Study Skills Report: Reading and Writing Skills in Higher Education

This report focuses on strategies to improve reading and writing skills, crucial for students' academic development. It begins by exploring various methods to enhance reading comprehension, including annotating texts, personalizing content, incorporating visual aids, identifying themes, and setting reading goals. The report then shifts to writing skills, suggesting the use of informal assignments, promoting higher-order thinking, working in drafts, obtaining regular feedback, and understanding different writing formats. The analysis highlights practical techniques for students to adopt and integrate into their academic habits, ultimately aiming to improve their overall learning outcomes and future success. The report also includes recommendations based on the findings, concluding with a summary of the discussed strategies.

STUDY SKILLS FOR
HIGHER EDUCATION

ABSTRACT
This report discusses the strategies behind improvement in the two key aspects of any student’s
early life development and advancement of their reading and writing skills which are an
important part in the academic career of any student.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Strategies that can be used to improve reading ability................................................................4
Suggestions for improving writing skills.....................................................................................6
Recommendations........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
For any academic student, reading and writing are two of the basic tasks which they have to
engage in right from the beginning of their schooling (Meniado, 2016). The current report will
first identify how reading habits of students can improve and this will then be followed by the
analysis of different writing attributes and habits which can be inculcated in the writer for better
outcomes and provisions.
MAIN BODY
Strategies that can be used to improve reading ability
Reading is indeed an important part in the academic, professional and personal life of any
individual and it is necessary to develop a particular approach or habits that can help in
improving the insight being drawn from reading and increase pace as well. Some of the strategies
which can be followed by students are:
 Annotate and highlighting texts: This is one of the most effective and recommended
strategy that students should inculcate the habit of. As and when students engage in
reading any content, they should underline the important parts and highlight key words or
phrases (Muijselaar and et.al., 2017). Additionally, students should also develop notes
right on the page where they are reading. This will help them in recalling the true
intention of any statement when they re- read that portion again. This will help in
increasing the focus as well and also increase comprehension and retention power of
students along with improvement in their reading speed and capacity.
 Personalising the content: When a student, while reading the content learns how to
associate an interlink it with the real life events or current proceedings then it becomes
comparatively much easier to not just hold on to that concept for a much longer period
but also increases the ability to cover a wider amount of reading. Developing an
association or connection with the real life helps in understanding concepts at a greater
level and also comprehend in a better manner (Nazurty and et.al., 2019). When the
students clearly see and understand how things are working in real life with their cause
and effect relationship, it automatically becomes easier to understand conceptual theories
and statements as well and this can be further strengthened by noting it all down in
written.

 Incorporating greater sense: Improving the overall process of reading, understanding
and comprehending and retaining can be greatly improved if the student is able to
develop a vision towards the learning that they are developing. This can mainly be done
by using visual aids and representations where they are able to picturise things which
increases the retention power and also quickens the pace of learning altogether (Gilakjani
and Sabouri, 2016). Also, reading out loud is one of the key strategies that can be used in
order to understand things in a better manner without losing the focus from the studies.
 Identifying and understanding common themes: Another best strategy is to develop the
understanding of student in such a manner that they are able to identify and ascertain one
common concept or theme based on which, an entire analysis can be done (Tavsancil,
Yildirim and Bilican Demir, 2019). Developing a common theme not just increases the
retention and recognition factor but it also helps in widening the overall understanding
and concepts that can be developed in the students. This is the key factor in broadening
the thinking and curiosity which will in turn increase organisational profits and rewards
with greater depth.
 Developing reading goals: it is extremely essential to develop multiple reading goals and
work on their achievement and fulfilment. For instance, if the student develops their own
targets that they have to read at least 50 pages in one day then they are able to achieve it
by working towards that. This ultimately increases their reading speed and at the same
time their comprehensive ability will also be developed showing their improvement. The
best tool that can be used here is novel reading which will give a perspective to the
students towards reading piquing their interest and will also keep them involved in longer
readings thus developing their speed and capability of understanding (Park and Kim,
2017).
 Reading in sets or portions: Similar to the segregations of any good book into different
chapters and headings makes it more convenient to read it, it is important for the student
as well to read in well segregated portions so that the content and context both become
clear and easy to grasp. The retention power of the student will also rise which further
creates a better advantages and builds confidence as well.

