ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-2016

Academic English & Study Skills Handbook3rd & 5th Semester

InternationalBusiness CollegeMitrovica

Facebook: IBCM Academic English & Study Skills

International Business College Mitrovica

ACADEMIC ENGLISH

& STUDY SKILLS

HANDBOOK

2015/16

Level of study Semester 3 & 5 Lecturer Faye Mooney Course Coordinator Faye Mooney Email address f.mooney@ibcmitrovica.eu Facebook group IBCM Academic English & Study Skills

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. WELCOME TO ACADEMIC ENGLISH AND STUDY SKILLS AT IBCM .................................... 3

WHAT WE OFFER YOU: ................................................................................................................... 3 WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU: ........................................................................................................ 3

2. COURSE OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................ 4

3. SYLLABUS ................................................................................................................................ 5

COURSE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................... 5

COURSE CONTENT ........................................................................................................................ 6

4. USEFUL RESOURCES .............................................................................................................. 7

5. PLAGIARISM, FRAUD AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. .............................................................. 9

APPENDIX 1: IBCM ACADEMIC ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

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1. Welcome to Academic English and Study Skills at IBCM This course is designed to support IBCM students during the build up to their AP and BA thesis submission, with a strong emphasis on academic writing, and incorporates a focus on communication skills. The course will utilize spur-specific materials and activities, ensuring that students are familiar with key terminology, and will offer the opportunity to work on assessed academic assignments in guided conditions. What we offer you:

• Interactive and practical classes • Lessons which are focused on your academic needs • The opportunity to work on assessed academic work in a guided environment • Course content tailored to your spur • Comprehensive guidance on thesis writing • One-on-one support where necessary • Workshops focusing on specific skills or problem areas • Support in preparing for exams and exam technique

What we expect from you:

• Regular attendance and active participation • Regular checking of emails and/or Facebook for information and updates • Independent thinking and acceptance of responsibility for your own learning • Academic integrity • Completion of classroom tasks and activities • Completion of small extra study activities, such as vocabulary learning or paragraph writing • Communication with the teacher about your areas of need • Utilization of consultations for support with specific study problems • Attendance at relevant workshops

It is important that you review this document and the syllabus provided in order to understand what the course’s expectations are. If you find anything unclear, please feel free to raise the issue with your instructor. If you are falling behind or having problems meeting expectations, please inform your lecturer as soon as possible. We are always willing to help students who want to help themselves.

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2. Course Overview

Communication If you have a comment or query, or would like to set up an individual consultation, please email your lecturer. Important information will be emailed to students, shared on the Academic English Facebook group, as well as being conveyed in class. Teaching and Learning Materials PowerPoint and other digital/online audiovisual resources are utilized to enhance the learning experience. Students are given handouts where necessary. All necessary materials are provided by the college. Students must produce their own writing materials such as paper, notebooks, and pens and pencils. It is also recommended that students purchase a dictionary. Assessment This course is not formally assessed. However, progress is continually monitored throughout, particularly through informal quizzes. Students also complete small homework assignments and guided learning activities in the classroom, including work on assignments from the assessed academic courses. Feedback is provided. Quizzes Quizzes test students on learning progress and identify areas. The results of quizzes also guide the content of focused workshops which complement the course. Presentations Students participate in at least one group and/or individual presentation. Presentations are informally assessed and feedback is provided. Guided activities Guided activities are in a range of formats, tailored to the spurs, and feedback is provided. They may involve work on assessed projects from academic courses. Consultations Consultations should be utilized by students having specific study problems. Consultations are arranged on an ad-hoc basis. Students are asked to send the teacher any work to be discussed at least 24 hours before the consultation. Workshops Workshops are held throughout the year and focus on specific issues or problem areas. They are available for all students to attend. Student conduct and behaviour The course is not compulsory, but students are strongly encouraged to attend and participate in all classes. There is a strong correlation between attendance and overall performance.

