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OXTORD
STCOY
COMMUNICATION
WlMfaEbW FOR
PSYCHOL if*
2ND EDITION
VANESSA PARSON
Study and Communication Skills for Psychology
Study and
Communication
Skills for
Psychology
SECOND EDITION
Vanessa Parson
University of Sunderland
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXTORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford. 0X2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Vanessa Parson 2018
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First edition 2012
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959730
ISBN 978-0-19-878612-2
Printed in Great Britain by
Bell & Bain Ltd., Glasgow
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
Contents
About the online resources IX
1 Introduction 1
Why do I need this book? 1
How is university different from school? 2
The importance of being an independent learner 2
Learning strategies 3
Time management: a skill best learned early 4
A final word 4
2 Time management: a skill best learned early 5
Term time juggling 6
Fitting everything in 7
Making your own timetable 8
Vacation juggling 9
Extra help for exam season 11
Checklist 13
3 Teaching time: making the most of it 14
What's the point of lectures? 14
Handouts-before and after the lecture 17
Asking questions-when is it okay to do so? 18
Where to find information if you miss the lecture 19
Small group teaching—tutorials and seminars 19
After teaching time is over—what then? 21
Checklist 23
References 24
4 Communication and learning with others 25
Online learning as an individual: virtual learning environments 25
Online learning with others: blogs and wikis 27
Online learning with others: social media (Facebook and Twitter, etc.) 28
Online learning with others: discussion boards 29
Offline learning and sharing with others 31
Checklist 33
Vi CONTENTS
5 Before and after assessments: guidelines, criteria, and feedback 34

Before your assessment is due-finding out what to do 34
After the assignment is returned-this thing called feedback 39
Checklist 42
References 42
6 Sources of information and their uses 43
What to look for in a textbook 44
Wading through journal articles 47
Critical analysis and thinking 48
How to use. and not use, the Internet 49
How can you tell whether the content of these sources of information is any good? 52
How to use what you've found in your assignments 54
Checklist 55
References 55
7 Howto find and read a journal article 56
How to find an article to read 56
Getting to grips with the articles you've found 57
Checklist 65
References 65
8 Plagiarism 66
What is plagiarism? 66
Collusion 66
Avoiding plagiarism-it's easy when you know how 67
Can you plagiarize from yourself? 69
Checklist 71
References 71
9 What is referencing? 72
How to reference 73
Referencing in the text 74
Referencing at the end of your report 76
How to cite Internet references 79
Primary versus secondary referencing 81
The Harvard system 82
Checklist 85
References 86
Useful sources of information 86
CONTENTS vii
10 Reading and evaluating text 87

What is evaluation? 87
How to think critically 90
Trying to remain objective 93
Checklist 93
References 94
11 So you think you can write good? 95
The building blocks of writing- types of v/ords 96
The building blocks of writing: what is grammar? 97
The building blocks of writing: structure and organization 97
The building blocks of writing: squiggly symbols (aka punctuation) 93
The building blocks of writing, expressing yourself 105
Different types of writing style 106
Effective writing—how to communicate your thoughts clearly and precisely 108
Checklist 109
References 109
12 Critical analysis: the big new skill you need to learn no
The 3C's of critical analysis: consensus, contradiction, and connectivity m
Nurturing your inner sceptic: the devil is in the detail 112
Following the evidence’ avoiding assumptions when you're reading and writing 116
Putting it together: this thing called synthesis 117
Critical Analysis Signposting: the importance of conclusions and introductions 120
Final words: read and think, then read and think some more 123
Checklist 124
References 124
13 Writing essays 125

Structure-the basic essay format 126
Addressing the question 126
Structure-introductions and conclusions 131
Demonstrating understanding 134
Developing an argument 136
Developing your argument from the essay title 137
Using and evaluating evidence in your essays 138
Checklist 139
References 140
viii CONTENTS
14 Writing practical reports: how to write up an experiment 141

What are psychological reports? 141
Abstract 142
Introduction 143
Methods 146
Results 150
Discussion 154
References 155
Appendices 156
Qualitative versus quantitative reports-what’s the difference? 156
Checklist 158
References 158
15 Presentations and posters 159
Presentations-standing up in front of people and talking to them intelligently 159
Posters—presenting your work with minimal talking to people! 169
Checklist 176
16 Revision and exam tips 177
Tips for helping you remember course material 177
Active revision versus passive revision 179
Different revision methods 179
Doing past papers is like doing practice exams, practice makes perfect! 183
Tackling different question types 184
Coping with stress during exam periods 187
What to do after the exam 189
And finally-common sense tips 189
Checklist 191
Reference 191
Answers to exercises 193

Index 205
About the online resources
OXFORD
UHivt.HtiiT rirt> u-- '»f-
STUDYSk:lls„ VANESSA
PARSON
COMMUNICATION PSYCHOLOGY
Description
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Study and Communication Skills for Psychology doesn't end with this printed book. Visit the
book's online resources at www.oup.com/uk/parson2e/ to find a range of materials, pre
pared by the author and grouped by chapter, to help you master the concepts presented
throughout the book.
The extra materials include:

• Exemplar essays and lab reports to help you see how to implement the guidance
given in the book
• Exemplar poster templates
■ Downloadable weekly timetable and academic calendar
■ Referencing exercises to help you practise what you have learned in chapter 9
Lecturers can also register for access to the following teaching materials:
• Figures from the book in electronic format, ready to download
■ Lecture slides covering academic misconduct awareness, essay writing, writing lab
reports, and giving presentations
• Handouts for use in class, covering various sections of the book
■ Additional referencing exercises
• 'Masterclasses' on written arguments, posters, and critical analysis
Introduction
What will I learn in this chapter?

® The difference between school/college and university
o How to become an independent learner
o Different learning strategies that will help on your journey towards getting
your degree
Over my years of teaching a few things have consistently frustrated me about why intelligent
undergraduates frequently fail to do as well as they are able to. Students who can verbally
communicate in an articulate way in class suddenly lose their communication skills when it
comes to written work, and cannot produce good, well-thought-out essays; students who
grasp the complexities of statistics beautifully are, for some reason, unable to get the refer
ence and methods sections of their written assignments correct. There are always a few who
perform well in all areas of the course, but there are many more who could do so much better
if only they had a better grasp of the basics required in psychology-basics such as accurate
referencing, setting out coherent arguments in essays, displaying critical thinking skills, and
demonstrating the ability to write well-formatted laboratory reports.
As an undergraduate, you have a lot to think about at university, and the subject matter
alone can pose many problems for students trying to retain so much information. The dif
ficulty you, as students, face is that no matter how much you know about a subject, and
no matter how much you write, you won't get good grades if you can't communicate your
knowledge and understanding effectively.
Knowing how to present information is a skill that you started to learn at school and college.
'Started to learn' is key here: you don't stop learning how to communicate when you leave
school or college. Instead, it is a skill that you need to continue to learn and improve upon if
you want to do well at university. There is no such thing as the perfect essay, report, or presen
tation; if you keep trying to do better every time you produce one, then you will continue to
achieve your potential while at university. Hopefully this book will enable you, as a psychol
ogy student, to fulfil your potential and produce work which accurately reflects your abilities.
Why do I need this book?

You will have acquired and developed many skills from your education so far (whether you
realize it or not!). However, every course and subject comes with its own fresh challenges
and requirements, and psychology is no exception. With this in mind, this book is designed to
2 STUDY AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR PSYCHOLOGY
help you manoeuvre your way through all the lectures, seminars, and assignments you will be
required to do throughout your studies in higher education. Many of you will have studied psy
chology before, written essays before, made posters, done presentations, and written reports.
In psychology, we place a large emphasis on doing these things correctly and in a specific man
ner. While you may already know the basics, there is no harm in revising and getting better.
Many universities have formal study and communication skills programmes in place,
while others have materials available for you to use more informally to learn the basics and
improve your study skills. All of these resources and programmes are of a high standard, and
you should take advantage of whatever your university provides. However, the term 'study
skills' is a fairly generic one, and different degree programmes at different universities vary in
terms of what is, and what isn't, covered. By contrast, this book seeks to bring some cohesion
to the development of study skills by bringing together in one place the various aspects of
these skills taught in psychology programmes at different universities, helping all students to
learn the key requirements for psychology to the same high level. This text should comple
ment any study skills course your institution has to offer, and will provide you with a helpful
resource throughout your studies at undergraduate level.
In addition, a lot of the skills covered in this book aren't applicable only to undergradu
ate study. They are just as valuable post university: they are a collection of transferable skills
which you will be able to apply to most of the jobs available once you have a degree.
How is university different from school?

