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OCA Study Skills Booklet
OCA Study Skills Booklet
Study skills
This booklet is one of a series of guides for students studying with the OCA. Others in the series are: Keeping sketchbooks and learning logs Assessment and how to get qualied Looking at other artists You can either download a pdf copy from our website www.oca-uk.com or ring the office on 0800 731 2116 for a paper copy.
Study skills
What are study skills?
Because you are studying a creative subject you may imagine you will not have much writing to do. However, OCAs courses are both practical and academic. Even the art courses have written elements to them. These are as crucial to your development as the practical side. Thats why taking a look at this study skills booklet is just as important if you are studying sculpture, painting or any other practical subject as a directly academic course such as Visual Studies or Art History for example. Many of OCAs courses have written assignments at some point in them.
As an adult learner your approach to learning may be different from the last time you studied, especially if that was at school. You can choose what you want to study, have professional and/or personal motivation for studying and you will have to t your study activities around other responsibilities. You control your learning environment. As a result, you must think about things like time management, goal setting, and pacing yourself through a new learning experience. You may also have to refresh your knowledge on essay planning and you may be new to using the web as a learning resource. Your most signicant considerations will be time and space to dedicate to your learning.
Starting out
What to do when you start your course
Read the introduction and then look through the whole course. Make a note of any questions you might have and consider a rough timetable you can work from to complete the course. Fill in your Student Prole. Use this to tell your tutor a little about any past experience you have and how condent you feel about learning some of the skills. This is your rst link with your tutor and gives you the chance to introduce yourself. Give your tutor as much information as you can about your previous experience, your reasons for exploring this subject and what you expect to achieve from taking the course. OCA tuition is on a one-toone basis and so it is possible for our tutors to angle their advice to meet individual needs; but only if these are dened in the Student Prole. When the tutor receives your Student Prole, they will write to you, and suggest a date for the submission of your rst assignment in line with your timetable. If you feel you can complete the section earlier, then do. If you feel you need a little longer, thats ne too. If, however, there is going to be a big delay, contact the tutor and give an anticipated new date for the submission of your assignment. When you submit an assignment your tutor will comment and advise on your work and answer any questions relating to the course.
Once you have looked through the course and sent off your student prole, you can begin to start your rst project.
Time management
Managing your time
You are responsible for managing your own study time. In order for you to do this well: be aware of your own time management be aware of how much time each type of task takes you to complete allow time for unexpected events schedule an appropriate amount of time for things like library and museum visits specify practical targets in your time-planning.
Ask yourself the following questions: do I usually meet deadlines? do I keep most appointments? do I nd that I often have to rush things at the last minute? does it take me some time to get started? do I panic if I know that I am wasting time? how IT literate am I? Do you need to make allowances for using a computer?
Do you need to make changes to some of your thinking about time in order to manage your studies well?
Taking notes
Notes are a useful record of important points for future use and they can help the ow of your writing, and help you get organised in order to get started. Notes can aid understanding and summing things up briey can help your long term memory. Even if you are a regular computer user it can still be helpful to make notes on paper. However more and more people are now just as happy making notes on their computer, which has the added benet of making web referencing easy. Make notes whichever way suits you best.
This isnt to say that you shouldnt use information from any of these categories in your work. You need to use it carefully and demonstrate that you understand the shortfall in the information (such as the missing argument, or biased viewpoint).
Using booklists
Booklists can be daunting even if you recognise some of the titles on the list. During the course you will be provided with various booklists and you will need to assess the importance of some books over and above other books you cannot read everything! Your tutors (and in some cases the course material) will let you know which books are essential for you to read and which are of a more general nature. All book publications are in print at the time of the course materials being published but of course this can change from year to year OCA will attempt to republish booklists when possible.
Checklist
stand back from the information and examine it in detail and from as many angles as you can think of nd out how accurate the material is and check for any mistakes compare the material that you are reading with what other theorists are saying how does their perspective differ from what your writer is saying? look out for any assumptions that the writer is making and be critical of the ways in which the writer has used data in order to persuade the reader to agree with their particular theory.