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3. Syllabus

Course Goals and Objectives The course goals and objectives set out what you should achieve by the end of the

course, if you attend and participate fully. Course Goals By the end of this course, students will have knowledge of: • Academic vocabulary and phrases, and how to use them. • The different types of academic writing. • Understand the purpose of a thesis. The students will have skills in: • Reading and taking notes effectively. • Independent research, using both online and traditional resources. • Planning structuring and formatting an academic paper according to IBCM standards. • Citing and referencing their sources. • Drafting, editing and re-drafting their own written work. The students will acquire competencies to: • Confidently participate in classroom discussions, pair and group work. • Write according to academic conventions in a descriptive and critical way. • Independently develop a thesis topic. • Construct key components of a thesis (introduction, literature review, etc). Learning Objectives Reading • Use skimming and scanning techniques to get the gist of a text and find specific information • Find the meaning of new and academic vocabulary in context and extend that meaning • Identify genre, purpose, tone, bias, and author’s stance in a text • Critically read and analyse a variety of complex texts • Evaluate the reliability and credibility of a variety of texts, including those found on the internet Writing • Formulate and plan a thesis topic or question • Create all sections of a thesis including an, introduction, methodology, findings, discussion and

conclusion. • Write structured and cohesive paragraphs, using topic sentences, supporting ideas and

relevant evidence • Synthesise and summarise research, and paraphrase ideas • Produce clear and concise descriptive writing, such as case studies • Write a well-structured and cohesive critical essay with a clear and logical argument and a

refutation of the opposing point of view • Re-draft and edit written work • Correctly reference any research cited in writing Listening • Listen to and follow instructions • Listen for a range of purposes, e.g. to predict, identify stages and important ideas, answer

short-answer questions, etc. • Take notes from verbal explanations and write summaries of these notes • Listen to differentiate between opinion and fact, solutions, explanations

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Speaking

• Use stress, tone and intonation to convey meaning clearly • Understand and use the rules of turn-taking, interrupting and preventing interruptions, suggesting, and

accepting and rejecting ideas in classroom discussions • Discuss a wide variety of issues, clearly expressing opinions and reasons for those opinions • Use persuasive language to convince others to adopt a point of view • Give a presentation using visual aids

Course Content The course content has been designed to be flexible to students’ needs and level. As such, it may be subject to change during the course of the semester. Students will be informed of

all such changes.

The format of the lessons will vary: • Lectures: the class instructor presents information to the students • Seminars: students discuss themes and concepts as a class and in groups • Student presentations: students present information to their classmates • Guided practice: students carry out a task or activity related to the lesson theme and/or their

spur, with guidance and support from the instructor • Individual study practice: students work on assessed assignments for their spurs • Grammar instruction: students practice grammar used in academic writing

Theme

Introduction/ needs assessment

Basic study skills and classroom communication skills: Reading, writing, speaking, listening

What is a thesis? Choosing a topic.

Reading successfully and note-taking

Plagiarism and how to avoid it: citation & referencing

Paragraph writing, paraphrasing, summarising, synthesizing

Academic writing: descriptively and critically

Components of a thesis

Drafting and editing

Review

Revision/Exam skills

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4. Useful resources The Library: There are many books in the library which are relevant to students of Academic English. It is your responsibility to utilise the resources in the library. Internet: There are many, many resources for students of English Language and Academic English on the internet. Below is a list of some that you might find useful. If you know of or use any other websites, please share these with your lecturer or class, or on the Academic English Facebook page. Speaking: Use these tools to practice phonetics and pronunciation

http://forvo.com/ Pronunciation dictionary http://www.soundsofenglish.org/ Excellent site for pronunciation practice Google translate can help you with pronunciation (note – you should use Google Translate to help you DEVELOP your English skills – not to replace them!)

Reading: Familiarize yourself with academic texts and practice summarizing, paraphrasing and synthesizing

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page/ Free book website www.JStor.com As students of IBCM, you have access to JStor, an excellent online library of academic journals. Read as much as you can to familiarize yourself with academic writing styles.

