Academic and Research Skills: Assessment, Note Taking, and Research Plan

This report discusses the significance of academic and research skills in personal and professional growth. It includes an assessment of strengths and weaknesses, strategies for note taking, and a research plan.

Academic and Research Skills
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Assessment of self academic strengths and weaknesses.............................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Current notes noted in the classrooms from lectures of professors............................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Plan for research..........................................................................................................................6
TASK 5............................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Academic and research skills are two fundamental needs and potential that students and
professional must possess to excel in their working areas, performance and profession. Persons
who have great academic and research skills help in their personality development and growth in
careers. So it is identified that it plays a vital role in growth of people who are working to
become successful in their professional lives (Lander, Seeho and Foster, 2019). Hence, the
current report would put reflection on abilities by starting with researching an assessment on
strength and weakness and development of SMART objectives for making improvements in self.
With this research skills and note taking are also assessed and evaluated while developing
research plan. In the end a plan of personal development is made to have right tasks so that one
could achieve predefined goals and make development.
TASK 1
Assessment of self academic strengths and weaknesses
Business management is an expertise area in which I have been getting my development
and professional learning. Business management is an area which is defined as making pathway
for careers in individuals, it makes an individual to move towards and learn activities related to
administration and develop skills for better understanding of aims and objectives of a business
for its success (Torres and Jansen, 2016).
Business management is my expertise area which helped me to develop and specialise
skills that are necessary to remain competitive and one step ahead from others. These skills
increase knowledge and growth of an individual to move forward of fulfilling goals and
objectives. These are development which make person strong academically, personally and
understanding multiple languages. For better understanding a proper analysis is done by
evaluating strengths and weaknesses, which are mentioned below:
Strengths:
 The first one is personal skill which helped me to become strong and supported
my study and professional development by making communication stronger and
effective. I have become stronger in my communication which made me more
interactive and assisted in gathering information which are necessary in teams and
groups.
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 The second strength is I got command over languages which helped me to analyse
and develop different practices of learning. As a learner it enabled me to
understand language of other people an their analytical skills.
 The third strength is it increased my motivational skills with the help of strong
learning and self development. I have become motivated person and encouraged
myself towards more and more learning and knowledge in a very effective
manner. It also improved my learning skills according to my needs and
preferences which also helped to improve and develop my efforts.
Weaknesses:
 I am a learner and pursuing a degree of profession in management, the biggest
disadvantage and barrier is that I do not understand the various concepts like
decision making and skill related diagnosis. By this expert course I am aiming
towards better understanding of these skills and focusing on development of my
capabilities related to decision making. So that I would be able to get better
understanding and power of judging.
 The second weakness is related to the area of skills related to note taking. I need
to develop my capabilities of thinking critically and improving skills which make
me move towards progress.
 The third weakness that I have is lack of leadership skills with my professional
course I want to develop and improve my quality of leadership. By improving this
quality it would help me to organize and direct things towards the achievement of
objectives. As I lack in this quality it shows that I am weak in guiding things to
other individuals or people (Alghamdi and Deraney, 2018).
Placing aims and objectives for long term and short term
SMART Objectives
SMART is an abbreviation which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and
time oriented. Generally they are used for guiding development of measurable objectives. These
are used by employers and employees to form, develop, track and achieve both short term and
long term goals and aims. These SMART objectives are formed and constructed to achieve pre
determined goals that are short term and long term. It is an acronym which is used in various
situation, circumstances and sectors (Thompson and et. al, 2018).
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It can be defined as a person who is focusing on career and development requires
particular goals and objectives that need to be formed. The person uses this acronym of SMART
to follow relevant steps to achieve decided results in the end. Small and large organisations also
use these of different sectors to achieve objectives in a very effective and efficient way. These
organisations also move towards success by applying these targets in their different activities
(Bortnik and et. al, 2017).
On the basis of above mentioned discussion about self strengths and weaknesses there are
some goals that are vital for me to achieve to become more effective, efficient, skilful and
productive during finishing my study of business management. Some of the objectives to make
improvement in my self are as follows:
 The first objective would be developing quality of leadership because it is necessary to
build guiding skill in one self. For learning this quality I would be using articles and
books to get details about the concept.