Quoting others
In the body of your writing, whenever you refer to someone elses work, either directly or indirectly, you must indicate whose work this is. Include the surname of the author and the year of publication, for example: as noted by R. Taylor (1999), who stated that Or two art historians (Buck and Dodd, 1998), noted that....
Use quotation marks when quoting from someone verbatim and remember that you may only quote up to 10% of an authors work without breaching their copyright.
Using references
In academic writing, it is essential to state the sources of ideas and information. Such references allow the reader to refer back to the sources. There are some key reasons for providing references: acknowledging a source is a courtesy to the person whose idea or words you have used or referred to by giving a source you are making it clear that you are not trying to pretend somebody elses work is your own if you need to check something later, the reference will help you nd it again more easily the reader of your writing will have more condence in what you are writing thoroughness in your referencing suggests that you will also have been thorough in your checking of the facts.
Bibliographies
A bibliography is a separate page to your writing and the reference will go at the end of your report. It will include everything that you have read for your report whether you referred to it in your writing or not. Always use the same style to the one outlined in the above information about references, for example: Michael Freeman, Complete Guide to Photography, HarperCollins, UK, 1995 Honour & Fleming, A World History of Art, Laurence King Publishing, London, 2002 S. Maitland and P. Matthews, Gardens of Illusion, Cassell & Co., London, 2000
Footnotes
Use these when you are quoting directly and give the precise details of the source, whether a book, article or interview. If you are quoting from a printed source also include the page number. If you are unsure about whether to use a direct quotation or to paraphrase then always go for the rst option. The following two systems are both acceptable as long as you are consistent in your usage throughout. Author-date system This is where you give the name of the author, then the date and page number in brackets after the quotation or reference in the main text. The full reference details are then given in the bibliography. Title system This is where a number is given above the line and after the quotations, and the reference is then given either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the critical review. For example, 1. R. Taylor, Understanding and Investigating Art, 1999, p22.
Using illustrations
Always try to use illustrations where relevant. Remember that the purpose of an illustration is to support your writing, so where possible try to have the image as close to where it is being discussed as is possible do not lump all of the illustrations at the back of your written assignments or learning logs. You can also include your own drawings and photographs where relevant often illustrations can be particularly effective if you are trying to convey a great deal of visual information. You must always number your illustrations and refer to them within the body of your writing do not make the mistake of expecting the illustrations to speak for themselves. For example, you would write refer to gure 2, or see illustration to gure 4. Dont forget to put a caption under the illustration clearly stating what it is, including the date, where it is from, and the name of the originator.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is when a student uses the words of another writer but does not credit that writer as a source. This can be done by mistake or on purpose but in either case it is an offence and can result in failure of the course. If you are unsure about what constitutes plagiarism speak to your tutor.
Writing assignments
clarify the task collect and record information (research) organise and plan reect and evaluate write an outline plan and rst draft (if possible show this to your tutor) work on your rst draft review it then build your nal draft.
Paragraph two and the other paragraphs the rst sentence, or opening sentences, link the paragraph to the previous paragraphs, then introduce the main idea of the paragraph. Other sentences will now develop the paragraphs topic. Conclusion summarise your argument and the main themes. State your general conclusions and make it clear why those conclusions are important. This is usually one tenth of the written assignment. Bibliography list all of the books and other sources that you have referred to.
More help
Suggested further reading
Barnet, S. A Short Guide to Writing About Art, Press, England, 1996 Buzan, Tony. Use your head. London,Chadwick and Eagle, 1995 Chambers, Ellie and Northedge, Andrew. The Arts Good Study Guide, Milton Keynes: Open University Press 1997 Miles, T.R. and Gilroy. Dyslexia at College, London, Routledge Press, 1995 Richards, T. How to Win as a Mature Student, London, Kogan Press, 1995 Williams, K. Study Skills, London, Press, 1991
Notes
OCA's website www.oca-uk.com is your first stop for information about courses, plus access to help, support, advice and tips from tutors and other learners. Register on the website, upload a picture if you like, and get chatting to other students via the forum. Find out about exhibitions and books recommended by fellow students, discuss the state of contemporary art or the music industry, share tips on techniques and processes, and share your thoughts on studying from home.