Importance of Reading Skills in Academic Success

This portfolio assignment highlights the importance of reading skills, plagiarism, and academic writing style in achieving academic success. The writer reflects on how these skills have helped them develop focus, concentration power, and memory, which are essential for academic studies. They also discuss the severe consequences of plagiarism and the need to write in a well-organized structure to convey meaning effectively. This assignment showcases the importance of communication skills in written segments, including reading, listening, and writing, which are crucial for delivering and receiving information quickly and accurately.

Preparing for Success At
University: Knowledge and
Creativity

Table of Contents
..........................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Contents or documents of Portfolio............................................................................................3
SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
For becoming successful at the university level, a student must focus on his
academics, must possess excellent communication skills which includes both written
and oral. For being successful in the university, a student has to prepare reports which
are plagiarised free, written exceptionally well, grammatically correct etc. Also, it is
expected from a student that he shows critical thinking skills in the classes for better
results. I have chosen twelve documents in my e-portfolio which are helpful in attaining
the objective of becoming successful at college level for a student. E-portfolio provides
an opportunity to students to keep track of their skills, development and reflects the
evidence of their growth and accomplishment.
MAIN BODY
Contents or documents of Portfolio
Being a student of University, I have chosen twelve documents for forming my
E- portfolio that had significant influence on college learning and growth. These are the
piece of work that I have included in my E-portfolio :
 Plagiarism
 Grammar Complexity
 writing Formality
 writing Academic
 writing skills
 Academic style
 Harvard style
 Academic keywords
 Critical thinking
 Reading skills:
 Writing introduction
Plagiarism :

I have included this piece of work in my portfolio because of plagiarism has the
capability of affecting the development of a student is an adverse way as this
committing this , is considered as offense at the college level.
The literal meaning of plagiarism is stealing and publication of the writings of
another author by the way of copying the language of the articles written by such
author, ideas, expressions, symbols or thoughts etc. When any person copies the work
of another person wrongfully and claim it to the original piece of work, then an act is
called as plagiarism. It cannot be considered as absolute crime but it can be constituted
as copyright infringement. There are four types of plagiarism which are discussed in
brief below: Direct plagiarism : In this type of plagiarism, a person copies exactly the same
words of original author any acknowledgement or quotation marks. This is
considered as academically unethical and dishonest. Also,it calls for disciplinary
actions which could be as severe as expulsion of students from the University.
Example of direct plagiarism :

 Self plagiarism : This is the kind of plagiarism where a student copies his own
previous work by mixing it with minute changes and submits the same to the
tutors in the college.
For instance, it is objectionable to use any piece of work that a student wrote in
his high school and submitting the same work for the university courses. This things
makes a person unethical both in personal as well as professional life. I Have
experienced that submitting a plagiarised free work in the college, helps students in
attaining their goals.
 Mosaic Plagiarism : In this type of plagiarism, a student copies the phrases of the
author and changes it with the synonyms while sticking with the identical
structure of the report and possess the same meaning. It is sometimes called as
patch writing and it is punishable as it is considered as academic dishonesty,
I have observed that students do not take care while the phrases of the other's
works' and does not correctly reference such phrases. This makes their work
plagiarised
 Accidental Plagiarism :This type of plagiarism occurs when a student accidentally
uses same words or sentences without attribution or citation. Thus, it is advisable
for the students to proper cite their work while doing a research.
Grammar : The meaning of the term grammar is the manner in which words are
put collectively in order to create proper and meaningful sentences. There are
numerous grammar rules which governs the sentence formation.
In preparing college assignments and project reports, importance is given to the
grammar so that students create a professional college reports in the most appropriate
manner possible.
I have decided to include this document in my E-portfolio because possessing
an understanding of fundamental rules of forming sentences will assist me in avoiding
errors in my future assignments. From the document, I have learned about how to
make short sentences so that the essence and meaning of the information does not
gets tort. Short sentences helps in avoiding grammatical errors.

Overall I am of the view that such things are required not only at the college level
but it will also help in my professional life and career where I would be suppose to make
business reports for the clients. It will eventually boost my career growth in the future.
Punctuation : Another document which I have included in my E-portfolio is of
punctuation. The format of the document is very simple to understand which is the
reason why I have chosen to consider this piece of work in my portfolio . Tutors expects
from their students to submit college assignments and projects in a well written format
with great content, correct grammar and punctuations placed right in the report.
Punctuation is a term also called as pointing refers to the use of signs, typographical
devices and spacing that helps in understanding the right sense of the written material
and articles. For example, women is nothing without her man reflects the importance of
men in the sentence while women, without her, men is nothing signifies the importance
of women. Thus, a comma or other punctuation can change the meaning of sentence if
not used properly.
I have learned the rules of punctuations from this piece of work which has
helped in making my reports more presentable and less of errors. it is necessary for me
to use the punctuations very correctly or else it will lead to miss-understanding of the
sentences that I used in my academic work which could further lead to low marks.
Complexity writing : Complexity of written language is way higher than the
spoken language and the grammar used in the reports, speech, articles is very
calculative than spoken words. Written language is characterised by nominalisations,
more use of noun phrases and greater lexical differentiation.
This piece of work has helped me in enhancing my communication skills which is
the most required skill at the higher education level.
Formality writing : It means how well a student follows the conventions of
English standards, how frequently he uses the slang terms or idioms in his writings,
what kind of intimacy or familiarity a student assume with the reader of his work etc.
Formality writing is generally categorised into four segments such as; familiar, casual,
formal and semi-formal. The handout has assisted me writing the reports in the most

