The Skills That a Student Need to Develop to Succeed in the Second Year of University - Coursework Example

The Skills That a Student Need to Develop to Succeed in Second Year of University Name Professor Institution Course Date The Skills that you need to develop to succeed in your second year of university Introduction Getting higher education is a dream of both parents and students. Institutions of higher learning offer better opportunity for students to discover themselves and ideas so as to improve their livelihood and that of the society (Bowles et al 2011). University curriculum offer students more practical and reality about life compared to lower levels of education. At this level, students are expected to launch their careers and nurture it to perfection in order to be competitive in the job market. At the end of the university, they are not only expected to be job seekers but also job creators. However, Hellsten (2012, p.11) stated university education particular at the second year is often marred with challenges with puts learning against social life, and that between old way of research and new ways. For that reason, a student needs to develop skills to succeed in their second year of university. Therefore, this paper will reflect on two most important skills which a student needs to develop including academic writing and time management. Academic writing Whitaker (2009) defined academic writing as types of writing which takes different formats and mainly required in academic settings such as colleges and universities. Academic writing is typified with different formatting and referencing styles different from magazine, newspaper and article writings. According to Lloyd (2007, p.53) instructors normally have various terms for the academic writing tasks including essay, research paper, argumentative essay, term paper, analysis essay or paper, informative essay and position paper among others. Despite the differences, the academic papers have the same goal which is the correct and effective content. The first year in university for international students or students on scholarship is always to some extent tough as they join student from different background and tries. However, most universities often allow students to settle within the first year in a process education experts terms orientation (Bowles et al 2011). Within this time, a student is allowed to make friends, also adjust to new life in different and experience new way of learning. However, the second year normally poses a big challenge to international students or student on scholarship as they are expected to write serious academic papers. Bowles et al (2011) went ahead to state the transition of student in the university from first year behavior and mindset is very important because it determines whether the student is likely to succeed, continue, struggle or discontinue. The study has also demonstrated that second-year students experience with the university offers a crucial insight into greater issues such as student development, retention and engagement. Nevertheless, the student especially international ones struggle through the transition as they go are required to write professional academic papers. Many students are normally still socializing process and moving great year of study and seriousness take toll on them. In this second-year, professors and tutors often insist on proper procedure of academic writing with correct formation and references (University of Sydney 2015). Since most student struggle, they find most of their papers being rejected for revision or fail for conforming to the procedure. For that reason, the students develop academic writing skills to succeed in your second year of university. The truth is some international students write informal and causal papers with poor grammar. However, Northedge (2005) stated that assignment writing requires being formal in its tone and professionally well structured. A student needs to take few months such as two to fully develop their academic writing skills and reach preferred level. Developing ones’ academic writing is not an easy task since there are several formats for different paper. Good things are that there are numerous materials and resources that can enable a student to improve (Ritter 2005, p.34). There are various books about academic writing teaching on the sentence structure, tenses require and grammar. In addition, various higher education institution websites have online topics concerning. This is even easier if the student can access the internet because they can surf and get the information anywhere at any time. Research and reading skills are highly required in this process. Whitaker (2009, p.13) suggested that reading helps in improvement of grammar, punctuation, vocabularies and sentence structure. Reading should not only be done during research but should also be extended to reading the academic after writing to detect and edit mistakes such as spelling mistakes (Whitaker 2009, p. 27). In some cases, some professors teach on academic writing to enable students write know what is required of them. However, professors prefer to tackle the basics of academic writing such as formats, a few referencing styles and plagiarism (Lloyd M 2007). The professors and tutors expect student to tackle more issues on the same to perfection. With numerous materials, the student is expected to conduct comprehensive research and identify resources which carry the same information about an issue. The situation determines which information is valid and can be used by the student. University of Sydney (2015) argued that when developing academic writing skills, student need to master sites which are not recommended for this process. Most of the sites which not recommended for academic writing are thought which are edited by people who may not even be experts in any fields. University of Sydney (2015) claimed that some of these sites include Wikipedia, tabloid newspapers (Daily Telegraph, the metro, The Sun), discussion boards and yahoo forums, and among others. However, if the editor of a particular topic has quoted author credible authors within Wikipedia, the information can used with reference of that credible author provided in the reference list. The general rule for developing academic writing skill is to have several research and reading from the peer reviewed information sources including academic and professional journals, research reports and academic papers (Cemaloglu & Filiz 2010, p.11). Experts and tutors normally recommend dedicated databases and online libraries such as EBSCOhost, ProQuest, Springer, PubMed, PsycINFO, JSTOR, IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, ERIC, IBISWorld, Willey and Sons, and WorldCat among others. Planning is very important factor for success. Planning means a student moves from one aspect to another in flowing manner. Northedge (2005, p.57) argued that those who fail assignments usually have failed to plan adequately hence their writing work leads to incoherent texts regardless of many references one incorporates. Planning entails thinking concerning the key aspect of the task and talking about them with a classmate. It is significant for a student to form a habit of organizing and planning work early so as to incorporate every format expected of the assignment. Ritter (2005) contended that planning could assist in overcoming ‘student’s block’ and enables him or her to reflect on how the task links with the results of module learning. Such plan guides international students on where to begin their reading and collection of information and makes them