Tertiary Study Skills

Tertiary study skills

Part 1

Reading skills:

The studies at the tertiary level are not intensive but ask the students to have a thorough and extensive study of different topics. They have to visit libraries and read different books on the same topic so that they have a vast knowledge of what different authors have to say about the same subject. In addition they have to read the relevant material on the internet as well. It is mandatory for the university students that they make themselves abreast of the current research and new findings on the specific topics.

According to the researchers a good reader must be able to read four words in a glance.Hence it is expected of the students at university level to acquire this efficiency in reading. It is by having the reading skill of this level that they would be able to go through all of the required reading material. They should also know the techniques in which reading speed can be enhanced i.e. skimming and scanning. 'Once you have completed a fuller scan of a reading you should have a much clearer idea about the overall content of the reading and the main points or areas it addresses.'(Adams, Openshaw&Trembath, 2006, pp. 61).

As in the universities it is a culture that instructors do not go through the text word y word in the class and they assume that students have already read the text as the basis of discussion in the classroom so it becomes compulsory for the students at the tertiary level to not only read the extra material about the text but also the text itself. And for the next class the students have to go through the lecture of the previous week or class and should have to read ahead for discussion in the coming class. Hence all of the students should use excellentreading skill at their universities for achieving good grades and their goals.

Writing skills

The students of the tertiary level are given regular assignments and they have to complete these assignments and submit them to their instructors in a written format. These assignments are in the form of essays, reports, interviews, articles etc. all of these genres of writing belong to the formal way of writing. 'Academic writing is quite different from newspaper reports, magazine articles, crime novel and the like. What distinguishes academic writing from these other forms of writing is its emphasis, first and foremost on learning and, to use a much maligned expression, 'the pursuit of truth'(Adams, Openshaw&Trembath, 2006, pp . 91).

In the university level it is mandatory for students to be abreast of all of the formal styles of writings. He is made to differentiate between formal and informal styles of writing. He must use formal way of writing in all of his/her assignment until asked otherwise. In formal way of writing he must not use slangs or short forms. Furthermore, the students at tertiary level of education are made to give exams in the written format and ...