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Writing at University

In writing university assignments, students are required to think clearly and critically, use valid evidence and produce well-structured and coherent pieces of writing. This applies broadly in all academic fields of study (disciplines).

Writing at university is different from some workplace writing. For example, at work a concise listing of points may be required but, at university, students are expected to elaborate on points with argument and explanation.

Tertiary writing requirements also differ from the writing students are expected to do in secondary school. University students are usually expected to research more widely and in more depth. Assignments set at university also tend to be longer. As well, university students may be expected to take a more critical and questioning attitude to knowledge than may have been required in secondary school.

The writing university students are required to do for their subjects can involve a range of text types - essays, reports, papers based on case studies, literature reviews and short answers/problem solving of tutorial questions.

Writing at university must be based on reading and investigation. It is expected to present more than the writer's 'opinion' based solely on past experience and general knowledge.

Though all academic disciplines share a common core and require intellectual rigour and skills, they have different traditions of scholarship. Writing and research in business subjects is quite different from writing and research in psychology, for example.

Expectations of lecturers/markers

In addition to the differences in research and writing between disciplines, there may be differences from course to course within a discipline and you may encounter different expectations from subject to subject within the same course. Even lecturers teaching the same subject may emphasise different aspects.

What is expected of you in a particular assignment? Remember that as a university student:

• Your purpose for writing is usually to display competence.
• Your audience is your marker.

What should I do first?

It is vital to carefully read the assignment description and any explanatory notes provided. Also, be alert for any comments that the lecturer may make about the assignment. Try to work out why a particular assessment task has been set. Can you figure out how it relates to the goals of the subject, as set out in the unit guide?

Another useful strategy is to determine what the assignment is designed to evaluate. Some assessment tasks are planned to develop your problem-solving skills; others are devised to judge how well you can relate theory to practice; others to ascertain whether you have read deeply and critically on a topic.

After having read the assignment description and the unit guide, if you are still not quite clear about what is expected of you in the assignment, ask your lecturer or tutor. Discussion with other students can also be helpful.

Some lecturers provide detailed marking criteria, indicating how many marks are allocated to particular aspects of the assignment. You should spend your time accordingly.

Your lecturer or tutor may be willing to discuss or look at a plan of your assignment to let you know whether you are on the right track; they are unlikely to read your entire paper before you submit it however.

Possible sources of confusion

A possible source of confusion can be the use of terminology and the blurring of distinctions between different types of texts - for example, essays and reports. For some essay-type assignments you may be required to use headings (a characteristic of reports, not of standard essays). Also, such assignments may be referred to as 'research reports', 'research papers’, ‘literature review reports' or 'research assignments'.

A 'case study' assignment, for example, does not automatically imply that a particular type of writing is expected. Case studies require the analysis of a particular case, that is, an event, an organization, a process, an object, and so on. After analyzing the case, you may be required to write an essay that discusses the issues arising from the scenario. Alternatively, you may be required to write the assignment as a report, using headings and subheadings and making recommendations to deal with a problem in that setting.

It is essential to clarify what individual lecturers expect in assignments. It is often the unstated and taken-for-granted assumptions that are the most difficult to uncover and address.

Writing for assessment

Have you ever wondered why written assignments are such a popular way of assessing student learning? It is because writing is both:

• a product of learning - your finished assignment displays your learning
• a tool for learning - through the process of writing, you can clarify your thoughts and refine your understanding.

Have you noticed that it is not possible to explain anything - even orally - if you do not really understand it? Similarly, the requirement to present work in writing forces the writer to think through a topic.

Writer's block

Did you know that beginning to write is often the hardest part of writing an assignment?

Writing university assignments is a challenging task. Sometimes students get stuck. They just cannot get started or they cannot seem to move on from where they have stopped. Remember that you are not alone if this happens to you - even published writers experience this. It is important to have some strategies for dealing with this.

• Make a preliminary plan but be flexible about it.
• However inadequate you think your first attempts at writing will be, do make a start. When you return to your work, you will at least have something to work on, rather than a blank page or an empty computer screen.

It is helpful to think of writing as a 'messy' circular process, not a neat linear process. Reading, thinking and writing overlap. Once you have started writing it does not mean that you will not need to do any further research. In fact, after beginning to write, you may realize you need to read further because you can better identify what you do not yet know.

Writing is not easy and it takes time, but it is worth the effort.

Why some assignments fail

What do you think is the most common reason for assignments failing? It is not plagiarism or lack of knowledge. Though plagiarism is an important issue in student assignments, it is not the main reason for assignments failing. Also, students generally have sufficient knowledge of their subject.

