Academic Skills Portfolio: Reflecting on Learning Outcomes

This essay presents a portfolio showcasing the development of various academic skills essential for success in higher education. The portfolio covers twelve key topics, including informal and formal email communication, SWOT analysis, group work, thinking into character, referencing, cover letter writing, interview skills, data interpretation, academic writing style, plagiarism avoidance, paraphrasing, and research skills. Each topic is explored in detail, reflecting on the learning outcomes and practical applications for enhancing academic performance and future career prospects. The portfolio emphasizes the importance of these skills in fostering critical thinking, effective communication, and ethical conduct in academic and professional settings, ultimately contributing to personal and professional growth.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................3
Enumerate the 12 topics selected...........................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Portfolio can be define as a collection of different materials that basically demonstrate
individual's beliefs, skills, education, qualifications as well as experiences and training. It
generally shows individual's personality and work ethics (Denda, 2015). The following report is
going to cover different sections of a portfolio that states learning outcomes or which are related
to academic skills like group work, referencing, academic writing styles and many more.
MAIN BODY
SUMMARY
The topics that I have selected help me in enhancing my academic skills. It will help me
to become an efficient learner. Topics such as group work, SWOT analysis, plagiarism,data
interpretation and so on are the skills which will proved to be essential for achieving success in
my academics. Plagiarism helped me to develop my academic skills. It will help me to do
research studies in an improved manner. Avoiding plagiarism in my research studies will help
me to develop my own learning and critical thinking process. Similar, referencing or citing my
resources will present that I have invested my personal time in learning which has already being
published or thought by some researcher before I have given my own perspective. It will help me
to practice for giving credits to the sources that represent my work. Data interpretation which is
the most important element of a research study will help me to conclude my results and to draw
out a meaningful information from all the numerical data I have collected for my research study.
It will help me to enhance my academic skills in future as I will be able to conclude my results
and observations through data interpretation in more effective manner and with ease that could
be easily understood by the reader.The main objective of this portfolio is to demonstrate the
importance of various academic skills that will be helpful for the students to enhance their
learning style and to perform better in their overall academic session. Such skills help a learner
to be more confident about his/her writing and to participate in number of activities in more
confident way (Annalakshmi and Jayanthy, 2019). Such kind of basic academic skills will help
students in finding new opportunities and will be beneficial for providing a steady income in
future. Through this overall portfolio I have developed some of the new skills in me such as
group work as it will help me to complete my task in less time and will help me to know about
the perception of others for achieving a common goal. It will also improve my communication

skills and different professional skills which are critical for a successful teamwork. It will help
me to enhance my decision making, critical thinking process and conflict resolution for
achieving success in my walk of life. I could be able to enhance my existing skills and develop
some new skills with the help of SWOT analysis. A personal SWOT analysis will help me to
assess and improve my overall personality. It would be an effective tool to analyse myself for
planning my career. As it stands for strength, weakness, opportunities and threats it will help me
to identify my weak and powerful area and along with that I would be able to find out my
opportunities and some factors that could be threat for me in future. Overall, this portfolio is very
helpful for me as it contains all necessary elements for performing better at my academics and in
future also.
Enumerate the 12 topics selected
Topics for the fulfillment of this portfolio are informal and formal emails,SWOT
analysis, group work, thinking into character, referencing, cover letter, interview skills,data
interpretation, academic writing style, plagiarism, paraphrasing and research has been selected.
 Informal and formal emails
An informal email is a informal way of writing an email. Style of an informal email is as
similar to a way of speaking, so it is totally depend on individual how they are finishing or
starting it and weather they wish to use a paragraph or not (Elwyn, Greenhalgh and Macfarlane,
2018). Unlike informal email, a formal email is however a defined structure with a defined
opening of the email such as opening sentence, signature section and so on. It always has a
proper grammar and consist of proper sentences. Tone of a formal email is totally different from
an informal email. As per my experience,I have learned that formal emails put a positive impact
on the receiver and he/she responds quickly rather than informal email as it contains an informal
language and descriptive words and written in active voice.
 SWOT analysis
It is a technique for strategic planning which helps an individual to identify his/ her
strength and weaknesses along with opportunities and threats related to some project planning or
some other reasons. It helps individuals to identify their internal abilities to perform at academic