Students typically find university challenging, as it is the first time they are responsible for
their own learning. There are numerous routes to university, but they all involve clearly
directed learning where students are taught from a highly prescribed teaching specification.
Consequently, there is limited opportunity for elaboration and independent learning: what
ever you do is organized and monitored by those teaching you.
It doesn't take a first year undergraduate long to realize that the university experience is quite
different. There is no longer anyone telling you when to do work, or what bits you should learn
next—and nobody chases you up if you miss one lecture. Now you are learning to learn inde
pendently. It is now your responsibility to work as hard as you like in order to pass the course.
This can be quite intimidating at first, and it can be very confusing to be suddenly expected
to navigate a large campus, your online timetable, the virtual learning environment, and the
different styles of classes you'll be faced with. You will get used to it, and while you do there
are staff available to help you. If you're unsure of something, make sure you ask a member of
your department, who will be more than happy to direct you as necessary. You will probably
have a personal tutor allocated, so make sure you go and see them regularly if you need to.
The importance of being an independent learner

It's all very well saying that you now have to become an independent learner, but students
are often confused about why this is the case. After all, you are paying for an education, so
why are the lecturers not teaching you more often and why are you set so much to do by
INTRODUCTION 3
yourself? The answer is a simple one. Beyond university, you will no longer be in a position
where you are told what to do, what to find out, and how to do it. Employers will be looking
fora series of specific skills from anyone with a degree, and, no matter what the nature of the
business you go into, they will expect independent learning to be one of those skills. While at
university, you need to learn to run your learning by yourself or you will struggle when you
get into the workplace. Psychology is a particularly good subject when it comes to including
a wide variety of transferable skills within its remit; it is up to you to take advantage of the
opportunities for learning these skills while at university.
It would probably help here to define what independent learning is. An independent
learner is someone who can work out for themselves what information they need to solve a
particular problem or answer a question. They can then find it, understand, and assimilate
it, apply it to the problem at hand, then report back on that information in relation to the
current problem, and find answers which allow conclusions to be drawn about a particular
topic. All psychology courses will teach you how to do this by the time you leave. The only
thing you have to do is be motivated to work hard by yourself as well as in structured class
time. Throughout this book, I make reference to the fact that you don't do a degree, you read
for a degree. This tells you what you need to be doing to improve: to read information. A
multitude of sources will be provided for you on reading lists throughout your degree, but
these are only ever a guide. The best students read materials outside these lists, which they
have found themselves.
What we try to teach you at university-beyond the material you need in order to get your
degree-is how to be an independent learner: howto accomplish your tasks and assignments
to the best of your ability. In this way, you will then be prepared when you enter the work
place as a psychology graduate.
Learning strategies
There are actually only two primary learning styles—deep learning and surface learning.
Deep learning is active, it requires engagement with the material, and you need to do
some thinking in order to learn the information. Surface learning is just memorizing facts
and recalling them on demand. Unfortunately, your life pre-university involves too much
surface learning, and this is something you need to recognize in order to do well at uni
versity. Throughout this book there will be information that helps you develop a deep and
active learning style. (We will cover learning how to learn in much of the rest of this book.)
There are many learning strategies out there, but the most common one undergraduates
use, is the one they used at school or college-show up and allow the tutor to lead them
through all they need to know to pass the exams. This isn't how we teach at university, so we
need you to do more for yourselves. Learning at university is all about independence and
activity, so instead of attending lectures and hoping everything is there for you, you will need
to do a bit more preparation.
There is more information on this in Chapter 3, but this will usually mean reading articles
or book chapters before you get to classes, doing some research, answering some questions,
or simply printing off handouts and making sure you know what the class is about; prepara
tion is key at university, and you'll get much more out of your degree if you prepare.
Time management: a skill best learned early

There will be many students who are good at time management, but I for one was not one of
them. So, if, like me, you always seem to be running to catch up despite the best intentions
and motivations, you will probably find the chapter on time management useful. However,
all students can benefit from improvement in the skills which will help them get work done
on time and to a standard that reflects their ability.
Many of you will find the first few weeks at university hugely confusing. You have a time
table you don't understand, assignments you can't fathom, and you can't work out how to
write down everything a lecturer says when they are talking to you. On top of all this, there are
people telling you about what social events are happening in the evenings, all of which sound
far more interesting than the preparation you don't understand for the seminar in which you
don't want to speak to people you don’t yet know. Many of you will be able to juggle all the
things you need to do as well as all the things you want to do. However, some of you may
find the distractions too great, while others may eschew the distractions in favour of working
night and day on their studies.
The best way to get through university is to get organized. This way you will have time to
study and have fun (the two things are not mutually exclusive!). None of your lecturers will
expect you to study around the clock, and none will exhibit any surprise should you appear
a little bleary-eyed the morning after the local ‘students' night' in town, although they may
be a little cross if you don't show up at all! The chapter on time management is one that you
should read very early on: it will give you lots of tips on how to get organized, so that you can
make the most out of your studies and your time at university.
A final word
This book is not designed to be read cover to cover, although I have some students who
have done just that and found it useful. There are some chapters that you will not need to
read until your course introduces the concepts involved: for example, you won't need the
chapter on laboratory reports until you need to write one. You should treat this book as a
resource you can dip in and out of whenever you need it. There are also online resources
which you can use to practise the skills presented in this book, in addition to the activities
and exercises given in the book itself. (Further details about the online resources are given at
the very start of the book, on page xii.) As I've said, the concepts here are skills to be learned
or improved upon, so when you read a chapter I do advise you try the exercises provided.
The old adage 'practice makes perfect' is a true one-if you do something more often, you
really do get better.
Your time at university should be rewarding and fun-hopefully this book will help ease
some ofthe tension you will feel about not always knowing what is required of you while you
are studying. I wish you the best of luck in your studies and I hope this book helps.
Time management: a skill
best learned early
£7^ What will I learn in this chapter?
• How to organize your time effectively

• Tricks to help you organize your time better
• How tojuggle work with having fun and relaxing
All students start off their university career with the best intentions: you will all be thinking
you will get all of your studying done, and have a great social life at the same time. Then, every
year, thousands of students end up rushing around, finding that they are late for assignment
hand-in dates, unprepared for classes, finding the book they wanted is already checked out of
the library and going out every night, then wondering why they're behind in their study and
haven’t done the reading. There are many ways to avoid this situation: hopefully this chapter
can ensure that you are never late for an assignment again, that you do manage to get that
book from the library, you are prepared for classes and you do manage to find that elusive
work-life balance which is right for you.
I will use the word 'term' during this chapter as UK universities work on three basic terms
even when the academic year itself is split into two semesters. The semesters begin at the
start of the year and each includes 50% of the teaching load for your year. The vacations relate
to traditional holiday periods and so are used to split the year into the three terms. The exams
usually come either at the end of each semester or at the end of the year, but these do not
relate to when the vacations are, meaning you should expect to do revision in the 'holiday'
periods. So, if you have two exam sessions for your course, the first set of exams will fall just
after the Christmas vacation, and the second set of exams will fall a few weeks after the Easter
vacation. If you just have one exam session, then this will most likely fall in the exam period a
few weeks after the Easter vacation.
Time management is a term bandied around by people from all walks of life, professionals
and academics alike. It is also a term you will have heard before, so you've probably got a
pretty good idea about what it means: managing your time effectively so you get everything
done. It is all very logical; essentially the idea is that you probably shouldn't watch the Star
Wars movies back to back when you have an essay deadline the next day. However, there's
a bit more to it than that. As a student you will have different workloads at different times
of the year, and there will be many different requirements made upon you with minimal
supervision. The result is that you have a big and scary pile of work during term time and no
orders from lecturers other than to 'get it done'. The situation is even more difficult outside
term time: there is reading to do but term feels like months away so it gets put to one side
and forgotten about. The end result is that even those organized individuals with the best
intentions in the world are not always up to date with reading and assignments. However, it
is relatively easy to keep on top of your workload, as long as you keep track of everything you
are doing-and this includes when you're going to the pub as well as when the next assign
ment is due!
Term time juggling

During term time, you have a lot of individual courses to take, with assignments for each,
tutors to see, and reading lists to get through. It can feel like there is a mountain of work to
do when all you want to do is socialize with your friends who all seem to have finished their
work. If you add in time for any paid jobs you do, time to sleep, meeting your tutor and study
group, going to the supermarket, doing the household chores, etc., it can feel as if there are
not enough hours in the day. We'll cover the more obvious things shortly, but we'll cover the
counter-intuitive stuff first: visual cues and aids are as relevant to time management as is the
tip that you probably shouldn't spend all day every day in the pub drinking if you want to get
your work done!
Visual cues and aids to time management

1. Write things down clearly
Do you remember the student at school who used lots of different coloured pens in their
work and always wrote everything down? There are several of these in every school, and
they are rarely the ones who forget to do their homework and don't know what's going on.lt
may seem like common sense, butjust writing down what you need to do is a good first step
towards getting your assignments done on time. However, writing down what you need to do
on a scrap of paper which then ends upon the floor or in the bin is self-defeating and won't
help at all. Make sure you write down what you need to do in a diary, on your notes from class,
or put it in your smartphone if you have one.
• If you forget to write things down, make sure you know where to look so you can find
the information later on. Many a student hour has been lost looking for information
which tells them what they should be doing. If you know where to get information about
courses, assignments, and reading lists, then you won't waste time rushing around trying
to find things.
2. Get a diary
Most academic diaries have spaces for timetables, assignment dates, and notes pages. They
also span the academic year (rather than the calendar year), so you don't need to find another
diary and transfer all the information in it everyjanuary. Once you have a diary you need to
make sure you actually check it regularly: a diary that you don't open isn't much good.
TIME MANAGEMENT: A SKILL BEST LEARNED EARLY 7
3. Wall planners-big poster diaries for your wall
Did you get an academic wall planner among the various pieces of paper you got at reg
istration? Wall planners are much better than any facilities provided by electronic gadgets
because the information is there all the time in front of you—you don't have to consciously
look for it. There are various things that work well with wall planners:
• Colours-this is where highlighter pens come into their own. Take tips from the students
at school who used different colours for their notes. Using brightly coloured pens to
highlight when you have assignments is a really good way of not forgetting them.
• Crossing days off as you go past them. This is a bit like a countdown until the holidays,
which always feels nice; in practice, though, it helps you keep track of what day you're
on. This way, you'll be able to work out how much time you've got to do the assignments
you've highlighted in bright colours.
• Don't just block out the vacation/holidays as 'free time'. While you're at university you
do actually have to do some academic studying outside of term time, so you should not
assume that a third of your year is actually vacation/holiday. Even though many of you will
use time outside of term for paid employment, you will need to try to find some time to do
reading necessary for your course. As we covered in the introduction (and will cover again
throughout the book) you read for a degree—you don't get taught every tiny thing, so you
have to find some things out for yourself through reading the material you're directed to.
4. Gadgets, smartphones, and watches
While wall planners might be great for keeping track of workloads, most students are outside
their roomsfor a good deal of their time at university, so another method of keeping track of
what is going on is by using phones, smartphones, and watches. Having reminders set up in
the calendar on your phone/smartphone is a good way to not forget to hand in assignments
and, if you can be bothered to programme them all in, when your lectures are. Alarms can
also be programmed into some watches, although this is more a daily method and is not as
useful as the phones/smartphones available.
Fitting everything in
The number of taught hours you have at university will vary according to your institution and
which stage of your studies you are at. However, whatever the taught content of your degree,
there is a significant proportion of non-contact content which needs to be fitted in as well as
the contact teaching time, be that preparation for classes, going through your notes, or doing
the extra reading on the topics taught. As a general rule, around twice as much non-contact
time is necessary for successful completion of your course than contact teaching time.
Working out how to fit everything in can be a challenge, as the majority of people enter
ing university have always had their timetables worked out for them at school. However,
it's straightforward enough: you just have to be prepared to: (a) study outside lecture times
during the day, and (b) stick to a timetable you produce.
Making your own timetable

