Academic Literacy - Comprehensive Study Notes

Academic Literacy 2nd Edition by Litha Beekman, Cecilia Dube, Herman Potgieter, and Jenni Underhill.
Focuses on equipping students with skills for academic success in higher education and future careers.
Stresses the importance of understanding the academic environment and mastering new skills.

Introduction

The book bridges the gap between students' familiar world and the challenges of higher education.
Success is less about raw intelligence and more about learned survival skills.
Basic skills are essential for university survival and career preparation.
Deeper involvement and early adoption of academic practices differentiate top performers.
The first chapter helps students understand the academic environment and the required thinking, reflection, reading, and writing skills.

Mastering Academic Language

Chapter 2 focuses on discovering and mastering academic language for arguing, explaining concepts, writing assignments, and interacting in the academic environment.
Proficiency in academic language takes time, potentially until postgraduate studies.
The goal is to enable students to effectively use this language in academic contexts.

Reading Skills

Chapter 3 emphasizes reading as a crucial skill for unlocking knowledge, despite declining reading habits among the younger generation.
Reading is essential for understanding the world and one's role in it.
The chapter aims to develop reading skills and encourage adventurous reading.

Building Arguments

Chapter 4 provides tools for constructing well-balanced and informed arguments, essential for academic success and various professional scenarios.
The art of argument is not exclusive to politicians; it's valuable in numerous professions.
The goal is to equip students with the tools and skills to build good arguments.

Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism

Chapter 5 addresses the importance of referencing, paraphrasing, and summarizing, particularly in the context of easier access to academic material theft due to the Internet.
Citing sources acknowledges intellectual pioneers and their contributions.
Proper practice in referencing, paraphrasing, and summarizing can give the impression of students being intimately familiar with influential thinkers.

Paragraph Writing

Chapter 6 emphasizes the importance of well-written paragraphs for academic success.
A well-written paragraph indicates a dedicated, focused, and serious student.
Mastering paragraph writing is crucial for recognition and appreciation of hard work.

Assignment Writing

Chapter 7 helps students understand the basic requirements for writing good assignments, which is the culmination of skills taught throughout the book.
Good assignments, however, demand time and planning, not just skill, to be written with quality.
Assignments must still be submitted on time.

Study Skills Enhancement

Chapter 8 provides practical suggestions to make studying more enjoyable and less tedious.
Focus: making the task less painful.

Examination Preparation

Chapter 9 aims to help students reduce their fear of examinations and take control of the process.
It provides insights into skills that students often overlook, making the experience less traumatic.
The chapter balances the hope that examinations may turn into huge fun with acknowledging the reality of writing exams.

General Themes and Conclusion

The authors hope the book will help students become successful and nurture skills for lifelong learning.
They challenge the notion that a little knowledge is dangerous, arguing that the real danger lies in being satisfied with only a little knowledge.

Chapter 1: Academic Study in Higher Education

Orientates students to the demands of academic study and the personal responsibility to acquire the necessary skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes for success.
Academic skills are crucial for success in higher education and the workplace.
Basic skills like reading and writing are foundational, leading to the development of thinking and communication skills.
Academic tasks require critical thinking, problem identification, analysis, reasoning, evaluation, logical conclusion, recommendation, and critical report writing.
The chapter aims to make students aware of the skills needed and their current skill levels.

Demands of Academic Study

Academia refers to the community of students engaged in higher education.
Higher education aims to train a skilled workforce that contributes to national development and social transformation.
It focuses on developing graduates into productive citizens who contribute to their communities and become experts in their fields.
Students explore personal growth, vocational and career development, and academic development.
Students proactively participate in their own learning, taking responsibility for exploring their needs and seeking out activities that provide learning opportunities.
Students monitor their progress, review the effectiveness of their studying, and demonstrate knowledge and skills by applying what they've learned.
Students plan the next stages of continuing learning and development for lifelong career management and keeping up to date with technology.
Responsibilities involve intellectual skills, willingness to engage with academic study, investigate, search for information and meaning, and have the intellectual perseverance to work through difficult study material.
Reflection (meta-cognition) involves looking backward to become aware of what you have done correctly or incorrectly and what needs to be improved

Key aspects of taking responsibility for personal learning

Taking responsibility involves motivation, commitment, and dedication, including classroom and extraneous campus activities (social, cultural), student orientation, student development workshops, community projects, and volunteer and vocational work.
Higher education differs from secondary school study, requiring independent and self-directed learners.

