University Academic and Research Skills: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of academic and research skills essential for success at the university level. It begins with an introduction that defines these core skills and their importance. The main body of the report delves into the student's reflection on their learning process, including an assessment of their strengths (communication and speaking skills) and weaknesses (focus and analytical skills). The student outlines short-term and long-term targets for self-improvement, focusing on enhancing focus, developing analytical skills, and improving communication and speaking abilities. The report then explores note-taking skills, providing examples of how the student uses these skills during lectures, reading, and paraphrasing. It also covers an academic research project on Human Resource Management, detailing the research plan, sources used (books, journals, and online resources), the outline, draft, and final findings. Finally, the report concludes with a reflection on the student's personal development plan, outlining their vision, the process chosen, and further actions needed to achieve their goals, such as improving speaking and analytical skills and enhancing communication.

Academic and
Research Skills

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.................................................................................................................................................3
Reflection on learning..............................................................................................................................3
Note-taking..............................................................................................................................................4
Academic research project......................................................................................................................5
Reflection on progress.............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Academic skills refer to certain type of core skills which are required in order to attain
the required success in academics and the field of study chosen by a student (Bortnik and et.al.,
2017). Research skills refer to qualities which are required in order to gain more depth into the
chosen field of study. Both of them are required to attain the desired success at the university
level. In this report, a detailed analysis will be made on reflection on learning, note taking,
academic research project. Additionally, specific focus will also be made on reflection on the
overall progress made.
MAIN BODY
Reflection on learning
As I am a student studying in a university, I need to develop certain skills which would
be quite beneficial for me to attain the desired success in the future. Before I can work on them I
need to make a thorough assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. These are stated as
follows-
Strengths-
 Communication- I have seen that I am quite good at communicating effectively with the
people. This can help a lot especially at the university level where you need to interact
with so many students and teachers (Bueno, 2017).
 Speaking skills- I think that I am good at speaking skills and can speak in front of a large
audience also. This will help me if I take part in different types of competitions such as
debates.
Weaknesses-
 Focus required- I have a weakness of losing focus on certain key subjects of my study.
Thus this is an area where I may require specific improvement.
 Analytical skills- I think on the analysis front I am a little bit weak. Therefore I need to
develop analytical skills so that I can work forward on doing extensive analysis on my
core subjects.
For enhancing my strengths and for removing my weaknesses, I need to develop certain
targets for the purpose of self-improvement. These targets are as follows-
Short-term targets-
 To enhance focus- I have to make sure that I increase my focus on my core subjects so
that I can prepare hard for them and therefore achieve the desired results.

 To develop analytical skills- I have to develop certain analytical skills so that I can
focus on analyzing the core aspects of my field of study. This will help me as I can get
good marks on the basis of these skills without any problems and issues (Hamnett and
Korb, 2017).
Long-term targets-
 Focusing on communication- I will look forward to focusing more on my
communication skills. As this is the strength which I have I will need to improve it
further so that it can help me a lot in taking the right decisions whenever required.
 Focusing on improving speaking skills- As speaking skills is my strength I will look
forward to improving it so that it can benefit me in the long-term future. Also I think that
this is a great way for me as it will help me a lot in debates, seminars and various other
competitions which are regularly held in the university for the students. These skills will
go a long way for me in improving my overall efficiency as well as effectiveness level.
Using them, I can surely attain the success which I want to achieve.
Note-taking
The Note-taking skills are required in order to make a summary of the required
information (Hatziapostolou and et.al., 2018). These skills are important as they help a lot in
recording of information to be used as and when required. As I am a student studying in the
university these skills are extremely helpful for me in capturing of the required information.
There are various examples when I have used these skills extensively to record the information
required. These examples are-
 While attending the lectures of my core subjects in the college I pay extensive attention
to the points which are being stated by the lecturer. Doing so helps me a lot in making a
required summary of the key facts and information.
 Through the development of listening skills, I give attention to the discussions which the
students of my class are having (Lantz and et.al., 2016). This helps me a lot in making
notes. Also with this I can gain critical information which will help in getting good
marks.
The examples when I have recorded important information through the use of reading
strategies are as follows-
 By reading books and journals I have gone through the articles which are relevant to my
field of study. This has helped me in making notes which can be used for getting good
marks. This is so because these are the sources of receiving so much information about
the core subjects which we study at the university level. Learning skills can be developed
easily by going through them and thus they are required by us.

 Also, I have used magazines and other literary sources which are available in my
college’s library so that I can gain comprehensive knowledge on my subjects. Therefore,
the necessary work can be done easily without facing any kind of issues and problems.
The examples where I have paraphrased and summarized the required information are as
follows-
 Sometimes in my core subjects certain assignments are given by the lecturers for which
help needs to be taken. Therefore, I take help from my classmates and friends who have
been given the same project to work upon. Now, as copying everything from the work
done by others is subjected to plagiarism I rely a lot on paraphrasing.
 I do paraphrasing by understanding the work done by other students in my class. I gain
knowledge by going through their work. Then after I have understood the varied
requirements thereafter I take the necessary action by paraphrasing the project. I make a
summary of the file which has been done by my friends and note the key points and I
paraphrase the obtained information in my own words so that the assignment does not
look similar to the lecturer.
Academic research project
As per part of my course at the university I got an assignment on Human Resource
Management. As I am studying this as a subject there were very less problems and issues which I
faced while completing this project with success, I completed it by using the following process-
Research plan- HRM is a diverse field of study for which the information can be
obtained using plenty of sources (O'Sullivan and Dallas, 2017). I researched using books
and journals on HRM available in my college library. They helped me in getting the
required information for my project. Also I had to use a lot of online sources while
researching on the internet which helped in identifying the required information.
Outline-
Primary sources of research-
 Speeches of top HR managers in the world
 Interview scripts
Secondary sources of research-
 Books
 HRM articles
These were the sources through which I conducted my research extensively to prepare a
good project which would earn me higher grades in my class.
Draft of research work-
Human Resource Management is a field of management which deals in effective dealing
with the human resources and the work done by them (Roksa and et.al., 2017). This can

