigned pages. What is the chapter title? Is the chapter divided
into sections? What are the section titles? Which sections are longer? Are there any illustra-
tions? What are they about? Illustrations in books cost money, so chances are the author and
publisher thought these topics were particularly important, or they would not have been in-
cluded. How about tables? What kinds of information do they show? Are there bold or itali-
cized words? Are these terms you are familiar with, or are they new to you? Are you getting a
sense for what is important in the chapter? Use the critical thinking skills discussed in Chap-
ter 3 “Thinking about Thought” as you think about your observations. Why did the author
choose to cover certain ideas and to highlight specific ideas with graphics or boldface fonts?
What do they tell you about what will be most important for you in your course? What do
you think your instructor wants you to get out of the assignment? Why?
Table 7.1 Anatomy of a Textbook
Textbook What It Is Why You Might Find It Helpful
Feature
Preface A section at the beginning of a book in which You will gain perspective on the author’s point of
the author or editor outlines its purpose and view, what the author considers important. If the
scope, acknowledges individuals who helped preface is written with the student in mind, it will
prepare the book, and perhaps outlines the fea- also give you guidance on how to “use” the text-
tures of the book. book and its features.
Foreword A section at the beginning of the book, often A foreword will give you an idea about what makes
written by an expert in the subject matter (dif- this book different from others in the field. It may
ferent from the author) endorsing the author’s provide hints as to why your instructor selected the
work and explaining why the work is signifi- book for your course.
cant.
Author A short biography of the author illustrating the This will help you understand the author’s perspec-
Profile author’s credibility in the subject matter. tive and what the author considers important.
Table of A listing of all the chapters in the book and, in The table of contents is an outline of the entire
Contents most cases, primary sections within chapters. book. It will be very helpful in establishing links
among the text, the course objectives, and the sylla-
bus.
Chapter A section at the beginning of each chapter in These sections are invaluable for determining what
Preview or which the author outlines what will be covered you should pay special attention to. Be sure to com-
Learning in the chapter and what the student should ex- pare these outcomes with the objectives stated in
Objectives pect to know or be able to do at the end of the the course syllabus.
chapter.
(Chart continued on next page)
172
Textbook What It Is Why You Might Find It Helpful
Feature
Introduction The first paragraph(s) of a chapter, which Introductions to chapters or sections are “must
states the chapter’s objectives and key themes. reads” because they give you a road map to the ma-
An introduction is also common at the begin- terial you are about to read, pointing you to what is
ning of primary chapter sections. truly important in the chapter or section.
Applied Exercises, activities, or drills designed to let These features provide you with a great way to con-
Practice students apply their knowledge gained from firm your understanding of the material. If you
Elements the reading. Some of these features may be have trouble with them, you should go back and re-
read the section. They also have the additional ben-
presented via Web sites designed to supple- efit of improving your recall of the material.
ment the text.
Chapter A section at the end of a chapter that confirms It is a good idea to read this section before you read
Summary key ideas presented in the chapter. the body of the chapter. It will help you strategize
about where you should invest your reading effort.
Review A section at the end of the chapter that in- The review questions will help you confirm your
Material cludes additional applied practice exercises, re- understanding of the material.
view questions, and suggestions for further
reading.
Endnotes & Formal citations of sources used to prepare the These will help you infer the author’s biases and
Bibliog- text. are also valuable if doing further research on the
raphies subject for a paper.
Now, before actually starting to read, try to give your reading more direction. Are you
ever bored when reading a textbook? Students sometimes feel that about some of their text-
books. In this step, you create a purpose or quest for your reading, and this will help you be-
come more actively engaged and less bored.
Start by checking your attitude: if you are unhappy about the reading assignment and
complaining that you even have to read it, you will have trouble with the reading. You need
to get “psyched” for the assignment. Stoke your determination by setting yourself a reasona-
ble time to complete the assignment and schedule some short breaks for yourself. Approach
the reading with a sense of curiosity and thirst for new understanding. Think of yourself more
as an investigator looking for answers than a student doing a homework assignment.
Take out your notebook for the class for which you are doing the reading. Remember
the Cornell method of note taking from Chapter 4 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remember-
ing”? You will use the same format here with a narrow column on the left and a wide column
on the right. This time, with reading, approach taking notes slightly differently. In the Cornell
method used for class notes, you took notes in the right column and wrote in questions and
comments in the left column after class as you reviewed your notes. When using this system
with reading, write your questions about the reading first in the left column (spacing them
well apart so that you have plenty of room for your notes while you read in the right column).
From your preliminary scanning of the pages, as described previously, you should already
have questions at your fingertips.
Use your critical thinking skill of questioning what the author is saying. Turn the title
of each major section of the reading into a question and write it down in your left column of
173
your notes. For example, if the section title is “The End of the Industrial Revolution,” you
might write, “What caused the Industrial Revolution to end?” If the section title is “The
Chemistry of Photosynthesis,” you might write, “What chemical reactions take place to cause
photosynthesis, and what are the outcomes?” Note that your questions are related to the kind
of material you are hearing about in class, and they usually require not a short answer but a
thoughtful, complete understanding. Ideally, you should not already know the answer to the
questions you are writing! (What fun is a quest if you already know each turn and strategy?
Expect to learn something new in your reading even if you are familiar with the topic al-
ready.) Finally, also in the left column, jot down any keywords that appear in boldface. You
will want to discover their definitions and the significance of each as you read.
Alternative Approaches for Preparing to Read
In Chapter 3 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering” you may have determined
that you are more comfortable with the outline or concept map methods of note taking. You
can use either of these methods also to prepare for reading. With the outline method, start
with the chapter title as your primary heading, then create subheadings for each section, re-
phrasing each section title in terms of a question.
If you are more comfortable using the concept map method, start with the chapter title
as your center and create branches for each section within the chapter. Make sure you phrase
each item as a question.
Now Read
Now you are ready to start reading actively. Start by taking a look at your notes; they
are your road map. What is the question you would like to answer in the first section? Before
you start reading, reflect about what you already know about the subject. Even if you don’t
know anything, this step helps put you in the right mind-set to accept new material. Now read
through the entire section with the objective of understanding it. Follow these tips while read-
ing, but do not start taking notes or highlighting text at this point:
Look for answers to the questions you wrote.
Pay particular attention to the first and last lines of each paragraph.
Think about the relationships among section titles, boldface words, and graphics.
Skim quickly over parts of the section that are not related to the key questions.
After reading the section, can you answer the section question you earlier wrote in
your notes? Did you discover additional questions that you should have asked or that were
not evident from the title of the section? Write them down now on your notes page. Can you
define the keywords used in the text? If you can’t do either of these things, go back and re-
read the section.
Capture the Key Ideas
Once you can answer your questions effectively and can define the new and key-
words, it is time to commit these concepts to your notes and to your memory. Start by writing
174
the answers to your questions in your notes in the right column. Also define the keywords
you found in the reading.
Now is also the time to go back and reread the section with your highlighter or pencil
to call out key ideas and words and make notes in your margins. Marking up your book may
go against what you were told in high school, when the school owned the books and expected
to use them year after year. In college, you bought the book. Make it truly yours. Although
some students may tell you that you can get more cash by selling a used book that is not
marked up, this should not be a concern at this time—that’s not nearly as important as under-
standing the reading and doing well in the class!