It's unlikely that your timetable will change much on a weekly, or biweekly, level, so making
your own timetable is a really useful tool in helping you manage your time effectively. The
idea is that you create a grid that represents the hours in the day, and fill in all your lectures,
seminars, tutorials and so on. Then you fill the remaining space during the day with the pri
vate study hours you need to do. If you treat these times as official study hours, just like in
school or at work, then you will keep on top of your studying and not fall behind, plus have
plenty of time to have fun.
It is important to schedule time off in your timetable too. Having fun and relaxing is impor
tant, not just because it's part of life at university, but also because if you study all day every
day you will burn out—you will be too tired mentally to study efficiently. If you have nothing
planned on a night you have scheduled off, try to relax instead of study. As long as you have
been sticking to your timetable you will find you have plenty of evenings free to do with
as you please. How much time you schedule as free time and how much as study time will
depend on the stage of your university career: first year students will have significantly more
free time than final year students.
Last minute changes
It is all very well planning your study times and making a schedule, but everyone knows
that best laid plans frequently go wrong. It is highly likely that something will come up
suddenly on an evening on which you'd planned to study so that you want to go out
instead-for example, on someone's birthday. You have three choices here: first, you could
stick to your timetable and stay in; second, you could go out but move that evening's study
to another day when you would ordinarily have gone out; finally, you could get your work
done quickly and then go out afterwards. Which option you choose will depend on the
situation you face. For example, if it's your friend's birthday and you have an assignment
due the next day which you've almost finished, you would choose option three and meet
them a little later after you've finished your assignment, but if you haven't started you
probably ought to choose option one and go out another time. If you've no assignments
due then my advice would be to pick option two, mark it clearly on your timetable and
work out when to do the work you'd planned to do, then go out and have fun.
Weekends
Weekends pose a problem for most students, as typically most will go out and relax. Unfor
tunately, this means they then panic on Monday morning as they didn't manage to do the
studying they needed to do. One solution to this is to keep the equivalent of one day free
over the weekend, so that you study for two half-days, but have the afternoons and evenings
free. Another solution is to study for one day and then have the other day off. Finally, a third
option is to study alternate weekends: so one weekend you prioritize studying, and the next
weekend you prioritize socializing.
Vacation juggling
The term 'vacation' makes more sense at university than the more commonly used term
'holiday'. The word 'holiday' conjures up images of sandy beaches, and relaxing by a pool; in
other words, it is not a word that is synonymous with doing a great deal of work. The word
'vacation' however, is better as it simply means a break from whatever it is you do on a typical
day (in your case, going to lectures). This makes it much easier to visualize doing some study
ing while you're away from university.
Work it out before you go
It helps to have an idea about what you want to accomplish in the vacation between each
term at university—whether that be revision, reading or the completion of assignments.
Whatever you plan to do in each vacation you need to work it out before you go: if you need
any resources or help from tutors the best time to act is at the end of term rather than after
the vacation has started. Unlike students, if academics are away in vacation time it means
they're generally taking annual leave and this probably does mean a holiday, so you cannot
guarantee a response from your tutors during vacation periods. If you get information before
the vacation then you won't waste valuable hours of your vacation hunting for information
in order to do your work.
o REVISION: make sure all your notes are up to date and you have all the books you
need.
« READING: make sure you have as much of the reading lists as possible printed out
or saved on your computer. You may not be able to access some of the material on
it outside of term time, particularly if you live a considerable distance from your
university.
• ASSIGNMENTS: ensure you know what you are supposed to be doing and by when; We discuss
make sure you get all the required reading, and check you understand the assessment assessment
criteria in
criteria. If you have any doubts about an assessment then find your tutor before you go: Chapter 5.
they can help with any problems you may have and ease potential frustration with non
comprehension during the vacation.
Get back what you need
Most students lend their notes and books to friends on their courses. However, if you live
a long way apart during vacations, it can be very frustrating when you forget to get them
back before you head off on vacation. So, make sure you collect back anything you need
for that particular vacation before you go. If you're someone who has borrowed material
from a friend and needs to return it, make sure you make notes of what you need and
give it back to them: you don't want to be the subject of resentment at the start of the
next term!
Plan time to have fun!
During your vacation, make sure you work out how long you need to complete the tasks you
have set yourself. This will vary according to what you want to achieve, but you should always
factor in some time for rest and relaxation as well. Contrary to student mythology, lecturers
at university do not expect you to study your socks off throughout your vacation time: they
do expect you to rest. Nobody can perform at their highest level and achieve their potential
if they are worn out and tired. By the end of a term everyone is tired, including the lecturers,
and everyone needs a break.
A large number of you will be in paid employment over vacation periods, some of you
may have children who are also on vacation, so you'll need to use the same tools as in term
time to make sure you get your academic study done but also have chance to relax and
have some time off. There are many possible methods for making sure you are well rested
while also completing your study schedule by the time you return to university. There are
two aspects to yourvacation: work time (academic and paid employment) and holiday time.
Depending on what commitments you have, you will need to work out a schedule where you
spend some of your vacation time in 'work mode' and some of your vacation time in 'holiday
mode'. The way in which you approach academic study over the vacation period is a matter
of personal preference: if you are not sure what may suit you best then try these different
methods in turn and see which works best for you. For all of these options, if you're in paid
employment, factor that in as well, and follow the gist of the methods given here. If you are in
paid employment over the vacation periods, it is especially important to make sure you factor
in some relaxation time as well as study time.
• Sacrificing 50% of your holiday to study, preferably the first 50%. If you wait until the end
of your vacation to work you'll never get started! If you calculate how long you have off
and then spend the first half working, you have the remainder to do what you like with.
For example, if you have a four-week break, spend the first 14 days getting all your study
done that you need to do, and then you have the remaining two weeks to rest and relax.
This is rather a difficult option and requires a lot of willpower: others will want you to
go out and spend time with them now you are on 'holiday'. This method is particularly
advised for when you have assignments to complete.
• Spend a few hours each day studying and relax for the rest of the day. This method is
most useful when revising or trying to get through a reading list. Work out a timetable
of what you are doing on which day and make sure you do it. A few hours each morning
are generally more productive when you're revising as you don't get too fatigued or
distracted. Make sure you set your alarm: if you oversleep too much, you'll lose out on
study time and end up not having enough time to do it. With this method it is easier to
do study in the mornings: you then have all afternoon and evening to do what you like.
If you oversleep every day and then do three hours' work, you'll feel like you're spending
all your vacation studying. At this point you'll end up taking days off because you need
a break. A little discipline, and an effective alarm clock, will give you back your holiday
time without encroaching on your study time.
• When you go on holiday, take reading material with you. If you will be spending time by
a pool or on the beach, take reading material with you: get a tan while you study! If you
can't study in the heat, spend an hour in the morning/evening studying and then relax
the rest of the time. It is important with this method not to aim to do more than around
an hour a day: you're on holiday and if you end up studying all the time, people you are
on holiday with will resent it, plus you'll wonder why you bothered to come on holiday
in the first place!
Whatever method you employ during the vacation to get your study done, make sure you
take the first weekend of your vacation off to rest and catch up with friendsand family. Unless
you have had the easiest term ever, there is no way you can launch straight into studying hard
without some form of rest. A weekend where you sleep and socialize will rejuvenate you for
the study plans you have during the rest of the vacation.
Anyone who celebrates religious holidays should factor those into their schedules, and
those who aren't particularly religious will probably want to take into account traditional
national holidays such as Christmas and New Year.
Extra help for exam season