Lecturers point out that if an assignment is unsatisfactory it is often because the student did not answer the specific question asked and did not limit the topic as they were required to.

Some traps to avoid

Spending too long on the research stage

It is difficult to give specific rules on how long you should spend researching and when you should begin writing. Also, as noted earlier, these processes will overlap.

How long you spend researching and reading should be related to the complexity of the assignment and how many marks it is worth. Sometimes lecturers specify how many references they expect. Mainly, though, you will have to judge when you have read enough to tackle the assignment.

Learning what not to read is an important skill. You can use the textbook or the study guide as a starting point to gather basic background information. Follow references listed in these texts to branch out to areas related to your specific topic.

When researching for your assignment, you may find that you are making lots of photocopies and collecting a lot of material that you are not going to have time to read. You can tend to feel you are doing something worthwhile because you are researching for your assignment and this can give you a false sense of security. In fact, you may be putting off having to start writing.

Putting off doing any work on the assignment until the deadline is close

If you leave your assignment until the last minute it will not have the substance, depth or focus it needs. You need time to allow the process of writing and thinking to take place.

Proofreading at an early stage of writing

Proofreading (correcting errors of grammar, spelling and punctuation) at the early stages is not a good idea because:

• it can hinder the flow of your thought
• you may later decide to delete parts of your writing and may have to discard segments you spent time proofreading.

Perfectionism

Remember that it is better to hand in an assignment that is less than perfect than hand one in late or not at all because you are trying to make it 'perfect'. You might complete 80% of an assignment in 12 hours and then spend six hours perfecting it. It may be more worthwhile to hand in the assignment on time rather than spend that much time on fine-tuning if this leads to late submission.

When you get your assignment back

Read the marker's comments! Of course, you are first interested to know what your mark is. However, do not look only at the mark. Take note of the marker's comments and use the marker's feedback to improve your next assignment.

Top 5 Tips For Writing A Master Dissertation 

A master dissertation, as the name suggests is the dissertation written by students pursuing their masters or post graduate degree in a particular subject. Writing a dissertation is the final step towards completion of the masters or post graduation degree. This is also the most important event in the whole of the post graduation study, lasting for about 2 years, generally.

It is not an easy task to write dissertation for the masters. It takes a lot of hard work and effort to do it. A dissertation is a window of opportunity to show your knowledge and skills in your particular area of study. A dissertation also shows that you can put forward necessary effort in research which plays a crucial part of the dissertation itself.

Your dissertation can showcase your skill in the particular area or areas that you choose to do your research in. When you want to do a research in one particular area, you will also aim to obtain certain set of results which either proves an assumption or not. Apart from this, your dissertation can also result in drawing conclusions, making recommendations based upon the results of your study. These recommendations have a great role to play  for future generations, because another student, in the future would take up research on the recommendations that you might put forward.

Tips for writing a master dissertation

Here are some tips that can be very useful for you while writing your master dissertation.

Start early: There are no hard and fast rules that state what is the right time to start writing your dissertation paper. In fact, it is recommended that soon after you begin your research you start writing your dissertation paper. By doing so, you’ll be able to note down all the important and relevant steps that you have been taking in the research. You might want to do this on a weekly basis because, for the whole week starting from Monday to Friday you could do your research and in the weekends, you can write the rough work of dissertation. In this way, you’ll have a record of each and every week during the research period. In order to be more effective, note down each and every step of the research on a daily basis, so that you’ll not miss out on even the smallest things. Sometimes, even the smallest things can matter a lot in research and dissertation.

Actual dissertation report: After writing the rough dissertation and reading it regularly, you’ll know what kind of mistakes have been made and correct them accordingly. When you start writing the actual dissertation, you’ll have to make sure that the dissertation work is divided into parts which include the Title Page, Abstract, Contents Page, Introduction, Literature Review, Research Methodology, Findings or Results, Discussion or Interpretation of Results, Conclusion, References and Appendices. When you start your research and after reading some of the prior research papers, you’ll know what to do.

Maintain a neutral position all the times: As a person who is conducting research, you must be neutral towards the hypothesis, the research, the results and the interpretation of those results. It is important that you should neither fully believe in the hypothesis nor fully disregard it. Being in either of these extreme positions can come in your way of making clear judgment of interpreting the results. You must not associate with the hypothesis before the research. This association can reflect during the discussion of results. So you must remain neutral all the time.

Knowledge of literature review and prior research: Your dissertation can gain weightage if your literature review presents a wide view about the subject. It’s not just about mentioning the facts or to fill pages, but it is an important step because it shows that you’ve left no stone unturned while reading the subject.

