Development Ed/Essential College Skills E-Books
The following E-Books are available through Hinds Libraries. In order to access the E-Books off campus, you will need to sign in with your Hinds credentials (please use another browser aside from the Edge browser).
Reading, Writing and Reasoning by
"A concise and useful guide, which provides an overview of the skills necessary to good reviewing ... Dealing clearly with traditional sources such as books and journals alongside recent developments such as wikis, blogs, and other online material, this handbook provides students with not only the basics, but guidance on the evolving issues in research dissemination and literature reviewing." Daniel Zahra, Student, University of Plymouth, UK What do you have to do to achieve success in your university studies? Many students find the 'step up' from school or college work to university study a challenge. The same is frequently true for those returning to study after time spent in the workplace. If you find yourself in either of these situations then this is the book for you. Straightforward and sympathetic, this accessible handbook will help you to develop the essential skills in three of the core aspects of university study: reading, writing and reasoning. Drawing on a wealth of experience of working with students in a variety of settings, Gavin Fairbairn and Christopher Winch have completely revised and updated this best selling text. It is packed with practical advice, examples and exercises that will be invaluable for all students and assist in developing effective reading practices, high quality academic writing and critical thinking skills. The new edition contains: Expanded coverage on plagiarism and how to avoid it Additional guidance on structuring writing Suggestions for overcoming writer's block Tasks designed to reflect on key issues and practice skills Guidance for tutors on how to help students
Exploring College Writing by
Exploring College Writing: Reading, Writing and Researching across the Curriculum is a rhetoric for first-year and sophomore composition courses that uses a constructivist, ethnographic approach to introducing students to academic reading, writing, and researching. This text is especially useful to composition instructors who wish to provide students with both a general overview of academic discourse and an introduction to the purposes, audiences, and genres of writing across disciplines. This textbook works from the premise that the best way to initiate students to academic discourse is to have them explore academic literacies using an ethnographic, fieldwork approach to their own institution. Students are cast in the role of researchers, exploring their own experiences as college writers and investigating writing in General Education and in their prospective majors. The book provides instructors and students sequences of engaging and exploratory Writing to Learn and Learn by Doing activities and formal, extended writing projects that ask students to interview professors, analyze writing assignments, and reflect on their own reading, writing, and researching processes and histories. These writing projects connect to students' interests, experiences, and goals and provide them with a sense of purpose and audience for writing. The organization of Exploring College Writing moves students from reflection to investigation. Part I of the book provides a broad introduction to academic reading, writing, and researching and introduces students to the rhetorical situations, genres, and common college thinking and writing strategies. Part I presents students with prompts that ask them to explore the similarities and differences between high school and college literacy and reflect on their own literacy histories. Part II asks students to think critically about their reading, writing, and researching processes and to explore strategies for college reading, writing, and researching processes. Part II includes prompts that ask students to explore college reading, writing, and researching processes and practice academic research and making academic arguments. Part III introduces students to writing across the curriculum and the idea of disciplines and discourse communities. Part IV asks students to investigate the reading, writing, and researching assigned in the General Education and major courses at their campus and to consider discipline-specific ways of writing and thinking. Unlike other textbooks Exploring College Writing uses authentic student and professional texts from across disciplines in a variety of genres such as lab reports, scholarly book reviews, ethnographies and case studies to guide and inspire the writing process.
Study Skills by
There are many 'Do-it-Yourself' manuals for students and young people experiencing study skills problems. However, if this group of young people could study these books then they would already have the skills necessary! In order to use a self help manual the student needs internal motivation, the ability to self-instruct from text and the ability to put the learned strategy into placeâe¦ but these are the same attributes that these students find difficult. In this book, Pat Guy shows the reader how to teach, through self assessment, practice and confidence-building techniques, the techniques and self management required to achive independent study skills. The programme provides a series of lesson plans making up a taught course for secondary schools, sixth form and FE colleges and PRUs. The sessions can be delivered by teachers or tutors but would ideally suit the job description of Learning Mentors whose task is to improve attendance and achievement in older students.
College Success Guaranteed by
As a lifelong teacher, Malcolm Gauld has watched thousands of kids go off to college. Some return to visit after their first year exuding the vibe of conquering heroes. Others look, well, pretty bummed out. This book offers a plan to help the new college student complete Year #1 as a member of the first group. With anecdotes from current college students and recent graduates, the book presents five simple rules: Rule #1: Go to Class - I've never known a kid who flunked out of college who attended all his or her classes. Rule #2: Study 3 Hours X 5 days per week - How to transition from homework to study. Rule #3: Commit to Something - Don't drown in free time. Here's how to stay afloat. Rule #4: Get a Mentor - How to set up a support system. Rule #5: Procrastination Kills - How to rise above. The book is a short, non-preachy, fun, and tad irreverent primer that can help you get off to a strong start toward the 'best four years of your life.'
The Guide to Learning and Study Skills - For Higher Education and at Work by
Skills in learning and studying are vital to ensure success in higher education study, whether at undergraduate or postgraduate level, in university, college or in the workplace. Skills are needed in reflection, analysis, communication and recording information to produce good work, to engage effectively in a group, to carry out a project or perform well in exams; personal skills are needed to handle time and pressure and to relate to others on a course or in the workplace. This new guide builds on the hugely successful materials the authors have developed over the last 15 years. Along with highly practical guidance on traditional learning skills, The Guide to Learning and Study Skills provides direction for students on learning in a blended environment; the increased use of personal and professional development planning, continuing professional development and work-based learning.