Writing: Use these tools to help you expand your academic vocabulary http://www.thesaurus.com/ The most widely used thesaurus website http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/ Excellent site which explains some of the “nuts and bolts” of academic language for more advanced students Academic Vocabulary – Build your academic vocabulary

Listening: Listen to and watch lectures online, and practice note-taking

Ted Talks: Lots of great speakers on interesting topics (less academic style) BBC radio:Listen to BBC Radio 4 / World Service for interesting programmes, often in a formal style of spoken English. LSE Lectures: Access to video and podcasts of talks from influential thinkers from all over the world The Gresham Lectures: Videos of lectures on a range of issues held in London

Grammar: Work on your grammar skills, from elementary level to advanced Academic Grammar: Academic grammar from Hong Kong Duo Lingo: An app for developing English skills in a fun and interactive way. EnglishGrammar.org An excellent blog with lots of resources Learn English by British Council Lots of high quality information and activities

Study skills: Use these sites to organize and enhance your studies

https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker An excellent site for checking for plagiarism and grammar mistakes

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www.citethisforme.com A great site which makes referencing and creating a bibliography easy. http://howtostudy.org/ A website full of resources and strategies for better study http://wps.pearsoned.co.uk/ema_uk_pp_studyskills/ A website full of resources and strategies for better study http://www.palgrave.com/studentstudyskills/page/index/ A website full of resources and strategies for better study

Please feel free to share any sites you use while studying with your class or teacher.

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5. Plagiarism, fraud and academic integrity.

Plagiarism and fraud are two very serious academic offences you must avoid during your entire study career and in your professional working life or future academic career. You should always maintain academic integrity. • Fraud is defined as attempts of a student to influence examination results by using non-

permitted aids. Permitted aids are specified at the exam paper of every individual exam. • Plagiarism is defined as taking, using, and passing off the ideas or words of another person as

your own.

The IBCM has software that is used to detect cases of plagiarism and lecturers will also carefully scrutinize any assignments that they feel may be copied or improperly cited. Cases of fraud and plagiarism will result in a fail grade on the relevant examination or assignment, and it will need to be repeated. A warning is issued on the first instance of fraud or plagiarism, and continued cases will result in more serious consequences, including ultimately expulsion from the college. For more information, see the IBCM Academic Policies and Procedures on the website. Plagiarism is:

• Presenting or paraphrasing an authors work without a reference • Copying other students' work, including assessed work which is written in conjunction

with other students (without prior permission of your tutor / lecturer) • Submitting work which has already been submitted for assessment previously in

another course (self-plagiarism)

How to avoid plagiarism: • Always give acknowledgement to the author of the work you are quoting, paraphrasing

or summarizing in your assignment. • Acknowledge an author by citing your sources in the text of your assignments and

listing all your sources in a references or bibliography section at the end of the assignment (APA style).

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IBCM

ACADEMIC ASSIGNMENT

GUIDELINES

2015/16

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 12

2. IBCM REGULATIONS .............................................................................................................. 12

STANDARD PAGES AND THE LENGTH OF YOUR REPORT .................................................................. 12 PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING ......................................................................................................... 12

3. APA STYLE GUIDE.................................................................................................................. 13

4. APA REFERENCING ............................................................................................................... 13

WHY USE REFERENCES? ............................................................................................................. 13 WHERE A REFERENCE SHOULD BE USED ....................................................................................... 14 HOW A REFERENCE SHOULD BE WRITTEN ...................................................................................... 15

5. THE STRUCTURE OF ACADEMIC PAPERS .......................................................................... 16

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1. Introduction This guide to academic assignments at IBCM explains how you should format any academic essay, report or thesis you write as part of your studies at IBCM. These guidelines should be taken seriously: failure to adhere to APA style or understand the requirements of an academic paper will result in lower grades. Please contact the Head of the English Department with any questions, comments or concerns.