The purpose of marking your textbook is to make it your personal studying assistant
with the key ideas called out in the text. Most readers tend to highlight too much, however,
hiding key ideas in a sea of yellow lines. When it comes to highlighting, less is more. Think
critically before you highlight. Your choices will have a big impact on what you study and
learn for the course. Make it your objective to highlight no more than 10 percent of the text.
Use your pencil also to make annotations in the margin. Use a symbol like an excla-
mation mark (!) or an asterisk (*) to mark an idea that is particularly important. Use a ques-
tion mark (?) to indicate something you don’t understand or are unclear about. Box new
words, then write a short definition in the margin. Use “TQ” (for “test question”) or some
other shorthand or symbol to signal key things that may appear in test or quiz questions.
Write personal notes on items where you disagree with the author. Don’t feel you have to use
the symbols listed here; create your own if you want, just be consistent. Your notes won’t
help you if the first question you later have is “I wonder what I meant by that?”
If you are reading an essay from a magazine or an academic journal, remember that
such articles are typically written in response to other articles. In Chapter 4 “Listening, Tak-
ing Notes, and Remembering”, you learned to be on the lookout for signal words when you
listen. This applies to reading, too. You’ll need to be especially alert to signals like “accord-
ing to” or “Jones argues,” which make it clear that the ideas don’t belong to the author of the
piece you are reading. Be sure to note when an author is quoting someone else or summariz-
ing another person’s position. Sometimes, students in a hurry to get through a complicated
article don’t clearly distinguish the author’s ideas from the ideas the author argues against.
Other words like “yet” or “however” indicate a turn from one idea to another. Words like
“critical,” “significant,” and “important” signal ideas you should look at closely.
After annotating, you are ready to read the next section.
Reviewing What You Read
When you have completed each of the sections for your assignment, you should re-
view what you have read. Start by answering these questions: “What did I learn?” and “What
does it mean?” Next, write a summary of your assigned reading, in your own words, in the
box at the base of your notepaper. Working from your notes, cover up the answers to your
questions and answer each of your questions aloud. (Yes, out loud. Remember from Chapter
4 “Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering” that memory is improved by using as many
senses as possible?) Think about how each idea relates to material the instructor is covering
in class. Think about how this new knowledge may be applied in your next class.
If the text has review questions at the end of the chapter, answer those, too. Talk to
other students about the reading assignment. Merge your reading notes with your class notes
and review both together. How does your reading increase your understanding of what you
have covered in class and vice versa?
175
I wish my students knew … My Thoughts about Introductory Microbiology
MBIO 2104
By Dr. Mary G. Miller, Ed.D., Associate Professor, STEM
1. Encourage yourself to dig deeper HESI. It is imperative to score high on
the HESI to be a competitive student to
As a student, you can do the minimum of be accepted into nursing school. Purchas-
work required, or you can dig deeper to ing the book, keeping it, and referring to
obtain a stronger understanding of con- it will be a valuable study tool for the
cepts. Microbiology has many difficult HESI. Additionally, it will be a good ref-
concepts that you need exposure to in dif- erence book for other nursing courses.
ferent formats. While instructors assign
homework question, students will not see 4. Outline the chapters before class
the same questions on the exam. Break
down the questions by understanding not Productive studying is the key to being suc-
only why the correct answer is correct, cessful in all courses. It is no different in mi-
but why the incorrect answers are in- crobiology but there are many study tips that
correct. Seek out other questions to work can help you retain and apply the studying in-
through, break down graphs and charts in formation. Most instructors provide learning
the textbook, and watch assigned videos. objectives for the course and for each chap-
This is critical thinking, which you will ter. Furthermore, they provide a class sched-
learn about in CSSK ule with projected chapters for each week.
Using these objectives, find the information
2. Learn your diseases in the chapter and break the information
down before class. Try to summarize each
Introductory microbiology will be your paragraph in a few words and relate these
first course where you will be exposed to words to the chapter objectives. Addition-
types of diseases, their causative agents, ally, find ways to link the information you
treatments, and prevention methods. As a learn to the nursing field. By tying the con-
potential future nurse, spend extra time to cepts together, you will gain a greater under-
grasp the foundations of diseases and standing and appreciation for the material.
read through material that is not dis-
cussed in class. While the instructor will 5. Take notes in Lab
cover many diseases, they are limited to
the amount of content they can cover in a The lab component of the microbiology
semester. Students are also encouraged course counts as 1/3 of the total grade.
to look up diseases on the Center for Dis- Therefore, it can be a life saver or a deal
ease Control website. An idea would be breaker when it comes to being accepted into
to find out how the diseases you are stud- nursing school. Not only will you need to
ying affect your community. This is ac- understand lab procedures but it is important
tive learning that produces higher level to understand them well enough to trouble
thinking. shoot if something doesn’t work. Taking
good notes, pre-reading your lab exercises,
3. Purchase the book, read it, and keep it and outlining the procedure before coming to
class will prepare you for success. Addition-
Not only does purchasing the book, and ally, most lab manuals have questions within
reading it, prepare you for exams and pre- the chapters. Work through these questions
class lectures, but it can further the pro- even if they are not assigned. Question the
gression through the nursing degree pro- steps in each procedure, understand why one
gram. Many concepts in Microbiology step is performed before the next and what is
will be found in the biology portion of the occurring in each step. Draw the results and
document whenever the procedure doesn’t
work correctly.
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Strategies for Textbook Reading
The four steps to active reading provide a proven approach to effective learning from
texts. Following are some strategies you can use to enhance your reading even further:
Pace yourself. Figure out how much time you have to complete the assignment.
Divide the assignment into smaller blocks rather than trying to read the entire as-
signment in one sitting. If you have a week to do the assignment, for example, di-
vide the work into five daily blocks, not seven; that way you won’t be behind if
something comes up to prevent you from doing your work on a given day. If eve-
rything works out on schedule, you’ll end up with an extra day for review.
Schedule your reading. Set aside blocks of time, preferably at the time of the day
when you are most alert, to do your reading assignments. Don’t just leave them
for the end of the day after completing written and other assignments.
Get yourself in the right space. Choose to read in a quiet, well-lit space. Your
chair should be comfortable but provide good support. Libraries were designed for
reading—they should be your first option! Don’t use your bed for reading text-
books; since the time you were read bedtime stories, you have probably associated
reading in bed with preparation for sleeping. The combination of the cozy bed,
comforting memories, and dry text is sure to invite some shut-eye!
Avoid distractions. Active reading takes place in your short-term memory. Every
time you move from task to task, you have to “reboot” your short-term memory
and you lose the continuity of active reading. Multitasking—listening to music or
texting on your cell while you read—will cause you to lose your place and force
you to start over again. Every time you lose focus, you cut your effectiveness and
increase the amount of time you need to complete the assignment.
Avoid reading fatigue. Work for about fifty minutes, and then give yourself a
break for five to ten minutes. Put down the book, walk around, get a snack,
stretch, or do some deep knee bends. Short physical activity will do wonders to
help you feel refreshed.
Read your most difficult assignments early in your reading time, when you are
freshest.
Make your reading interesting. Try connecting the material you are reading with
your class lectures or with other chapters. Ask yourself where you disagree with
the author. Approach finding answers to your questions like an investigative re-
porter. Carry on a mental conversation with the author.
7.3 Dealing with Special Texts
While the active reading process outlined earlier is very useful for most assignments,
you should consider some additional strategies for reading assignments in other subjects.
