Study Skills for Higher Education

This report provides strategies for improving reading and writing skills in higher education. It covers strategies such as developing vocabulary, asking questions, breaking up text, and regular practice. It also provides tips for improving report writing, including proper language and grammar, eliminating irrelevant information, and using graphs.

Study Skills for Higher
Education

Abstract
The good communication skills are a must in this modern and contemporary
environment. Communication skills includes both verbal and non verbal. In verbal
communication, the oral and written communication get include. When the communication is
done in some writing then it is called the written communication. Whereas when the
communication is done by vocally then it is known as oral communication. Non verbal
communication includes the communication styles like paralanguage, gestures, face expressions
and etc are come under this head. It has become must to get a good command upon writing skills.
There are various practices through which a person can improve his writing skills; some of them
may include regular practice, learning of grammar, study about different styles for writings and
much more.

Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................4
TASK..........................................................................................................................................................4
Strategies which can help in improving the reading skills.......................................................................4
Suggestions of bringing the improvement in the quality report writing...................................................5
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
While communicating the message an individual majorly uses either oral communication
or the written communication. To make sure that your communication style or the message is
clear and understandable to the other, one must develop good communication skills in him. An
individual must have the command on his communication skills irrespective of the fact of his
work of field he is working in. There are various exercises which one can use for developing the
same in him. These exercises and practice would help a person in developing his reading as well
as writing ability. Proper reading does play an important role as efficient reading enables a
person to understand the message or topic properly also it enables to read the topic with a speed.
This report consists of the ways from which a person can improve his reading skill also it
includes the exercise or the practices which can develop the written skills of an individual.
TASK
Strategies which can help in improving the reading skills
Proper reading skills include 2 factors which are text comprehension and the knowledge
for vocabulary. The text comprehension is the ability to develop the knowledge for
understanding the text true meaning and second vocabulary development refers to the ability to
develop the skills for understanding the hard words which are present into the text. Making the
reading skills efficient is helpful for a person in both personal as well as professional life. It also
been said that a good reading increases the reading enjoyment (Burns and Siegel, 2017). The
reading ability also helps in:
 Understanding of topic: When a person has good reading skills he would understand the
topic or crux of the message or document very easily. Understanding the message is the
correctly would result in the appropriate response.
 Appropriate response: When a message or a document is clearly gets understand by a
person he would be able to respond appropriately to the next person. The response that is
framed by the receiver will be also be clear, precise and without any communication
barrier.
 Motivation: Effective and efficient reading also helps in increasing the motivation level
of the individuals. When an individual is able to read properly he meanwhile develops the
habit or an interest in reading (Darancik, 2018). This will also helps him in increasing his
knowledge in some areas.
There are various strategies which an individual can use for develop the effective reading in
him. Some of these methods or strategies are as follows:
Developing good vocabulary: Vocabulary is the ability to understand the true meaning of a
word. If a person understands the meaning of a word he could understand the crux of the topic
sentence. But if a person is not so capable enough to understand the meanings of word he would

not be able to understand the whole topic. Therefore he makes the reading skills better one must
focus on developing the vocabulary first (Graham and et al., 2018). The Vocabulary can be
develop by learning the new words daily, giving the online tests where you have to select the
synonym for a word or the actual word for a meaning. Apart from this a student can also write
the new words which he is listening in a day try to find its meaning and should be able to use that
word in his oral or written communication somewhere.
Forms questions: When an individual is in the middle of his reading and in between he is not
able to understand the meaning of some sentences or paragraphs, at that time he should write
down his doubts and also need to search for its meaning at that time or later. Raising question
would help a person in clearing all his doubts and understands the thing with more clarity (León,
Bravo and Fernández, 2017). Questions create curiosity to know more and with this curiosity a
student searches for an answer which would help him in getting the things or doubts clear in an
effective manner.
Breaking up of text: Breaking up of text is useful for reading the text with a speed. In this
strategy a person needs to make a group consisting of 3-4 words. And in that he must try to read
a particular group in a single glance. Performing this exercise can be hard at first but with the
regular practice an individual would lately develop the practice or skill for speedy reading
because in this the reader would be reading at more words in a single glance only, this would
cover more words at a time (Oxenham, 2017).
Regular reading: To develop the effective reading skills one should read regularly. Regular
practice would help in developing the speed, vocabulary skills, and more knowledge in some
areas and also it would develop the interest moreover. When an individual can understand the
document or the writing material he would generate a fine knowledge regarding to it. Therefore
regular habit in reading is necessary to develop the efficient reading skills.
Suggestions of bringing the improvement in the quality report writing
Writing the report is not an easy task for everybody especially for the students who are
doing it for the first time. The students can use some strategies through which they can improve
their report writing skills. Some of these strategies may include:
Numbering and proper sections: In the report, a student must put his focus upon making the
correct and clear sections. These sections would help the reader in knowing about the core topic
for the paragraphs and this would help them in making the things understand better (Özkür,
2020). Dividing the report in sections makes it clearly defined and understandable to read for the
reader. Giving the numbers to the topics would also help in easy reading of report.
Elimination of irrelevant information: The students should try to include only the information
which is relevant to the topic or research work. The information which is not relevant to the
research work should not be included in the same. The input of irrelevant information would
make the report dull and disinterested readers. This also adds up the pages for the report. A

