Studying

O Guide on how to write essays, do research and create bibliographies

Wiltshire College

What do you think are the most important factors affecting your

academic performance?

Not enough background reading

Poor Bibliographies

Where to startO It is never too soon to start preparing: make

a plan in your diary with key target dates

O Reading text books, journals, newspapers as well going on the internet.

O Spending time on getting your material in the right order.

O Allocating time for thorough proof reading

Things to think aboutO PlagiarismO CopyrightO Do you have enough materialO Quoting not cutting and pastingO A wide variety of vocabulary – use a

thesaurusO Check out the grammarO Spell check and do a word count as

you go along.

Tips

O Work out what the task actually is.

O Have a rough plan before you start your research.

O Remember to research a range of sources.

O Reference these sources in your essay.

Style and CitationsO Loads of people like coming to

Wiltshire College as it is really good. The things they do are different and nearly everyone gets a job.

O Ofsted says Wiltshire College is attended by nearly 5000 students (2008: p.31). It was rated amongst the top ten Colleges in the UK (SSS, 2008: p.79)

Structure

O Options : Chronology or Series

O - tell a story or discuss different points O Introductory paragraph – describes what you will discuss• Point 1• Point 2 or describe the events • Point 3• Conclusion• References

ReferencingO Have a quick reference guide close at

hand when writing your reference list.

O Always write out the reference information before returning a book to the library.

O Websites – if you do not have a date or an author, is the source valid?

Reference listO Author’s surname and initialsO Publication dateO Title (in italics)O Place of publicationO Publisher

O BookO Spanos, W., 1993. End of Education.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Journal

Author’s surname, initials., Year. Title of article. Title of journal, Volume number (part), page

numbers.

O Harpo, T.H., 1933. Carbon monoxide poisoning in social housing. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 41(3), pp.25 -27

Web site and ebookSurname, initials., Year (if known). Title [online]. (Edition if known). Place of publication: Publisher (if known). Available from: URL [Accessed date]. O Holland, M., 2002. Guide to citing Internet

sources [online]. Poole: Bournemouth University. Available from: http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/using/guide_to_citing_internet_sourc.html [Accessed 4 November 2002].

And finally….

O Read it through out loudO Spell checkO Save it on your college hard driveO Backup at home