During the exam season, which does include Christmas/Easter holidays, you will want to
be extra strict with yourself. Most of the time management tips here involve how you stay
focused and approach these times of the year, and how you organize your time.
It is particularly difficult when revision time starts during vacation time. Try to be realistic
about revision, but try to employ the tips listed earlier about having a break and not studying
all the time. If you treat revision like a job, in other words 9am to 5pm, you'll find you get a
lot done and still have time to relax, so it will still feel like you've had a holiday. It is likely that
exams will not start up the moment you get back to university, so it is as well to get a break
first and then you can launch into revision full time feeling refreshed and eager to do well.
Don't get bored!
After you've been studying and revising for a while you start to suffer from a lack of focus. If
you realize you've been staring at the same page for the last 15 minutes and don't remember
reading a word of it you should probably take a break from that particular topic and move on
to something fresh.
The problem many people have when they take a break is that they spend too long having
that break and never quite get back to studying—they assume that they have done enough for
the day and their brain is 'tired'. This is not the case: the brain does not get 'tired' as such; all
it wants is a change. What you should do is take a break for as long as it takes to have a com
fort break or make a cup of tea, then go straight back to studying-but on a different topic.
If you are 'zoning out' (daydreaming and thinking of anything but revision, or simply staring
at something without thinking) you are bored-and bored people don't work. If the brain is
bored it does something about it in the form of daydreams.
The trick is not to get bored. If you are really interested in something you can spend all
day quite happily doing it, but if you're not interested in a topic then every moment you
spend reading about it will be incredibly hard work! As I say above, the trick is to change
topic regularly. You should never try to spend an entire day on just one subject. This rarely
works for anyone. Spend an hour on a topic and move on: you can always come back to
it later on or even alternate two topics throughout a day. However you manage it, change
is as good as a rest where the brain is concerned. So, make sure you write your schedule
with that in mind.
How to organize revision around exams
Organizing revision around exams can be problematic for students: there are multiple
exams happening at different times, all with different material to be learned. The most
important tip is that when you have an exam, only revise the material for that particular
exam the half-day beforehand. This becomes a little more difficult when you have two
exams on one day. In this situation allocate half of one day to each exam, in the order in
which you'll take the exams, as shown in Figure 2.1. There is a good reason for this: if you
revise in the same order then you will find it easier to remember information in that order.
The white spaces in between exams and revision that you'll see in Figure 2.1 can be used
for eating lunch and allowing yourself time to adjust to a new topic. The white space in the
evening before the exams indicates that an early night is necessary! This will be covered in
more detail in the section on revision tips.
Don't panic!
Many students panic at the volume of information they are expected to assimilate. Unfortu
nately, though, this is counterproductive. The more stressed you are, the less productive your
revision will be and the less you'll remember. It is much better to go into revision thinking 'It
© will all be fine, I'll get it all done eventually' even if you can't see how that can happen. At least
this way you have a chance to optimize your revision process. A small amount of stress is good
Templates for a for us and is a great motivator; but a large amount of stress is something that will only hinder
weekly timetable
and an academic your revision by making you uncomfortable mentally and will lead to panic. If you do start to
wall-planner can be panic, try to remind yourself that you like your course and that you chose it because you were
downloaded from interested in the subject matter: at this point it is hardly an arduous task to read about a topic
the online resources
www.oup.com/uk/ you enjoy. There are plenty of revision tips in Chapter 16 which should help you reduce your
parson2e/ stress levels considerably.
......... TKJJUI
__ *
’I i !> ft>) r' I I r ■ ??«''/|ij f®
I
Figure 2.1: Revision schedule option when you have two exams on one day.
Checklist
Check you've understood the key points covered in this chapter by seeing if you can answer
the following questions:
• Can you name at least three ways to manage your time effectively?
• What are they and how do they work?
• Why should you call breaks between terms at university vacations instead of holidays?
o What should you do when you start to 'zone out' while studying?
o How should you manage your time during term time?
• How should you manage your time during vacations?
• What extra things should you remember during exam time?
Teaching time: making the
most of it
What will I learn in this chapter?

• How to get the most out your contact time with your lecturers
• Effective note-taking
• Where class information and materials are stored
• What directed and independent study actually are (and why they're really
important)
• Why reading is so important to your degree
Teaching time is a very important part of your time at university: the lecturers and tutors
are there to guide you in your learning and help you achieve your potential. Note that I've
used the word 'guide' in that sentence; there is no 'spoon-feeding' at university, no passive
absorbing of information. You are expected to participate in your education now rather than
simply learn everything you are told, and should expect your learning to be active.
Lecturers and tutors put a lot of effort into producing your taught material, and it is in
your best interests to make the most of this. It's easy enough to turn up and sit through your
lectures and seminars; many students go to lectures, listen, and write down notes based
on the slides and most of what is said by the lecturer. Then they leave that topic, never to
return to it until they need the information for assignments or exams. At this point, their brief
notes provide, at best, a superficial coverage of the material-and certainly less detail than is
needed for achieving a good grade in assessments. To close this gap in detail, there is then a
whole pile of extra reading to do during exam preparation, when what you should be doing
is consolidating what you have already learned throughout the course. A few small, easy
steps, between the lecture and the exam as outlined below can prevent this, and lead to you
getting better marks.
What's the point of lectures?

The point of a lecture is fairly obvious on the surface. The lecturer is there to tell you infor
mation about the subject you are studying you don't already know. The mistake that stu
dents frequently make is to assume that this lecture contains all the information on a topic
area. This is a mistake because the lecturer cannot possibly hope to include every piece
of information about any given subject area with the time allotted to them. A lecture is,
TEACHING TIME: MAKING THE MOST OF IT 15
therefore, just the highlights and key information of a particular topic. This means that you
need to gather other information to gain a fully rounded view of the topics covered, and this
is where small group teaching time and private study come in. We'll cover these shortly, but
first we'll concentrate on lectures themselves.
How do you write everything down that fast?
Quite simply, you cannot write down everything the lecturer says during the lecture, so you
need to make shortened notes to make sure you get all the key information down. It is a
fairly common observation from lecturers that students, generally, do not take notes effec
tively. As a rule, you rarely get the opportunity to learn to take notes before university. This
is unfortunate as effective note-taking is the only way to get all the key information down
during a lecture.
Effective note-taking involves writing down the gist of what is being said rather than
recording every word, and using shorthand symbols that make sense to you—you can create
your own or use traditional ones—to ensure you capture the maximum amount of informa
tion (see Figure 3.1). This does mean that you need to go through your notes the same day as
the lecture in order to make sense of them-if you leave it for weeks and then come back to
them they will not make sense. You can only ever write down the gist of what a lecturer says:
it would be almost impossible to write down every word. A mistake students often make is
to write down information that is on the slides provided by the lecturer-information which
is frequently provided after the lecture via the university VLE (virtual learning environment),
for example Blackboard or Moodle, and which is only a small part of the information we
give you in lectures. If you find it helpful to write out what is on handouts and slides, then
that's great, but you should do this after lectures rather than during. Sometimes information
doesn't sink in just from reading, most of you will find that you need to write and use the
information in order to make sense of it. Taking notes in lectures on what is said and then
revisiting those notes afterwards and expanding them provides a really good opportunity
for you to embed this information into your memory (see Figure 3.1). This essentially means
that you'll be doing revision from lecture 1, giving you a huge advantage when you come to
exam time.
It is also possible to record the lecture. Forthose of you who write more slowly than average, it
might be useful to invest in a Dictaphone. There are also phone apps for creating audio record
ings that you can also use (which lecturers like, as it means your phone is safely at the front with
us and not distracting you from our lectures!). Ideally, Dictaphones should be digital so you can
put the files straight onto your computer. Most lecturers do not mind being recorded while they
talk, but make sure you ask them first. Some lecturers may already be recording their lectures
and uploading them to your VLE, in which case this step is not necessary.
A word about computers and digital learning
Many of you will use computers and tablets during your classes, and with the newer apps and
technology available it is becoming increasingly easy to use digital technology to write notes
instead of writing them by hand. However, much as these devices are incredibly useful and
helpful to students everywhere, you do need to make sure that, at least sometimes, you take
(a) Notes as they would be taken in the lecture

Common words
Copvtioo ad Enotroo can be easily
--------------
abbreviated-but
try to tell yourself
Ptycbe poort E- oonst&tt or cooptfeateo cap# fepp what they mean at
E~ to cootrd/prdot/axafyse. the start of your
notes
It’s easy to EcoopPcates aiooeo
abbreviate
some words: we do
it all the time in text ------- Deft of E
messages and - affect = +poefs
emails. Use this to
- effect - Mnipotatdeometkeitp e£e
your advantage to
save time in - E= Irief/iietejtoe./tcaiea'eAt
lectures. - otoocf/state> - focp tadti/tp/fo# fateetsitp
(b) Notes as they would be written out later
Cognition and Emotion
Most psychologists ignore the concept of emotion,

they attempt to keep emotional states constant
because it complicates the experiment, in particular
the IV. Emotion makes things difficult to control,
predict and analyse. Emotion complicates science
Definitions of types of emotions

> Affect is our method, emotions and preferences
> Effect is how something is manipulated by
something else
> Emotion is the relatively brief and intense
experiences, typically transitory
> Mood/State is the lower intensity but more
prolonged experienced
Figure 3.1: Example of note-taking.
notes the 'old-fashioned' way and use pen and paper. There is an increasing amount of evidence
that writing using traditional methods aids our learning and understanding of material. There
are no differences in speed for taking notes in either method, but with digital note-taking stu
dents typically transcribe what is being said rather than reframing the information into a format
that makes sense to them, and it is this latter process that aids deep learning (Holt, 2016; Muel
ler & Oppenheimer, 2014). The lecturers providing the material during classes are giving you an
outline of a topic, so reframing the key points in a manner which makes sense to you encourages
you to understand this material and, as a result, make connections with other elements of the
topic. This is the bit we're trying to facilitate when you're in class, it's not about rote learning of
material, you need to see the links and connections to other sections of the course and learn
how a topic fits in with the subject as a whole. Just the simple process of writing notes during a
lecture instead of typing them can help you do this and benefit your learning in the longterm.
Handouts-before and after the lecture

The availability of handouts will vary between institutions and lecturers, but you will have
access to them at some point, usually before the lecture starts. Occasionally, lecturers feel you
would not be quite as attentive if you already have the notes in front of you, so they don't
provide them until after the lecture. By contrast, others feel that you benefit from not having
to write as much down. Either way, there are good reasons for when a lecturer provides their
handouts, but they will provide them and you will have access to them at some stage. Generally,
I think it is better that handouts are provided after a lecture: students do concentrate more if
they do not have pre-prepared notes in front of them, and they are also not going to be reading
ahead before the lecturer has finished making the point they're trying to make.
The form these noteswill come in varies, but generally you'll find that PowerPoint slides are
provided in handout form (see Figure 3.2), but this will therefore mean that only bullet-point
notes are provided. In the example provided, you can see that there is minimal information
about the topic (face perception in the example provided here): there are not as many details
There is a basic outline

of the ideas of the
researchers-the
Bruce and Young (1986) lecturer covers the detail
Face processing is made up of

3 functions
1. Perception of facial expression
2. perception of familiar faces
3. Perception of unfamiliar faces
Bruce and Young (1986)
A diagram doesn't make

much sense on its own—
you'll need to listen
carefully to the
explanation given in the
lecture before it makes
complete sense
Figure 3.2: Example of PowerPoint slides and notes.