 The second objective I would want to develop is my thinking ability in a limited period of
4 months, for this I would be using practice of note taking to get the details notes and can
be used for future help.
 The third objective would be developing skills of decision making which would help me
in taking part in group assignments in which I would be taking responsibility and making
good team within 3 months (Crampsie, Neville and Henry, 2020).
TASK 2
Current notes noted in the classrooms from lectures of professors
Note taking is a method through which learners extract the information and data that they
find relevant and collect it for the usage of future. Learners attend different sessions to collect
data, details and information. So basically it is a method of collecting and recording data or
information through different sources. Various references are also used to collect right
information according to the topic. During writing notes the learner do no write down the whole
matter, they only take the important points and write it in a very brief way. It is also used for
future reference for upcoming time (Abbott, 2019).
Students those who are studying and making their career by the help of academic and
educational institutions take notes to get assistance in their studies for future. According to my
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understanding of course business management taking notes from the lectures of teachers in the
classrooms and lessons. So one of the examples of note taking is explained below:
The article selected for business management is determining skills of employees in the
study of business management in the level of higher education. The article was made to
concentrate at the higher education in UK and more emphasis is given to improve the teaching
and learning method responsibly and easily (Hamnett and Korb, 2017). The notes from the
articles are explained below:
 Improving involvement of higher educational institutions with the local surroundings for
identifying the organisations, market and another needs of industries to receive details or
information about the qualification and talent needed and making educational and
professional jobs.
 Employability skills are necessary in the students of a business management to become
proficient in their professional line and increase talent that can be offered in the economy
and industry in UK which would make it growing western based learning.
 The concentration is made upon higher educational because the market of job needs
business management educational programmes and it is also changed as per the
requirement of industries for the future development and survival.
TASK 3
Plan for research
Overview of a firm with products and services
Zara is a fashion retailer, it is the largest retailer in the group of inditex. They are
planning to increase their production process according to the increasing needs of the latest
demand in the market. It is planning to bring new supply chain management, they are focusing
on distributing their products through digitally. So that they can easily reach large number of
people in different countries. As Zara themselves are engaged in production, distribution and
promotion of their products which make them to stay connected directly to all the processes.
Aim of the research
To determine various strategies of supply chain management for organisations to fulfil
demands and improve the performance of a company. A study on Zara.
Objectives
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 To determine the concept of production process and its impact on a company.
 To explore the strategies of supply chain management within Zara for better
distribution of products.
 To identify the issues of supply chain management impacting the performance of
Zara.
Literature review
A literature review is a information about a specific subject in a limited time period. In
general words they are basically a conclusion of the sources from where the data is collected. It
is a survey of the selected part of study or topic. It does the critical evaluation of the details and
information collected by determining differences in the present knowledge through describing
the issues related to the study. It also concludes the research that has done before and and how
current research is connected to it. It also shows the learning received from others and current
research is an initial stage of new thoughts and ideas ( (Kelly, 2019).
Methodology
There are two types of methodology: primary and secondary. The used methodology is
secondary methodology. Secondary research has the information which is collected by other
people in actual and investigators use it as summary by collecting apt proofs and evidences.
TASK 5
SKILLS PRESENT
CAPABILIT
Y
AIMED
CAPABILIT
Y
OPPORTUNI
TY FOR
DEVELOPE
NT
CRITERIA
FOR
SUCCESS
TIME
Skills to
resolve
problems
Average Excellent Resolving
problems and
issues are first
skills that I
need to
develop in my
professional
and personal
The best way
to evaluate
criteria in
assessment to
judge
improvement
is taking point
of views of
In between 6
to 12 months.
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development. I
am lacking in
the ability to
face
challenges and
issues to
resolve
problems. The
current
opportunity
available to
me is taking
online
programmes to
develop my
solving skills,
it would teach
me ways and
method which
help me face
and solve
problems or
issues in a
effective and
efficient way.
other people
with whom I
study
professional
course and
work in the
form of
feedbacks.
Skills to
organise time
Poor Excellent Time is the
most
important
factor that is
necessary in
the life of a
The best
method for
judging the
result after
working
according to
Approx 4 to 8
months.