avoid being diverted by personal interests. Thus, University of Sydney (2015) asserted that the original plan will comprise of an outline of objective of the task and the way it will look like. Consistence reference to this plan enables the student to pay attention to the literature. Another aspect of academic writing skill which will enable a second-year student at the university to succeed is integrity concept. Integrity in academic writing is important in any scholarly work because it makes students to respect the intellectual property of other people (Whitaker 2009). Good practices of academic work are anchored on acknowledging and respecting the original writers of the ideas or information which students have used in their assignments. Whitaker (2009) maintained that without acknowledging another person’s intellectual property the author will be considered to have committed plagiarism. Today, different plagiarism detector software have been developed and used by various universities to detect plagiarism. Some of the software includes Turnitin, Copyscape, PlagScan, Attributor, PlagTracker and PlagiarismDetect. There are various ways to avoid plagiarism such paraphrasing, quoting and referencing the author, using your own words, being original and providing correct citation (Lloyd 2007, p. 53). Time management Time management is also another concern for second-year students at the university. In this context, Hellsten (2012, p.5) claimed that time management is defined as use of various factors such as balance, spontaneity, time control and flexibility time to enable a student to succeed in school. Time management is typified by a practice developed through practice and determination while setting objectives and scheduling tasks (Hellsten 2012, p.6). In most cases student find their time clashing between learning and social life. At the end they allocate more time to social life than in studying. It is crucial for an international student to develop efficient strategies which can enable them manage their time in order that they can balance the differing needs of time for leisure, study, job hunting and earning money when in a foreign country. As much as their other issues such as socialization and job hunting, an international student must always consider that their time is limited in a foreign and their objective is to succeed (Ritter 2005). The journey to success starts in the second-year at the university when a student is expected to know how to manage time just expected in workplace. Time management skills involves planning, setting clear goals, maintaining time logs, prioritizing and scheduling (Cemaloglu & Filiz 2010, p.7). Time management planning strategies share some fundamental traits and are categorized into numerous groups. According to Kearns and Gardiner (2007, p.238) these strategies of planning are short-term planning, long-term planning and the time attitudes. Short-term planning take the form of setting out and organizing assignment within a short run such as days and weeks (Kearns & Gardiner 2007, p. 20). On the other hand, long-term planning takes the form of managing and setting tasks which covers more time such months or a year. In addition, student must develop positive and good time attitudes in a bid to apply time constructively in both social and academic tasks (Kearns & Gardiner 2007, p.21). Planning effectively about is regarded as factor of the factors to success in the second year at the university. An international student needs to carry out a regular study as his or her top priority. In particular, sponsored student must ensure they rank among the best to make the sponsor happy and also show individual career growth. van de Meer, Jansen and Tarenbeek (2010, p.779) argued that it is wise to have plan for the whole semester within a diary depicting daily and weekly lecture time, social time and reading time. It could be useful to organize time of study into blocks. Cemaloglu and Filiz (2010, p.12) Studying for not more than 50 minutes followed by a short break of 10 minutes is productive compared to than several hours of continuous study. A special time for reading should also be set for studying during the examinations. The examination for second-year is very important because it determines the direction of one’ career. When studying for the examinations a student needs to combine the demands of exhaustive reading by adjusting patterns and routines of behavior so as to decrease stress in relation to time (Zemetakis, Bouranta & Moustakis 2010, p. 25). Developing time management skills also incorporates predicting the time required for any activity. A student will turn to be effective just when he or she clearly understands what to do, when to do it together with particular target date. Cemaloglu and Filiz (2010, p.20) posited that time management skill is characterized by being discipline to the application of time and respecting the set priorities and reducing disturbances which will lead the student to deviate from the objective on the basis of energy and time frame. As stated earlier, an international students need to prioritize there to more important things. The reality is that education comes first in preference to social life. Within the education activities itself, international students have a short time in a foreign and should focus their time on technical units which give them a challenge rather than what they are good at (Hellsten 2012, p.17). This process, will ensure their grades are balanced and not other is weighing down the rest. Some of the principles which a student can use develop this attitude are being self-awareness, personal efficiency and time scheduling. Conclusion Scholarship and sponsorship at the foreign university are always marred with challenges as students struggle with social life and education. It can take along term for the international students to settle. However, as the time goes particularly in the second-year demands for professionalism in assignments a crop up. Students in their second year at the university are expected to develop academic writing skills to help them write professional papers. Proper academic assignments show not just the achievement the student has made but also commitment. Some of the factors which can help in developing academic writing culture are developing reading and researching culture. In addition, success in the second year at the university also needs time management skills. As part of developing time management skills, this paper recommends planning, setting clear goals, maintaining time logs, prioritizing and scheduling. References Bowles, A, Dobson, A, Fisher, R & McPhail, R 2011, An Exploratory Investigation into First Year Student Transition to University, In Krause, K., Buckridge, M., Grimmer, C. and Purbrick-Illek, S. (Eds.) Research and Development in Higher Education: Reshaping Higher Education, 34 (pp. 61 – 71), Gold Coast, Australia, 4 – 7 July 2011. Cemaloglu, N & Filiz, S 2010, ‘The relationship between time management skills and academic achievement of potential teachers’, Educational Research Quarterly, Vol.33, No.4, pp.3- 23 Hellsten, L M, 2012, What Do We Know About Time Management? A Review of the Literature and a Psychometric Critique of Instruments Assessing Time Management, University of Saskatchewan, pp.3-28 Kearns, H & Gardiner, M 2007, ‘Is it time well spent? The relationship between time management behaviours, perceived effectiveness and work-related morale and distress in a university context’, Higher Education Research & Development, Vol.26, No.2, pp.235- 247. 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