Importance of Effective Reading and Critical Thinking

This document covers the importance of effective reading and critical thinking skills in academic work. It provides strategies for active listening, speed reading, note-making, and decision-taking. Additionally, it emphasizes the significance of proper referencing and citation in documented work. The document has helped the author improve their reading skills, critical thinking ability, and decision-taking capacity.

REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Table of Contents
SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................3
SUMMARY OF CHOSEN DOCUMENTS....................................................................................4
1. Use of Continuous present tense.............................................................................................4
2. Sentence construction..............................................................................................................4
3. Writing Skills..........................................................................................................................4
4. Presentation of documents......................................................................................................5
5. Good presentation skills..........................................................................................................5
6. Essential reading Skills...........................................................................................................5
7. Essential research skills...........................................................................................................6
8. Literature review.....................................................................................................................6
9. Study Skills.............................................................................................................................6
10. Reading effectively...............................................................................................................6
11. Critical thinking....................................................................................................................7
12. Referencing...........................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

SUMMARY
I have chosen 12 different materials to populate the portfolio. All the materials are chosen
for a specific reason. For academic writing or in any job, it is extremely important to explain
your point of view, they you think, represent it and for it written communication skills of any
person is extremely important whether is any kind of documentation or presentation or
expressing your thoughts critically etc. So for this there are various factors that should be known
to the person before documenting it. There are following reasons because of which these 12
specific documents have been chosen for the portfolio. So here I will explain all the reasons
responsible for all these chosen documents.
Tense or the sentence formation of anything can change its meaning or its point of view
and if numbers or figures are used then the way they should be represented or written is also very
important, these points are important to be considered and known even if a written explanation is
to be given, use of correct tense is the most important thing that should be kept in mind while
writing. Presentation of a document or a topic is also important, the way we talk, communicate
or spread information, resources used for preparation of a presentation is also important as the
way of presenting with correct content. This way of presenting with correct body posture,
gesture, expressions etc. also helps the audience to understand the topic and ask their doubts
more clearly for the clarity of the topic. These chosen materials also helped me in understanding
the way any document is written as there are various types of academic writing like essay, report,
case study, dissertation, written presentations. All these documents have different framework of
writing. Some documents also consist of literature review which helps in summarizing and
synthesising the overall information in the document.
These specifically chosen topics had me to understand the way any document should be
written with correct sentence formation, tenses, framework etc. which helped me to express my
point of view, thoughts and represent my knowledge and information more clearly in written
format which helped me as well as the reader to get more clarity of the topic. For this academic
writing one of the most important desired thing is reading skills. It is an ability to understand
information presented in written format. It is desired to understand the connection of all the ideas
written in a better format. The way a document is written also impacts the way it is read. At last
whenever any documentation citations and references are also needed in order to explain the
source from where the material is used or which has supported the content written in the

document. All the references used must be provided in the documentation together and should be
cited at the place they are used. These are the main reason because of which these 12 documents
are chosen to populate the portfolio. These reasons helped me to choose these documents out of
all the other documents.
SUMMARY OF CHOSEN DOCUMENTS
1. Use of Continuous present tense
Use of correct tense is important to be considered as it tells used when the action was
done, it can be in the past, present future. These tenses are themselves bifurcated into many of
their sub tenses and use of these tenses completely depends the type of report or document. In
this document use of continuous present tense has been explained and how it can be used for
communication as it can sometimes be used to talk about future. This document has helped me to
understand proper and correct use of tenses, when and where they should be used. It helped me
to get a clarity of the topic and how it should be written. I have learned correct use of continuous
present tense after I read and understood this document (Kurunsaari, Tynjälä and Piirainen,
2016).
2. Sentence construction
Correct formation of sentences is the most important thing in academic writing as it helps
us to form a meaning out of it. These sentences can be long as well as short and doesn't depend
upon number of words used for construction. In this document formation and construction of
correct sentences has been explained. Correct construction of sentences is important so that it
makes sense and reader can understand its meaning. This document also helped me get a clarity
of use of helping verbs in a sentence. It was of great use when I was working on my portfolio as
after reading this document I was clearly able to understand how I should form a sentence, where
I should use a verb etc.
3. Writing Skills
Documentations are important to record one's thoughts, ideas, information they need to
share. This document helped me to understand how a document should be written, what all
points should be addressed an in which order. It helped me to understand how a document should
be addressed such as: first task should be properly understood and researched, then all the related
material should be gathered for its completion, then an outline plan should be made so that we
can keep a track on our work and easily engage on our work and if any changes are to be made