Submit your dissertation even if the results are inconsistent with the hypothesis: If you think that the results of the research are inconsistent with the initial hypothesis, you can still submit the dissertation. But before you submit the dissertation, you can talk to your professor on the changes to be made in the dissertation report about the changes. Such a dissertation can have its value in the future because another research group can cite your work, saying that this method is not viable, thanks to the prior research done (your research).

These are some of the tips that can be helpful to you during your research and the preparation of the dissertation.

Please feel free to drop a mail at budhesh.chopra@gmail.com if you need any kind of support for your Academic Assignment.

Building up a Team Work Culture

Developing Teamwork in an organization is parallel to creating a culture that essentially values collaboration. A teamwork environment emphasizes that people accept and understand that actions, decisions, planning and thinking are better done in a co-operative manner. In such a working environment, employees believe and assimilate that     

                                       ‘None of us is as good as all of us’.                    

Even though the benefits of team work are highly known, the actual practice reveals something else as there hardly seems to be any organization that exemplifies teamwork. Right from our childhood days, importance of winning individually and coming out on top has been highlighted in our institutions such as schools, universities, in our family structures, in sporting events and other important places. This has continued forward and is evident in the way people work in the organizations today. This attitude amongst employees is a potential hindrance to working together. Hence, workers are not raised and developed in environments that emphasize true collaboration and teamwork.

Most of the contemporary organizations are devoted towards valuation of their external customer’s needs, ideas, cultural values, backgrounds, experiences etc. However, it’s seldom that they think on the lines of valuing their team and teamwork and how can that bring about a difference in their working environment.

An organization can create a teamwork culture by doing certain things right. These include powerful action list as follows:

• Executive Leaders must communicate the clear expectations out of teamwork and collaboration: No single person owns a complete work area or a process. People who own work processes and positions must be open and receptive to ideas and input from others in the team. Process owners should let the team clearly know in advance which areas they are looking to get assisted in.
• Modeling Teamwork in every interaction that takes place: Maintaining team-work even when the things are going wrong and at times when there is every temptation and reason to slip back into older team-unfriendly behavior. Ensure that the decisions are being taken as a team with consensus.
• Adequate Reward and Recognition for Team Work: The lone ranger, even if she is an excellent producer, is valued less than the person who achieves results with others in teamwork. Team-work must be duly compensated, bonuses, and rewards should be provided as a team and collaborative practices must be preferred over individual contribution and achievement.

Tips for Team Building

Teamwork and a good team is not built in one day. It is a gradual phenomenon which has to be worked upon every single day. Some of the key fundamental, yet important techniques that have been employed by organization around the globe when it comes to team building are:

• Focus on solving real work issues: Improving the business processes and provision of systematic training so that the team spends most of its energy on projects involving team effort which would be more productive than the individual efforts.
• Involvement and Engagement of Employees through Regular Team Meetings: Regular Meetings helps the organization obtain a broader view of things, different perspectives are encouraged and understood. Regular meetings allows the team members to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team as a whole and employees get accustomed to each other better.
• Bring in that fun element into the picture:  One has to act out of the box to stand out in today’s era. You would probably be doing the right thing if you’re are offering a pot luck lunch to the different teams or taking them out to a sporting event. The team members unite together more informally during such energetic events and can help them build a relationship which can do wonders for the organization.
• Using Ice Breakers and Team-Work exercises at meetings: Encourage your teams to indulge in ice breaking activities. These can be short ten minutes activities which can bring about laughter and can ease off the pressure a little between employees. It also helps them know each other better- a small investment in a big time sense of team.
• Celebration of Team Success: Last but not the least, celebrating the success of the team together is a grate way to foster teamwork. Giving the team members similar t-shirts and merchandise can help them develop a sense of unity which is a priceless attribute for an organization.

Social Collaboration Tool offers an organization with all the above mentioned benefits as it is technological way of fostering teamwork and bringing together the human resources of an organization at one place. It is not just about communicating, an enterprise collaboration helps share updates, feedback and constant connectivity round the clock. This has been well supported with the use of smart phone, tablets and other smart mobile devices which enable the users to lever let that crucial moment slip.

Are we ready to bid goodbye to E-Mails?

I have come across many posts which often compare e-mails to delivering letter by horseback. What the contemporary work relies on is a faster medium of communication.

Organizations have been gradually moving away from using e-mails which remained as the primary way of communication for a long period of duration.

Well, it is a known fact that people are so accustomed to using e-mails now. Hence, they find it comfortable, familiar and above all user friendly. However, the point in question is that more and more professionals are arguing that emails eat up their precious time and hinder productivity as they just wait for the reply to be received from the other end.