177
Mathematics Texts
Mathematics present unique challenges in that they typically contain a great number of
formulas, charts, sample problems, and exercises. Follow these guidelines:
Do not skip over these special elements as you work through the text.
Read the formulas and make sure you understand the meaning of all the factors.
Substitute actual numbers for the variables and work through the formula.
Make formulas real by applying them to real-life situations.
Do all exercises within the assigned text to make sure you understand the material.
Since mathematical learning builds upon prior knowledge, do not go on to the next
section until you have mastered the material in the current section.
Seek help from the instructor or teaching assistant during office hours if need be.
Reading Graphics
You read earlier about noticing graphics in your text as a signal of important ideas.
But it is equally important to understand what the graphics intend to convey. Textbooks con-
tain tables, charts, maps, diagrams, illustrations, photographs, and the newest form of
graphics—Internet URLs for accessing text and media material. Many students are tempted
to skip over graphic material and focus only on the reading. Don’t. Take the time to read and
understand your textbook’s graphics. They will increase your understanding, and because
they engage different comprehension processes, they will create different kinds of memory
links to help you remember the material.
To get the most out of graphic material, use your critical thinking skills and question
why each illustration is present and what it means. Don’t just glance at the graphics; take
time to read the title, caption, and any labeling in the illustration. In a chart, read the data la-
bels to understand what is being shown or compared. Think about projecting the data points
beyond the scope of the chart; what would happen next? Why?
Table 5.2 “Common Uses of Textbook Graphics” shows the most common graphic
elements and notes what they do best. This knowledge may help guide your critical analysis
of graphic elements.
BRCC students in class.
Photo by Joseph Smith
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Table 7.2 Common Uses of Textbook Graphics: Table, Bar Graph, Line Chart
Table Most often used
Bar Chart to present raw
Line Chart data. Under-
stand what is
being measured.
What data
points stand out
as very high or
low? Why? Ask
yourself what
might cause
these measure-
ments to
change.
Used to com-
pare quantita-
tive data or
show changes in
data over time.
Also can be
used to compare
a limited num-
ber of data se-
ries over time.
Often an illus-
tration of data
that can also be
presented in a
table.
Used to illus-
trate a trend in
a series of data.
May be used to
compare differ-
ent series over
time.
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Table 7.3 Common Uses of Textbook Graphics: Pie Chart, Map, and Photograph
Pie Chart
Used to illustrate the distribution of share of elements as a
part of a whole. Ask yourself what effect a change in distri-
bution of factors would have on the whole.
Map
Used to illustrate geographic distributions or movement
across geographical space. In some cases can be used to
show concentrations of populations or resources. When en-
countering a map, ask yourself if changes or comparisons
are being illustrated. Understand how those changes or
comparisons relate to the material in the text.
Photograph
Used to represent a person, a condition, or an idea dis-
cussed in the text. Sometimes photographs serve mainly to
emphasize an important person or situation, but photo-
graphs can also be used to make a point. Ask yourself if the
photograph reveals a biased point of view.
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Table 7.4 Common Uses of Textbook Graphics: Illustration, Flowchart or Diagram
Illustration
Used to illustrate parts of an item.
Invest time in these graphics. They
are often used as parts of quizzes
or exams. Look carefully at the la-
bels. These are vocabulary words
you should be able to define.
Flowchart or Diagram
Commonly used to illustrate pro-
cesses. As you look at diagrams,
ask yourself, “What happens first?
What needs to happen to move to
the next step?”
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Scientific Texts
Science occurs through the experimental process: posing hypotheses, and then using
experimental data to prove or disprove them. When reading scientific texts, look for hypothe-
ses and list them in the left column of your notes pages. Then make notes on the proof (or
disproof) in the right column. In scientific studies these are as important as the questions you
ask for other texts. Think critically about the hypotheses and the experiments used to prove or
disprove them. Think about questions like these:
Can the experiment or observation be repeated? Would it reach the same results?
Why did these results occur? What kinds of changes would affect the results?
How could you change the experiment design or method of observation? How would
you measure your results?
What are the conclusions reached about the results? Could the same results be inter-
preted in a different way?
Social Sciences Texts
Social sciences texts, such as those for history, economics, and political science clas-
ses, often involve interpretation where the authors’ points of view and theories are as im-
portant as the facts they present. Put your critical thinking skills into overdrive when you are
reading these texts. As you read, ask yourself questions such as the following:
Why is the author using this argument?
Is it consistent with what we’re learning in class?
Do I agree with this argument?
Would someone with a different point of view dispute this argument?
What key ideas would be used to support a counterargument?
Record your reflections in the margins and in your notes.
Social science courses often require you to read primary source documents. Primary
sources include documents, letters, diaries, newspaper reports, financial reports, lab reports,
and records that provide firsthand accounts of the events, practices, or conditions you are
studying. Start by understanding the author(s) of the document and his or her agenda. Infer
their intended audience. What response did the authors hope to get from their audience? Do
you consider this a bias? How does that bias affect your thinking about the subject? Do you
recognize personal biases that affect how you might interpret the document?
Foreign Language Texts
Reading texts in a foreign language is particularly challenging—but it also provides
you with invaluable practice and many new vocabulary words in your “new” language. It is
an effort that really pays off. Start by analyzing a short portion of the text (a sentence or two)
to see what you do know. Remember that all languages are built on idioms as much as on in-
dividual words. Do any of the phrase structures look familiar? Can you infer the meaning of
the sentences? Do they make sense based on the context? If you still can’t make out the
182
meaning, choose one or two words to look up in your dictionary and try again. Look for
longer words, which generally are the nouns and verbs that will give you meaning sooner.
Don’t rely on a dictionary (or an online translator); a word-for-word translation does not al-
ways yield good results. For example, the Spanish phrase “Entre y tome asiento” might cor-
rectly be translated (word for word) as “Between and drink a seat,” which means nothing, ra-
ther than its actual meaning, “Come in and take a seat.”
Reading in a foreign language is hard and tiring work. Make sure you schedule signif-
icantly more time than you would normally allocate for reading in your own language and re-
ward yourself with more frequent breaks. But don’t shy away from doing this work; the best
way to learn a new language is practice, practice, practice.
Note to English-language learners: You may feel that every book you are assigned
is in a foreign language. If you do struggle with the high reading level required of college stu-
dents, check for college resources that may be available to ESL (English as a second lan-
guage) learners. Never feel that those resources are only for weak students. As a second-lan-
guage learner, you possess a rich linguistic experience that many American-born students
should envy. You simply need to account for the difficulties you’ll face and (like anyone
learning a new language) practice, practice, practice.
Activity: Lost in Translation
Go online and open a Web-based language translator such as Babel Fish
(http://www.babelfish.yahoo.com). In the translation window, type in a phrase that
you or your friends might say in your daily conversations, including any slang terms.
Translate it to another language (any language will do) and then copy the translation.
Then open a new translation window, paste the translated phrase, and translate back
from that language to English. Does it match your original phrase? Try this with other
languages to see if your results vary. What does this tell you about automated transla-
tion programs?
Integrating Reading with Your Family Life
If you are a parent of young children, you know how hard it is to get your schoolwork
done with them around. You might want to consider some of these strategies.
Don’t expect that you will often get long periods of uninterrupted reading time.
Find or create short periods of time to do things like scanning the assignment and
preparing your questions.
