4.3 Learning tips and tricks

Being well organised, planning ahead and having a clear idea of what you need to do will help you complete your work honestly, without rushing and to your best ability.

Here are a few handy tips to help you do your best work.

Before you start

• Keep a diary and make sure you know when your work is due to be handed in.
• Make sure you understand what’s required for each task or project. If you’re not sure, ask your teachers for help.
• Familiarise yourself with the referencing style your school uses before you begin your research.
• Make sure you’re familiar with how to reference different types of sources (for example, books, newspaper articles, films, websites).
• Ask your teachers for guidelines about the style, format and amount of detail required to acknowledge the sources you use.
• Set up a spreadsheet or document to keep track of the basic bibliographic information (for example, author, title, date, pages used, publisher) of any source you use.
• Learn the difference between quoting, paraphrasing and summarising.

While you work

• Be well organised – keep your notes and folders in order and organise them regularly (use dividers or coloured paper or properly named digital files to separate each topic).
• Keep details of exactly where you’ve found sources of information.
• Get into the habit of writing out the details of the source being used on your notes and rough drafts.
• Write the details of the source being used on any printouts or photocopies of the source material (you don’t want to find a photocopied page in your notes and not remember which book it’s from!).

Acknowledging and keeping track of all your sources can seem daunting at first, but the more you do it, the easier and more natural it will feel. It’s your responsibility to ensure you properly acknowledge the work, words and ideas of others that you’ve used in your work to maintain your academic integrity and avoid plagiarising.

Working collaboratively

Working collaboratively is a very important skill to learn for your future studies and work.

Here are some tips to make sure your collaborative learning goes smoothly.

Group projects require careful division of responsibility

Group work requires maximum effort from everyone. Think carefully and be fair when dividing up the activities between you. You can always ask your teachers for help if you’re struggling to allocate roles and responsibilities in your group.

Discuss the group's expectations for work quality

Identify exactly what the group is working towards – the final product.

Encourage each group member to keep a personal journal to record their contributions to the group work

This can be used as evidence of individual contributions.

Have everyone check the acknowledgements before submitting the work

This helps to ensure the formatting is consistent, there are no duplications and that all sources have been properly acknowledged.

Communicate openly and frequently

Open communication with your peers is vital in group work. If you find people in your group are not making equal contributions, talk to your peers and your teachers.

Please continue to section 4.4