then it can be made in starting only and at last it should be written. This document helped me to
complete my whole project in a better way (McLean and Price, 2018).
4. Presentation of documents
This document helped me to understand various type of academic writing, how those
written documents should be addressed and completed. This document helped me to understand
difference between all the five type of academic writing like, an essay is a type of academic
writing which tends to follow certain written conversation, case study is an in-depth knowledge
related to a certain issue or problem, report is a simple formation of a written research data or
findings, written presentations are drawn from oral group or individual presentations and at last
dissertation is a simple extended piece of work. I gained knowledge about all the five kind of
academic writing, how and where they should be used and in which form they should be written
and addressed.
5. Good presentation skills
Presentation skills are one of the most important thing that is desired by all while giving
presentation. This document improved my presentation skills in many ways as I got the clarity
that how a presentation should be given, what are the different points that should be kept in mind
while giving presentation. It helped me in preparation of my presentations as I got the clarity of
the factors that should be kept in mind while preparation. I also gained knowledge about various
things that should be kept in mind and should be considered like visual aids, resources, how our
topic should be communicated and different ways to deal with the questions. These things
improved my presentation skills which were useful for me while giving presentations.
6. Essential reading Skills
Reading skills are one of the most important and desired skills in professional as well as
in academic life as it are an ability to understand and present an information in a written format.
This document focusses on reading skills and explains different techniques of good reading. This
document has helped me improve my reading skills which have eventually improved my written
and presenting skills. With the help of this document I was able to understand different
techniques of reading and how they should be done. Many guidelines were understood by me
through this document which eventually increased my awareness of different aspects of
guidelines and comprehensive reading. My writing and presenting skills were also improved by
this document (Ottenberg and et.al, 2016).

7. Essential research skills
Research process is a problem area that specifically defines the problem area. This
document focusses on ways to complete research by understanding its importance and
identifying the kind of research it is and what is that desired skills that are needed to complete
research. This document helped me to understand two basic type of research. I also gained an
understanding of how and when these types should be preferred and steps of doing it. It helped
me a lot to understand research aim and the steps it should be conducted. It also understood
different types of data that are used and when they are used. I also understood the importance of
literature review in research and how it should be addressed.
8. Literature review
A literature review is an understanding of a research problem and framework. Without
this a researcher cannot perform research on a particular problem. In this document importance
of literature review has been explained and various approaches of doing it. It helped me to gain
an understanding of literature review, what it is and how it should be addressed etc. This
document also helped me to understand different approaches to a literature review such as
chronological, conceptual / thematic and methodological. I understood that where these
approaches should be used and how they should be addressed. It has also improved my way of
approaching and conducting research and gain a better understanding of the research topic.
9. Study Skills
Numbers are one of the most important thing that is used which adds value to the work
that is done. There are various types of numbers that are addressed and written in different
format. This document explains the use of numbers in documents, types and how and where they
are used and how they add value to our work. This document helped me to understand various
types of numbers and the way they are represented. It also helped to understand how primary and
secondary data in research are addressed. It also helped me to calculate various results during by
research which further helped to address and answer various problems of that research.
I got a clarity of things like what type of calculations should be done in our research.
10. Reading effectively
This document addresses effective reading skills and how it should be performed. It also
explains various strategies of active listening which can be used for effective and efficient
listening. It helped me to improve my reading skills i.e. how I should read and understand a topic

effectively, what methods should be used to speedy read and understand a topic. It also helped
me to understand effective ways to make notes of a topic by speed reading so that it is beneficial
in the future. This document helped me during my course work by successfully completing all
the given task in time as I was able to understand the task in time by making effective notes
which made a topic easy.
11. Critical thinking
This document focuses on importance of critical thinking, how it affects our own
experience and different tips that can be used during our work for critical thinking. Before this I
used to get confused when more than one suggestion were given to me and used to fail in taking
decisions based on all the tips and suggestions. This document improved my critical thinking,
decision taking skills, helped me to manage overloaded information, identify other people's
opinions and take important decision based on all the arguments and onions. It also improved my
thinking ability and to think out of the box which was required in doing various projects even in
doing this portfolio project.
12. Referencing
Whenever a documentation is done, it should be properly referenced and cited.
Referencing supports your work and explains from where that information was taken. Each and
every document should have references i.e. from where that information is taken. After
references complete work should be cited which includes information about the information and
includes point to support references. After I learned to reference and citation from this document
it became extremely easy to reference my work with proper citations. I also learned different
type of referencing styles used and how they are done which made it easy for me to properly
search for references and do it in a proper format in my documented work which was assigned to
me.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Kurunsaari, M., Tynjälä, P. and Piirainen, A., 2016. Students’ experiences of reflective writing
as a tool for learning in physiotherapy education. In Writing for professional
development (pp. 129-151). Brill.
McLean, N. and Price, L., 2018. A longitudinal study of the impact of reflective coursework
writing on teacher development courses: a ‘legacy effect’ of iterative writing
tasks. Higher Education, pp.1-14.
Ottenberg, A.L., and et.al., 2016. An analysis of reflective writing early in the medical
curriculum: The relationship between reflective capacity and academic
achievement. Medical teacher. 38(7). pp.724-729.