The Way of Study

A teacher can but lead you to the door; learning is up to you.
Chinese proverb.

Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is dangerous.
another Chinese proverb.

Good study practices are good work practices! Good grades come from good study practices; raises and promotions come from good work practices. This is why you want to develop good study/work habits throughout each semester of your enrollment at any college. You cannot expect to "just do it" when you start a job without any previous practice. Employers appreciate "new hires" who require little training in good work habits. By establishing these habits now you will be ready to use them on the job after you graduate.

Perhaps you think that there are too many "picky" things to attend to as you study, take tests, and make presentations. But you should realize that your employer will evaluate you on every task that is assigned to you; if you don't do an outstanding job of attending to details (such as spelling) why should she give you a raise? Indeed, why shouldn't you be the first fired?

There are other, perhaps more important, reasons to study. Honoré De Balzac, a great French author, wrote, "Study lends a kind of enchantment to all our surroundings." This may seem "airy-fairy," but it is not. The more we study something -- the more we learn about it -- the more meaningful it becomes. Sometimes people say, "It becomes richer." The wealth it creates will not disappear despite the ups and downs of our incomes. It is how we avoid becoming poverty-stricken.

"The Way of Study" is a short guide(!). It cannot replace the semester-long, intense introduction to some of these skills, particularly in student development, English composition, speech, and mathematics. Because it is only a guide, you may want to add ideas or alter some procedures. If you do so be sure that you don't compromise the effectiveness of your work.

This guide is NOT copyrighted. Reproduce it and give it to your friends if it is useful to you. The basic version of this was given to me by a fellow undergraduate student in 1964 when I asked for help because I was failing my courses. I pass it on freely to you because of his generosity. It worked for me, and I hope that it works for you. Good luck!

There are several sections to this guide:

[Planning] [Books You Really Need] [General] [Lectures (listening)] [Reading] [Writing] [Speaking] [Group Work] [Tests],

Maybe you want to try another source; if so, "Ask Jeeves." Lots of good stuff on studying there.

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Planning: If you think the "Way of Study" is time-consuming, you're right. That's why you need to plan. In fact, planning is one of the most important "skills" you can learn here.

• The best time to plan your activities is before the semester begins -- if you haven't planned well beforehand then it won't be as useful. In fact, if you haven't planned a new activity and goals into your usual (often unwritten) schedule, your rarely achieve your goal satisfactorily. You want to begin planning 3-6 months before the semester begins! Why?
  You want to "preregister"! If planning 3-6 months ahead of time seems like overdoing it, it isn't. Don't fail to do all the steps in the next section.

• Here's what you do:
  • Get a calendar.
  • Enter all your classes, test dates, and assignment due dates.
  • Schedule study times for each class/assignment.
  • Schedule times to exercise/recreate.
  • Schedule family time.
  • Schedule work time.
  • Schedule in "maintenance activities," such as laundry, meals, physical/dental checkups, etc.

• Planning alternatives--If your family is your priority, then start by entering all your family activities. Likewise, if you must work, start with your work schedule. Figure out your priorities, then develop your schedule.

• Follow the plan! Once you begin to substantially ignore it, the plan is no longer working, you won't achieve your goals when expected. You will be regularly disappointed and, perhaps, think that you can't be successful. Even when new, attractive possibilities or "goals" come to your attention, you must stop and think: where does this fit into my plan? If it doesn't, reject it, unless you are willing to give up something that you are already doing.

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Books You Really Need:

• A good dictionary! Everyone who does intellectual work uses one all the time. If they don't, they're not learning. Dictionaries help you understand what someone has written--including yourself! Check the meaning of words, even "familiar" ones; you might be missing something.

• A good thesaurus! Everyone who does intellectual work uses one all the time. If they don't, they're not learning. A thesaurus helps you write clearly. Got a polysyllabic word that sounds pretentious (i.e., like b.s.)? Get a simple one from the thesaurus--or discover that the "pretentious word" is really the best one.

• A good English writing handbook! (Such as the one you bought for English composition!) Everyone who does intellectual work uses one all the time. If they don't, they're not learning.

• The latest edition of "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White.

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General: These are habits that will serve you well on any job.

• Show up to every class on time; stay in the class for the entire period.

• DO NOT expect to get credit if you don't show up!

• DO NOT start to put your books in your bag, shuffle papers, or put on your coat before the end of the class, i.e., before the professor stops talking.

• Present assignments on time and properly prepared.
• Do NOT say, "My printer broke down this morning;" your paper is not done until it is printed out.
• Do NOT hand in sloppy work. Light printing, triple spacing lines, large (>12 pt.) typeface, small (<10 pt.) typeface, poor margins (<1", >1.25"), misspellings (including your professor's name!), poor word selection, poor sentence construction, poor paragraphing, illogical sequencing/connections between ideas and information, lack of an introduction and conclusion or summary are all indicators of sloppy work.
• Do NOT speak softly, with hesitations, incorrect words, or with poor articulation.