report which is containing more irrelevant information when compared with the relevant topics
then the readers would consider it useless and would find it very boring and time consuming
reading material.
Proper language and grammar: The report should contain the proper language. It must avoid
the slang words. As a report is always prepared for the academic purpose, it should be free from
any error of grammar. Error in grammar and the use of informal language reflects a bad and
careless behavior of the report maker. It also depicts the lack of knowledge about the student in
the subject matter. But when a student uses the formal language in his report and does not
perform any grammar mistakes, this show the serious attitude of the student. The reader of the
report would have a great impression about the student and also he will consider the student a
person of good knowledge about the subject matter (Snell and Andrews, 2017). Therefore he
must try his best that the language used by the student in his report is formal and free from any
grammatical error.
Use of graphs: Graphical representation helps the student in making the things or topics more
understandable when it is complicated to make them understand through text. The use of
graphics in the report would make the report more attractive and interesting to read. Apart from
this the large data or information can get presented through the graphs more easily. Therefore, a
student should apply or insert the graphics and pictures to get clearer picture about the topic.
Length of the document: It is consider as a major factor in any report as it does affect the
reaction and interest of a reader. The length of the documents should be in according with the
topic. If the topic of the report demands more information and data then it is okay to increase the
length of a document but if the topic of report does not require much presentation of information,
then the student should not increase its length. Increase in unnecessary length for the report
would give the negative feedback from reader.
Recommendations
An individual can improve his reading and writing skills through the use of various
resources. Both these help the person to contributing in achieving the higher skills. Some of the
practice which an individual can perform to make an improvement in both these activities can be
as:
 Be regular with the practice of regular reading and writing. An individual must read some
upon some topic which helps him improving his reading skills and he also should write
regularly on a particular topic and then analyze his writing.
 In writing an individual must be very up to the mark, precise and effective. The writing
must be very much effective and to build this effectiveness a person needs to read about
various styles of writings.

 Also, a person should build a good vocabulary. This will help him in getting both his
reading and writing skills better.
CONCLUSION
The report presented above has provided the strategies for effective readings and ways
for increasing the writing quality for report. The strategies for effective reading may include
regular reading, building of vocabulary, question formation, breaking up of text and etc. Whereas
the strategies like proper language and grammar, graphical representations, length of the
document are some tips for increasing the quality for report writing.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Burns, A. and Siegel, J. eds., 2017. International perspectives on teaching the four skills in ELT:
Listening, speaking, reading, writing. Springer.
Darancik, Y., 2018. Students' Views on Language Skills in Foreign Language
Teaching. International Education Studies. 11(7). pp.166-178.
Graham, S., and et al., 2018. Reading for writing: A meta-analysis of the impact of reading
interventions on writing. Review of Educational Research. 88(2). pp.243-284.
León, A. M., Bravo, C. B. and Fernández, A. R., 2017. Review of Android and iOS tablet apps in
Spanish to improve reading and writing skills of children with dyslexia. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences. 237. pp.1383-1389.
Oxenham, J., 2017. Literacy: writing, reading and social organisation. Routledge.
Özkür, F., 2020. Analyzing Motor Development and Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschool
Children. International Education Studies. 13(4). pp.94-99.
Snell, J. and Andrews, R., 2017. To what extent does a regional dialect and accent impact on the
development of reading and writing skills?. Cambridge Journal of Education. 47(3).
pp.297-313.