Schedule your heavy reading for early in the morning or late at night when the
children are sleeping. Don’t use that precious uninterrupted time for watching tel-
evision or washing the dishes; those can be done when the kids are awake.
Read to your children and then tell them it’s time for everybody to read their own
book. (Even very young children like to “read” books by looking at the pictures.)
You’ll be surprised how long kids will read, especially when they see Mommy
and Daddy reading, too.
Take your reading with you. You can get a lot of reading done while waiting for
your children during music or dance class or soccer practice, or while you wait to
pick them up at school.
183
Share child-care responsibilities with other students who also have children. This
can buy an additional big block of reading time for each of you.
Online Reading
When accessing materials online, you should ask additional questions in order to fully un-
derstand the assignment. The Internet provides access to virtually endless numbers of articles
on just about any subject. The following five steps will help you understand the “story behind
the story” in online materials and also evaluate the reliability of the material, especially if this
is a reading you selected yourself for research or independent work.
1. Look at the URL, the Web address. It can give you important information
about the reliability and intentions of the site. Start with the page publisher
(the words following the “www” or between the “http//” and the first single
backslash). Have you heard of this source before? If so, would you consider it
a reliable source for the kind of material you are about to read? For example,
you might happen upon an article about cholesterol with this URL:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1516. The page pub-
lisher identifier shows this is the Web site of the American Heart Association,
a reputable source of health information. Now consider the domain type in the
URL, which follows the period after the publisher. “.com” and “.biz” are used
by commercial enterprises, “.org” is normally used by nonprofit organizations,
and “.edu” is reserved for educational institutions. None of these is necessarily
bad or good, but it may give you a sense of the motivation for publishing this
material. For example, a different article about cholesterol on a pharmaceutical
company’s Web site might be biased toward treatment of high cholesterol with
a drug the company makes.
2. Look at the page’s perimeter and the “masthead” at the top of the page. What
name is listed there? Is it the same entity as the one listed as the publisher in
the URL? Are you dealing with a company or the Web site of an individual—
and how might that affect the quality of the information on this site? What can
you learn from poking around with navigation tabs or buttons: what do they
tell you about the objective of the Web site? Look for a tab labeled “About
Us” or “Biography”; those pages will give you additional background on the
writer.
3. Check the quality of the information. Based on what you learned earlier, ask
yourself if the information from this Web site is reliable for your needs. If the
material you are reading was originally published elsewhere, was that publica-
tion reputable, such as an academic or peer-reviewed journal or a well-known
newspaper? If you need the most up-to-date information, check the bottom of
the page, where a “last modified” date may be shown. Does the author refer-
ence reliable sources? What links does the author offer to other Web sites?
Are they active and reputable?
4. Consider what others are saying about the site. Does the author offer refer-
ences, reviews, or quotes about the material? Check blogs to see what other
people think of the author or Web site by searching for the title of the article
together with the word “review” or “blog.” Enter the Web site’s URL in the
search engine at http://www.Alexa.com to see what other Web sites link to the
one you are reading.
184
5. Trust your impressions about the material. You have recently been exposed to
related material in your class and textbooks. What does your “gut” say about
the material? Ask yourself why the Web site was written. (To inform and pro-
vide data or facts? To sell something? To promote a cause? To parody?) If you
are unsure of the quality of the information, don’t use it or check first with
your instructor or college librarian before you do.
Additional Resources
University of California Berkeley Library.http://www.lib.berke-
ley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
Cornell University Olin and Uris Libraries. http://guides.library.cornell.edu/evaluat-
ing_Web_pages
Activity: Lazy Speech
Recruit a friend you spend a lot of time with. Give them an index card with the following
words written on it and ask them to keep a tally of the number of times you say these words
sometime when you are together for an hour or more. If you have a small recorder, give it to
the person and ask them to record you at a time you are not aware of it.
Ummm or Uhh
Like
They
You know
OK
Yeah
Ohmigawd
Include in this list any other words, including expletives, that you may be using without
thinking.
Are there words you constantly overuse? Were you surprised at how often you used some
of these expressions? Now that you are aware of the frequency you use certain expressions,
what strategies can you use to control or substitute more articulate and expressive words for
them?
7.4 Building Your Vocabulary
Both leaders and advertisers inspire people to take action by choosing their words
carefully and using them precisely. A good vocabulary is essential for success in any role that
involves communication, and just about every role in life requires good communication
skills. We include this section on vocabulary in this chapter on reading because of the con-
nections between vocabulary building and reading. Building your vocabulary will make your
reading easier, and reading is the best way to build your vocabulary.
185
Learning new words can be fun and does not need to involve tedious rote memoriza-
tion of word lists. The first step, as in any other aspect of the learning cycle, is to prepare
yourself to learn. Consciously decide that you want to improve your vocabulary; decide you
want to be a student of words. Work to become more aware of the words around you: the
words you hear, the words you read, the words you say, and those you write.
Do you have a lazy vocabulary? Wake it up with the “lazy speech” exercise.
Building a stronger vocabulary should start with a strong foundation of healthy word
use. Just as you can bring your overuse of certain words to your conscious awareness in the
previous activity, think about the kinds of words you should be using more frequently. Some
of the words you might consciously practice are actually very simple ones you already know
but significantly underuse or use imprecisely. For example, many students say he or she
“goes” instead of he or she “says.” If you take it a step further, you can consider more accu-
rate choices still. Perhaps, he “claims” or she “argues.” Maybe he “insists” or “assumes.” Or
it could be that she “believes” or she “suggests.” This may seem like a small matter, but it’s
important from both a reader’s and a writer’s perspective to distinguish among the different
meanings. And you can develop greater awareness by bringing some of these words into your
speech.
These habits are easier to put into action if you have more and better material to draw
upon: a stronger vocabulary. The following tips will help you gain and correctly use more
words.
Be on the lookout for new words. Most will come to you as you read, but they may
also appear in an instructor’s lecture, a class discussion, or a casual conversation with
a friend. They may pop up in random places like billboards, menus, or even online
ads!
Write down the new words you encounter, along with the sentences in which
they were used. Do this in your notes with new words from a class or reading assign-
ment. If a new word does not come from a class, you can write it on just about any-
thing, but make sure you write it. Many word lovers carry a small notepad or a stack
of index cards specifically for this purpose.
Infer the meaning of the word. The context in which the word is used may give you
a good clue about its meaning. Do you recognize a common word root in the word?
(Check Table 5.3 “Common Latin and Greek Word Roots” for common roots.) What
do you think it means?
Look up the word in a dictionary. Do this as soon as possible (but only after infer-
ring the meaning). When you are reading, you should have a dictionary at hand for
this purpose. In other situations, do this within a couple hours, definitely during the
same day. How does the dictionary definition compare with what you inferred?
Write the word in a sentence, ideally one that is relevant to you. If the word has
more than one definition, write a sentence for each.
Say the word out loud and then say the definition and the sentence you wrote.
186
Use the word. Find occasion to use the word in speech or writing over the next two
days.
Schedule a weekly review with yourself to go over your new words and their mean-
ings.
Table 7.5 Common Latin and Greek Word Roots
Root Meaning Examples
auto self automatic, automobile
bi two bicycle, biplane
bio life biography, biology
chrono time synchronize, chronicle
dict say predict, dictate
gen generate, genetic
geo give birth geology, geography, geometry
log earth biology, logic, pathology
manu manufacture, manual
phil thought philosophy, anglophile
port hand transport, portable
sub love submarine, subtract
vac carry vacuum, evacuate
under
empty
Where Have You Been All My Life?
