Study Skills Support

Throughout your degree, as well as studying journalism, you will have opportunities to develop academic and transferable skills. These skills are likely to include how to:


They are part of a broader set of skills and attributes that the University would like you to have achieved by the time you graduate. As well as being essential to help you do well in your degree and any further study, we know that employers value these skills, so by gaining them you should also be better prepared for employment.


Independent Study

Introducing Independent Study

Your course is made up of scheduled contact hours as well as independent study. Your scheduled contact hours are the lectures, seminars, tutorials, studio, and field classes that you are expected to attend. Independent study is the work you do outside these classes and is essential for completing your course successfully.  Independent study will include additional reading, reviewing your learning from lectures, tutorials etc, completing set tasks, preparing for and completing assessments. Your tutors will provide information about essential tasks that you are expected to complete. In the early stages of your course you will be supported in developing the skills you need to carry out effective independent study.


Studying a full-time degree requires a similar time commitment to a full time job (approximately 40 hours per week). Your tutors will provide guidance on the amount of time you are expected to spend on different aspects of your course. This is to provide a guide; in practice, every student studies differently. It is really important, therefore, to develop time management and prioritisation skills to ensure that you can maintain a healthy balance between your academic work, other activities that you do and other responsibilities that you may have.

Independent Study Top Tips

301 Independent Study Online guidance and interactive workshop

Library Research and Critical Thinking tutorials and workshops

Book onto skills workshops and 1:1 tutorials

301: Student skills

The 301: Student Skills and Development Centre, based at 301 Glossop Road, offers a range of services for all students:

If you are unsure what skills you need to work on, 301 offer a skills audit service which you can use to generate a personalised action plan.

Writing Advisory Service (WAS)

The Writing Advisory Service (WAS) is a service provided by the English Language Teaching Centre (ELTC) to help improve the writing skills of both home and international students.

It is always helpful when producing some written work to try it out on a reader. WAS provides you with the opportunity to discuss your writing in a one-to-one situation for an hour at a time with a specialist writing tutor.

Mathematics and statistics help (MASH)

MASH is the mathematics and statistics resource centre of the University of Sheffield. They run workshops in maths & statistics, and hold 1:1 sessions with students.

General study skills

How to study

Everyone works and studies in their own way. There is no one way of studying which can be guaranteed to work for all students. To be successful in your studies you must develop your own study skills - try out different techniques, select the ones which work for you and stick with them.

Effective study requires a comfortable place to work, minimal distraction and accessible books and notes.

Length of study periods is important but again this is an individual matter. Long sessions are not always advisable, and you should make sure you have a short break between each study session.

Sometimes it helps to begin each session by jotting down what you already know about the topic. This will help you to focus on aspects which need to be clarified or on issues of particular importance. It is also useful to summarise the new material you have encountered in your reading. You might find mnemonics helpful to recall lists of information by creating links between seemingly unrelated things.

Try to concentrate while you are studying. Concentration involves you in actively processing the material being presented. The length of time for which you can concentrate fully will vary,  but you will generally find it easier to concentrate on subjects that interest you and on subjects you already know something about. There will be times when you find it hard to concentrate for even short periods, and times when you can't concentrate at all. If you are finding it hard to concentrate, then try switching to another subject. A short break may also restore your concentration. If you find you just can't concentrate any longer, then take it as a signal to stop studying and relax.



Managing your time

One of the most important routes to being successful in your studies is effective use of your time. As a student you need to find the right balance between relaxation and study periods. Your studying time is partly fixed already with regular lectures, tutorials and seminars. Essay submission dates and examination dates are also fixed. These fixed times form a framework for the whole session, within which you can organise your study time.

You should make a note of all the fixed dates, in your diary or on a wall planner, so that you can plan your tasks for the semester.

Weekly study plans are also an important way of using your time efficiently. Each week you could make a chart, and enter the details for that week, starting with the times of your lectures, and tutorials. Mark in any other commitments you have for that week.

It is wise to phase essays or presentations into your study plan over a period of several weeks. Your weekly plan should include reasonable amounts of time for eating, sleeping, travelling, exercising and relaxing. Allocate some time in the week to review your progress.

You should aim to plan private study at times when you know you can study most effectively. It is important to select the best time of day for studying and this is a wholly individual matter. Many people find they can think most clearly during the morning. Others find they do their best work in the evening. Try, as far as possible, to devote at least part of your 'best time' each day to serious study.

Your weekly study plan is only meant to be a guide and so it needs to be both flexible and realistic. Make sure that time is included for relaxation.

What to study

You need to set yourself a realistic goal within the time limit of your study session. You may wish to use it to read a chapter in a textbook or to read one or two articles on a given topic. Do not try to do too much in one session.

In addition to attending lectures and workshops, and honing your skills in your own time, students will be expected to read the books on the reading list plus a range of national and local newspapers, magazines and news websites.

On a daily basis:

A few times a week:

You might also find it informative to follow (and engage with) some journalists on Twitter

Reading & writing

Effective writing

It is important that you practise your writing in your own time in addition to the timetabled sessions. The more time you spend rewriting your work, editing it down and improving it, the better the journalism student – and the better the journalist – you will become.

You could also pick a story out of a newspaper and try to rewrite it at half the length, or come up with an alternative intro. Study the way in which different stories are written: the way they are ordered, who is quoted, how they are punctuated, everything about them.

When it comes to writing news, in the words of Harold Evans, the Sunday Times editor famous for his campaigning investigations: “Every word must be understood by the ordinary reader, every sentence must be clear at one glance, and every story must say something about people.” Remember that and you shouldn’t go too far wrong.


Effective reading

Learning to process large quantities of material and make sense of it is one of the important skills to acquire during your studies at university. With practice you will be able to increase the speed with which you read, learning effective techniques to extract the significant points and arguments within a book or article.

