1 - Plagiarism

Probably one of the most boring lectures I've sat through! Actually I mean slept through but anyway....


The whole deal with plagiarism is basically don't do it. Actually I should stress the whole don't do it part, DON'T DO IT! M'okay? Plagiarism for the people that don't know what it is, its just copying someone else ideas/works or if you want an exact definition,

"to steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one's own." (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

ITB is crazy strict with this, as are most colleges I assume. The whole idea is just to basically get you think for yourself, plus when it comes down to it what's the point in repeating someone else's idea when you could voice yours? There's a long handout as well the college gave out about all the rules on plagiarism, hope you read it like I did....Anyway here is the link if your one of the (un)lucky people that didn't get to read it ITB Plagiarism Policy on Assignments and Examinations. This shows the do's and don't's of plagiarism  and how the college carries out discipline for people who commit plagiarism, oh and trust me it is a BIG deal. The way you go about writing your essays without doing it through plagiarism is that you just have to use the referencing system, which is really easy once you get the hang of it, I'll get on the whole referencing thing though in a later blog so don't worry!


In the end plagiarism is always going to be down the person just being lazy, not thinking or both. So as I said, don't do it!

Effective Presentations - 5

Presentations are probably the most fearful thing for a college student, or maybe its just me? What I aim to do in this blog is to tackle what is the best way to carry an effective presentation, and helping you get over the dreaded public speaking scenario.

Everyone that I've known that has done a presentation have always been totally mortified. People get nervous, fearful, queasy or forgetting where they are in their presentation.
When I was doing my own presentation, I followed these simple texts that helped me

1. be ready for it! Preparing yourself is one of the most important elements of presentations. Practice your presentation, rehearse your lines, and maybe record yourself speaking so you know how sound speaking.

2. be calm! Don't get nervous or anxious, to avoid this you just need to be prepared. Try focus more on the presentation more than the audience

3. use a bit of humour! There's nothing worse than sitting in a room with a monotone presentation. Use humour to lighten the mood, or to break the ice at the start, but don't try to be the next Lee Evans as well.

4. The details! Pay attention to the details, make sure you know your surroundings well so you know where you stand, literally. Plan your presentation and everything else will fall into place!

Time Management - 4

Time management is key to success in anything you do, if you don't manage your time effectively you could begin to get bogged down on certain aspects like for example in an exam. For me when I manage my time I get a sense of being more productive and thus have a better approach to what I am doing. When I was studying for an exam, I would look at previous years and do them, the way I went about this was;

• I first spent 5 minutes reading the paper and selecting the questions I would do.
• Next I would begin the exam and then start with smaller marked questions just to get me focused.
• I would then start doing the bigger marked questions.

While I was doing the previous exam papers I would also time myself, this I thought helped me with time management because I would know just how long I should spend on each question.

For me time management was always a bit of an issue, but I found that the best way to tackle this problem is just to self-motivate yourself. I found a useful site that helped me with motivating myself was called Self-Motivation - Mind Tools. Once you begin to self-motivate yourself you will begin to "learn and grow, regardless of the specific situation" (Mind Tools)

Effective Note Taking - 3

 

Obviously taking notes is one of the most important things about college. During lectures if your like me you may be one of the "few" people who might wander off into their own little world, so you might miss a thing or two and thus suffer only getting half of what the lecturer is saying. What I do to tackle this is by making a mind map, which is a much easier way of taking notes in my view as it gives me a clearer picture of the topic at hand. A mind map is a much neater way of taking notes, rather than an endless amount of pages of information on something that can be easily view through a mind map.

 Mind Maps!!

Mind maps are great for brainstorming ideas or summarizing information on topics. I find that when I'm in a lecture, it can move very quickly so I can miss out on something and then I'm left with half of a page of information, or that I drift off a little. Mind maps are also great way to study your notes, instead of just going mad and studying loads and loads of pages. I use different colours as well when I do a mind map, I think this is the best way to do a mind map because it can help some of the important parts stand out for you!! A great website that help me with my note taking and with making a more informative mind map was Mind Tools

Harvard Reference - 2

Referencing is referring to the work or works of someone else in another source. Its giving credit where credit is due basically. It can be referred to as parenthetical referencing or it is mostly commonly known as Harvard referencing. In academic writing referencing is very important, there are many ways to go about referecing. You can either cite the author's name directly in the text, or paraphase the piece of work. The website http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm gives a great guide about how to go about referecning.

Referece List:

A reference list is composed list of the number of refereces made in someones work. A referece list is used so a person reading the work can trace the cited authors work easily. The reference list should be composed in an alphabetical order, by the author or authors. This list is only ever required of you though when you cite another author's work in your own piece.

In ITB, referencing is very important, there is also a very in dept policy on plagiarism in assignments and examinations. Failure to referees properly, or at all is considered plagiarism.

How To Avoid Plagiarism!

When I'm doing an assignment, I always have my referenecing  guide out so I can reference correctly. From doing this I know that I have to reference when I am using another author's ideas, opinions or their theories. When I first started using referenecing I was dumbstruck by it, it was a daunting task to think of!
I thought it was a very hard concept to grasp, but also something that had to be done all I could do was try my best to learn how to do it. An easier way I feel to reference is to just parahase the piece of work at hand, and this is basically just a short summary of the authors work; for example "From O'Mahony's report we know that....." I felt this was a much easier way to go about referencing, that is until I can get really a good idea of how to correctly reference!!