The following are some fun ways to find new words:
Read.
When you look up a word in the dictionary, look
at other interesting words on the same page.
Solve crossword puzzles.
Play word games like Scrabble, Boggle, or
Pictionary.
Watch movies.
Listen to speeches and attend lectures.
Go to comedy clubs.
Have discussions (not just casual conversations) with
friends.
Read some more.
187
7.5 Chapter Activities
Chapter Takeaways
Reading
Reading, like learning, involves a cycle of preparing, absorbing, recording, and re-
viewing.
In college, you will be expected to do much reading; it is not unusual to do two or
more hours of reading for every hour you spend in class. In college, you are also ex-
pected to think critically about what you read.
Active reading involves four steps:
1. Prepare for reading by scanning the assignment and developing questions for
which you want to discover answers through your reading.
2. Read the material and discover the answers to your questions.
3. Capture the information by highlighting and annotating the text as well as by
taking effective notes.
4. Review the reading by studying your notes, by integrating them with your
class notes, and by discussing the reading with classmates.
Before you read, learn as much as you can about the author and his or her reason for
writing the text. What is his or her area of expertise? Why did the instructor select this
text?
When scanning a reading, look for clues to what might be important. Read the section
titles, study illustrations, and look for keywords and boldface text.
Do not highlight your text until you have read a section completely to be sure you un-
derstand the context. Then go back and highlight and annotate your text during a sec-
ond read-through.
Think critically about what you are reading. Do you agree with what the author is say-
ing? How does it relate to the rest of the material in the course? What does this new
material mean to you in “real life”?
Special Texts and Situations
Do all the exercises in math textbooks; apply the formulas to real-world situations.
Practice “reading” the illustrations. Each type of graphic material has its own strength
or purpose.
Look for statements of hypotheses and experimental design when reading science
texts.
History, economics, and political science texts are heavily influenced by interpreta-
tion. Think critically about what you are reading.
Working with foreign language texts requires more time and more frequent breaks.
Don’t rely on word-for-word translations.
188
If you need to read with children around, don’t put off your reading until you have a
large block of time; learn to read in short periods as available.
When reading on the Internet, be extra diligent to evaluate the source of the material
to decide how reliable that source may be.
If English is your second language, seek out resources that may be offered on campus.
In any case, be patient with the process of mastering college-level English. And al-
ways remember this: what feels like a disadvantage in one situation can be a great gift
in another situation.
Vocabulary
Reading and vocabulary development are closely linked. A stronger vocabulary
makes reading easier and more fun; the best way to build a vocabulary is to read.
Look for new words everywhere, not just in class.
When you encounter a new word, follow these steps:
1. Write it down and write down the sentence in which it was used.
2. Infer its meaning based on the context and word roots.
3. Look it up in a dictionary.
4. Write your own sentence using the word.
5. Say the word, its definition, and your sentence out loud.
9. Find an opportunity to use the word within two days.
BRCC Student in science class. Photo by Joseph Smith
189
Ways to Excel in Second Language
1. Course Syllabus
Pay attention to the course syllabus because there is much important
information there. Pay attention to the rules for the class, grading scale
and my office hours.
2. Instructor Office Hours
I am here to help you and if you do not show any interest for my class
and never come to my office hours I can’t help you or know that you are
struggling in my class. Please communicate with me and tell me what is
hindering your academic performance
3. Skill in your native language
A good grasp of your native language and being comfortable reading and
writing that language is very important. Learning a second language, just
as learning a second computer program builds on the first.
4. Personal Time Management
Learning a second language will require a serious investment of your
time. It can be done, but you will have to schedule time to practice the
new language you want to learn.
5. Text and Class Materials
Purchasing the text book for this class is required. You must have it to
complete the online homework. Completing the online homework is crit-
ical to learning the language and earning a passing grade for the class.
Adapted by Ms. Ana Boone, Associate Professor of Spanish and Care and Development of Young Chil-
dren, from Shushan, Jamie. Pocket Guide to College Success. Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2nd edition, ©2017.
Page 14.
190
Chapter 8: Writing for Classes
Where Do You Want to Go?
Think about how you answered the questions above. Be honest with yourself. On a
scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means VERY POOR and 10 means VERY HIGH, how would you
rate your level of confidence and your attitude about writing? In the following list, circle the
three areas you see as most important to your improvement as a writer.
Your Very Poor Very High
Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Using time effectively
Using sources effectively and appropriately
Understanding instructors’ expectations
Citing sources in the proper form
Being productive with brainstorming and other prewriting activities
Sharing my work in drafts and accepting feedback
Organizing ideas clearly and transitioning between ideas
Understanding the difference between proofreading and revision
Developing ideas fully
Drafting and redrafting in response to criticism
Using correct sentence mechanics (grammar, punctuation, etc.)
Using Web sites, reference books, and campus resources
Developing an academic “voice”
Think about the three things you chose: Why did you choose them? Have you had certain
kinds of writing difficulties in the past? Consider what you hope to learn here.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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The Importance of Writing
Writing is one of the key skills all successful students must acquire. You might think
your main job in a history class is to learn facts about events. So you read your textbook and
take notes on important dates, names, causes, and so on. But however important these details
are to your instructor, they don’t mean much if you can’t explain them in writing. Even if you
remember the facts well and believe you understand their meaning completely, if you can’t
express your understanding by communicating it—in college that almost always means in
writing—then as far as others may know, you don’t have an understanding at all. In a way,
then, learning history is learning to write about history. Think about it. Great historians don’t
just know facts and ideas. Great historians use their writing skills to share their facts and
ideas effectively with others.
History is just one example. Consider a lab course—a class that’s as much hands-on
as any in college. At some point, you’ll be asked to write a step-by-step report on an experi-
ment you have run. The quality of your lab work will not show if you cannot describe that
work and state your findings well in writing. Even though many instructors in courses other
than English classes may not comment directly on your writing, their judgment of your un-
derstanding will still be mostly based on what you write. This means that in all your courses,
not just your English courses, instructors expect good writing.
In college courses, writing is how ideas are exchanged, from scholars to students and
from students back to scholars. While the grade in some courses may be based mostly on
class participation, oral reports, or multiple-choice exams, writing is by far the single most
important form of instruction and assessment. Instructors expect you to learn by writing, and
they will grade you on the basis of your writing.
If you find that a scary thought, take heart! By paying attention to your writing and
learning and practicing basic skills, even those who never thought of themselves as good
writers can succeed in college writing. As with other college skills, getting off to a good start
is mostly a matter of being motivated and developing a confident attitude that you can do it.
As a form of communication, writing is different from oral communication in several
ways. Instructors expect writing to be well thought out and organized and to explain ideas
fully. In oral communication, the listener can ask for clarification, but in written work, every-
thing must be clear within the writing itself. Guidelines for oral presentations are provided in
Chapter 7 “Interacting with Instructors and Classes.”
Note: Most college students take a writing course their first year, often in the first term. Even
if you are not required to take such a class, it’s a good idea for all students to learn more
about college writing. This short chapter cannot cover even a small amount of what you will
learn in a full writing course. Our goal here is to introduce some important writing principles,
if you’re not yet familiar with them, or to remind you of things you may have already learned
in a writing course. As with all advice, always pay the most attention to what your instructor
says—the terms of a specific assignment may overrule a tip given here!