Suggestions for improving writing skills
As the reading was identified to be a necessary aspect in the development of students and
their careers, writing is also an important attribute that not just reflects meaning that is being
conveyed but works on the reflection of personality as well of the students. Development of
better writing skills can be fostered using following strategies for students:
 Using informal writing assignments: Often the reason that why the written piece of
paper lacks any significant research or depth in their analysis is because of the fact that
students are not able to segregate and comprehend the relevancy of their data (Teng and
Zhang, 2020). This can be addressed by engaging them in written informal assignments
where they are able to identify that these are the key points that have to be included so
that relevant context can be written that exactly meets and delivers the requirements, of
the written assignment. This also presents as an opportunity to move one step forward
and to explore the different topics, their content and ideas being talked about.
 Higher- Order thinking and development: The key attribute of a well written assignment
is the fact that it involves a very clearly, precise and chronological flow of various topics
and this can be done only when the writer has clear understanding of what they are
writing (Malpique, Simão and Frison, 2017). In order to foster this attribute, the best
strategy is to engage in those assignments which requires brainstorming, extensive
research, formulation and discussion of multiple ideas etc. This will automatically
increase the engagement and hence help in focusing more on the content which is to be
included in the assignments so that the overall designing and structure can improve thus
improving quality of assignments as well.
 Working in drafts: Often when students are asked to submit a lengthy research paper or
dissertations etc., their entire focus lies in the achievement of quantity rather than quality
in the research work that ultimately diminishes the quality of their work (Raoofi,
Binandeh and Rahmani, 2017). In order to address this problem, the work for a long topic
should be submitted in different drafts that involve comparatively lesser words. This can
then be shown to the supervisor who can immediately provide guidance regarding the
direction in which the paper is being headed, whether correct analysis is being made or
not, relevancy and accuracy of the facts and statements being made etc. This therefore

also acts as an important attribute in the better management of the written assignments
completion and fulfilment of its objectives as well.
 Getting regular feedbacks: Following on the above point, this is also an important
suggestion that can be made towards improvement in the quality of written assignments.
Students and supervisors both can develop strategies where rather than obtaining
comments on final report submission, drafts i.e. small segments should be checked and
verified. This is because the comments on final draft are often too long, confusing and
too many which ultimately reduces its relevance and understanding amongst the students
(Limpo and Alves, 2018). Therefore, supervisor should give more regular feedbacks and
remarks on the draft work so that ultimately, the final result can be improved
significantly which was the ultimate aim of the written assignment in the first place.
 Understanding different formats and methods in writing: This is perhaps the key
attribute of writing assignments correctly where it is important to understand how
academic and professional writing is done and what are the different formats that have to
be completed with in order to address the requirements. For instance, the structure of a
dissertation is quite different from that of the research project and report also varies in its
formulation from the essay type of structure (Nicolazzo and Mackenzie, 2018). However,
when the writer is well aware that which points are to be addressed in which
requirements then it automatically increases the chances of writing correctly and more
comprehensively.
Recommendations
The analysis shows that there are multiple strategies which can be used by the students in
order to improve and develop reading abilities for their academic and future life as well. It can be
recommended that these should be closely integrated with the academic learning habits so that
maximum returns can be obtained. Further, there are some of the key strategies that can be
adopted by students in their writing habits and it is recommended that these practices will
improve their overall output and enhance the learning and development.
CONCLUSION
The research conducted in the report above helped in understanding that what are the
different strategies and suggestions that can be used by both writers and readers i.e. students

while completing the respective activities i.e. writing and reading. The manner in which both
these attributes can be developed for students was discussed and presented in the report.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Gilakjani, A.P. and Sabouri, N.B., 2016. A study of factors affecting EFL learners’ reading
comprehension skill and the strategies for improvement. International Journal of English
Linguistics, 6(5), pp.180-187.
Limpo, T. and Alves, R.A., 2018. Effects of planning strategies on writing dynamics and final
texts. Acta psychologica, 188, pp.97-109.
Malpique, A., Simão, A.M.V.V. and Frison, L.M.B., 2017. Self-regulated strategies for school
writing tasks: A cross-cultural report. Psychology of Language and Communication, 21(1),
pp.244-265.
Meniado, J.C., 2016. Metacognitive Reading Strategies, Motivation, and Reading
Comprehension Performance of Saudi EFL Students. English Language Teaching, 9(3),
pp.117-129.
Muijselaar, M.M., and et.al., 2017. Developmental relations between reading comprehension and
reading strategies. Scientific Studies of Reading, 21(3), pp.194-209.
Nazurty, R., and et.al., 2019. Learning Strategies in Reading: The Case of Indonesian Language
Education Student Teachers. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7(11), pp.2536-
2543.
Nicolazzo, M. and Mackenzie, N.M., 2018. Teaching writing strategies. In Understanding and
Supporting Young Writers from Birth to 8 (pp. 189-211). Routledge.
Park, H.R. and Kim, D., 2017. English language learners’ strategies for reading online texts:
Influential factors and patterns of use at home and in school. International Journal of
Educational Research, 82, pp.63-74.
Raoofi, S., Binandeh, M. and Rahmani, S., 2017. An investigation into writing strategies and
writing proficiency of university students. Journal of Language Teaching and
Research, 8(1), pp.191-198.
Tavsancil, E., Yildirim, O. and Bilican Demir, S., 2019. Direct and Indirect Effects of Learning
Strategies and Reading Enjoyment on PISA 2009 Reading Performance. Eurasian Journal
of Educational Research, 82, pp.169-189.
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Teng, L.S. and Zhang, L.J., 2020. Empowering learners in the second/foreign language
classroom: Can self-regulated learning strategies-based writing instruction make a
difference?. Journal of Second Language Writing, 48, p.100701.
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