level in an efficient manner. Students can determine their objectives with the help of SWOT
analysis and it help them to work on their weak areas in order to bring out overall development
of individuals. It helps the students to know their opportunities and threats which could help
them to achieve their set goals and objectives to perform better in academics. Through SWOT
analysis I could be able to know my strength and weaknesses along with opportunities and
threats and it will also help me to make an action plan for my success in future. It will help me to
achieve my career goals and target objectives.
 Group work
It can be define as different students who work together and collaboratively on a common
goal or set tasks within or out of their academic area. It basically includes any of teaching or
learning tasks that needs a group of students to perform together. It can also include any forms
task or activities that needs students to work in group. Group work will give me an opportunity
to get indulge in some process skills for evaluation and solving problems, processing information
and will enhance my management skills as well as critical thinking. Most importantly it will
improve my communication skills and I would be able to pool skills and knowledge. Sizes of
groups van be vary from a large group of students or a pair. The main objective of working in
group is to enhance skills and help them to solve problems in an effective manner. It will
enhance communication skills and make them learn how to work with others in an efficient way.
 Thinking into character
it is basically a program that help students to enhance personal development and help
them to set career, personal and educational goals. It can be done through analyzing the
achievements that they can build on them (Gürel and Tat, 2017). There are number of benefits
for this program such as making them learn how to analyze, set and achieve some inspiring
goals. It helps students to enhance self image and rewrite their life script. It helps students to
tackle with barriers that are proved to be hurdles in their life and to over come challenges.
Thinking into character will develop a leadership style in students so that they can assist their

fellow mates regarding how to perform better at academic level. Though this program I would be
able to set my particular goals and tasks and help me to enhance my overall personal
development.
 Interview skills
Interview can be define as a formal meeting in which an interview ask number of
questions for analyzing if particular person is eligible for the job or some course of study.
However, for an overall good outcome of interview a number of interview skills are needed such
as to gain important knowledge about the company, to analyze the job description for which the
individual is giving the interview. Through such skills I will be able to perform better in my
interview and it will eventually brace up my basic knowledge and will develop a good quality of
self confidence and interpersonal skills. It is important for the individuals who are attending the
interview to brush up their basic knowledge and should be prepare with excellent knowledge of
particular field or subject. They must also be prepare for potential interview questions that may
be asked in the interview such as describe who you are, why do you need this job, tell me about
yourself any so on.
 Data interpretation
it can be define as a basic process of making sense of the data that has been collected,
presented or analyzed for a study. It is very essential for interpreting the data in order to bring
out the meaningful information out of that (Helgesson and Eriksson, 2015). The main objective
of data interpretation is to attain necessary information and to make some useful decisions which
are possible. It will help student to contrast and compare data and for data explanation and
identification. It adds meaning to the collected information and provide assistance in analyzing
the conclusions along with implications and significance of the findings. It is very helpful in
conducting all sort of research studies. As per my experience, I have learned that data
interpretation is the most important element for doing a research as it helped me out in drawing

out necessary information from all the data which I have collected and drawn out a conclusion
through my study which is easily understood by the reader.
 Cover letter
A cover letter is a document that is sent by an individual along with his/ her resume in
order to provide extra or additional information about his/her skills, experience, education etc.
The letter explains why the person is qualified in order to apply for a particular job and is
accompanied by each resume that is sent out by him (Hyland and Jiang, 2017). In simpler words,
a cover letter can be referred to as a pitch that a person makes for himself/ herself to various
organisations he/she is applying for a job. The cover letters are used by the employers as a
method of screening various candidates whom they would like to call for an interview. Cover
letter will help me to present my skills and achievements to the interviewer and will help me to
achieve success in my interview.
 Plagiarism
Plagiarism can be defined as the process of stealing someone else's work by a person and
presenting it as his own original work. It can include other person's thoughts, suggestions, ideas,
language, expressions etc. The act is considered as a dishonest move and also the breach of
ethics. Plagiarism can be of four types, namely- self, accidental, mosaic and direct plagiarism. It
can be avoided by an individual by opting various ways like citing, referencing etc. In my own
research study, I will make sure that I would not use any sort of plagiarised content as it will
effect my research and proved to be a hurdle in my learning. Plagiarism is considered to be a
serious offense against ethics and actions can be taken by authorities depending on its
seriousness. If a student is caught plagiarising, he/she has to suffer its consequences in his/her
future.