Corporate professionals are finding collaboration tools far more effective than e-mail as the same allows information and content exchange in a much more intuitive manner. Consider a small example, how many times do you e-mail a person whom you do not know personally. Of course, you do that, but then most of us are being formal when you are writing an e-mail to a person for the first time.

On the other hand, we have state of the art enterprise collaboration platform through which your message can reach out to virtually everyone including those to whom it is most relevant. Once again, you are saving both your energy and time by not typing out those long e-mail addresses, marking Cc and Bcc to add the respective recipients. Ultimately, that idea or content gets lost in someone’s inbox and hence the case against E-Mails.

As most professionals use one e-mail address, it is common to witness problems such as multiple emails and resulting confusion just for a small issue like deciding the time of a meeting. Messages/E-Mails being delivered to spam and not knowing which edited version is the current one are some of the common problems that people have become used to while using the E-Mails.

So what is it that we are trying to solve? It is certainly an online platform what we think can be a potential solution where everyone can contribute in open discussions (much like we do in the popular social networking websites like Facebook etc). As more and more people engage in such networking, dynamic ideas are being spread colossally by the virtue of a single click.

If you ask about my personal opinion, we are a content sharing platform, Oogwave and as a practice, we hardly exchange e-mails to communicate. We use the same platform that we offer to our customers, for sharing the content that we work on. It not only helps us keep a track of all the significant content, it is by far a faster mode of communication as we make great use of ideas which other have to offer on a given post/entry which was just not possible over E-Mails.

With organizations, people and executives using these smart sharing tools, we are certainly marking the end of mails primarily because of the following reasons:

E-Mail – An unproductive tool

For most of us, our e-mail address has become an open door for anything and everything. The content ranges from our important office documents, to unnecessary social media updates, holiday packages offer and what not. So, on the one hand we have that important document and above and below that, we have messages that we do not even want to open.

Most of the executives often complain that since they have so many connections owing to their huge network, they receive huge amounts of e-mails on a daily basis, which are often a blend of important and unimportant ones.

People expect quick replies to their queries, and it becomes cumbersome to reply to a huge number of e-mails which leaves the waiting party nothing less than in a state of frustration.

Content being lost in E-Mails

I have experienced this myself. Once, I was working on a Project which used an excel sheet primarily to track the information. It was going all fine until one of my colleagues happened to change the subject of the mail in which the thread of mails/conversation was being created. That is when the entire problem started. It was not only difficult to track multiple threads containing the same information, many links were broken as some of the team members were not included in the mail conversation started with a different subject line.

Attaching and sending files, logging on every time (multiple devices), editing or modifying different versions is indeed a challenge especially when a person is not using any supporting collaboration tools.

Chief Executive and President of Klick (a digital marketing company in Canada) Leerom Segal quotes, “We believe email is fundamentally unproductive, you need to sift through too many documents and things get lost”.

Non-Social nature of E-Mails

Today, a post is expected to be shared, re-shared and commented upon. It goes viral and reaches huge audience and it does not take much for an idea to develop into a revolution. This is certainly not what e-mail does, where the ideas gets buried in an inbox, and is seldom referred again. That viral cascade is not being triggered when one thinks of e-mails. The non-social nature of e-mails also minimizes the opportunity of innovation which is so very crucial for the success of an organization.

With the use of enterprise collaboration tools, people now have the liberty and control over what information they see as opposed to the email where the information just keeps flooding in (both solicited and unsolicited).

Losing the opportunity to use Internal Knowledge

While you can search for content in your mailbox, you cannot do that for others in your office. Hence, some of the breakthrough ideas that has been accumulated over the years is just locked up in the inbox and is not being shared to use the full potential of internal expertise. The organization is expected to be in a much better position only if they can move all this content into a searchable, common platform that adds, trains and develops all the concerned professionals within the organization.

E-Mails have served a lot to the organization but the need of the hour is moving towards a real time communication platform which can result in cost savings as it would save time which is required to log in to check that mail (which is now required more frequently than ever now). Also, with more executives using the smart devices to check e-mails, there are huge data charges involved which companies might be able to save should they be using a real time enterprise collaboration platform.

A smart organization is one which acts proactively and sets a trend rather than to follow it. Its time you try out a smart content sharing platform. Visit www.oogwave.com and register for free to experience a new way of communicating and collaborating with your colleagues to move ahead of the E-Mail era.

How Social Technologies can Improve Recruiting Process

Today, the employees are not just considered as ‘Worker Bee’. Organizations of all domains and dimensions consider their human resources as critical assets that can deliver value by their ability to think creatively and also by working as a team. Employees are no longer simple task doers, they are active participants who have a say in the strategic framework of the organization as well. 