Requirements for Academic Study

Rapid development in information and communication technology (ICT) and social networking has altered communication, learning, and work.
The world has moved from the information era to a knowledge era, where knowledge is shared freely.
The challenge is to acquire the skills to navigate the abundance of knowledge, cope with it, and innovate ways to apply it to life and work.
Typical examination questions were to list aspects, define concepts and explain issues.
Today, students need to apply higher cognitive levels to meet learning demands.
Active engagement requires inquiring minds, critical thinking, and questions to be asked to understand the 'how' and 'why'.

Various skills needed for active engagement in the academic environment

Active engagement requires cognitive, meta-cognitive (reflection) skills, and an attitude that values knowledge acquisition through higher-order thinking.

Understanding different components of skill to achieve success in the academic environment

Knowledge of the Subject Field: Specific knowledge of the discipline, theoretical knowledge of basic concepts, and application to the field of work.
Thinking and Learning Style: Understanding your style to improve techniques and adapt to assignment guidelines.
Intellectual Skills: Cognitive skills refer to how you think about issues and includes creative, critical, and logical thinking.
Creative thinking – Using mind-mapping and brainstorming to come up with new ideas.
Critical – Coming to conclusions based on judgements about evidence.
Logical – Formula use in subjects such as accounting and economics.

Reflection for improving student performance

Reflection (Meta-cognitive) Skills: Reflection on experience is essential in personal life, academic study, and the workplace.
You need to add correct information to the answer sheet as part of preparation for revision before the examination.
Study Skills: Success depends on effective studying, including a positive attitude, goal setting, time management, habits, methods, and techniques.

Effective academic task fulfillment

Academic tasks and assignments require active engagement with the learning material, including learning and assessment activities.
Learning activities help students to assess their knowledge and skills.
Pay attention to assignment guidelines provided by lecturers presented in the prescribed format.

Academic reading and writing techniques

Reading and writing in higher education requires highly developed cognitive skills, various styles, strategies, and techniques.
Identify and develop skills for academic reading, and applying strategies like skimming and scanning is essential due to the abundance of learning material and Internet research to navigate the large amounts of information.
Different Writing processes is important in higher education requires that you write in an academic style, technically, and particularly how to correctly reference your work to avoid plagiarism.

Basic Conclusion

The key to understanding academic study is the ability to think, read, and write effectively.
Engagement requires personal input in terms of time and effort to achieve academic success.

Chapter 2: Developing Vocabulary

Equipping students to develop vocabulary for effective and appropriate word usage in academic context and the workplace.
Good vocabulary: invaluable professional skill to demonstrate strong knowledge.

Why do we need to develop a good vocabulary?

Using words effectively and appropriately facilitates academic success and clear workplace communication.
Developing a good vocabulary contributes to success in education, relationships, and life.

Strategies for vocabulary development

Consistent Reading: Vocabulary is expanded through reading textbooks, novels, newspapers, and magazines.
Using a Dictionary: Understanding the exact meaning of words requires dictionary consultation.

Information a dictionary offers

Pronunciation, phonetics of words shown, parts of speech, synonyms, whether the word is singular or plural, whether the word differs in American English from British (or standard) English formal/informal is indicated.

Dictionary Tip:

When using a dictionary, always consult the pages at the beginning: these provide various keys to explain how the dictionary works. At the back of a dictionary, you will find appendices that provide you with extra grammatical and pronunciation information.

Context and different types of context clues to consider.

Context Clues: Understanding word meanings through their appearance and function in text.
The context clue mostly forms part of the sentence or paragraph where the word is found.
Helpful to be mindful of this when you are working with an assignment/exam question.

Types Context clues

Definition: The writer supplies a definition.
Synonym: A synonym is included to help understanding.
Antonym: An antonym is included (a word with the opposite meaning).
Description: One or more descriptions (explanations) are included.
Summary: Author provides statements that help the reader understand the meaning of a word.
Visual: a picture, illustration, chart, graph or other type of visual aid is included.
Tips: Using words in text can help you to learn the meaning of new words without consulting the dictionary.

Root words

New words can be made from root words by adding beginnings (prefixes) and endings (suffixes).
All of these words have developed from their root word collectively, they are known as a word family, which means theu are like a family because they share parts of the same spelling and have interconnected meanings.