 Academic writing style
It can be refer to as a style use by the researchers for expressing in order to define some
intellectual boundaries for discipline and some particular areas in which they are experts. From
students perspectives, this writing style is necessary to be successful at academic level (Lo and
et.al., 2017). There are four main types of academics writing style such as analytical, persuasive,
critical and descriptive. It can vary among students. This particular skill will help me to enhance
my writing style in order to achieve success in my academics. It will help to me know which
acadamic writing style is most suitable for me and I will work according to that.
 Referencing
Referencing is one of most important part of the university assignment used by academic
community to indicate the source of ideas, theories , quotes, facts and figures that depicted in a
assignment. Referencing ensure about the work representing is indeed a fact not simply own
opinion. The major importance of referencing thoroughly to ensure about credit given the the
sources and writer that supported to the researcher. It majorly used to provide assurance by
avoiding work being suspected from plagiarism which is serious kind of offence and theft for
an individual. So it can be said that it is very much important for a writer to use references in
order to enhance authenticity of information and knowledge. With the help of referencing I will
able to make my research study more effective and attractive as it will indicate that I have
invested my valuable time in doing research and my study contains opinions and perspectives of
different authors.
referencing.docx
 Curriculum vitae
CV is considered as a document which basically highlight my skills and achievements.
With the help of curriculum vitae I would be able to list my qualifications in a proper way and
apply for a job. It is important that CV should be to the point and should not contain any
irrelevant information. I will try to make my CV short and attractive by focusing on the main
areas and include my skills that matches to the job profile which I am applying for. It will outline

my personal characteristics which help the employer to know what kind of person I am along
with the qualities and attributes which I have. I will also mention my work experience in my CV.
 Paraphrasing
Paragraphing can be describe as a way in which author can put or write their ideas of
other into their own words. This practice is helpful in training for redrafting a documents as well
as helpful in righting information. This does not required creative skills or knowledge about the
topic. Paraphrasing activity could be done by writing sentence or para into new and different
ways with same meaning. Paraphrasing will help me to enhance my writing skill and help me to
know about the areas where I need to work. It will help me in writing information which I have
received from any secondary research.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be identify that a portfolio is necessary for describing
different factors for a particular area. It basically demonstrate individual's beliefs, skills,
education, qualifications as well as experiences and training. It will help the learner to perform
better in overall academic session and to achieve successful outcomes. Each and every academic
skill has its own specific importance and developing such skills will help students to enhance
their personality and critical thinking process. Skills like group work, paraphrasing, cover letter
and academic writing style are very essential for overall success in individual's walk of life. It
is more than just scoring good in academics as it favor overall development of intellectual
capabilities and skills for service to humanity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Annalakshmi, N. and Jayanthy, A.C., 2019. Blended Learning: Augmenting Academic
Performance of High School Students.
Denda, K., 2015. Developing interview skills and visual literacy: A new model of engagement
for academic libraries. portal: Libraries and the Academy. 15(2). pp.299-314.
Elwyn, G., Greenhalgh, T. and Macfarlane, F., 2018. Groups: a guide to small group work in
healthcare, management, education and research. CRC Press.
Gürel, E. and Tat, M., 2017. SWOT analysis: A theoretical review. Journal of International
Social Research. 10(51).
Hagaman, J.L., Casey, K.J. and Reid, R., 2016. Paraphrasing strategy instruction for struggling
readers. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth.
60(1). pp.43-52.
Helgesson, G. and Eriksson, S., 2015. Plagiarism in research. Medicine, Health Care and
Philosophy. 18(1), pp.91-101.
Hyland, K. and Jiang, F.K., 2017. Is academic writing becoming more informal?. English for
Specific Purposes. 45. pp.40-51.
Lo, S.L., and et.al., 2017. Multilingual sentiment analysis: from formal to informal and scarce
resource languages. Artificial Intelligence Review. 48(4). pp.499-527.
Williams, K. and Davis, M., 2017. Referencing and understanding plagiarism. Macmillan
International Higher Education.