                                   

The blend of enterprise collaboration tools and technologies is essentially the driving force behind these new workplace principles. The changing face of the contemporary organizations and importance of employees makes it necessary for the organization to ensure that they hire the right set of people who can correspond adequately to the organizational culture and values. Since the organizations are now following the notion that they are going to value their respective employees immensely, they are required to ensure that they hire the right people in the first place.

It has become evident overtime that enterprise collaboration tool has great value for internal projects and for the ever so required ‘connect’ within the organization. Organizations driving online workplace collaboration are making it big both in terms of their revenue and for the welfare of the organization that they serve.

Still, too many employers believe cloud collaboration is only important for sales, internal projects and customer relationship efforts. But allowing employees to collaborate in the cloud isn’t just a benefit for internal workplace projects — it drives collaboration, creativity and engagement, leading to happier employees, a better company culture and yes, better hires.

Here’s how companies can make best possible use of collaboration tools to improve their hiring and recruiting process in a big way:

1. Driving Community Behavior

These days’ social media and mobile devices are fostering talent communities that rev up the hiring process and provide access to quality talent and candidates across the globe. Examples of such usage is prevalent by the use of Facebook open groups which hosts large number of discussions, polls, employee’s video resumes, company videos and other information about candidates, their aspirations, perceptions about different organization and hence provides rich insights for the prospective recruiters. Not only does this drive engagement between current employees, it fosters networking to reach both active and passive job candidates.

2. Reaching out to the Globe in Real Time

Gone are the days when interviews were scheduled and the company had to incur huge costs for setting up the location and providing air fares for the candidates with a pursuit of hiring fresh candidates. Cloud collaboration allows employers to reach job candidates despite their geographical location or time zone.  Today, video resumes and conferencing is enabling companies get access to quality candidates’ right from the comfort of the job seeker’s home and the same also suits the comfort level of the recruiter.

3. Understanding the Technical level of the Prospective Candidate

The use of collaboration tools helps in understanding the how comfortable a particular candidate is with respect to computers, technology and software etc. as an example, tasking an employee with creation of a video resume can give the employer a fair idea of the candidate’s problem solving approach, personality, how they pay attention to detail etc.

4. Facilitating Greater Flexibility in the Work System

Telecommuting is on the rise, with 83% of employees reporting they work remotely at least part of the day. Telecommuting options are attractive to job candidates, too — 79% of workers said they'd like to work from home part of the time. All this is possible only via a use of an enterprise collaboration tool. If your company allows this type of flexibility, you'll be positioned as a much more attractive organization to work for.

5. Boosting Employee Engagement and Employee Satisfaction

Enterprise collaboration software not only helps in making your organization more efficient, it also boosts employee satisfaction and happiness. The increased satisfaction levels leads to loyal internal customers and also higher motivation and productivity overall. One cannot think about any other exemplary organization than Google which is best known for their workplace perks and employee focused culture. It is completely understandable that your organization might not be in a position yet to afford a gym or other state of the art relaxation activities for your employees, but providing them with an enterprise collaboration tool can have the same positive effect as far as engagement, flexibility, culture, team-work etc is concerned.

6. Feedback to the Job Seekers

One of the worst practices is not to let know the applicants whether they have been short listed or not following an interview. While lack of time and priority is to be blamed for this, the reason also lies in the fact that there is no fixed system that is being followed. No one likes to wait weeks to hear back from a company after they've interviewed. Hiring in the cloud means HR managers and internal recruiters can get instant feedback from each other and share notes more efficiently. This allows for quicker turnaround rates, giving prospective job seekers a better experience with less downtime in between.

As Christian Buckle, the Director of Product Evangelism at Axceler explains in his blog:

Social is about enhancing the user experience

End users are constantly looking for ways to improve their own personal productivity and their team’s by sharing data, links and tools with their peers. Some of this activity happens online, within email and across the systems they use, but much of it happens offline, on the phone or over web meetings, or in the lunchroom. Social tools provide a conversational layer within your enterprise systems for these interactions. We are social creatures — we gravitate toward these kinds of individual and team connections, therefore the systems we use need to more closely match the ways in which we interact.

Enterprise collaboration tools is not just about project management only, it impacts the culture of the organization and improves all the different domains of an organization virtually including the process of hiring. 

Oogwave, an enterprise collaboration platform provides you in drastically improving the engagement within your organization. End the "worker bee" concept, and consider cloud collaboration efforts to boost your hiring strategy and culture.

Start out today free at www.oogwave.com to bring about a change in all your organization departments including the ever so important Human Resource Department.

Grammar Mistakes that needs to be avoided !!