Prefixes:

Many prefixes used in English have Greek or Latin origins, important to use the correct prefix and how to spell it.
Example use of prefixes
anticlockwise, anticoagulant, antifreeze ante-, before, in front of, antechamber, antenatal anti-, against, anticlockwise, anticoagulant, antifreezePrefixMeaningExamples ante-, before, in front of, antechamber, antenatal anti-, against, anticlockwise, anticoagulant, antifreeze co-, with, together, co-supervisor, co-star de-, remove, take away deforest, deform, defrost, defunct, degenerate, degrade, dehydrate dis-, away from, not distress, disuse, distrust, distemper ex-, out of, away from, excommunicate, ex-directory hyper-, very, extremely, hypermarket, hyperactive, hyperventilate hypo-, under, less, hypothermia, hypocritical in-, not, lacking, the opposite of, indirect, invalid, invariable mal-, wrong/bad, malfunction, malformed micro-, very small, microcomputer, microphone, microscope mis-, not, wrong, badly, misdirect, misconception, misapply, miscalculate mono-, one, monograph, monochrome, monorail non-, not, none, nonaligned, noncommittal, nonconformist post-, after, postgraduate, post-industrial, postmodern pre-, before, prearrange, preamble, precaution, precede pro-, on behalf of, for proactive, procure, profile, profound re-, again, retract, retrain, retreat, retread semi-, half, semi-automatic, semi-professional, semi-skilled sub-, under, beneath, subnormal, subsection, submission trans-, across, through, transfigure, transform, transfix un-, not unpleasant, unplayable, unobserved, unofficial

Suffixes:

There are a group of letters you can add to the end of a word.
Example: Quick + ly = Quickly; Sad + ness = Sadness Example SuffixExample -ed walk ed -ed = -ed walked -ness happy ness -ness = -ness happiness -ing say ing -ing = saying = saying -al accident al -al = al accidental al accidental -er small -er -er = -er smaller er smaller -ary Imagine -ary = -ary Imagine-ary ary Imagine -ary = -ary Imagine-ary -ary -able accept -able = able -able = -able acceptable= able = -able acceptable== able -tion educate -tion = -tion educated= tion = -tion educated== tion -ly lovely -ly = ly lovely -ly = ly lovely -sion revise -sion = -sion revised = -sion revised -ment fulfil -ment -ment =-ment fulfilment 7-ment = = fulfil-fulfil ment = ment fulfillment =ment fulfilment --ment-Fully carefully -fully = fully carefully -ful mind -ful-full = ful -ful =ful -est tall -est = best tallest -y ease -y -= why easy -= why easy

Some Suffixes may change the spelling of the new word.

Compound Words:

Increase your vocabulary and improve spelling.
There are three forms of compound words
- The closed form: ( words are blended together), afternoon, football backup,airport, chalkboard, classmate, daydream, fingernail
- The hyphenated Form: word of mouth, nitty gritty, know-it-all, mother-in-law, well being, three-dimensional.
- The open Form: Post office, real estate, course work, cash flow, energy bar, memory stick, new world.

Internet specific words examples are:

E-mail (With a capital E when using as a noun)
e-mail / Website / Web page /e-book / dot-com;

Commonly use compounds with key examples earthquake, riverbank, superego.

Include these in your vocabulary building.

Homophones:

Words / phrases / letters that although pronounced the same however has very different meanings. Such as Aisle/ Isle. / by and buy;

Know your word strength and weaknesses. It's important to use a dictionary in understanding homophones and learning where you need to develop.

Knowing a Word:

An active or passive knowledge will enable you to understand the word, but not use it correctly. Example using young person and words related to that term.

Learning academic or subject specific vocabulary

Dictionaries may be subject specific and have a specific meaning in the context for your academic field.
subject-specific dictionary vs. Every day dictionary

The definition will therefore depend depend on where and how you want to use it!

General dictionaries: Aimed at students, use general terms, and a list of general words and few technical terms

Conclusion Mastering the vocabularies of your subjects is integral, so using effective words helps increase distinctions in your thinking .
If English is not your first language you may discuss the meaning of word s with someone who shares the same first language.

word repetition:

Repeat several times while building new vocab to commit it for memory.
Fill int the template such as word, Personal Explanation, Dictionary Definition, Subject Specific Definition, example sentence.

Chapter 3: Reading for Study Purposes

To be truly successful as a higher-education student, you have to be proficient in the macro communication skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing as reading is critical.
Reading is information = The more you read the more informed you are, Reading is knowledge.
Reading is food of the mind and the imagination , reading increases academic knowledge.

Understanding the Macro skill of reading and the understanding of techniques:

Reading for relaxation;
Reading for specific information;
Reading for an Overview of a text;
Reading for Critical Analysis of a text and;
Reading for study purposes