You should be able to get the 'gist' of a text in a relatively rapid first reading, though you will almost certainly need to read prescribed reading and the main course materials more than once to absorb the most important points, understand them fully, and focus on the relevant detail. The best approaches to reading effectively may vary according to what you are reading, and what you want to achieve in your reading.

To gain an understanding of what you are reading you might, for example, first scan the text quickly to get a broad overview of what it contains. Then read it again more slowly, picking out the main ideas and how they are developed. Finally, read it again in detail.

You should aim to read with attention and comprehension, making sure you understand all the important concepts, at the same time, carefully evaluating the material in the light of what you already know. This is the stage when you may find it helpful to highlight (if you own the textbook) the more important ideas in the text, or to make your own summary notes of the key points.

One useful timesaving tip is to check the contents page or index of a textbook and to look at headings and sub-headings as indications of important points or concepts or developments of an argument. Consider what you are reading in the light of what you already know and have a few questions at the outset. When you read the text for the second time note down or highlight the main points and try to recall what you have read in your own words. Check your understanding by looking at the text.


Making the most of your classes

Seminars

Seminars are the forum in which you will learn and practice essential academic skills, e.g. how to search and find academic literature, how to describe and analyse scholarly arguments, how to structure and write case studies/academic essays and how to reference correctly. You will be expected to actively engage in the discussion with your peers and contribute to group work. This is why it is essential to come prepared for seminars.

If you don’t understand everything that you have read, don’t panic! Instead, before you come to seminar make some notes on problematic/confusing areas, write down your questions and you will get to discuss them with your peers and your seminar tutors. The seminars will allow you to develop independent critical thinking while reflecting on the main challenges that contemporary journalism faces.

You will be asked to prepare in advance of each weekly seminar either by answering some questions based on essential reading, competing on-line and in-seminar quizzes and contributing to the discussion and group work. Please ensure you check MOLE every week and complete the week's tasks and activities before you attend seminars.


Workshops

Workshops are practical sessions designed to develop your skills as a journalist. You will complete a wide variety of interactive tasks, activities, and exercises, in small and large groups. Often you will be working towards a specific goal, or working on case studies.

Lectures

Lectures are used to convey the main themes of the module, to introduce important topics, and to present information and arguments which will help you to explore the subject as a whole.

Lectures are timetabled in slots of 50 minutes. Listening and concentrating on a topic for that length of time is something that you may find hard at first.

Listening to a lecture should not be a passive process. You should make notes during the lecture, or immediately afterwards. In making notes you should do more than simply try to write down everything the lecturer said. Instead, you should think about what the lecturer is arguing, about the material being presented, how it relates to things you already know about, and what questions it raises.

Most lecturers also use visual aids through PowerPoint slides. These are to help you understand the lecture, to illustrate points, or clarify names, dates and spellings. It can be tempting to try and write down everything that is displayed on the PowerPoint, instead of focusing on listening to the lecture itself. But remember that the PowerPoint is just one part of a lecture - you need to engage with the arguments and discussion in the lecture as a whole. The slides may sometimes be made available on Blackboard (MOLE) after a lecture, in which case you don't need to spend time copying out their content.

When material relating to a lecture is put on Blackboard (MOLE) this should not be regarded as a way to get the benefit from the lecture without needing to attend it. This material is there to support your learning from a lecture, not to replace it. For the same reason you should be cautious about assuming that you can simply catch up on a lecture by borrowing someone else's notes. If you are unable to attend a lecture due to illness you should try to discuss the missed lecture with several different students.

More generally, talking to other students on the module about what you learned from a lecture, and comparing your notes, is a useful way to consolidate your learning. Did your notes manage to capture the most significant arguments presented by the lecturer? Do the notes help to summarise the main themes and offer an overview of the topic, or did you get caught up in writing down all the details without giving any sense of why these are important? Did you note down the points you need to check, or other questions to think about later and explore in further reading?

Coursework & examinations

Writing essays

Word processing and presentation

Essays must be word processed. They must also be footnoted and have a bibliography attached. Footnotes are included in the word count. The bibliography is not. 

Structure

The essay should order the material in a logical manner, and include a clear introduction and conclusion. The introduction to the essay should indicate clearly and accurately what the overall structure of the essay will be. The essay should not exceed the set word limit.

Spelling and grammar

The essay should not contain spelling or grammatical errors, and will be marked down if it does so. Do not rely on your computer’s grammar- or spell-checker. If you are aware that you sometimes make mistakes in spelling and grammar, and especially if your tutor notes this, you are expected to work yourself to improve this aspect of your writing as a matter of urgency. Students are also encouraged to visit the University's Writing Advisory Service if they would like extra help.

Content

The essay should:

Originality and signs of serious thought about the topic will be rewarded in the marking, as will the range of source material consulted, the rigour of the analysis to which this is subjected, and the extent to which the essay presents a clear and cogent argument. If the essay is written in response to a set question, be sure to answer the question as actually posed, and to exclude extraneous material.

See also our page on Coursework.

Revising for examinations


As a first step, use the syllabus or learning outcomes for your module - this will give you some idea of the likely content of the examination. Going over past examination papers may also be valuable. Copies of past papers are available on MOLE for each module.

Make sure you find out all you can about each examination - where and when it takes place, how long it lasts, how many questions you have to answer, what choice of questions you have, and whether some questions are compulsory.

General information and University regulations relating to examinations can be found at www.sheffield.ac.uk/ssid/exams

When the Examinations Office publish the examination timetable, please bear in mind it is only a draft, and examinations can be moved. You should ensure that you check the final examination timetable in planning your revision. Information about when the timetable is made available can be found at Examination Timetable Information.

See also our page on Exams.