Silly grammar mistakes can really make one look dumb. Though a person might be very good at the subject being addressed, grammar mistakes can be a big turn off for the reader.

In academics, the role of language skill is as important as any other subject. In order to convey your answer, essay or whatever, you need to possess language skills. Rules of grammar direct you toward conveying your written message as clearly as possible. Without grammar to guide us, most of what we write would be meaningless, quite literally.

Here are some of the grammar mistakes that we can avoid and make our writing more meaningful and understandable.

You’re and Your: This is perhaps one of the most common mistakes that we make. Both these words sound almost similar but each of it is very different. “You’re” is actually a contraction of “you” and “are”. These two words are joined together to form “you’re”. On the other hand, “your” is a pronoun that defines possession or ownership as in, “is this your book?” “You’re expected to work on this project”. Now, try substituting ‘you’re’ with ‘your’ and you’ll find the sentence to be odd while making no sense. So, whenever you have a doubt whether ‘you’re’ and ‘your’ has to be used, try interchanging these words and you’ll understand the difference.

Their, There and they’re: ‘There’ and ‘they’re’ are also very similar to ‘you’re’ and ‘your’. Here also, “they’re” is contraction of ‘they’ and ‘are’, while ‘there’ refers to a location and ‘their’ refers to possession by a number of people. Some people have the habit of switching these words, which renders the sentence meaningless. Examples: They’re working very hard to meet the deadline. There is no place for a criminal to hide. It is the responsibility of the government to protect people and their properties. Now, in each of these examples, try to interchange the words ‘they’re’, ‘there’ and ‘their’ and check for yourself which is the correct sentence and you’ll know it immediately.

Effect and Affect: There is a lot of confusion among many people whether they should write ‘effect’ or ‘affect’, as they both are not only similar sounding words, but their meaning in many cases, seems to be similar and interchangeable. But in reality, they are two different words with two different meanings. While ‘effect’ is the result of some event, ‘affect’ is the influence that something has on another. Examples: ‘Good results are the effect of hard work and industry’. ‘A large donation shall not affect my decision to vote against’.

Then and Than: There is a lot of difference between ‘then’ and ‘than’. ‘Then’ is related to time and ‘than’ is used when comparing between things and events. Example: ‘Back then people did not worry about so many things’. ‘I am more than happy to see you’.

Who and Whom: Apparently, there is also confusion with regards to using ‘who’ and ‘whom’. Both these words are pronouns with very similar meanings referring to a third party. ‘Who’ is to define the subject of the clause and ‘whom’ is used to define the object of the clause. If the question is about a person, then ‘who’ should be used and if the question is about something related to a person then ‘whom’ should be used. Example: ‘Who had visited my office yesterday?’ Here the question is about the person who visited the office and other than visiting office, nothing else is related to the person in the sentence. ‘I don’t remember the name of the person whom I met 1 month ago for a brief period of time’ In this sentence, whom is appropriate because the object in the sentence is meeting a person 1 month before for a brief period of time.

These are some of the major grammatical mistakes that we make and we can easily correct them with little knowledge and practice. Remember not to skip those grammar classes the next time.

Ensuring Employee Safety and Satisfaction

The idea behind writing this post is the excess usage of computers and related injuries due to the same. While we do discuss a lot about the emergence of computers and the revolutionary impact it has created. However, it is important to know a few fundamental issues as we work daily so that we do not win business on the cost of our well being.

In this new social technology age, we all are contributing towards the evolution of communication technologies in some way or the other. One common thing that most of the work place experience is the usage of computers, laptops and other devices that makes the working easier. One cannot think of a state of the art organization without the usage of computers. Well, for many of us, it is the first thing that we do when we get in our respective offices, i.e. to switch on our machines, check our respective notifications, set the agenda for the day and start working.

With the over usage of computers and other smart devices, one most not neglect the importance of some of the fundamental issues that can help the computers users to avoid injury and fatigue as they work for long hours on a computer.

Sitting using a correct Posture

• As opposed to watching a close finish of a sporting event, when you are on the edge of your seat. While you are in the office, sit back and push yourself as much as back as possible in the seat.
• The height of the chair should be adjusted in manner so that the feet are flat on the floor and the knees are not above the level of the hips.
• Back of the chair should be reclined at 100°-110° angle.

View this Video for some tips by Dr. Chiropractorhttp://youtu.be/AB3RHzrIeSw

      

·        The use of cushions and other supports is encouraged to support the lower and the upper back.

·        Frequent position changes should be made while working, active back mechanism in the chair can help in this regard.

·        Keep your shoulders relaxed by adjusting the armrests. Remove them if they are in the way.    

