Skills Development Portfolio: Academic Reading, Writing & Referencing

This skills development portfolio includes tasks related to reading comprehension, summary writing, essay writing, and referencing. The portfolio begins with reading comprehension exercises, analyzing texts on COVID-19 and societal inequities, followed by precis writing tasks summarizing provided texts and incorporating quotations with appropriate references. Further, the portfolio addresses essay writing, focusing on the structure of introductions and conclusions, and includes tasks to rearrange sentences into the correct order for both. Finally, the portfolio covers academic writing and referencing, requiring students to identify where references should appear in a text and to correctly reference various sources, including websites, books, online newspapers, PDFs, extracts from books, and legislation. This comprehensive portfolio aims to enhance students' academic skills in reading, writing, and proper citation practices.

Skills Development Portfolio
Week 4: Reading for Study
During your studies you will need to identify how and where to
locate literature to read using skills learnt last week . Your
seminar lead will provide you with different texts. Use them to
answer the questions that follow:
Text 1
What is the topic of this paper?
COVID-19: a plea to protect the older population
1

What is the issue or problem that is being discussed?
The major problem discussed in the article was that in the
current pandemic majorly older people are dying. Thus, the
major issue in the article was to find protection for older
adults and to promote intergenerational equity.
List 3 things that the author views as important ?
1 This discrimination against older people seems to have
spread to other countries which are dealing with the
COVID-19 ‘tsunami’. In the US – where there are triage
frameworks which do not categorically exclude large
groups of patients (therefore also older people) [5],
opinion-leader bioethicist A. Caplan, interviewed by a
major national newspaper, makes similar age cut-off
claims (which are also underpinned by utilitarian
calculus):
2 “An age limit for the admission to the ICU may ultimately
need to be set. The underlying principle
would be to save limited resources which may become
extremely scarce for those who have a much
greater probability of survival and life expectancy, in
order to maximize the benefits for the largest number
of people. In the worst-case scenario of complete
saturation of ICU resources, keeping a “first come,
first served” criterion would ultimately result in
2

withholding ICU care by limiting ICU admission for
any subsequently presenting patient.” (Recommendation
3; their emphasis).
3 “Although a patient’s age is not the only consideration,
it is one. It would be dishonest if we didn’t
say age is a driver. Age is correlated with resilience.
Because younger patients, in general, get better faster,
they may free up a ventilator more quickly for
the next patient”.3
Select one of your answers above and say why you think
the author views it as important
Out of the above, the first one states that discrimination
among older people is spreading as due to pandemic
majority of older people are affected. Hence, it is very
important for effective strategies to be formulated relating
to protection of older people.
Who is the author of the paper?
Daniele Carrieri , Fedro Alessandro Peccatori and Giovanni
Boniolo
Week 4: Reading for Study
(continued)
Text 2
What is the topic of this paper?
Pandemics and riots: What do they tell us about crime,
recidivism, and health?
3

What is the issue or problem that is being discussed?
The major issue identified in the article was that there are
societal inequities which plays a crucial role in heatlh
outcomes and criminality.
List 3 things that the author views as important ?
1 “The crime problem is not merely a question of police and
courts, it leads to the broader problems of public sanitation,
education, home care, a living wage and industrial
democracy.”
2 There would be little novel in suggesting social inequities
are associated with criminality and ill-health; indeed, it
would be naïve to suggest riots and poor health are
unconnected to serious social disparities (Armstead et al.,
2019; Braveman & Gottlieb, 2014; Merriam, 1915).
3 Several well-known delinquency prevention programs
were shown to have iatrogenic consequences, where the
negative outcomes were associated with the amount of
treatment received (i.e., dose-dependent (McCord, 2003);
Select one of your answers above and say why you think
the author views it as important
The author point of view relating to second point is that
social inequities is related with ill health and criminality.
The reason underlying this fact is that when the person is ill
or faces some social injustice then tendency for criminal
activities increases.
Who is the author of the paper?
Joseph J. Lockhart , Saty Satya-Murti
4

Week 5: Precis/summary writing, referencing and using quotations
You will be given two pieces of text to read.
TASK 1
Step 1 is to read the first text and to make some notes in your own
words.
Step 2 from your notes in your own words summarise text 1
Step 3 you must use one quotation from the text in your summary
Step 4 provide the appropriate reference at the end of the summary.
Summary of text 1
The article is based on the relationship between child welfare
research and policy development. In which concern regarding child
care via education has been highlighted (Crowley and et.al., 2019.). It
has been identified that research findings and policy process is
problematic. In policy development larger emphasis is given on
research evidence which play significant role in social science.
5

