New book by ARPCE Chair Professor Geoffrey Elliott, Karima Kadi-Hanifi and Carla Solvason
Your Guide to Successful Postgraduate Study
Geoffrey Elliott, Karima Kadi-Hanifi, Carla Solvason
Your Guide to Successful Postgraduate Study, to be published by Sage in 2017, is a must read for all postgraduate students and others who want to improve their essays, assignments, reports and presentations. Written by acknowledged experts in higher education, the Guide will take you through the hidden conventions and etiquette of level 7 (11 in scotland) study, helping you to understand what you need to do to improve your grades. Once mastered, our simple and proven guidelines and techniques will lift your work and help you to move from ordinary to outstanding. Using real life examples, we show you how to eliminate routine errors and clumsy presentation and equip you to produce work that is engaged and engaging. As well as providing some practical tips that will enable you to gain the most from your postgraduate study experience, the 7 chapters in this book provide helpful and accessible suggestions on how build a persuasive argument, how to support an argument with evidence, where to go for reliable and convincing sources, and a step by step guide to constructing first class written work and presentations.
According to a Higher Education Careers Service Unit report, What Do Graduates Do? 46.2% of first degree graduates from 2013-14 who went on to further study took a taught masters’ qualification. Over the 10 years from 2004-05 to 2013-14, the number of postgraduate students increased by over a quarter (UUK, Patterns and Trends in UK Higher Education 2015). This is a book to help the unconfident postgraduate student succeed in achieving their qualification aim. Its method is to start with the student as a person, encouraging and supporting her to become mindful, reflective and more confident, aware of surroundings and opportunities, and able to negotiate the demands of academic work whilst combining this with a hectic lifestyle. It is a supplementary book: to supplement all taught postgraduate courses as additional reading to the main textbook used, and for postgraduate research students. It may also be of interest to researchers and practitioners. That said, the typical reader is likely to be a working mum returning to study after a break, or a mature student seeking to advance in a chosen career path.
This is a supplementary text for students studying any postgraduate course, which unravels the conventions and etiquette of level 7 study. It is a working guide for students who may be returning to learning after some years working or raising a family, who may be less confident in their reading, writing, listening and presentation skills. It is also for those who are looking for an accessible helping hand for their written work and assessments. It will be suitable for students progressing from level 5 or 6 (9 and 10 in Scotland) (undergraduate level) to postgraduate courses in all subjects in arts, humanities and social sciences; international students; PGCE students. It will also be of value to undergraduates who wish to extend their competence in study skills, and to postgraduate research students who feel they need some extra support in producing high quality written theses and dissertations.