You can see that there is

minimal detail in these
notes. The lecturer will
have provided the rest
of the information
Monocular Visual Cues during the lecture.
Interposition (occlusion/overlap)—This is where one object obscures
another from full view.
Aerial perspective (atmospheric perspective)—Objects which are

further away appear less clearly than those closest to you.
Shading and lighting—tn natural situations light comes from above,

a constant with which the visual system bases its judgements of
depth perception.
Elevation—Objects which are further away tend to appear higher in

the visual field than those which are closer to us.
Linear perspective—As objects stretch away from us they are

made up of appear to converge and come together.
Texture gradient—Most surfaces have a visible texture which

appears to be stretching away from us or towards us when the
surfaces are angled. There is no context to
these notes, so you need
Relative size—The distance between you and other objects varies, to make sure you see the
which means that the size of the objects on your retina varies. lecturer, and read the
textbook if you cannot
attend the lecture.
Figure 3.3: Example of typed notes.
as you would need for any assignments or exams you might get. This is because the lecturer
will only put headings and small details in slides, as they are verbally providing the rest of
the information. Generally, what you would be expected to do is to make notes on what the
lecturer was saying in addition to the PowerPoint slides, and then add to your notes after class
from your reading around the subject matter.
Slides are helpful as they show you the key issues that the lecturer would like you to focus
on. You can then use the slides to embellish your notes when you go through them after
the lecture, and they can also help in guiding your further reading. Sometimes you might
be given abbreviated notes of what your lecturer has said if they haven't used PowerPoint
(see Figure 3.3).
Asking questions-when is it okay to do so?

It is always acceptable to ask questions. As one of my lecturers once said to me, 'There is
no such thing as a stupid question.' As long as you are listening and paying attention, you
will find that lecturers do not mind being asked to rephrase or clarify points if you didn't
understand them. You should never feel that you cannot ask a question. If you don't want to
ask your question within the lecture scenario, then write it down and ask them at another
time. This could be after the lecture while students are filing out, by email later on, or during
the lecturer's office hours.
It is worth noting that lecturers are generally not used to being simply interrupted (by
contrast, school students frequently simply interrupt their teachers whether they should or
not, and this practice occasionally spills over into higher education). The advice here would
be not to simply interrupt the lecturer: put your hand up and wait for them to address your
question when they are ready and are in a suitable place to pause their lecture. There are
many students in a single lecture, and only a few will want to ask questions during the lecture
itself: it is essentially impolite to interrupt the lecturer and disrupt the lecture.
Whereto find information if you miss the lecture

Obviously, it is best to go to every lecture, but sometimes justifiable absences are unavoidable.
In this case you need to find out what happened in the lecture, and the information that was
covered that you now need to look at. There are a few options here: borrow a friend's notes
or get the notes from the VLE.
Your friends are a good source of information about lectures, as they were there and expe
rienced first-hand what was said and what happened. This is helpful because no matter what
notes you get from other sources, they may not contain every single thing that happened in
the lecture (as we have already seen). ©
Most (if not all) universities subscribe to a VLE; it is where you can find all your course infor See Chapter 4 for
mation and lecture notes. It provides many other resources in addition, but these are covered more detail about
VLEs.
in the next chapter. The lecturer will upload the notes from the lecture, be they PowerPoint
slides or typed notes, either before or after the lecture. You will then be able to download
these if, for any reason, you have to miss a lecture. Some lecturers may even provide audio
or video files of the lecture, which means that you will be able to listen to the lecture and get
the benefit of the lecturer's expertise in explaining the tricky concepts you're learning. These
'podcasts' and videos are great if you get them, as you can listen to material many times and
hopefully increase your understanding.
It is even more important to review and expand on available notes if you weren't actually in
the lecture, as you've not listened to the information first-hand so you've got more ground to
catch up in terms of your understanding. If you do find you're struggling after looking at your
friends' notes and the information on the VLE, then you should go and see the lecturer in their
office hours to ask them to go through some of the material with you. They won't go through the
entire lecture again with you, but they will answer questions that you have about specific topics.
Small group teaching—tutorials and seminars

Small group teaching time is incredibly valuable time while at university, and you should
make sure you take as much advantage of this as possible. Generally, seminars allow you to
explore in greater detail the topics covered in lectures, and provide far more opportunity for
discussion and elaboration between students and lecturers. It is a very rich form of knowl
edge provision, and will always give you greater insight into the topics being covered.
Preparing for a small group teaching session
Obviously, it is always helpful to have been to the lecture associated with the small group ses
sion, as the session will be based on its content. Sometimes you will be given readings to do
before a session-for example, articles or specific passages in books. You may even be asked
to check out a website or two. Whatever you are asked to do prior to a small group session,
you should do it. Never assume that you'll pick up everythingyou need at the session; you will
only be able to make the most of it if you have read everything that came before it.
How to make the most of the session
It's easy to tell people to make the most of a teaching session, be it large or small group teach
ing time, but it is rare that the person you are telling fully understands what 'making the most
of the session' actually means. In practice, it means taking part in every activity, concentrating
throughout, and getting involved to the best of your ability. If you sit back and take a much
more passive role, you are much less likely to absorb any additional information, or under
stand more clearly the topics covered in lectures.
You probably won't be with your closest circle of friends in the session, and this can be
quite intimidating for many undergraduates in particular. However, you should make sure
you engage with and take a full part in, the session.
Interaction and being brave
This section is really for those of you who are not that happy to speak up in groups of stran
gers. Small group sessions generally involve talking in depth about topics with people you
barely know—a situation that fills many people with dread and fear, but one which you will
need to become familiar with for life outside of university.
To get the most out of the session you will need to conquer your fear and dive right in.
This is made significantly easier if you've been to the lecture and have read the notes prior
to attending: you will understand the concepts involved and have more confidence that you
can respond appropriately. Talking and listening go hand in hand. You will also find that it is
perfectly acceptable to ask other students, or the tutor, to clarify what they're saying if you
don't understand: if you aren't sure, then you can guarantee there will be other students who
feel the same. Nobody will expect you to understand everything first time: it is always okay to
ask for clarification if you're not quite sure.
Don't be afraid to contradict other people, even if there seems to be massive support for
their ideas. If you've read the background material and disagree with what they're saying,
then be brave and say so. (If nothing else, this may stimulate the tutor to explain something
in more detail so that, if you-or other members of your group-didn't quite understand
something (hence having different opinions) you might get that extra little bit of explanation
needed to help something make sense.) Equally, don't be afraid to support other people who
appear to have limited support within the group.
After teaching time is over-whatthen?