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8.1 What’s Different about College Writing?
Academic writing refers to writing produced in a college environment. Often this is
writing that responds to other writing—to the ideas or controversies that you’ll read about.
While this definition sounds simple, academic writing may be very different from other types
of writing you have done in the past. Often college students begin to understand what aca-
demic writing really means only after they receive negative feedback on their work. To be-
come a strong writer in college, you need to achieve a clear sense of two things:
1. The academic environment
2. The kinds of writing you’ll be doing in that environment
Differences between High School and College Writing
Students who struggle with writing in college often conclude that their high school
teachers were too easy or that their college instructors are too hard. In most cases, neither ex-
planation is fully accurate or fair. A student having difficulty with college writing usually just
hasn’t yet made the transition from high school writing to college writing. That shouldn’t be
surprising, for many beginning college students do not even know that there is a transition to
be made.
In high school, most students think of writing as the subject of English classes. Few
teachers in other courses give much feedback on student writing; many do not even assign
writing. This says more about high school than about the quality of teachers or about writing
itself. High school teachers typically teach five courses a day and often more than 150 stu-
dents. Those students often have a very wide range of backgrounds and skill levels.
Thus many high school English instructors focus on specific, limited goals. For exam-
ple, they may teach the “five paragraph essay” as the right way to organize a paper because
they want to give every student some idea of an essay’s basic structure. They may give as-
signments on stories and poems because their own college background involved literature and
literary analysis. In classes other than English, many high school teachers must focus on an
established body of information and may judge students using tests that measure only how
much of this information they acquire. Often writing itself is not directly addressed in such
classes.
This does not mean that students don’t learn a great deal in high school, but it’s easy
to see why some students think that writing is important only in English classes. Many stu-
dents also believe an academic essay must be five paragraphs long or that “school writing” is
usually literary analysis.
Think about how college differs from high school. In many colleges, the instructors
teach fewer classes and have fewer students. In addition, while college students have highly
diverse backgrounds, the skills of college students are less variable than in an average high
school class. In addition, college instructors are specialists in the fields they teach, as you re-
call from Chapter 7 “Interacting with Instructors and Classes.” College instructors may de-
sign their courses in unique ways, and they may teach about specialized subjects. For all of
these reasons, college instructors are much more likely than high school teachers to assign
writing, respond in detail to student writing, ask questions that cannot be dealt with easily in a
fixed form like a five-paragraph essay.
193
Your transition to college writing could be even more dramatic. The kind of writing
you have done in the past may not translate at all into the kind of writing required in college.
For example, you may at first struggle with having to write about very different kinds of top-
ics, using different approaches. You may have learned only one kind of writing genre (a kind
of approach or organization) and now find you need to master other types of writing as well.
What Kinds of Papers Are Commonly Assigned in College Classes?
Think about the topic “gender roles”—referring to expectations about differences in
how men and women act. You might study gender roles in an anthropology class, a film
class, or a psychology class. The topic itself may overlap from one class to another, but you
would not write about this subject in the same way in these different classes. For example, in
an anthropology class, you might be asked to describe how men and women of a particular
culture divide important duties. In a film class, you may be asked to analyze how a scene por-
trays gender roles enacted by the film’s characters. In a psychology course, you might be
asked to summarize the results of an experiment involving gender roles or compare and con-
trast the findings of two related research projects.
It would be simplistic to say that there are three, or four, or ten, or any number of
types of academic writing that have unique characteristics, shapes, and styles. Every assign-
ment in every course is unique in some ways, so don’t think of writing as a fixed form you
need to learn. On the other hand, there are certain writing approaches that do involve differ-
ent kinds of writing. An approach is the way you go about meeting the writing goals for the
assignment. The approach is usually signaled by the words instructors use in their assign-
ments.
When you first get a writing assignment, pay attention first to keywords for how to
approach the writing. These will also suggest how you may structure and develop your paper.
Look for terms like these in the assignment:
Summarize. To restate in your own words the main point or points of an-
other’s work.
Define. To describe, explore, or characterize a keyword, idea, or phenomenon.
Classify. To group individual items by their shared characteristics, separate
from other groups of items.
Compare/contrast. To explore significant likenesses and differences between
two or more subjects.
Analyze. To break something, a phenomenon, or an idea into its parts and ex-
plain how those parts fit or work together.
Argue. To state a claim and support it with reasons and evidence.
Synthesize. To pull together varied pieces or ideas from two or more sources.
Note how this list is similar to the words used in examination questions that involve
writing. (See Table 6.1 “Words to Watch for in Essay Questions” in Chapter 6 “Preparing for
and Taking Tests”, Section 6.4 “The Secrets of the Q and A”.) This overlap is not a coinci-
dence—essay exams are an abbreviated form of academic writing such as a class paper.
194
Sometimes the keywords listed don’t actually appear in the written assignment, but
they are usually implied by the questions given in the assignment. “What,” “why,” and “how”
are common question words that require a certain kind of response. Look back at the key-
words listed and think about which approaches relate to “what,” “why,” and “how” questions.
“What” questions usually prompt the writing of summaries, definitions, classifica-
tions, and sometimes compare-and-contrast essays. For example, “What does Jones
see as the main elements of Huey Long’s populist appeal?” or “What happened when
you heated the chemical solution?”
“Why” and “how” questions typically prompt analysis, argument, and synthesis es-
says. For example, “Why did Huey Long’s brand of populism gain force so quickly?”
or “Why did the solution respond the way it did to heat?”
Successful academic writing starts with recognizing what the instructor is requesting, or what
you are required to do. So pay close attention to the assignment. Sometimes the essential in-
formation about an assignment is conveyed through class discussions, however, so be sure to
listen for the keywords that will help you understand what the instructor expects. If you feel
the assignment does not give you a sense of direction, seek clarification. Ask questions that
will lead to helpful answers. For example, here’s a short and very vague assignment:
Discuss the perspectives on religion of Rousseau, Bentham, and Marx. Papers should be
four to five pages in length.
Faced with an assignment like this, you could ask about the scope (or focus) of the assign-
ment:
Which of the assigned readings should I concentrate on?
Should I read other works by these authors that haven’t been assigned in class?
Should I do research to see what scholars think about the way these philosophers view
religion?
Do you want me to pay equal attention to each of the three philosophers?
You can also ask about the approach the instructor would like you to take. You can use the
keywords the instructor may not have used in the assignment:
Should I just summarize the positions of these three thinkers, or should I compare and
contrast their views?
Do you want me to argue a specific point about the way these philosophers approach
religion?
Would it be OK if I classified the ways these philosophers think about religion?
Never just complain about a vague assignment. It is fine to ask questions like these. Such
questions will likely engage your instructor in a productive discussion with you.
8.2 How Can I Become a Better Writer?
Students are usually required to take at least one writing course in their first year of
college. That course is often crucial for your success in college. But a writing course can help
you only if you recognize how it connects to your other work in college. If you approach your
writing course merely as another hoop you need to jump through, you may miss out on the
main message: writing is vital to your academic success at every step toward your degree.
195
What Do Instructors Really Want?
Some instructors may say they have no particular expectations for student papers.
This is partly true. College instructors do not usually have one right answer in mind or one
right approach to take when they assign a paper topic. They expect you to engage in critical
thinking and decide for yourself what you are saying and how to say it. But in other ways col-
lege instructors do have expectations, and it is important to understand them. Some expecta-
tions involve mastering the material or demonstrating critical thinking. Other expectations in-
volve specific writing skills. Most college instructors expect certain characteristics in student
writing. Here are general principles you should follow when writing essays or student “pa-
pers.” (Some may not be appropriate for specific formats such as lab reports.)
