NAME PHILIP ANGELIA

CCR2-B2

If you decide to go to university, you will have to prepare for exams and research essays. In
order to do this, you will need to be able to read the most appropriate sources and use some of
the theories and information they contain in your essays. You will learn to do this during the first
two weeks of this course.
This week you start by looking at the different texts that university students read. You will then
learn to follow an active reading method that will help you read academic texts and make notes
in the most effective way. For some activities this week, and throughout the course, you will
need access to a printer.
In this section, you will consider first the texts you are already familiar with and then the key
resources university students need to read when studying.
These resources provide the information, data, theories and evidence necessary to explore and
write about your subject. For this reason, they are commonly referred to as ‘sources’. These may
include written or audio-visual materials, but in this section you will focus specifically on written
sources. IN order to read and use these sources effectively, it is important to know which types
of source they are, what they look like and where they can be found.
The structure of each type of source depends on its purpose. For example, to help readers to
find a specific term easily and quickly, dictionaries arrange words and their definitions in
alphabetical order. Once readers understand the way the words are listed, looking up a word is
not difficult. Academic articles or book chapters also follow a clear and predictable structure.
They normally contain an introduction, several paragraphs and a conclusion. Paragraphs may
also be grouped into sections. This is their typical structure:
If you go on to study at university, in your first year you will generally be provided with the
required books and articles and other resources. Later on, you may be required to search for
more information or you may simply be interested in finding out more about a specific topic.
To be able to do this, you need to know where to find sources that are relevant to you. In the
next activity, you are shown different types of information source and asked to decide where
they are most likely to be found.