So, you've been to the lectures and seminars, so you must have learned all the lecturers want
you to learn. This would be the common assumption that students have of teaching time,
and it's a mistaken one. Teaching time is just the start of the process: there is a lot more to do
yet. Generally, only around one-third of your studies are spent actually being taught at uni
versity; these sessions produce notes which need embellishing. The other two-thirds of your
course requirements are described as either'directed learning' or'private study' (also known
as 'independent learning' or 'independent study').
Private study/directed learning
Around two-thirds of your course requirement is entirely up to you. Part of your studies at
university is actually to learn to motivate yourself to work independently. Some people find
this easier than others, but most people find this difficult initially. Your first year is probably
the most important year in terms of directed learning; it is this portion of your degree where
you learn what is expected of you during your time at university. Around halfway through
the second year, most students finally work out that they probably need to do significantly
more work than they have been doing. One of the aims of this book is to help you get a jump
on this, and prevent the delay in the realization of what is involved at university.
The main thing with directed learning is reading 'around' the subject matter of your cours
es. 'Reading around the subject' means reading the information provided for you, and then
finding additional information of your own, to supplement or augment what you've already
been told. You will find that you have a reading list for each module you are taught, alongside
which there will be various recommended readings for each lecture.
Many of you will find that the reading lists are split into 'essential' and 'recommended'. The
essential list will contain key textbooksand journal articles directly related to what is covered
in the lectures; it is from this list that your lecture materials will be drawn so it is very impor
tant that you read the contents of this list. You shouldn't need to buy every book on this list:
the university library is a much under-used resource. Some universities even have books from
reading lists available to read online, thus negating the problem of not being able to get hold
of a physical copy.
The contents of the ’recommended' list are more variable. Generally, this will contain books
and journal articles (these are original research studies and papers) that are linked to the
topic, but have not been used in the preparation of lecture material. It is a good idea to read
at least some of these. Try focusing first on the books as these will give you a general overview
of your topic area, and then move on to the journal articles, which will give you a lot more
specific detail about key aspects of the topic area.
Embellishing your notes
So, you've got your notes from your lectures, now you need to add to them. How do you go
about this? University study was traditionally called 'reading for a degree', which gives a clue
to what students were expected to do: students had to read a lot about a subject and be able
to answer questions and hold discussions based on what they'd read. University teaching has
not changed much, despite technological advances and new techniques of learning we pro
vide, and you are still expected to read a significant amount of material; the only difference
now is that you get considerably more help from lecturers.
A standard complaint from undergraduates when confronted with the concept of directed
and independent learning is; 'If it's not in the lecture, then we shouldn't be tested [examined]
on it.' Actually, what you get legitimately tested on while at university is everything you may
have been directed towards learning. So you should view directed study material as essen
tially containing a whole lot of examination material which you must learn for yourself. This
is how universities are able to test motivation. Those students who are motivated, and willing
to learn, are those who will do the directed reading and will then outperform those students
who just looked at the lecture material. If directed reading is not done, and additional reading
on lecture topics is not done, there is only one person at fault if the end test scores are lower
than desired-and it's not the lecturer who set the work in the first place.
When you flesh out your notes, you need to add in any material which the lecturer did not
cover. As we have already found, it is a mistake to think that the lecturer will coverall the mater
ial in class: they simply won't have time for this. Lecturers cover key points in their lectures,
but they may not have time to go through every key point of a theory: time constraints mean
that depth is sometimes sacrificed in favour of breadth. So, lots of detail is still in the books
for you to find, you can treat it as an academic treasure hunt. The 'map' is the lecture, and the
'treasure' of details is for you to find. Students are frequently confused as to how far in depth
they are supposed to go in their reading. This is a difficult one to answer, as students of differ
ent ability need different answers. The best tip I can give is to read the material provided and
try to understand the concepts you have been directed to by your lecturers as fully as you can.
We will try to provide material that will challenge you and make you think, but we won't rec
ommend any materials which are not suitable for your year group. However, there are some
additional recommendations for the different year groups:
• Year one: concentrate on the textbooks, then pad out your knowledge with the
recommended journal articles. You probably won't do a huge amount of journal article
reading in year one but you should definitely introduce yourself to it so that you are
ready to expand this in year two.
• Year two: you should be using books as a basis for your journal article searches now,
introducing more original material into your learning so that you can get more in-depth
knowledge of the topics.
• Year three and above: the main focus of your reading should be journal articles now,
textbooks should only be used sparingly as a 'check point' for topic details.
So, your job is to complete the task of finding out information forthat topic. If you do this
at the same time as you write out your notes from the lecture, you will find that you remem
ber much more later on; this process consolidates the information in your memory and aids
the integration of that single session into the topic you are studying. Generally, you will need
to look in the 'essential reading' section to find the books you need to flesh out your notes,
and then the 'recommended reading' to get an advantage in terms of understanding the
concepts involved.
Finding the rest of the information you need
It's easy to talk about reading lists, but most of you will probably be wondering where they
are. Generally, they are available in three places: in your course handbook, the lecture notes,
and the VLE. If you can't find your reading lists, then ask your lecturer: they will be thrilled to
provide you with a reading list!
Reading lists usually contain books and articles that will be available within the university
o
We discuss VLEs
in more detail
itself; you should not need to go outside, as most libraries make sure they have copies of in Chapter 4,
anything lecturers recommend to students. You may want to buy key textbooks so that you and will explore
have them at your disposal all the time. However, I would generally recommend that you wait the types of
information
a few weeks before doing this, just to make sure you know which books are really important, sources listed in
and which you should just borrow when you need them from the library. You could always reading lists in
Chapter 6.
team up with friends and split the books you need between you; this way you don't spend as
much but can have access when you have agreed this with your friends.
Reading around the subject—why is this important?
Reading helps to place the core information gathered from lectures in the context of the
wider subject of psychology: while an individual topic might make sense at the time of
the lecture, it is often difficult to see how it fits in with the rest of the literature as a whole.
Psychology is an integrated subject-it is made up of various themes (social, biological,
developmental, cognitive, etc.), which all come together to form the discipline as a whole.
When you study it, however, few courses integrate the themes and it's common for psy
chology to be taught as separate elements, which can give it a distinctly non-integrated
sensation. Each discrete module feels very different from every other module, making it
hard to feel as though you are studying a single subject. o
Reading in each topic area helps to expand and integrate your understanding of the infor We cover critical
analysis in
mation you're given, and embed it within the context of psychology as a whole. If you read
Chapter 12.
material that is linked with, but not directly relevant to, the module itself, you will find that your
understanding of psychology as a whole topic will improve, as will your sense of integration.
You will also find that your understanding of all the other modules will improve.
Checklist
• Why is university learning active rather than passive?

• What does 'reading for a degree' mean?
• And why is reading important?
• What is the difference between contact time and non-contact time?
• What should you do with the notes you've made during lectures once the lecture has
finished?
• When is it acceptable to ask your tutor questions?

• Where can you find lecture notes if you missed the lecture?
• What are the pros and cons of the different types of handout?
• And why should you always add to them?
• What should you do before small group teaching sessions?
References
Holt, R. L. (2016. 5 April). Can handwriting make you Mueller, P A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is
smarter? The Wall Street Journal. mightier than the keyboard: advantages of longhand
over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6),
1159-1168.
Communication and
learning with others
' ■) What will I learn in this chapter?

© What a virtual learning environment is, and what you'll find on it
© How online learning methods and social media can help support your learning
while at university
o How to get in touch with your lecturers and tutors
While you're at university the last thing you should try to do is to cope by yourself, without
looking for support from others, and from teaching and learning materials that are available
to you. There is a lot of information out there, and there are numerous resources provided to
help you find your way.
In this chapter, we'll focus on two general types of activity that you should engage with-
those that are delivered and carried out electronically (online), and those that are delivered
and carried out in other ways—that is, 'offline'. We will also consider activities that you can
undertake independently (as an individual), and those that should be undertaken with oth
ers. Much of the guidance given in this chapter focuses on the general theme of finding
information—helping you to track down what's likely to be most helpful to you from all the
different information sources that are out there.
Online learning as an individual: virtual learning

environments
All universities have Internet-based provision in place to help you access information relevant
to your course. However, the degree to which this happens varies from institution to institu
tion. The standard method is to provide a virtual learning environment (or VLE) that contains
information about lectures, assignments, and al! course information. If you use your univer
sity's VLE regularly, you will find that you are always up to date with the latest information.
Types of VLE
There are some major players in the VLE area that have been taken up across the country,
predominantly Blackboard and Moodle. Some universities may have systems developed by
in-house technicians that are based on other VLEs (for example Canvas at Sunderland). All
VLEs can be altered to fit the needs of the individual universities, and the in-house techni
cians will be in charge of it. Chances are the VLE where you are studying will be called some
thing other than Blackboard or Moodle, for example Hull has Portal and York has Yorkshare
(both versions of Blackboard).
Whichever VLE your university uses, you will become very familiar with it over the course
of your years with that university, and you can expect certain things to be provided for you.
A VLE makes the whole process of finding information at university far easier, as everything
is literally at your fingertips.
What you will find on a VLE
• Information about modules and assignments:

- Details of what your modules will cover, and what assignments will be about, usually in
a folder labelled with the name and code of the module.
- Timetablesand lists of'learning outcomes' that you should have achieved at the end of
the course.
- Along with this you will find out about your independent learning requirements for
your courses: what we expect you to do (in terms of independent studying).
• Reading lists:
- You should be able to access a list of materials you should be reading. This may be split
into 'essential', 'recommended', and 'suggested' lists. Start with the 'essential' reading and
work your way through the 'recommended' and then on to the 'suggested' reading lists;
this hierarchy indicates the relative importance of the individual items and, hence, the
order you'd be best to tackle them in. While you may want to buy copies of the key texts,
nobody expects you to buy all the items on the reading list; this is what the library is for.
- You may find that some items in the library are not available. However, if the item
you're looking for is a textbook, you don't necessarily have to wait until it's returned.
There are plenty of textbooks out there on the same topics; you've only been
recommended a particular one because the lecturer liked it. Other books on the same
topic will have very similar information in them, so just use one of those. It's probably
best to use the more recent editions of books though: if you find a book that's looking
rather old and faded, it's probably not a good idea to use the information in it, as most
likely it is out of date. (If you're uncertain, always check the copyright page at the front
of the book. This will tell you the year of publication, and will give you a sense of how
up to date (or otherwise) a particular edition is.)
• Announcements from lecturers regarding your modules:
- Your university will probably use various facilities within its VLE to provide
announcements to the students. These facilities can include pop-up information
panels, or highlighted information on your home screen; alternatively, your institution
may post colourful messages on the weekly list for your module. Whichever format
is used, the VLE will be the primary vehicle for highlighting any important changes.
These changes may include:
COMMUNICATION AND LEARNING WITH OTHERS 27
• Changes to lecture/seminar locations

• Any lecture or seminar cancellations
• Hints about assignments
• Important things to bring to seminars/lab classes
• Information about assignments
o For example any changes in deadlines and when marks are available
- Many universities are implementing systems to contact students via text message
or email when a lecture is cancelled, or information may be displayed on TV display
screens in the departmental corridors. Frustrating as this may be, use the time to get
some directed or independent study done in the library so that your time is not wasted
in the cafe or pub (unless you're discussing work over those coffees and pints, that is)!
® Lecture notes and PowerPoint slides:
- These may be uploaded before or after the lecture/seminar, depending on when the
lecturer is able to do so
- Occasionally you may find that some lecturers wait until the end of the module to
upload material rather than doing it on a weekly basis. This is because they want to
make sure you attend their lectures/seminars. However, the typical requirement is that
staff should upload material weekly in advance of taught sessions where possible.
o Seminar information and materials:
- Information such as articles to read prior to attending, or directions to particular

information that will be needed in the seminar itself
- It is important that you do these things prior to actually attending the seminar as the
session itself will usually be to discuss what you have read-something that is difficult if
only two people out of a larger group have done the reading.
Online learning with others: blogs and wikis

