Developing Your Academic Skills


Good for you, for clicking this link. Everyone, from first-year students up to professors, can improve their academic skills: it's always a good idea to keep learning how to learn!


Guidelines for academic referencing in the anthropology style are here.

Links to York Resources may be found here.


 

Concerned about connecting your degree to life after university? A book by York profs for students: "Flourishing at University and Beyond" www.yorku.ca/yfile/archive/index.asp?Article=4997


 

Online Study Skills Advice

Learning Skills at York: www.yorku.ca/cdc/lsp/index.htm

York Counselling and Development Centre: www.yorku.ca/cdc/general.htm

Note-taking alternatives:

Mind-mapping: www.maps.jcu.edu.au/netshare/learn/mindmap/index.html, www.mind-map.com/mindmaps_howto.htm

Cornell System: www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/cornell.html

Memory: http://www.memory-key.com/

Advanced reading strategies:

SQ4R: www.scs.tamu.edu/selfhelp/elibrary/sq4r.asp

 

Help with Writing

York Centre for Academic Writing www.arts.yorku.ca/caw/students.html,

English as a Second Language Open Learning Centre www.yorku.ca/eslolc

 

Online Writing Advice

Purdue's Online Writing Lab is an excellent resource. These handouts are particularly recommended:

General Writing Concerns 

Researching and Documenting Sources

Avoiding Plagiarism 

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

 

Strunk and White's classic The Elements of Style  includes excellent writing advice. 

McMaster's Centre for Student Development has some useful material here: http://csd.mcmaster.ca/css/booklets.html

Michael Harvey's Nuts and Bolts of College Writing: http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/

 

Recommended Books

Some general advice on meeting the challenges of higher education – e.g., time management, learning strategies, advanced reading skills – may be found in many books, such as these sources:

 

Joan Fleet, Fiona Goodchild, and Richard Zajchowski. 1999. Learning for success: effective strategies for students, 3rd edition. Toronto: Harcourt.  ISBN:  0774736593

 

Kenneth A. Kiewra, Nelson F. DuBois. 1998. Learning to learn: making the transition from student to lifelong learner. Toronto: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN:  0205263194