Academic skills for students

Reading and literature reviews
 
Finding and reading relevant literature efficiently is an important skill. However, identifying what's relevant, and making sense of it once you find it, can both be non-trivial problems. The articles below explain why literature reviews are useful, and how to handle them efficiently and well.
 
Doing online searches
Finding the right references, part 1
Finding the right references, part 2
Finding the right references, part 3
Making the most of bad references
The purpose of literature reviews
Literature reviews
A quick and dirty approach to reviewing the literature
Using review articles to get an overview of the literature
Doing meta-analysis, and Systematic Literature Reviews
 
Academic writing
 
Academic writing is very different from business writing, journalistic writing, etc. There are good reasons for this, but they are seldom explained to students. The articles below unpack the reasons, and describe ways of signalling your strength and knowledge through your writing.
 
Why is scientific writing so boring?
Different writing styles for different purposes
Useful writing tips for stressed students
The underlying structure of scientific writing
The three golden rules of scientific writing
Humour: Getting that "special" paper published
 

 

 

 

 

Life at Uni 
 
University life can be disconcerting for new students; it's very different from anything they've experienced before. For students nearing the end of their course, there are stresses from final exams, and from thinking about job hunting and life planning. The articles below are intended to help with these and other issues.
 

 
Other
 
This section covers miscellaneous points that many students find useful.