Blogs and wikis are methods of communicating and collaborating with other individuals. They
are both web-based concepts and are run and maintained by the individuals who use them,
without any outside interference. Ifyou set up a blog or a wiki then only you, and the individuals
you choose to share it with, can directly edit and update the information in it. Anyone will
be able to read it and comment, but they'll only be able to edit with your permission.
Creating a blog or a wiki is definitely one for the more technically minded individuals. If you
are still finding computers and the Internet a little daunting, then please feel free to skip this
section and read the rest of the chapter.
Blogs
A blog is simply a website, or part of a website, maintained by the user, where you can write
about your thoughts, have discussions, and upload material. Most blogs are text based and
can be used academically for having detailed discussions about aspects of a course or the
literature. They can be created by individuals, or existing ones can be utilized for a particular
purpose.
We discuss study A method of using blogs to help with your studies is linked with the idea of forming study
groups, and other groups. You can discuss assignments, specific reading material, or indeed any manner of
revision tips, in
Chapter 16. things related to your course in a blog. It's a bit like having an instant message conversation
with your entire group, in detail, while having constant access to the entire blog available so
you can see what has already been said.
Wikis
A wiki is essentially a web-based document-editing facility. Wikis of varying format are on
the Internet, and all serve the same purpose-to allow you to access and edit documents
with a group when you are all in multiple locations. Wikis are different from blogs in that you
can only access what you have permission to see, they're not open-viewing like blogs are. If
you want someone to be able to access material, you need to share it with them. Some of
the more popular ones are GoogleDocs and Skydrive, both of which have blog options built
into them so you can write notes to people working on the documents when you have time.
Dropbox, while not being strictly a wiki, is a facility whereby you can share access with desig
nated people to a folder of materials online. Of course, a Word document could serve as the
internal blog here so that a running commentary of your discussion is available; this is rather
more vulnerable to editing by individuals, however, and may not be the preferred choice.
A wiki is useful for group assignments as you can upload a document, give your group
access, and everyone can work on the document in their own time instead of trying to get
into university for meetings with the group. This method is particularly useful for those with
families or with jobs which take up a lot of their time. Internet-based access is available
around the clock, so group work can realistically be fitted in around life, rather than the other
way around.
All these are excellent facilities which make working in groups over distances a lot easier.
In universities today the norm is to have students from across the globe working and learning
together in one place. However, working together over vacation periods is rather more dif
ficult when your group is scattered across the UK or the rest of the world. Wikis and Dropbox
can aid this and make it considerably easier.
Online learning with others: social media

(Facebook and Twitter, etc.)
This chapter would not be complete without mentioning Facebook or Twitter. Most students
will use one or both of these and many universities are taking advantage of this. These social
communication tools were not designed as learning platforms, but they were designed as
communication and contact facilitation platforms, meaning that learning can occur if they
are used in the right way.
Many universities will have their own group on Facebook, membership of which is restrict
ed to university members; some departments will also have their own Facebook groups and
Twitter accounts. These groups are maintained by academic and technical staff within the
university, who are able to post announcements about everything from assignment informa
tion and announcements of results availability to notices about lecture cancellations and
date changes. You will also find interesting information about conferences and student meet
ings being posted, so you can feel really involved with your course and your university. Rather
than distracting you from your studies, Facebook if used in the right way, can actually aid
them and help you be on top of all the latest information. The same people who maintain
the Facebook groups will keep the Twitter feed going, typically with the same information.
In this way, information is directed at the majority of students who are at university and on
your course.
Snapchat and Instagram are rather more popular with students than staff, so it's unusual for
these to be utilized for student integration/information dissemination purposes. However,
some university departments do have staff able to use and maintain these groups, so if you
can't find the group easily within those social media sites, then ask your lecturers if they have
them. If groups or accounts don't already exist, you might find that staff are willing to set up
and maintain accounts within different social media sites.
If you're reading this and thinking that you don't use either, so how will you get this infor
mation, don't worry. All the information posted on social media sites will probably be posted
on noticeboards, display screens, and the VLE as well. Universities are increasingly reliant on
technology to communicate with students, so this is something that you will have to embrace
rather than shy away from. If you're less sure about technology it might be worth seeing if
there are any short courses and tutorials where you are studying so that you can make the
most of the resources available to you throughout your degree.
Online learning with others: discussion boards

Many VLEs have discussion boards where you can ask other students and lecturers questions.
Any distance learning course uses them a lot; they allow everyone to interact far more than
they would be able to otherwise. Discussion boards are fairly similar to blogs, except that they
are the domain of the university, so anyone with access to your module on the VLE can access
and comment on them. You will find that some lecturers monitor them, providing answers to
questions and removing unsuitable content.
Discussion boards generally work by someone posting a question and then other people
answering the question (see Figure 4.1). This creates what is known as a 'thread'. You can
search through existing threads to see if your question has already been asked, and answered.
As you go through your studies, and as you get more confident in your abilities and knowl
edge, you will find it easier to actually provide answers rather than asking the questions. They
are a great way of finding out information about assignments, many of you will get stuck on
what to include in your early assignments in particular. Posting a question on a discussion
board means other students and the staff involved with the assignment can look and you
can get answers to your questions very quickly, resolving any confusion. Of course, this is
only going to work if you use it early on, rather than waiting until the last minute to do your
assignments which, as we've already covered in Chapter 3, is not a good approach to univer
sity work.
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You can access the discussion boards via your VLE at any time of day, so you can post a
question at any time. Of course, this then means that you may have to wait for a response as
there is no guarantee that others will be online at the same time as you. However, they are
very useful means of finding out information and discussing the more difficult concepts on
your course.
Lecturers will sometimes be involved, depending on the institution, and they will check
every few days to see if there is anything they need to help with. You will find that announce
ments may also be posted in the discussion boards, as well as on the VLE and noticeboards.
Offline learning and sharing with others

There are going to be times when you don't want to deal with a faceless computer and the
Internet, and you feel you need to work with another human being directly. This is an equal
ly important part of your degree, as communicating and cooperating with different peo
ple are important skills to learn. There are two avenues, and I've presented them in order
of priority in terms of which avenue to follow first: other students are a mine of informa
tion, so they should never be underestimated. When this avenue fails to help, lecturers and
tutors are automatically your next contact point.
Other students
Your fellow students should be your first port of call for all questions you might have. It is easy
to miss little bits of information when so much knowledge is being thrown your way; you will
find that other students know the bits of information you don't, or they will have information
about where you can get it. You can ask your fellow students wherever you find them; in class,
the cafeteria, and the library. You can also find them on the discussion boards and the VLE.
After you have got comfortable at university and have met a fair number of your fellow
students you can set up study groups. Study groups are sometimes seen as a bit 'geeky', but
they are actually very effective. The idea is that you form a group to do the directed and
independent study that has been set by your lecturers. The group then provides you with an
academic support network and a group of people with whom you can discuss difficult topics
and ask questions of.
Study groups are covered in Chapter 16, which discusses revision techniques. However,
they are a good resource for you to utilize throughout your studies. Working in a group can
help you feel more integrated and interested in your studies; discussing topics can help
you highlight what you definitely do, and don't understand. Ultimately, working in groups
can help you feel more confident in your abilities, and give you support for what you may be
less confident with.
Lecturers and academic staff
As mentioned in Chapter 3, your lecturers are typically available for a limited period of time
per week, so take advantage of that. If you have questions during lecture or seminar time, ask
them then, when you are in the room with them. Lecturers will always want to help you get
the most out of your degree, but they won't know specifically what help you might need if you
don't tell them. If you're stuck or unsure, then ask, either in person or via email. (Be mindful
that most lecturers get many emails each day, so it's unreasonable to expect an instantan
eous response! A standard response time is usually documented in university policies, so you
should find out what it is, often it is around 48-72 hours.)
All lecturers have what are called 'office hours'. These will be displayed clearly in the depart
ment, in introductory lectures of modules, and/or on office doors. There is a common myth
among students that office hours are when they can't be disturbed. In fact, the opposite is
true: office hours are the times when they are free to answer any questions or queries you
might have—it is this time where they can guarantee they will be in their offices and are avail
able for you to ask questions. You can turn up on the day or you can book an appointment
with them in advance.
Regardless of the types of resource employed on a VLE, the easiest way to get in touch with
lecturers outside of their designated contact time (their office hours) is to email them directly.
Many will interact on discussion boards, contribute to wikis, or use the VLE messaging sys
tems, but the vast majority of lecturers will be simply too busy to do this on a regular basis. If
you want to get a quick answer, send an email and your lecturer will reply as soon as they can.
If you don't get a response by the next office hour, turn up and try again. Most lecturers will
respond to emails as quickly as they can however, so be patient.
Email addresses for university staff are really easy to find: every psychology department will
have its own section of the main website. Here you will find a staff list for the department, and
all your lecturers' contact details should be up there.
Another way of finding out email addresses is to refer to the individual module guides for
the subjects you're studying. Every module will have a guide, written by whoever is in charge
of the module that year. This guide will almost certainly include the contact details for every
one involved in delivering this course, among other things. There will also be a programme
handbook available on the VLE, which will have everyone's details, plus details of your entire
degree course.
Personal tutors
You will all have a personal tutor assigned to you, a member of the lecturing staff who will
be your first port of call throughout your degree if there are any problems or issues. You will
be assigned a personal tutor at the start of your studies and will be scheduled to meet with
them a couple of times a year (either through formal timetable slots or via an email from your
personal tutor) so they can check on how you're getting on; but you can contact them at any
time if you need to discuss anything with them. If you have any unexpected personal circum
stances, or you are struggling for any reason with any aspect of your course, you should go
and see your personal tutor as soon as you can, as they will be able to minimize any impact
on your studies.
Checklist
• Do you know which VLE your department uses?