Title the paper to identify your topic. This may sound obvious, but it needs to be
said. Some students think of a paper as an exercise and write something like “Assignment 2:
History 101” on the title page. Such a title gives no idea about how you are approaching the
assignment or your topic. Your title should prepare your reader for what your paper is about
or what you will argue. (With essays, always consider your reader as an educated adult inter-
ested in your topic. An essay is not a letter written to your instructor.) Compare the follow-
ing:
Incorrect: Correct:
Assignment 2: History 101 Why the New World Was Not “New”
It is obvious which of these two titles begins to prepare your reader for the paper it-
self. Similarly, don’t make your title the same as the title of a work you are writing about. In-
stead, be sure your title signals an aspect of the work you are focusing on:
Incorrect: Correct:
Catcher in the Rye Family Relationships in Catcher in the Rye
Address the terms of the assignment. Again, pay particular attention to words in the
assignment that signal a preferred approach. If the instructor asks you to “argue” a point, be
sure to make a statement that actually expresses your idea about the topic. Then follow that
statement with your reasons and evidence in support of the statement. Look for any signals
that will help you focus or limit your approach. Since no paper can cover everything about a
complex topic, what is it that your instructor wants you to cover?
Finally, pay attention to the little things. For example, if the assignment specifies “5
to 6 pages in length,” write a five- to six-page paper. Don’t try to stretch a short paper longer
by enlarging the font (12 points is standard) or making your margins bigger than the normal
one inch (or as specified by the instructor). If the assignment is due at the beginning of class
on Monday, have it ready then or before. Do not assume you can negotiate a revised due date.
In your introduction, define your topic and establish your approach or sense of
purpose. Think of your introduction as an extension of your title. Instructors (like all readers)
appreciate feeling oriented by a clear opening. They appreciate knowing that you have a pur-
pose for your topic—that you have a reason for writing the paper. If they feel they’ve just
been dropped into the middle of a paper, they may miss important ideas. They may not make
connections you want them to make.
196
Build from a thesis or a clearly stated sense of purpose. Many college assignments
require you to make some form of an argument. To do that, you generally start with a state-
ment that needs to be supported and build from there. Your thesis is that statement; it is a
guiding assertion for the paper. Be clear in your own mind of the difference between your
topic and your thesis. The topic is what your paper is about; the thesis is what you argue
about the topic. Some assignments do not require an explicit argument and thesis, but even
then you should make clear at the beginning your main emphasis, your purpose, or your most
important idea.
Develop ideas patiently. You might, like many students, worry about boring your
reader with too much detail or information. But college instructors will not be bored by care-
fully explained ideas, well-selected examples, and relevant details. College instructors, after
all, are professionally devoted to their subjects. If your sociology instructor asks you to write
about youth crime in rural areas, you can be sure he or she is interested in that subject.
In some respects, how you develop your paper is the most crucial part of the assign-
ment. You’ll win the day with detailed explanations and well-presented evidence—not big
generalizations. For example, anyone can write something broad (and bland) like “The con-
stitutional separation of church and state is a good thing for America”—but what do you re-
ally mean by that? Specifically? Are you talking about banning “Christmas trees” from gov-
ernment property—or calling them “holiday trees” instead? Are you arguing for eliminating
the tax-free status of religious organizations? Are you saying that American laws should
never be based on moral values? The more you really dig into your topic—the more time you
spend thinking about the specifics of what you really want to argue and developing specific
examples and reasons for your argument—the more developed your paper will be. It will also
be much more interesting to your instructor as the reader. Remember, those grand generaliza-
tions we all like to make (“America is the land of the free”) actually don’t mean much at all
until we develop the idea in specifics. (Free to do what? No laws? No restrictions like speed
limits? Freedom not to pay any taxes? Free food for all? What do you really mean when you
say American is the land of the “free”?)
Integrate—do not just “plug in”—quotations, graphs, and illustrations. As you
outline or sketch out your material, you will think things like “this quotation can go here” or
“I can put that graph there.” Remember that a quotation, graph, or illustration does not make
a point for you. You make the point first and then use such material to help back it up. Using
a quotation, a graph, or an illustration involves more than simply sticking it into the paper.
Always lead into such material. Make sure the reader understands why you are using it and
how it fits in at that place in your presentation.
Build clear transitions at the beginning of every paragraph to link from one idea
to another. A good paper is more than a list of good ideas. It should also show how the ideas
fit together. As you write the first sentence of any paragraph, have a clear sense of what the
prior paragraph was about. Think of the first sentence in any paragraph as a kind of bridge for
the reader from what came before.
Document your sources appropriately. If your paper involves research of any kind,
indicate clearly the use you make of outside sources. If you have used those sources well,
there is no reason to hide them. Careful research and the thoughtful application of the ideas
and evidence of others is part of what college instructors’ value. (We address specifics about
documentation later on.)
Carefully edit your paper. College instructors assume you will take the time to edit
and proofread your essay. A misspelled word or an incomplete sentence may signal a lack of
concern on your part. It may not seem fair to make a harsh judgment about your seriousness
based on little errors, but in all writing, impressions count. Since it is often hard to find small
errors in our own writing, always print out a draft well before you need to turn it in. Ask a
197
classmate or a friend to review it and mark any word or sentence that seems “off” in any way.
Although you should certainly use a spell-checker, don’t assume it can catch everything. A
spell-checker cannot tell if you have the right word. For example, these words are commonly
misused or mixed up:
there, their, they’re
its, it’s
effect, affect
complement, compliment
Your spell-checker can’t help with these. You also can’t trust what a “grammar checker”
(like the one built into the Microsoft Word spell-checker) tells you — computers are still a
long way from being able to fix your writing for you!
Turn in a clean hard copy. Some instructors accept or even prefer digital papers, but
do not assume this. Most instructors want a paper copy and most definitely do not want to do
the printing themselves. Present your paper in a professional (and unfussy) way, using a sta-
ple or paper clip on the left top to hold the pages together (unless the instructor specifies oth-
erwise). Never bring your paper to class and ask the instructor, “Do you have a stapler?” Sim-
ilarly, do not put your paper in a plastic binder unless the instructor asks you to.
The Writing Process
Writing instructors distinguish between process and product. The expectations de-
scribed here all involve the “product” you turn in on the due date. Although you should keep
in mind what your product will look like, writing is more involved with how you get to that
goal. “Process” concerns how you work to actually write a paper. What do you actually do to
get started? How do you organize your ideas? Why do you make changes along the way as
you write? Thinking of writing as a process is important because writing is actually a com-
plex activity. Even professional writers rarely sit down at a keyboard and write out an article
beginning to end without stopping along the way to revise portions they have drafted, to
move ideas around, or to revise their opening and thesis. Professionals and students alike of-
ten say they only realized what they wanted to say after they started to write. This is why
many instructors see writing as a way to learn. Many writing instructors ask you to submit a
draft for review before submitting a final paper. To roughly paraphrase a famous poem, you
learn by doing what you have to do.
How Can I Make the Process Work for Me?
