Academic Skills Portfolio Report - Module: Academic Skills

This report is an academic skills portfolio, delving into essential academic competencies. It begins with an introduction to academic skills and portfolios, emphasizing their role in measuring work quality and learning progress. The report then explores note-taking, highlighting its importance in information gathering and active engagement with lectures. It differentiates between reliable and non-reliable sources of information, providing examples and criteria for evaluating each. The report addresses plagiarism, its causes, and methods to avoid it, including paraphrasing and proper citation. Referencing and paraphrasing are discussed as crucial elements of academic integrity, with an explanation of APA style. The report also covers presentation skills and concludes by summarizing the key topics and includes a reference list in APA format. The report is a comprehensive guide to fundamental academic practices.

ACADEMIC
SKILLS
Assessment 1 –
Portfolio

Table of Contents
Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................3
Note taking ......................................................................................................................................3
Source of information ......................................................................................................................3
Plagiarism ........................................................................................................................................4
Referencing and Paraphrasing .........................................................................................................5
Presentation skills.............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................5
APA Referencing ...................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Academic skills are basically the abilities, collaboration and the methods which are
applied for learnings. These skills are generally developed in academic years of an individual
i.e. schooling or colleges. These skills generally includes: critical thinking, time management,
technical skills, etc. Portfolio is the collection of various types of assets which are owned by
an individual to fulfil their financial needs. It can be started according the need of a person,
the investment or risks a person can bear and the assets an individual have. Its main purpose
are to measure work quality, learning progress and academic achievements. In this report we
will be covering academic portfolio.
Note taking
Note taking is the activity of collecting information from various sources and
platforms. It is one of the major academic skill. We all are taking notes from somewhere for
recording all the important things which we want to learn. Notes can be taken through
different sources such as: a lecture, a oral meeting, etc. Through note taking a individual can
be more attentive in any lecture. He can actively engage with the topics by careful listening
then writing it accordingly. It helps to understand and remember things whenever an
individual wants to revise. One of the important conference which I have attended was the
international conference which brought experts from different fields and countries at a single
platform. By attending that conference I got the knowledge of different firms such as:
management, economics, political and financial conditions of our country. I noted every
important thing and use to revise it whenever I need.
Source of information
These are the sources through which an individual can get the information about
anything they want to know. These can be reliable and non-reliable.
Reliable Sources
These sources are based on strong evidence well-reasoned theory and arguments
which are written by the experts which can't be altered by everyone. Example of such sources
are: book, newspaper, public library, etc. These sources can be identified through – site
ending with .edu, .gov and .org. These can also be identified through following:

 Authority: Who is the author? Do they have relevant knowledge and experience about
writing? What is their position?
 Accuracy: How accurate the author's information is in comparison with others? Did
they cite properly? Is there information is biased?
 Coverage: Is the information is sufficient according to your topic? Does it fulfil your
needs?
 Currency: Is your topic is expanding continuously?
Non-Reliable Sources
These are the sources that can be altered by anyone it means these are non-personal.
Example of these sources are: blogs, tweets, Wikipedia, personal sits, etc. These can be used
or edited by anyone, at anytime and anywhere. These sources can be identified through:
 Sites that provide biased information.
 Online sources which URL ends with .com and html.
 Editorials.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a type of copy paste or cheating in which a person uses someone else's
thoughts, words, art,etc. as his own without consenting or crediting the original writer.
Generally it is occurred if someone copy or paste on any topic from any site of google.
People often plagiarise due to: desire to get a good grade, fear of failing, not interested in
doing assignments or projects, etc.
To avoid Plagiarism someone:
 Should not exactly copy or paste: If anyone wants to avoid plagiarism, he would not
copy the whole matter from any site or anywhere. If anyone get confused with his or
her assignments or tasks he can ask to his teachers or mentors.
 Can use paraphrasing: If anyone wants to do copy or take idea from some site, he can
use synonyms or similar words at the place of some words of the sentences or
paragraphs which someone is going to copy.

 Do use of citation: If you are taking someone else's words, idea or thoughts in your
report or project either directly or indirectly, from any book, article or web site you
need to cite it, so keep recording the sources from where you copy the content.
Referencing and Paraphrasing
Referencing is the acknowledgement of your source if you are taking someone else's
source. It is important to avoid plagiarism. Paraphrasing is the use of synonyms or similar
words to state something in different forms. It is the restating of copied words in your own
words resulting in fresh or different sentence structure. It is also important to avoid
plagiarism.
Reference based on APA Style
In APA style of referencing, one can use author or date method of citation in which
the last name and year of the publication is mentioned. It should be based on alphabetic
arrangement.
In-text citation
It is the acknowledgement which one includes in his or her text whenever they
paraphrase from someone else's source. It includes authors last name and the year of
publication. It is important to prevent plagiarism. It also enhances credibility to the report or
project.
Once I have made a project report on the topic of green HRM. I took the matter from
different sites and books. I use paraphrasing and do citation to different paragraphs of the
report. It helped me to avoid plagiarism and I got second rank for that particular project.
Presentation skills
These are the abilities which are needed by an individual in order to improve there
educational, presentation and deliver skill. Effective presentation skills include: public
speaking, tone of voice, body language, etc. It allows an individual to become more
presenting and making their communication more attractive.
Conclusion
From the above report it is concluded that what are academic skills, what is portfolio
and its needs. One can also get to know about what is note-taking and why it is important in

learning and revising the needful things and what are the sources of information for these
note-taking. One can also get to know about plagiarism, its reasons and how to avoid it.
APA Referencing
İpek, H. (2018). Perceptions of ELT Students on Their Listening and Note Taking
Skills. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching, 5(1), 206-217.
Coullie, J. L. (2020). Teaching strategies for lecturers and tutors to assist non-English mother
tongue tertiary students: Summarising, paraphrasing and vocabulary
enrichment. South African Journal of Higher Education, 34(1), 37-56.
atemi, G., & Saito, E. (2020). Unintentional plagiarism and academic integrity: The
challenges and needs of postgraduate international students in Australia. Journal
of Further and Higher Education, 44(10), 1305-1319.
Jordan, J., Yarris, L. M., Dorfsman, M. L., Wolf, S. J., & Wagner, M. J. (2021). Coaching
educators: Impact of a novel national faculty development program for didactic
presentation skills. AEM Education and Training, 5(3), e10637.
Koutsogeorgopoulou, V., & Brogi, L. (2019). Fostering strong and relevant skills in Iceland.