2. IBCM Regulations Standard pages and the length of your report Your teacher will set a maximum length for your assignment, usually a number of pages or a number of words. You are allowed to write plus 10% or minus 10% of this number. You would normally be permitted one extra or one less page on a report, If the assignment requires a word count of 2,500, the plus or minus 10% rule would be 250 words above or below. The cover page, table of contents, executive summary, references, bibliography and any appendices do not count as part of your final number of pages / words. Plagiarism and cheating

Plagiarism and cheating are two very serious academic offences you must avoid during your entire study career and in your professional working life or future academic career. You should always maintain academic integrity. • Cheating is defined as attempts by a student to influence examination results by using non-

permitted aids. Permitted aids are specified at the exam paper of every individual exam. • Plagiarism is defined as taking, using, and passing off the ideas or words of another person as

your own.

The IBCM has software that is used to detect cases of plagiarism and lecturers will also carefully scrutinize any assignments that they feel may be copied or improperly cited. Cases of cheating and plagiarism will result in a fail grade on the relevant examination or assignment, and it will need to be repeated. A warning is issued on the first instance of fraud or plagiarism, and continued cases will result in more serious consequences, including ultimately expulsion from the college. For more information, see the IBCM Academic Policies and Procedures on the website. Plagiarism is:

• Presenting or paraphrasing an authors work without a reference • Copying other students' work, including assessed work which is written in conjunction

with other students (without prior permission of your tutor / lecturer) • Submitting work which has already been submitted for assessment previously in

another course (self-plagiarism)

How to avoid plagiarism:

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• Always give acknowledgement to the author of the work you are quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing in your assignment.

• Acknowledge an author by citing your sources in the text of your assignments and listing all your sources in a references or bibliography section at the end of the assignment (APA style).

3. APA Style Guide APA is a format of academic writing and referencing. All of your assessed work will need to be presented in APA style. You will receive further detailed guidance in how to use APA style in the Academic English and Study Skills course. Key APA format guidelines: Font: Times New Roman Font Size: 12pt Margins: 1 inch on all sides Spacing: Double spaced (Ctrl + 2 turns on double spacing in Word) Page numbers: Top right, including the cover page 4. APA Referencing References tell the reader where you have found the information you have used in your assignment. APA referencing is a specific way of presenting this information. Most work you conduct at IBCM (presentations, project report, case-studies, theses, etc) requires the use of APA style references that fully acknowledge their source. Therefore a clear and accurate understanding of how to reference correctly will assist in the preparation and completion of your work. For examinations you are only required to give the name and year in brackets ( ) for material you refer to.

Why use references? One of the key differences between academic work and non-academic work is referencing. Academic work always acknowledges the source of all material that has been documented. In contrast, non-academic work may or may not reference all sources that have been used. The following extract has been taken from the BBC Science and Nature Homepage website on a page which is entitled: What is Health Psychology?

Health psychologists are interested in how behaviour and attitudes affect our health, with the aim of promoting and maintaining health in the population. But what does it mean to be

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healthy? In 1946, the World Health Organization decreed that health is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." But how many people could count themselves healthy on that definition? This version of what it means to be healthy probably creates an unrealistic goal for the vast majority of people.

Even though accurate, this is an example of a non-academic piece of work, because there are no references. The following is exactly the same text but written with APA referencing which then qualifies this to be an academic piece of work.

According to Ogden (2008) health psychologist are interested in how behaviour and attitudes affect our health, with the aim of promoting and maintaining health in the population. But what does it mean to be healthy? The World Health Organization decreed that health is, "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." (WHO, 1946). But how many people could count themselves healthy on that definition? This version of what it means to be healthy probably creates an unrealistic goal for the vast majority of people.

Bibliography Ogden, J. (2008). Health Psychology, Buckingham: Open University Press World Health Organization.,. (1946). Basic Documents. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Where a reference should be used In-text referencing: Provide the surname of the author and year of your source. This enables the source of any references within your work to be identified. Example: The tendency towards longer working hours for much of the labour force in the UK and North America (Brannen, 2000; Duxbury and Higgins, 2001), along with escalating numbers of dual-income families and employed single parents (Office for National Statistics, 2007), creates increasing opportunities for multiple roles to clash with one another. A bibliography at the end of your work: A bibliography includes all material you have read during you research process, including that which you have not used in your work. There are different citation rules for different types of sources. The table below gives you model examples for each source. The website www.citethisforme.com can help you with this process (ensure that you set the reference style to APA style 6th Edition). When a reference should be used:

• You must write an in-text reference every time that you use another person’s words, facts, data, theory, model, concept, etc.

