LAC Fall Workshops

The times, dates, and location of our fall workshops are now online. Our first one is on September 12 at 1:30 (Taking Useful Class Notes). The same workshop is repeated on September 13th in 344 Helen Glass at 2:30.

If you want to register please call 474-1481.

What counts as cheating?

In every class you take the professor starts by rattling on about plagiarism. Who actually reads that long, dense paragraph, or goes to the university’s academic dishonesty policy, anyway?

You should!

What may seem like a minor infraction of the academic dishonesty policy can get you a big, fat goose egg on an assignment or even get you cashiered out of a course. For a quick way to get your head around this issue, try the Student Advocacy web site’s online quiz.

Kris

Reference Librarians

The first time you walk into Elizabeth Dafoe Library can be a little overwhelming. As the largest library in the province, it isn’t easy finding what you need. Thank goodness for the friendly and helpful Reference Librarians. The reference desk is located straight ahead of you when you walk into the library, and they are happy to help you find what you’re looking for. They also offer occasional library tours/orientations and have maps for students. So whether your need periodicals, microfilm, photocopiers, dissertations, government documents, writing tutors, computer labs, newspapers, collections or a nice quiet carrel to study at, the Reference Librarians are there for you!

Greg

Critical Comma

I'm often caught grumbling about picky people and commas, but Rogers Communications Inc. just found out that a misplaced comma can be costly. Maybe I need to stop grumbling.

(Thanks to Neil Gaiman for pointing this article out on his blog.)

Miriam

Making the Most of Group Studying

Studying with a group is fun, and can be very productive. Actually, it can often be the best way to approach a particular subject area. However, managing group study time can be challenging.

If you are anything like me, staying on task in a group is difficult. For example, I have a hard time staying focused when my study group insists on making jokes about chickens and roads. The temptation to be distracted by very corny jokes, discussions about great parties, and why most of the profs on campus are completely unreasonable is high. If you find that you can’t bring people back to task with a topic-related question, or that your group is too easily distracted, try moving to a quieter study area with fewer distractions. Ultimately you need to understand the material. If the group continues to be dysfunctional, find another group, or study on your own. Remember, chicken jokes will not impress a professor on a final exam.

To focus your group, try some of the following tips:

• set a goal of how much material you will cover
• identify key definitions and quiz each other
• each person come up with a possible test question; then try to answer the questions
• work on the sample problems and share the process/solution
• each person come up with a memory aid to learn a different part of the course content
• if course content is controversial, set up a debate and back up your positions with material from readings and lectures

See these links for more info:

for how to study effectively in groups

and

for why study groups work...


Kris & Anita

Online Encyclopedia

If you’ve ever had trouble trying to confirm a fact and don’t have a lot of time to hunt through the Internet, try looking at Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). It is an international, web-based, free-content, multi-language encyclopedia. Wikipedia material is written by volunteers and the content can be changed by anyone. The benefit is that you are reading information often written by an expert who is keen on the subject. The disadvantage is that not all the content is 100% accurate. However, Wikipedia can be a great quick reference for finding many facts or getting a general understanding of a topic.

Kris