References
Crowley, D.M and et.al., 2019. Considering the child welfare system
burden from opioid misuse: research priorities for estimating public
costs. The American journal of managed care, 25(13 Suppl), p.S256.
TASK 2
Step 1 is to read the first text and to make some notes in your own
words.
Step 2 from your notes in your own words summarise text 2
Step 3 you must use one quotation from the text in your summary
Step 4 provide the appropriate reference at the end of the summary.
Summary of text 2
The article is based on Dementia which focuses on policy and
practice care so that proper information which is reliable and relevant
can be provided to people (Arvanitakis and et.al., 2019). People who
posses dementia requires information for making decision. It need to
be focused that there is as well misuse of information which creates
situation of society disables, discriminates and hurdles in against of
people who has disabilities.
References
6

Arvanitakis, Z and et.al., 2019. Diagnosis and management of
dementia. Jama. 322(16). pp.1589-1599.
Week 6: Essay writing
Introductions:
An introduction is to show your reader what you are doing, why you are
doing it and how you are doing it. It should attract readers’ attention.
In general, the following three parts of information should be included in
an introduction However they are in the wrong order:
Task 1 Now rewrite the following three points in the correct order:
 Main topic, purpose, rationale, or your point of view.
7

 Most general or broad background information. It needs to be brief
and clear enough for your reader to understand your area
 Outline/structure of your essay or report. Which clearly
demonstrates how you are going to organise the rest of your
essay.
1 Most general or broad background information. It needs to be brief and
clear enough for your reader to understand your area
2 Main topic, purpose, rationale, or your point of view
3 Outline/structure of your essay or report. Which clearly demonstrates
how you are going to organise the rest of your essay
Task 2 Answer the following questions:
A) What percentage of the total length of your essay should your
introduction be?
2%
5%
10%
B) Can you include references in an introduction?
Yes
NO
Task 3
The following sentences comprise an introduction. However, they are in
the wrong order.
Your task is to read the sentences and to place a number in the
sentence number box from 1 -3 with 1 being the first sentence that you
think should appear in an introduction, 2 the sentence that you think
should appear next and 3 being the last sentence.
8

Sentences Sentence
number
This essay will consider the advantages and
disadvantages of each method. Based on findings a
conclusion will be presented detailing how future
growth in this area might occur.
3
Over the last ten years there has been a significant
growth in the area of Learning Development within
universities (Zhang, 2012). Specifically, more university
now provide additional opportunities for students to
enhance their academic skills through online materials,
workshops and/or 1:1 appointment provision (Dobson,
2011).
1
It is however, unclear which of these teaching methods
is most beneficial in terms of enhancing the student
experience and improving attainment.
2
Conclusions:
A conclusion is to show your reader that you have achieved your aim at
the end of your writing.
In general, the following three parts of information should be included in
a conclusion However, they are in the wrong order:
Task 1 Now rewrite the following three points in the correct order:
 Explain the overall significance of the conclusion
 Recall the topic / purpose of your writing
9

 Synthesise the main points that you made in the main body of your
text
1 Recall the topic / purpose of your writing
2 Explain the overall significance of the conclusion
3 Synthesise the main points that you made in the main body of your
text
Task 2 Answer the following questions:
A) What percentage of the total length of your essay should your
conclusion be?:
2%
5%
10%
B) Can you introduce new information into your conclusion?
Yes
No
Task 3
The following sentences comprise a conclusion. However, they are in
the wrong order.
Your task is to read the sentences and to place a number in the
sentence number box from 1 -3 with 1 being the first sentence that you
think should appear in a conclusion, 2 the sentence that you think should
appear next and 3 being the last sentence.
Sentence Sentence
number
A range of factors including availability of time, family
commitments and belief that uptake of support would
2
10

enhance final degree class were found to influence upon
uptake of support. Consequently, it was suggested that
such areas should be considered when designing
promotional material
In summary, no single factor will determine uptake of
support rather multiple strategies are needed in order to
increase student participation.
3
This essay demonstrated that there a number of factors
that can impact upon student uptake of learning
development opportunities
1
SUBMIT YOUR WORKBOOK TO TUTOR
Feedback (your tutor will complete the following section)
How well did your work meet the stated assessment criteria?
How can you improve your performance in future tasks?
11

Week 7 Academic writing and referencing portfolio tasks
1) Read the following excerpt and mark with an X where you think a
reference should appear in the following text:
Beveridge thought that after World War II men would return to work and,
if they were married, their wives would stay home and take care of
the house (Harris, 2018). Whilst earning an income, the husband
was expected to make contributions to the national insurance
12