Comprehensive Report: Academic Skills, Studying, and Confidence

This report provides an overview of essential academic skills for students, including effective note-taking strategies, identifying reliable information sources, and understanding the importance of avoiding plagiarism. It delves into the nuances of referencing and paraphrasing, emphasizing their role in academic integrity and proper attribution. Furthermore, the report highlights the significance of presentation skills, outlining key techniques for clear and confident communication. Practical examples and real-life scenarios are incorporated to illustrate the application of these skills, offering students a comprehensive guide to enhance their academic performance and study habits. The report concludes by summarizing the key takeaways and underscoring the importance of continuous development in these areas.

Academic Skills and
Studying with
Confidence

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

Introduction
A learner’s life is filled with an excess of learning opportunities that support in their
academic development. Academic skills include writing, learning, listening, speaking,
developing an interest in particular art, reasoning, etc. (Amini, and Samani, 2021). This report
focuses on a variety of academic skills that students can use in real life, like taking notes,
recognizing information sources, and telling the difference between real and fake sources. This
report also includes an evaluation of topics like paraphrasing and referencing as well as
information about plagiarism.
Note-taking
The documented data that is to be practiced from various stages and bases is called note
taking. Making notes has always been an important part of human development. Today, students
at every modern school, university, academy, and institution take notes and use them as a
reference when they finish their studies. Taking notes lets you look at interesting aspects of what
they are studying, reading, or paying attention to. Taking notes in a way that makes sense to
them also known as "note making" and helps the person taking the notes recall the material more
easily. Making notes has proven to be helpful in gathering data in a way that is easier for the
writer to understand. For instance, the majority of the time when I was in university, the
educators would explain lessons in a flurry. Since I was a sluggish learner, I had to write down
all the significant areas that aid me later in my trainings at house.
Source of information
There has been a significant increase in the amount of readily available information for
users in recent years as a result of technological advancements and strong marketing strategies in
the market. Information can be obtained from a variety of sources, including the internet, books,
publishers of magazines, encyclopaedias, new papers, depository libraries, and so on
(Suntheimer. and Wolf, 2020). However, the negative aspect of this development is that the
uploaded fake and plagiarized content renders all of these sources unreliable. Information has
been further divided into two categories based on its dependability on the source sources of
information that are trustworthy and those that are not consistent bases of data for instance,
matter that has been available by valid writers connected to the areas. These are the bases on

which the workers can rely that are innovative and have not been copied in any way.
Additionally, a source of information is considered to be non-reliable if it cannot be relied upon
to verify the accuracy of its content, such as blogs, personal websites, Wikipedia, and so on. The
user can check for author information to differentiate between reliable and non-reliable sources
of information. Reliable sources include author information alongside their content, whereas
non-reliable sources do not.
Plagiarism
The fact at that somebody uses other individual's ideas, words, or task without truly citing
the basis and making it appear to be personal research or observation is considered plagiarism.
Plagiarism may temporarily save time, but it is available at a high cost because it may be subject
to patent laws and the workers may be subject to legal drawbacks. The workers may fail the
abstract options or even be postponed or disqualified from the workplace or university,
depending on the official instructions and principles and the sort of piracy (Keen, Adams, and
Simpson, 2021). The following are a few of the ways to avoid plagiarism -
 Try not to merely replacement of the task which is currently in the source of data.
 Having effective quality notes from the source of data that can be used at the time of
writing down the presentable matter.
Referencing and Paraphrasing
An explanation that offers something that has been said or written in a different way is
known as paraphrasing. According to Cambridge Word Reference, it is to repeat something
written or spoken using a variety of words, usually in a distracting structure or in a more
straightforward and limited structure that emphasizes the first point. In contrast to citing,
summarizing is currently an option. Referencing means demonstrating the reference to the
report's source of information. The author cited the first statement in its entirety. Changing the
sentence structure of a given sentence to create a different version of a similar sentence is known
as paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is a technique for referring to a source without explicitly citing it
or for further understanding a chosen statement. Good rephrasing is important because bad
summarizing can lead to accusations of counterfeiting, or copying from a source without
properly referencing it (Neiles, and Bowers, 2020). Journalists can use paraphrasing to examine
the significance of other people's work, creatively reword their claims, and adapt data to the

purpose or focus of a paper or arrangement. I was required to conduct research on Egypt's
ancient monuments as part of my class activity. As I did not have a lot of knowledge about the
subject, I referred to a few books about it, and the instructor said that any outside assistance
should be mentioned in the references. As a result, I cited the book and author in my project
(Alipichev, and Takanova, 2020).
Presentation skills
There are a number of essential skills that a speaker must possess in order to perform this
task and communicate clearly with the audience while explaining or dictating work. The term
"presentation skills" refers to the set of abilities necessary to convey the material to the audience.
Controlling one's voice, comprehending the audience's comments and feedback, having faith in
the speaker's message, paying attention to questions, and other aspects of presentation skills are
all part of this skill set. When I was in school, my friends and I were asked to give a group
presentation. This was our first time presenting in front of our classmates. We were all very
worried about how the presentation would go because it was going to affect our grades. When
we disclosed the problem to the teacher, sir assisted us in boosting our self-assurance by
illustrating the five essential skills for a successful presentation, which were Loud and clear
voice audible to everyone present.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this report elaborates on various academic skills learned through the use of
presentations and note-taking. This report also discusses a variety of presentation-related topics,
including references, paraphrasing various types of information (both reliable and non-reliable
sources of information), plagiarism, and many examples.

References
Amini, S. and Samani, S., 2021. Causal modeling of student social support, academic skills and
academic self-efficacy. Biannual Journal of Applied Counseling, 11(1), pp.1-20.
Suntheimer, N.M. and Wolf, S., 2020. Cumulative risk, teacher-child closeness, executive
function and early academic skills in kindergarten children. Journal of School
Psychology, 78, pp.23-37.
Keen, D., Adams, D. and Simpson, K., 2021. Teacher ratings of academic skills and academic
enablers of children on the autism spectrum. International Journal of Inclusive Education,
pp.1-17.
Neiles, K.Y. and Bowers, R.A., 2020. A General Chemistry Cocurriculum Focused on the
Development of Professional and Academic Skills. In Integrating Professional Skills into
Undergraduate Chemistry Curricula (pp. 105-146). American Chemical Society.
Alipichev, A.Y. and Takanova, O.V., 2020. Independent research activity of MSc and PhD
students: Case-study of the development of academic skills in FFL
classes. XLinguae, 13(1), pp.237-252.