formal manner possible by showing how the slang terms can affect the quality of piece
of writing.
Academic writing skills : It is commonly as scholarly writing that represents a
writing style of a student regarding how he expresses his intellects and his area of his
expertise. The writing skills includes complexity, formality, accuracy, precision, hedging
and objectivity. The handout has helped in developing my writing skills and I learned
how to make my work more presentable. For example, the document has taught how to
write the article that could attract the attention of the reader.
The reason for selection of this document in my portfolio that it will help me in
establishing standards of work ethics, professionalism and research skills in my college
as well as in my professional life in the future.
Academic style : The style of academic writing must be clear, focussed,
concise, properly structured which must be backed up by some evidence. The style is
basically such that assists the reader in understanding the context of the written
information. The academic style involves using third person, using of correct past and
present tenses, avoidance of contractions, writing full forms instead of abbreviations
and avoiding the use of informal words.
From this document, I learned how to apply the academic style in the
assignments and presentations. By going through the document, I have come know the
proper academic style involves not using random abbreviations as this could mislead
the reader. This has helped in developed my writing skills.
Harvard style : It is a style of referencing mainly used by the students of the
university for the purpose of citing the information sources. In this type of referencing
style, there is author, year when the work was published or last updated, title of page in
italics,name of sponsor of site and URL.
I have learned from this document that how to use Harvard referencing and
citation in my work that has helped in passing my modules with good grades.
Tutors give quite a significant weight to the appropriate use of Harvard
referencing style and a considerable portion of grades depends upon this aspect of the

academic work. Thus, it is necessary for me to learn the use of Harvard referencing
style correctly for citing my work.
Academic keywords : It means such words which are specifically used for a
specific domain or subject or a particular field of study. The academic keywords are
such words that ate not used informally in the daily life. Use of such academic
vocabulary will enhance the quality of the projects, assignments and other academic
work in the university which would help me in creating an edge over other students in
the campus.
If I fails to understand the keywords or misunderstands them, I would get low
marks or I might not even pass the module. This is the reason why I have decided to
include this document in my E-portfolio as it has made me familiar with different
keywords which are relevant to my chosen field of management.
Critical thinking : The literal meaning of this term is the comprehensive
evaluation and analysis of an issue in order to form a judgement. Being a student of
higher education, I have developed the skills of critical thinking. I leaned and
developed this skill on the basis of REVIEW which is the abbreviated form of relevance,
expertise, viewpoint, intended audience, evidence and when published. These steps
has helped in critically evaluating the information and think about the intent and aims of
the authors.
Reading skills: : The reason for uploading this piece of work in my portfolio is
due to the fact that this document has helped me in my developing my reading skills.
From the document, I have learned that prior to reading , I need to find out what
information I really needs. This makes the process of reading really quick and rules out
the necessity of reading the whole text
It can be described as the ability of understanding the information presented in a
written form. A person requires an effective reading skills even more in nowadays owing
to the cultural diversity, technology globalisation and for adopting the team based
working structures at the workplace. It is considered as one of the basic communication
skill which is highly expected from a professional.

Writing introduction : I have learned from this handout that introduction needs
to be written in the most impressive way because it gives an idea of what the academic
report is about, what are the issues that are going to be discussed and how these
issues will be solved etc. This has helped me in my in improving my writing skills.
SUMMARY
The above mentioned documents in my portfolio is chosen because of the
importance and usefulness of these documents in improving my academic growth in the
college. All these contents are of utmost significance, adhering to which could make a
good successful and high scoring student in the university. The biggest reason for
choosing reading skills in the portfolio that this skill is an integral part of total
communication skills possess by a person.
Reading skills has developed my mind l. It has improved my focus and
concentration power and as a student I need to have great focus and concentration
power for becoming successful in the university. Also, it has increased my memory
which is necessary for the academic study purpose that has eventually helped me in my
exams. Plagiarism was chosen by me because of the severe punishment a students
gets if committed in his academic writings. I have to make my work 100% original for
adhering to the guidelines of the university. Plagiarism is a thing if intentionally or
unintentionally committed by me would result into the expulsion of name from the
university's register (Examples of Plagiarism,2019). Such a step would not only destroy
my academic records but it will adversely affect my after life of the college. No employer
would hire for such misconduct and it would lead to destruction of my career in the
future life. Another component in the portfolio chosen by me was academic writing style.
The reports and assignments must be written in the well organised structure, concisely,
precisely so that the intended reader could understand the meaning of the issues
included in the academic paper (Academic Writing and Its Importance: 5 Things You
Should Know About, 2018). Not or wrong understanding of the information provided in
the academic work could seriously affect my grades which would in turn act as a
hindrance in my way of becoming successful at the university level. Punctuation is
considered as an integral component in the written reports. Wrong punctuation could

severely distorts the meaning of the sentence leading to mis- interpretation of the
information provided in the project reports.
At last, it can be concluded that all of the above contents in the portfolio is
necessary for improving and enhancing my communication skills in the written segment.
Reading, listening and writing are the three skills which are considered to be the most
important skills required at the college level for the students. It helped me in delivering
and receiving the information quickly and in the right manner. Ability of communicating
with others with ease always helps a person at all stages of his life and therefore, every
person must possess these skills for triggering their careers. The inclusion of these
documents in E-portfolio has helped me in recording continuously reviewing my work
along with critical reflection of my own learning.

REFERENCES
Online
Examples of Plagiarism.2019. [Online]. Available through <https://www.bowdoin.edu/dean-of-
students/judicial-board/academic-honesty-and-plagiarism/examples.html>
Academic Writing and Its Importance: 5 Things You Should Know About.2018. [Online].
Available through <https://writingcooperative.com/academic-writing-and-its-importance-
5-things-you-should-know-about-c95ad2e2d2b5>