        

·        The use of cushions and other supports is encouraged to support the lower and the upper back.

·        Frequent position changes should be made while working, active back mechanism in the chair can help in this regard.

·        Keep your shoulders relaxed by adjusting the armrests. Remove them if they are in the way.

 Using the Keyboard

• An articulating keyboard tray, especially if it can accommodate other work materials such as files, folders, diaries, mouse, telephone etc is conducive for working.
• Pull up to the keyboard as much as possible.
• If you use certain sections of the keyboard more frequently then position the keyboard in a way so that those sections are centered with your body.
• The hands, wrists should be straight and the shoulders relaxed while using the keyboard. The keyboard feet or tilting should be used to ensure that the wrists are straight.
• Avoid over reaching the keyboard and use wrist rest to rest the palms of the hands between key strokes.

Positioning the Source Documents correctly

• An awkward working posture is a result of incorrect screen positioning. The screen and other source documents should be adjusted in a way that makes the neck neutral and relaxed.
• The top of the screen should be positioned at least 2.5” above the eye level.
• Sit at an arm’s length from the screen, use of glass glare filters and light filters are also recommended.

Using adequate Breaks and Pauses

·        Get away from your computer screens during the lunch hour. As an exercise, look at a distant object or close your eyes frequently. Resting your eyes by covering it with your palms can also help.

·        Take a five minute break every one hour. Change your task for some duration if you are working on a particular task that would take a long time.

·        Moving around and keeping a correct posture is critical.

Things to pay Attention to:

• Correct positioning of arms/wrists (straight), head, neck/spine is crucial
• Using minimum force while striking/using the keyboard
• Take frequent breaks with the objective of rejuvenating yourself.
• Relax your eyes, washing frequently with water and blinking helps.

  

Other Factors:

• Maintaining proper light level in the office is imperative for efficiency. Users should also adjust the contrast and brightness appropriately so that the usage is comfortable.
• Minimize the unnecessary materials on your desk like papers, files etc.
• Maintaining a comfortable temperature in the working environment.
• Cleaning of computer screens and other devices regularly.
• Being considerate to others, this can include holding conversations at a specific place ensuring that the same is not disturbing others. Fabric partitions can help in this regard. Noises like that of type-writers and photocopiers can also be avoided using the same.
• Plan ahead to set a realistic yet challenging agenda for the day.
• Make tasks interesting, for example, instead of using the telephone to contact your colleague, reach out personally.
• Paste your favorite quotation, pictures, arts, and plants etc which can help in encouraging you and keep you positive throughout the day.
• Develop your own ways to relax yourself, it might be swimming for some, while driving or hitting the gymnasium for others.

All the above mentioned points are pretty basic but yet their importance should not be neglected at any point in time. Let us spread awareness and share this to encourage people to use the computer and work in the right manner.

                                      

Tips for Writing Assignments

                         

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Writing at University

In writing university assignments, students are required to think clearly and critically, use valid evidence and produce well-structured and coherent pieces of writing. This applies broadly in all academic fields of study (disciplines).

Writing at university is different from some workplace writing. For example, at work a concise listing of points may be required but, at university, students are expected to elaborate on points with argument and explanation.

Tertiary writing requirements also differ from the writing students are expected to do in secondary school. University students are usually expected to research more widely and in more depth. Assignments set at university also tend to be longer. As well, university students may be expected to take a more critical and questioning attitude to knowledge than may have been required in secondary school.

The writing university students are required to do for their subjects can involve a range of text types - essays, reports, papers based on case studies, literature reviews and short answers/problem solving of tutorial questions.

Writing at university must be based on reading and investigation. It is expected to present more than the writer's 'opinion' based solely on past experience and general knowledge.

Though all academic disciplines share a common core and require intellectual rigour and skills, they have different traditions of scholarship. Writing and research in business subjects is quite different from writing and research in psychology, for example.

Expectations of lecturers/markers

In addition to the differences in research and writing between disciplines, there may be differences from course to course within a discipline and you may encounter different expectations from subject to subject within the same course. Even lecturers teaching the same subject may emphasise different aspects.

What is expected of you in a particular assignment? Remember that as a university student:

• Your purpose for writing is usually to display competence.
• Your audience is your marker.

What should I do first?

It is vital to carefully read the assignment description and any explanatory notes provided. Also, be alert for any comments that the lecturer may make about the assignment. Try to work out why a particular assessment task has been set. Can you figure out how it relates to the goals of the subject, as set out in the unit guide?

Another useful strategy is to determine what the assignment is designed to evaluate. Some assessment tasks are planned to develop your problem-solving skills; others are devised to judge how well you can relate theory to practice; others to ascertain whether you have read deeply and critically on a topic.