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student. So
the best way
and
opportunity
available to
me is making
time tables
and organising
work
according to
the tasks set in
the time table
and working
according with
the same
routine in day
to day
activities.
Because time
tables would
help in
organising
thing on the
basis of
priorities
which is must
for learning
and profession
of a business.
the time table
is judging
through
tracker
applications
and self
judgements.
Tracker
applications
use software
to track the
improvement.
And it is also
evaluated after
attaining the
main
objectives and
aims.
Skills related
to
Below average Excellent It is the most
necessary skill
The best
method to
Approximatel
y 9 to 12
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management
and
leadership
among the
students of a
business
management,
it is must for
the students
who have plan
to get into the
professional
business
management
and who have
already
entered in this
field. It is vital
to out the
activities of
management
and do the
tasks
effectively and
efficiently
way. It
becomes also
important
because in
organisations
guiding other
people is a day
to day work.
To develop
evaluate the
improvement
in the skills of
management
and leadership
is taking
feedbacks
from the
lecturers and
professors
because they
are the people
who observe
students
personally and
see the
development
among
students. They
also guide
students while
developing
this quality.
They would
also inform
when students
are going or
wrong and
lack in hard
work
(Alenzuela
months.
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this quality I
have an
opportunity
which is
taking help of
articles, books
and the
sources
received
through
lecturers and
professions.
With this I
would also
take guidelines
of teachers to
develop this
quality
(Torres,
2018).
and et. al,
2019). They
motivate
students time
to time for
smart work
and hard work.
CONCLUSION
The above mentioned report summarises that academic and research skills are very
important in individuals and students lives. It gives out the strengths and weaknesses that a
student lack in personal and academic skills. It also shows tools that are used to improve and
develop the academic and research skills with the time frame that how much time is taken by a
student to improve these skills in their lives. It also shows how effective are these tools to make
improvement by taking feedbacks from the people of same group. The objectives and goals are
made through an acronym known as SMART objectives, which help learner to move and achieve
targets step by step. In this report a research plan is also made on Zara where they are trying to
increase and improve supply chain management, with these objectives and aims are also
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mentioned that the managers of a company have to work to achieve these predefined objectives
with the assistance of research skills. It gives the framework of research methodology which is
necessary to investigate research. After all these analysis PDP is made to get survival, success
and growth.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abbott, D., 2019. Game-based learning for postgraduates: an empirical study of an educational
game to teach research skills. Higher Education Pedagogies, 4(1), pp.80-104.
Alenzuela and et. al, 2019. Building information research skills in the Pacific region. Global
Knowledge, Memory and Communication.
Alghamdi, A.K.H. and Deraney, P., 2018. Teaching Research Skills to Undergraduate Students
Using an Active Learning Approach: A Proposed Model for Preparatory-Year Students
in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
30(2), pp.184-194.
Bortnik and et. al, 2017. Effect of virtual analytical chemistry laboratory on enhancing student
research skills and practices. Research in Learning Technology, 25.
Crampsie, C., Neville, T. and Henry, D., 2020. Academic librarian publishing productivity: an
analysis of skills and behaviors leading to success. College & Research Libraries,
81(2), p.248.
Hamnett, H.J. and Korb, A.S., 2017. The coffee project revisited: Teaching research skills to
Forensic chemists. Journal of Chemical Education, 94(4), pp.445-450.
Kelly, S.L., 2019. Faculty perceptions of librarian value: The moderating relationship between
librarian contact, course goals, and students' research skills. The Journal of Academic
Librarianship, 45(3), pp.228-233.
Lander, J., Seeho, S. and Foster, K., 2019. Learning Practical Research Skills Using An
Academic Paper Framework–An Innovative, Integrated Approach. Health Professions
Education, 5(2), pp.136-145.
Thompson and et. al, 2018. Development of quantitative research skills competencies to improve
doctor of philosophy nursing student training. Journal of Nursing Education,57(8),
pp.483-488.
Torres, L. and Jansen, S., 2016. Working from the Same Page: Collaboratively Developing
Students' Research Skills Across the University. Council on Undergraduate Research
Quarterly, 37(1).
Torres, L., 2018. Research Skills in the First-Year Biology Practical-Are They There?. Journal
of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 15(4), p.3.
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