• You must include a full reference for every source used in the bibliography. • You do not need to include a source more than once in your bibliography. • You do not need to write references for commonly known facts, e.g. World War Two ended

in 1945.

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• As mentioned above, you must write a reference every single time that you write something that you haven’t arrived at yourself. If you have written a long paragraph that refers to the same source, it is enough to make one reference to that source at the beginning of the paragraph. If you continue in a new paragraph (i.e. each time you press “enter”) you must repeat the reference.

How a reference should be written Please use this table as a guide.

Book Ogden, J. (2008). Health Psychology, Buckingham: Open University Press Journal article Petrov, A. (2008). The development and actual condition of industrial relations in

Bulgaria as an element of national security in the transition period. SEER South-East Europe Review For Labour And Social Affairs, 239-255

Newspaper article Meier, B. (2013, January 1). Energy Drinks Promise Edge, but Experts Say Proof Is Scant. New York Times, p. 1.

Online newspaper Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/12/older-single-women-new-face-of-homelessness-anglicare-report

Website World Health Organization,. (2015). World Mental Health Day – 10 October: Dignity in mental health. Retrieved 13 October 2015, from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2015/world-mental-health-day/en/

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5. The structure of academic papers Academic assignments should always be carefully structured. The specific structure required will vary according to the project, so always review the instructions for your project. The structure of the paper should easy for the reader to follow. It’s always a good idea to outline the overall structure of your report before you begin to write. This will help you keep control of your material. You may not need to include all of these components in a academic paper – please check your project guidelines for instructions or ask your tutor. Cover page The cover page must clearly state: the title of the paper and the number of words or pages, your student number and your name, and the date of delivery Table of contents The table of contents for your report can be automatically generated by your word processing program. By doing this you can ensure that there will not be any mistakes in the page numbering and it will save you a lot of work. Abstract The abstract is a short paragraph at the beginning of your paper which summarises the findings of your report. Introduction Your introduction is where you set out your main argument and what you intend to do in the paper. You may also provide some background information or context. You want to make your reader interested in the writing that is about to follow.

Delimitation A delimitation section should inform the reader of exactly how you interpret the problem statement and why you have chosen this perspective – e.g. why you have chosen a specific company, a specific product, a specific market, or whatever it is you have chosen to investigate.

Literature Review A literature review should show that you have read and reflected on the existing knowledge and research related to the topic that you are studying, and provide context for the problem being addressed.

Problem statement A problem statement is a clear, concise summary of the main issues and questions that the paper aims to address. For some papers you will get the assignment topic directly from your teacher and you will not have to write a problem statement, in which case you should include the assignment topic instead of a problem statement so that your reader knows what you are addressing.

Methodology Your methodology section should introduce and defend the choice of all the theories and models you intend to apply in analyzing the issues defined in your problem statement. You may also want to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the sources you have used.

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Findings Your findings should contain the results of any primary research you may have conducted. You may wish to use tables, graphs and charts to illustrate these findings.

Analysis The analysis is where you show that you can apply theory to a practical problem. It is therefore important that your analysis section is not only descriptive, but analytical. Apply all the methods and models that you have reviewed in the methodology section and inform the reader of how they are relevant to your problem statement.

Discussion The discussion should consider the contents of your project and begin to demonstrate that you can add your own interpretation to the work, linking it to the previous sections, including your literature review, methodology and analysis.

Conclusion and recommendations Your conclusion should sum up the issues you have set out to investigate in the paper, in relation to the problem statement. It is more than a simple summary – you are integrating all your ideas and arguments, and restating them in a convincing way. Appendices You may wish to add appendices. An appendix contains any extra materials that you used during the course of your research which might help the reader to understand the work you have conducted. They should appear after the bibliography. Each appendix should be numbered so that it is easy to identify when you refer to e.g. “Appendix A.”

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