Essay Writing Skills by
Writing essays is a major part of many further education courses. In coursework assignments, dissertations and exams, a well-written essay can make the difference between a pass and a fail, and these essays provide you with the stepping stones that take you towards the degree, qualification and career that you desire. Nothing will expose your uncertainty or lack of knowledge more than a poorly written essay; what Essay Writing Skills does is let you know what is expected of you and how best to go about your research, thus allowing you to get on top of your workload quickly. Essay Writing Skills offers practical and proven ways to maximise your success in all aspects of essay writing. From planning your first essay to assessing primary and secondary sources, it will help you to write in a systematic way that presents a convincing and academically sound argument. A comprehensive guide, it provides guidance and advice on good research techniques, grammar and accuracy, creating an essay plan and correctly citing your sources. It also includes a range of real life example essays and insider knowledge on how your essays are assessed, Essay Writing Skills is an indispensible source of advice, making the writing process clear and manageable to help you improve the quality of your written work.
Academic Writing by
How do I improve my essay writing skills? Where can I learn quickly how to improve my speech writing? How does writing for the web differ from conventional writing? Are there some categories of mistakes that people commonly make in attempting to write good prose? How can I be persuasive in my writing style? How did language evolve? What is 'genre theory'? How do I become creative in my prose writing? These and other curious and relevant questions are answered in Academic Writing. Writing is about communication with words, and academic writing is about choosing words carefully to communicate complex ideas. The purpose of the fourteen chapters of this monograph is to provide an introduction to the practice of academic writing with an emphasis on prose writing in particular, for both print-based and online media. Each of the fourteen chapters explores different aspects of academic writing from practical, professional and theoretical perspectives. The book is written for students, teachers and educators at tertiary organisations. Word connoisseurs, debaters, writers and readers may also enjoy its argumentations and analyses.
Writing: Processes, Tools and Techniques by
Writing is a complex and cognitively demanding activity. To be successful, writers need an understanding of the components of a quality test as well as knowledge of writing strategies that can be used to shape and organise the writing process. This book discusses academic writing as a complex task which involves a variety of cognitive and metacognitive activities; a model for teaching writing strategies and the sociocultural processes of written communication; rubric-referenced self-assessment and the quality of elementary and middle-school students' writing and self-efficacy and others.
Teaching the Brain to Read by
Reading comes easily to some students, but many struggle with some part of this complex process that requires many areas of the brain to operate together through an intricate network of neurons. As a classroom teacher who has also worked as a neurologist, Judy Willis offers a unique perspective on how to help students not only learn the mechanics of reading and comprehension, but also develop a love of reading. She shows the importance of establishing a nonthreatening environment and provides teaching strategies that truly engage students and help them * Build phonemic awareness * Manipulate patterns to improve reading skills * Improve reading fluency * Combat the stress and anxiety that can inhibit reading fluency * Increase vocabulary *Overcome reading difficulties that can interfere with comprehension By enriching your understanding of how the brain processes language, emotion, and other stimuli, this book will change the way you understand and teach reading skills--and help all your students become successful readers.
Reading Foundations by
Reading Foundations addresses the issue of teaching phonemic and orthographic skills to beginning and struggling readers. A program is outlined that provides a step-by-step process and structure with fully-developed practice exercises. These exercises are designed so that they can be used in the classroom. Reading Foundations includes three programs that examine ways to overcome reading failure for those having problems in the early stages of reading acquisition. The three programs include: 1) The Good Feedback Program: provided for teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents who have become aware that a child has developed a set of negative self-attributions about their ability to learn. 2) The Step-By-Step Phonemic and Orthographic Intervention Program: a systematic program for developing phonemic and orthographic skills, using the most common units of sound and written language that are vital in 'cracking the code.' 3) The Story Tree Program: a novel method of allowing the learner to overlearn common words and develop a sight vocabulary, while still holding interest by using a detextualized set of sentences that can be used in almost any order to make different story structures. Reading Foundations' three related programs allow for movement between an explicit phonics approach and a text approach (and vice versa). These three programs are unique in that they support struggling readers who have had successive learning failure.
Reading Comprehension by
All of our content is aligned to your State Standards and are written to Bloom's Taxonomy. A child's ability to read and comprehend the written word is his touchstone to success in school and in life. The primary object of our Reading Comprehension guide is to teach the reading skills that are basic to reading fluency and understanding in all subject areas and situations. Reading is the most essential communication skill in our society. For this reason, the author has given emphasis to many of the primary building blocks of reading acquisition, such as using context clues, determining main idea, and understanding inferences. "Reading Comprehension" emphasize important concepts and appear throughout this series. Definitions of important terms and many opportunities to practice the skills being taught also make this book user-friendly and easy to understand. In addition, the objectives used in this book are structured using Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning to ensure educational appropriateness. This is an ideal resource for test prep.
Master Reading by
All of our content is aligned to your State Standards and are written to Bloom's Taxonomy. Become a master reader. Our combined resource allows students to advance their reading skills through three major elements. Students begin by gaining an understanding of the written text with Reading Comprehension, designed to emphasize several reading skills, such as the main idea, context clues, drawing conclusions, making inferences, and sequencing. Students will then gain the ability to not only understand what they have read, but how to build upon that knowledge independently with Critical Thinking, by encouraging independent thinking, organization skills, asking questions, and problem-solving. Finally, students will engage in the tools to understanding elementary-level literature, such as characterization, setting, plot, theme, point of view, symbolism, and irony, with Literary Devices. Complete with reading passages, student activities, crossword, word search, comprehension quiz, and color graphic organizers. This is an ideal resource for test prep.