• Complete reading assignments on time and contribute to class discussion by expressing what you have learned or asking questions.

• When you are a member of an assigned class group carry your load!
  • Be cooperative with others by arranging your schedule to meet with them.
  • Once your meeting schedule is set, stick to it.
  • Always attend meetings.
  • Have your part of the assignment done when you meet with them.

• Form a study/work/research group! Learning how to form work groups and manage them is a skill that you can use on the job.

• Find other class members who are anxious to do well in class and advance. This should be the only reason that you select someone to be in your group; do not pay attention to race, ethnicity, creed, gender or any other factor that is irrelevant to learning and succeeding. In fact, you might consider searching out such different individuals because different points of view will be helpful in getting the most out of your work. Furthermore, today's work world is diverse--learn how to deal with it.

• Use your group for help in editing both written and spoken assignments.

• Do not hesitate to expel a group member who is not contributing.

• DO NOT say the following things:
  • "I missed class last time--did you say anything important?"
  • "Are you going to talk about anything important next week? I'm not going to be in class."
  • "But I have a family/work/whatever--I can't do that!" See the planning section for alternatives.

• DO say the following things:
• "I have a family emergency, and will not be able to attend class." In other words, let the professor know ahead of time that you will not be there. In most classes a family emergency is the only reason for not attending a class.
• "I am on the baseball team/on the debate team/on the mock trial team/in the church choir/must work and will be unable to attend class on such and such a day." These may be acceptable reasons for not attending class depending upon the class requirements, the activity, and professor.

You cannot do the work if you're not there. Do not schedule doctor's appointments, vacations, hunting trips, or anything else to conflict with your class obligations. In the future, when you have a job, your supervisor will demand these behaviors--and as a supervisor you will demand them, too! If you don't, or people you supervise don't, you won't get paid and/or you will be fired.

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Lectures: Think of these as meetings in which certain topics will be covered. You are expected to be "on top" of these topics when you come to the meeting. The major difference between a class and most meetings in the business world is that you are expected to ask questions publicly in college classes. You will notice that studying, lectures, and reading have a lot in common.

• Have all your reading done ahead of time. You want to ask pertinent questions and express relevant opinions during lecture; professors almost always respond more positively to you when you do this.

• Sit in the front rows! You will hear more clearly, see more clearly, and suffer from fewer distractions. The truth of the matter is that the professor will respond more positively to you as well.

• Take notes! The purpose of these is to reconstruct/write down the entire lecture afterwards. Be sure to record what the lecture "is about."
  • Write down important concepts. How do you know what they are? Well, you've read about them in the reading assignment--write them down again because you will reconstruct the lecture later.
  • Write down unfamiliar words.
  • Write down new information--ideas that aren't in the reading.
  • Write down connections with other material, not only in this course but others, that come to you during the lecture.

• Reconstruct the lecture! Get together with your study group immediately after the lecture, combine your notes, then
  • look up the unfamiliar words from the lecture in your dictionary,
  • write a paragraph describing the theme/topic/"gist"/subject of the lecture,
  • briefly identify the points of the lecture that explain the theme,
  • define new terms.

• Review the lectures every 2-3 weeks and figure out how they are connected.

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Reading: Think of this as research for the class "meetings" in which "our" (the professor's and your group's) research will be discussed.

• This reading process works for books, articles, chapters of books, and sections of chapters. The process may seem odd, but many people have found it successful because it provides for a "preview" of the reading. Remember to look up all unfamiliar words in your dictionary.
  • Skim the text looking for figures, tables, and maps; read the cut-lines to discover what they are about. This familiarizes you with the "territory" that the author covers.
  • Read the conclusions or summary. By doing this first you often discover the clearest statement of what the author intended to communicate.
  • Read the introduction. This will tell you why the reading topic is important; i.e., how it relates to other work, why it is significant and timely, and what the author's purpose is.
  • Read the rest of the section, chapter, or article. This supplies the details or evidence that the author uses to support his or her conclusions. Often readers become confused by all this detail unless they have gotten a firm idea of the author's conclusions and purpose first.

• Write a paragraph ("rhetorical précis") explaining the theme of the reading (its "gist" or topic) and listing the topics explaining or supporting it (frequently these are subheadings of a chapter or chapters of a book).
  • Alternatively, you may want to write a chapter outline with similar information for each section.
  • Another alternative is charted notes or responsive ("dialectical") notes.

• Make flash cards of technical terms found in the text by writing the term on one side of a card and the definition on the reverse side.

• Review your reading notes and flash cards each week.

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Writing: Much of your significant communication with others at work will be in writing. Consequently, you need to know how to write clearly. Also, as you have seen, writing is actually part of listening and reading effectively and critically.

Get out the books you really need and use them!