help the managers a lot in efficiently dealing with the problems and issues faced by the
staff. Also, it is useful for taking the right decisions which are in the interest of both the
workers as well as the organization and can help it in meeting the desired goals and
objectives.
Sources used-
 Books- Books are a good source which can be used for obtaining the required
information. I obtained a lot of necessary facts and information from studying the books
on HRM in my college library.
 Journals- Journals can be used extensively so that the requisite information relevant to
the field of study can be obtained without any problems and issues. I obtained the
information related to HRM through a lot of journals also and used them for completing
my project work.
Final draft-
There are various functions which can be covered as a part of HRM. These are as
follows-
 Planning- HRM department needs to plan for the future of the organization and therefore
should be able to forecast all the needs and requirements related to the company’s
manpower (Shao and Purpur, 2016).
 Organizing- HRM department must be able to organize effectively the various types of
activities which are essential for the development of human resources in the organization
(Tanujaya, Mumu and Margono, 2017).
 Recruitment- It is one of the most primary responsibilities of the HRM department. It
needs to recruit regularly to fill the vacant posts.
 Selection- It is one of the responsibilities of the HRM department to select the right
candidates as per various parameters.
Reflection on progress
Personal development plan is a process which is used in order to keep a track of activities
performed by a person to achieve the desired goals or objectives which have been set by him/her
(How to Create a Personal Development Plan, 2019). The PDP prepared by me is as follows-
Personal Development Plan
Particulars Details
Vision  Improving focus- I wish to improve
my focus more in my core subjects of
studies to get even better marks and
good grades in my college at the
university level.
 Improving analytical skills- I wish to
improve upon my analytical skills also
so that I am able to analyze my findings
and therefore make sure that I use the

right techniques for the purpose of
analysis and interpretation.
The process chosen  I will work upon more on my
improving my focus by paying more
attention in the lectures. This will help
me in gathering the required
information which is going to help me
in the future time period.
 I am going to improve my analytical
skills by ensuring that I analyze the
findings of my core subject. I will use
my effective note-making skills to good
use here so that I can analyze a lot
using these notes extensively without
any issues and problems.
Review In the review undertaken by me recently, I
have found out that I am moving positively
towards the achievement of my desired goals
as well as objectives in the future. Therefore, I
am making good progress towards my goals
and targets so that I can achieve a lot
(Wibrowski, Matthews and Kitsantas, 2017).
Further actions required Though I am progressing steadily towards the
achievement of my goals and objectives there
are also further actions which I have to take so
that I can achieve further-
 I need to develop more on my speaking
skills. By doing so I can make sure that
I am not nervous or under-confident in
front of a large audience which has
gathered to hear me speak. Thus I need
to work upon this so that I can achieve
my goals and targets easily.
 I need to make sure that I develop more
of analysis skills as these are required
in my field of study in my core
subjects. This is so because a lot of
lecturers give certain assignments in
which own analysis and interpretation
helps a lot in getting the right
information for ensuring completion.
 Also, I need to work more upon my
communication skills so that I can
interact a lot more with my classmates
and friends and get to know the ideas
which they are using, the techniques

used by them etc. This will be very
helpful for me.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that academic and research skills are required
in order to attain success at the university level. A reflection on learning can help in
identification of strengths and weaknesses. Note-taking can help in taking the right steps for
summarizing the crucial information. Academic research project is given to students to oversee
how well they perform in the field of academics. Reflection on progress can be made with the
help of Personal Development Plan which ensures that the shortcomings are identified and the
necessary steps can be taken in the right direction.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bortnik, B. and et.al., 2017. Effect of virtual analytical chemistry laboratory on enhancing
student research skills and practices. Research in Learning Technology. 25.
Bueno, D. C., 2017. Research skills of the professorial lecturers: Input to capability
building. JPAIR Institutional Research. 9(9). pp.1-17.
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.
Hatziapostolou, T. and et.al., 2018, July. An authentic student research experience: fostering
research skills and boosting the employability profile of students. In Proceedings of the 23rd
Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (pp.
254-259).
Lantz, C. and et.al., 2016. Student bibliographies: charting research skills over time. Reference
Services Review.
O'Sullivan, M. K. and Dallas, K. B., 2017. A collaborative approach to implementing 21st
century skills in a high school senior research class. Education Libraries. 33(1). pp.3-9.
Roksa, J. and et.al., 2017. Racial inequality in critical thinking skills: The role of academic and
diversity experiences. Research in Higher Education. 58(2). pp.119-140.
Shao, X. and Purpur, G., 2016. Effects of information literacy skills on student writing and
course performance. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 42(6). pp.670-678.
Tanujaya, B., Mumu, J. and Margono, G., 2017. The Relationship between Higher Order
Thinking Skills and Academic Performance of Student in Mathematics Instruction. International
Education Studies. 10(11). pp.78-85.
Wibrowski, C. R., Matthews, W. K. and Kitsantas, A., 2017. The role of a skills learning support
program on first-generation college students’ self-regulation, motivation, and academic
achievement: A longitudinal study. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory &
Practice. 19(3). pp.317-332.
Online
How to Create a Personal Development Plan. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://eringobler.com/personal-development-plan/>