After having read the assignment description and the unit guide, if you are still not quite clear about what is expected of you in the assignment, ask your lecturer or tutor. Discussion with other students can also be helpful.

Some lecturers provide detailed marking criteria, indicating how many marks are allocated to particular aspects of the assignment. You should spend your time accordingly.

Your lecturer or tutor may be willing to discuss or look at a plan of your assignment to let you know whether you are on the right track; they are unlikely to read your entire paper before you submit it however.

Possible sources of confusion

A possible source of confusion can be the use of terminology and the blurring of distinctions between different types of texts - for example, essays and reports. For some essay-type assignments you may be required to use headings (a characteristic of reports, not of standard essays). Also, such assignments may be referred to as 'research reports', 'research papers’, ‘literature review reports' or 'research assignments'.

A 'case study' assignment, for example, does not automatically imply that a particular type of writing is expected. Case studies require the analysis of a particular case, that is, an event, an organization, a process, an object, and so on. After analyzing the case, you may be required to write an essay that discusses the issues arising from the scenario. Alternatively, you may be required to write the assignment as a report, using headings and subheadings and making recommendations to deal with a problem in that setting.

It is essential to clarify what individual lecturers expect in assignments. It is often the unstated and taken-for-granted assumptions that are the most difficult to uncover and address.

Writing for assessment

Have you ever wondered why written assignments are such a popular way of assessing student learning? It is because writing is both:

• a product of learning - your finished assignment displays your learning
• a tool for learning - through the process of writing, you can clarify your thoughts and refine your understanding.

Have you noticed that it is not possible to explain anything - even orally - if you do not really understand it? Similarly, the requirement to present work in writing forces the writer to think through a topic.

Writer's block

Did you know that beginning to write is often the hardest part of writing an assignment?

Writing university assignments is a challenging task. Sometimes students get stuck. They just cannot get started or they cannot seem to move on from where they have stopped. Remember that you are not alone if this happens to you - even published writers experience this. It is important to have some strategies for dealing with this.

• Make a preliminary plan but be flexible about it.
• However inadequate you think your first attempts at writing will be, do make a start. When you return to your work, you will at least have something to work on, rather than a blank page or an empty computer screen.

It is helpful to think of writing as a 'messy' circular process, not a neat linear process. Reading, thinking and writing overlap. Once you have started writing it does not mean that you will not need to do any further research. In fact, after beginning to write, you may realize you need to read further because you can better identify what you do not yet know.

Writing is not easy and it takes time, but it is worth the effort.

Why some assignments fail

What do you think is the most common reason for assignments failing? It is not plagiarism or lack of knowledge. Though plagiarism is an important issue in student assignments, it is not the main reason for assignments failing. Also, students generally have sufficient knowledge of their subject.

Lecturers point out that if an assignment is unsatisfactory it is often because the student did not answer the specific question asked and did not limit the topic as they were required to.

Some traps to avoid

Spending too long on the research stage

It is difficult to give specific rules on how long you should spend researching and when you should begin writing. Also, as noted earlier, these processes will overlap.

How long you spend researching and reading should be related to the complexity of the assignment and how many marks it is worth. Sometimes lecturers specify how many references they expect. Mainly, though, you will have to judge when you have read enough to tackle the assignment.

Learning what not to read is an important skill. You can use the textbook or the study guide as a starting point to gather basic background information. Follow references listed in these texts to branch out to areas related to your specific topic.

When researching for your assignment, you may find that you are making lots of photocopies and collecting a lot of material that you are not going to have time to read. You can tend to feel you are doing something worthwhile because you are researching for your assignment and this can give you a false sense of security. In fact, you may be putting off having to start writing.

Putting off doing any work on the assignment until the deadline is close

If you leave your assignment until the last minute it will not have the substance, depth or focus it needs. You need time to allow the process of writing and thinking to take place.

Proofreading at an early stage of writing

Proofreading (correcting errors of grammar, spelling and punctuation) at the early stages is not a good idea because:

• it can hinder the flow of your thought
• you may later decide to delete parts of your writing and may have to discard segments you spent time proofreading.

Perfectionism

Remember that it is better to hand in an assignment that is less than perfect than hand one in late or not at all because you are trying to make it 'perfect'. You might complete 80% of an assignment in 12 hours and then spend six hours perfecting it. It may be more worthwhile to hand in the assignment on time rather than spend that much time on fine-tuning if this leads to late submission.

When you get your assignment back

Read the marker's comments! Of course, you are first interested to know what your mark is. However, do not look only at the mark. Take note of the marker's comments and use the marker's feedback to improve your next assignment.