For example, your English handbook will have a chapter on how to develop ideas, how to organize them, and how to write about them. Would you try to put together a ship model without instructions? This is harder than building a model.

• Start with notes! The most effective way of doing this is in planned, short bursts. Also, keep (i.e., carry at all times) a notebook; you never know when an idea or relevant observation will occur to you. Sometimes this will happen when you are sleeping, or in another class, or working on another assignment, or. . .

• Do NOT fail to cite (acknowledge and identify) the sources of your ideas and information. Failure to do so is not "just cheating," it is illegal: this is called "plagiarism" and is a serious offense. If it goes to court you can be fined/imprisoned. Your English handbook will show you how to do citations.

• Begin with encyclopedias! (I know, you've been told not to use encyclopedias. But they are good starting points because they give you an overview of the topic. From there you can plan your research better.)

• Ask a reference librarian! They know how to find the information you need. But, you must have an idea of what you want before they can help you--that's why you start with notes and the encyclopedias!

• Plan time to read about your interests in the light of the course in which the writing is required. Take notes while you read!

• Your organized notes and your explanations of why they fit together that way are the body of your paper.
• Say what you meant to say in your paper--this is your conclusion. (One reason for writing your conclusions early in the process is that it forces you to be clear about what you want to say! You can go back over the body of the draft to take out irrelevant material and add in data, ideas, or explanations that you left out.)
• Explain what you say in the body of your paper--this is your introduction. You will also want to say why your topic is significant, timely, and how it connects with other work on the topic.

• Write the transitions from paragraph to paragraph, from section to section, reorganizing as needed. Do it again if you must. A thesaurus is handy for this process. This is your final rough draft.

Speaking: Speaking in formal situations is not the same as talking "off the top of your head" with friends and acquaintances--or opponents.

• Speaking requires the same kind of preparation as writing. The major difference is this: instead of writing out your presentation, you must "speak it." This is literally true: you must practice your speaking.

• Do NOT fail to cite (acknowledge and identify) the sources of your ideas and information even in speaking. Failure to do so is not "just cheating," it is illegal: this is called "plagiarism" and is a serious offense. If it goes to court you can be fined/imprisoned.

• Use an audio- or videotape to capture your voice so that you can refine the sequence of what you speak about, make sure that you are saying what you mean, and improve your articulation (clarity of speech). We are all amazed at how much we "misspeak" ourselves, how far afield we ramble, and how unclearly we speak. Only by putting ideas into speech, much as we put them on paper when writing, can we begin to correct ourselves.

• You speak not only with your voice, but with your facial expressions, body, and clothing. A videotape is helpful in determining if your physical presence is saying the same thing as your voice.

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Group Work: In some classes you will be assigned group work. The purpose of this is to learn how to work in groups including what the responsibilities of group work are, and how to get others to live up to them.

• Start your group work as soon as it is assigned; i.e., get together for a meeting immediately. At this first meeting
• learn everyone's name and major,
• get everyone's phone number and e-mail address,
• set a meeting schedule--you should meet every two weeks at least,
• come to an agreement as to what the assignment is.
• Between the first and the second meeting everyone should engage in general or background research on the assignment.

• At the second meeting
• everyone should briefly review their background research, and provide a written 1 paragraph abstract of it, with a bibliography
• parcel out research assignments

• At each subsequent meeting each member should present a progress report with written substantiation (abstracts/notes/new references) so that the group can discuss how it relates to the assignment.

• At the final meeting (or two), the group should practice their presentation (that is, speak it out) to make sure that it fits in the allotted time and to help one another make the best speech that they can.

• Go to all of the meetings!

• IF a group member is not working, LET THE PROFESSOR KNOW! This is YOUR grade, do not let some lazy person ruin it.

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Tests: These are easy! You've already studied for them and "done" them (if you've practiced as suggested above)! As a result, you only have to review your "notes"--you don't have to learn anything "new".

• Generally speaking, answer the questions worth the most points first. Why agonize over 1 or 2 point "objective" questions and lose points on the essays because you didn't leave time for them?

• True/False questions, multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and definitions are simply flash-cards; the more you have reviewed your flash-cards, the more questions you will answer correctly.

• Essay questions are simply rhetorical précis/mini-papers written from what you remember of your research (lectures, readings, and other assignments).
  • Apply the techniques you used for writing a paper; brainstorm ideas, organize them, then write them into sentences a paragraphs,
  • A rule of thumb is to write at least 1 well-thought out paragraph for each 5 points that the question is worth.

    By the way, if you think you won't have essays to write when you get out of school, you are wrong! Some will be like the tests you get in class, but others will be called "written reports" or "memos." These are tougher assignments because they are constant, no one tells you your grade, and they affect your pocketbook. Start with these easy ones and you'll be better off!

• Pick up your exams!

• Meet with your study group to do a "post-mortem"--figure out what you did right! Correct your errors.

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