No single set of steps automatically works best for everyone when writing a paper,
but writers have found a number of steps helpful. Your job is to try out ways that your in-
structor suggests and discover what works for you. As you’ll see in the following list, the pro-
cess starts before you write a word. Generally there are three stages in the writing process:
1. Preparing before drafting (thinking, brainstorming, planning, reading, researching,
outlining, sketching, etc.)—sometimes called “prewriting” (although you are usu-
ally still writing something at this stage, even if only jotting notes)
2. Writing the draft
3. Revising and editing
198
Involved in these three stages are a number of separate tasks—and that’s where you
need to figure out what works best for you.
Because writing is hard, procrastination is easy. Don’t let yourself put off the task.
Use the time management strategies described in Chapter 2 “Staying Motivated, Organized,
and On Track”. One good approach is to schedule shorter time periods over a series of
days—rather than trying to sit down for one long period to accomplish a lot. (Even profes-
sional writers can write only so much at a time.) Try the following strategies to get started:
Discuss what you read, see, and hear. Talking with others about your ideas
is a good way to begin to achieve clarity. Listening to others helps you under-
stand what points need special attention. Discussion also helps writers realize
that their own ideas are often best presented in relation to the ideas of others.
Use e-mail to carry on discussions in writing. An e-mail exchange with a
classmate or your instructor might be the first step toward putting words on a
page.
Brainstorm. Jot down your thoughts as they come to mind. Just write away,
not worrying at first about how those ideas fit together. (This is often called
“free writing.”) Once you’ve written a number of notes or short blocks of sen-
tences, pause and read them over. Take note of anything that stands out as par-
ticularly important to you. Also consider how parts of your scattered notes
might eventually fit together or how they might end up in a sequence in the
paper you’ll get to later on.
Keep a journal in which you respond to your assigned readings. Set aside
twenty minutes or so three times a week to summarize important texts. Go be-
yond just summarizing: talk back about what you have been reading or apply
the reading to your own experience. See Chapter 5 “Reading to Learn” for
more tips on taking notes about your readings.
Ask and respond in writing to “what,” “why,” and “how” questions. Good
questions prompt productive writing sessions. Again, “what” questions will
lead to descriptions or summaries; “why” and “how” questions will lead you
to analyses and explanations. Construct your own “what,” “why,” and “how”
questions and then start answering them.
In your notes, respond directly to what others have written or said about
a topic you are interested in. Most academic writing engages the ideas of
others. Academic writing carries on a conversation among people interested in
the field. By thinking of how your ideas relate to those of others, you can clar-
ify your sense of purpose and sometimes even discover a way to write your in-
troduction.
All of these steps and actions so far are “prewriting” actions. Again, almost no one
just sits down and starts writing a paper at the beginning—at least not a successful paper!
These prewriting steps help you get going in the right direction. Once you are ready to start
drafting your essay, keep moving forward in these ways:
Write a short statement of intent or outline your paper before your first
draft. Such a road map can be very useful, but don’t assume you’ll always be
able to stick with your first plan. Once you start writing, you may discover a
need for changes in the substance or order of things in your essay. Such dis-
coveries don’t mean you made “mistakes” in the outline. They simply mean
you are involved in a process that cannot be completely scripted in advance.
199
Write down on a card or a separate sheet of paper what you see as your
paper’s main point or thesis. As you draft your essay, look back at that thesis
statement. Are you staying on track? Or are you discovering that you need to
change your main point or thesis? From time to time, check the development
of your ideas against what you started out saying you would do. Revise as
needed and move forward.
Reverse outline your paper. Outlining is usually a beginning point, a road
map for the task ahead. But many writers find that outlining what they have
already written in a draft helps them see more clearly how their ideas fit or do
not fit together. Outlining in this way can reveal trouble spots that are harder
to see in a full draft. Once you see those trouble spots, effective revision be-
comes possible.
Don’t obsess over detail when writing the draft. Remember, you have time
for revising and editing later on. Now is the time to test out the plan you’ve
made and see how your ideas develop. The last things in the world you want to
worry about now are the little things like grammar and punctuation—spend
your time developing your material, knowing you can fix the details later.
Read your draft aloud. Hearing your own writing often helps you see it more
plainly. A gap or an inconsistency in an argument that you simply do not see
in a silent reading becomes evident when you give voice to the text. You may
also catch sentence-level mistakes by reading your paper aloud.
What’s the Difference between Revising and Editing?
Some students think of a draft as something that they need only “correct” after writ-
ing. They assume their first effort to do the assignment resulted in something that needs only
surface attention. This is a big mistake. A good writer does not write fast. Good writers know
that the task is complicated enough to demand some patience. “Revision” rather than “correc-
tion” suggests seeing again in a new light generated by all the thought that went into the first
draft. Revising a draft usually involves significant changes including the following:
Making organizational changes like the reordering of paragraphs (don’t forget
that new transitions will be needed when you move paragraphs)
Clarifying the thesis or adjustments between the thesis and supporting points
that follow
Cutting material that is unnecessary or irrelevant
Adding new points to strengthen or clarify the presentation
Editing and proofreading are the last steps following revision. Correcting a sentence
early on may not be the best use of your time since you may cut the sentence entirely. Editing
and proofreading are focused, late-stage activities for style and correctness. They are im-
portant final parts of the writing process, but they should not be confused with revision itself.
Editing and proofreading a draft involve these steps:
Careful spell-checking. This includes checking the spelling of names.
200
Attention to sentence-level issues. Be especially attentive to sentence bounda-
ries, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and pronoun referents. You can also
attend at this stage to matters of style.
Remember to get started on a writing assignment early so that you complete the first
draft well before the due date, allowing you needed time for genuine revision and careful ed-
iting.
What If I Need Help with Writing?
Writing is hard work. Most colleges provide resources that can help you from the early
stages of an assignment through to the completion of an essay. Your first resource may be a
writing class. Most students are encouraged or required to enroll in a writing class in their
first term, and it’s a good idea for everyone. Use everything you learn there about drafting
and revising in all your courses.
Tutoring services. Most colleges have a tutoring service that focuses primarily on stu-
dent writing. Look up and visit your tutoring center early in the term to learn what service is
offered. Specifically check on the following:
1. Do you have to register in advance for help? If so, is there a registration dead-
line?
2. Are appointments required or encouraged, or can you just drop in?
3. Are regular standing appointments with the same tutor encouraged?
4. Are a limited number of sessions allowed per term?
5. Are small group workshops offered in addition to individual appointments?
6. Are specialists available for help with students who have learned English as a
second language?
Three points about writing tutors are crucial:
1. Writing tutors are there for all student writers—not just for weak or inexperi-
enced writers. Writing in college is supposed to be a challenge. Some students
make writing even harder by thinking that good writers work in isolation. But
writing is a social act. A good paper should engage others.
2. Tutors are not there for you to “correct” sentence-level problems or polish
your finished draft. They will help you identify and understand sentence-level
problems so that you can achieve greater control over your writing. But their
more important goals often are to address larger concerns like the paper’s or-
ganization, the fullness of its development, and the clarity of its argument. So
don’t make your first appointment the day before a paper is due, because you
may need more time to revise after discussing the paper with a tutor.
3. Tutors cannot help you if you do not do your part. Tutors respond only to what
you say and write; they cannot enable you to magically jump past the thinking
an assignment requires. So do some thinking about the assignment before your
meeting and be sure to bring relevant materials with you. For example, bring
the paper assignment. You might also bring the course syllabus and perhaps
even the required textbook. Most importantly, bring any writing you’ve done
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