• Have you visited your VLE and explored what you can access on it?
• Do you know how to work as a group using the Internet?
• If you are on Facebook or Twitter, have you found the group/feed and signed up?
• Do you know where to find the online discussion boards and have you tried using them?
o Do you know which of your friends is most likely to have the answers about your course?
• Have you formed a study group yet?
® Do you know the email addresses of your personal tutor and lecturers?
® Do you know when your personal tutor and lecturers have their office hours? And do
you know how to find out?
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
régiment de vénérables couveuses que la mort transforme en
poulets, en vertu de la métempsycose. Malheureusement le khan
était désert et la porte fermée. A cette nouvelle, Mme Simons fit une
querelle très aigre à Dimitri, et comme elle se retournait en arrière,
elle me montra une figure aussi anguleuse que la lame d’un couteau
de Sheffield, et deux rangées de dents semblables à des palissades.
« Je suis Anglaise, disait-elle, et j’ai la prétention de manger lorsque
j’ai faim.
— Madame, répliqua piteusement Dimitri, vous déjeunerez dans
une demi-heure au village de Castia. »
Moi qui avais déjeuné, je me livrais à des réflexions
mélancoliques sur la laideur de Mme Simons, et je murmurais entre
mes dents un aphorisme de la grammaire latine de Fraugman :
« Telle mère, telle fille. » Qualis mater, talis filia.
Depuis le khan jusqu’au village, la route est particulièrement
détestable. C’est une rampe étroite, entre un rocher à pic et un
précipice qui donnerait le vertige aux chamois eux-mêmes. Mme
Simons, avant de s’engager dans ce sentier diabolique, où les
chevaux trouvaient bien juste la place de leurs quatre fers, demanda
s’il n’y avait pas un autre chemin. « Je suis Anglaise, dit-elle, et je ne
suis pas faite pour rouler dans les précipices. » Dimitri fit l’éloge du
chemin ; il assurait qu’il y en avait de cent fois pires dans le
royaume. « Au moins, reprit la bonne dame, tenez la bride de mon
cheval. Mais que deviendra ma fille ? Conduisez le cheval de ma
fille ! Cependant il ne faut pas que je me rompe le cou. Ne pourriez-
vous pas tenir les deux chevaux en même temps ? Ce sentier est
détestable en vérité. Je veux croire qu’il est assez bon pour des
Grecs, mais il n’est pas fait pour des Anglaises. N’est-il pas vrai,
monsieur ? » ajouta-t-elle en se tournant gracieusement vers moi.
J’étais introduit. Régulière ou non, la présentation était faite.
J’arrivais sous les auspices d’un personnage bien connu dans les
romans du moyen âge, et que les poètes du quatorzième siècle
appelaient Danger. Je m’inclinai avec toute l’élégance que la nature
m’a permise, et je répondis en anglais :
« Madame, le chemin n’est pas si mauvais qu’il vous semble à
première vue. Vos chevaux ont le pied sûr ; je les connais pour les
avoir montés. Enfin, vous avez deux guides, si vous voulez bien le
permettre : Dimitri pour vous, moi pour mademoiselle. »
Aussitôt fait que dit : sans attendre une réponse, je m’avançai
hardiment, je pris la bride du cheval de Mary-Ann en me tournant
vers elle, et comme son voile bleu venait de s’envoler en arrière, je
vis la plus adorable figure qui ait jamais bouleversé l’esprit d’un
naturaliste allemand.
Un charmant poète chinois, le célèbre A-Scholl, prétend que
chaque homme a dans le cœur un chapelet d’œufs, dont chacun
contient un amour. Pour les faire éclore, il suffit du regard d’une
femme. Je suis trop savant pour ignorer que cette hypothèse ne
repose sur aucune base solide, et qu’elle est en contradiction
formelle avec tous les faits révélés par l’anatomie. Cependant je dois
constater que le premier regard de Miss Simons me causa un
ébranlement sensible dans la région du cœur. J’éprouvai une
commotion tout à fait inusitée, et qui pourtant n’avait rien de
douloureux, et il me sembla que quelque chose s’était brisé dans la
boîte osseuse de ma poitrine, au-dessous de l’os appelé sternum.
Au même instant, mon sang courut par ondées violentes, et les
artères de mes tempes battirent avec tant de force, que je pouvais
compter les pulsations.
Quels yeux elle avait, mon cher monsieur ! Je souhaite, pour
votre repos, que vous n’en rencontriez jamais de pareils. Ils n’étaient
pas d’une grandeur surprenante, et ils n’empiétaient pas sur le reste
de la figure. Ils n’étaient ni bleus ni noirs, mais d’une couleur
spéciale et personnelle, faite pour eux et broyée tout exprès sur un
coin de la palette. C’était un brun ardent et velouté qui ne se
rencontre que dans le grenat de Sibérie et dans certaines fleurs des
jardins. Je vous montrerai une scabieuse et une variété de rose
trémière presque noire, qui rappellent, sans la rendre, la nuance
merveilleuse de ses yeux. Si vous avez jamais visité les forges à
minuit, vous avez dû remarquer la lueur étrange que projette une
plaque d’acier chauffée au rouge brun : voilà tout justement la
couleur de ses regards. Quant au charme qu’ils avaient, aucune
comparaison ne saurait le rendre. Le charme est un don réservé à
un petit nombre d’individus du règne animal. Les yeux de Mary-Ann
avaient je ne sais quoi de naïf et de spirituel, une vivacité candide,
un pétillement de jeunesse et de santé, et parfois une langueur
touchante. Toute la science de la femme et toute l’innocence de
l’enfant s’y lisaient comme dans un livre ; mais ce livre, on serait
devenu aveugle à le lire longtemps. Son regard brûlait, aussi vrai
que je m’appelle Hermann. Il aurait fait mûrir les pêches de votre
espalier.
Quand je pense que ce pauvre Dimitri la trouvait moins belle que
Photini ! En vérité, l’amour est une maladie qui hébète
singulièrement ses malades ! Moi qui n’ai jamais perdu l’usage de
ma raison et qui juge toutes choses avec la sage indifférence du
naturaliste, je vous certifie que le monde n’a jamais vu une femme
comparable à Mary-Ann. Je voudrais pouvoir vous montrer son
portrait tel qu’il est resté gravé au fond de ma mémoire. Vous verriez
comme ses cils étaient longs, comme ses sourcils traçaient une
courbe gracieuse au-dessus de ses yeux, comme sa bouche était
mignonne, comme l’émail de ses dents riait au soleil, comme sa
petite oreille était rose et transparente. J’ai étudié sa beauté dans
ses moindres détails, parce que j’ai l’esprit analytique et l’habitude
de l’observation. Un des traits qui m’ont le plus frappé en elle, c’est
la finesse et la transparence de la peau : son épiderme était plus
délicat que la pellicule veloutée qui enveloppe les beaux fruits. Les
couleurs de ses joues semblaient faites de cette poussière
impalpable qui enlumine les ailes des papillons. Si je n’avais pas été
docteur ès sciences naturelles, j’aurais craint que le frôlement de
son voile n’emportât l’éclat fragile de sa beauté. Je ne sais pas si
vous aimez les femmes pâles, et je ne voudrais point heurter vos
idées, si par hasard vous aviez du goût pour ce genre d’élégance
moribonde qui a été à la mode pendant un certain temps ; mais, en
ma qualité de savant, je n’admire rien tant que la santé, cette joie de
la vie. Si jamais je me fais recevoir médecin, je serai un homme
précieux pour les familles, car il est certain que je ne m’éprendrai
jamais d’une de mes malades. La vue d’une jolie figure saine et
vivante me fait presque autant de plaisir que la rencontre d’un bel
arbuste vigoureux dont les fleurs s’épanouissent gaiement au soleil,
et dont les feuilles n’ont jamais été entamées ni par les chenilles ni
par les hannetons. Aussi la première fois que je vis la figure de
Mary-Ann, j’éprouvai une violente tentation de lui serrer la main et de
lui dire : « Mademoiselle, que vous êtes bonne de vous porter si
bien ! »
J’ai oublié de vous dire que les lignes de sa figure manquaient de
régularité, et qu’elle n’avait pas un profil de statue. Phidias eût peut-
être refusé de faire son buste ; mais votre Pradier lui eût demandé
quelques séances à deux genoux. J’avouerai, au risque de détruire
vos illusions, qu’elle portait à la joue gauche une fossette qui
manquait absolument à sa joue droite : ce qui est contraire à toutes
les lois de la symétrie. Sachez de plus que son nez n’était ni droit ni
aquilin, mais franchement retroussé, à la française. Mais que cette
conformation la rendît moins jolie, c’est ce que je nierais jusque sur
l’échafaud. Elle était aussi belle que les statues grecques ; mais elle
l’était différemment. La beauté ne se mesure pas sur un type
immuable, quoique Platon l’ait affirmé dans ses divagations
sublimes. Elle varie suivant les temps, suivant les peuples, et suivant
la culture des esprits. La Vénus de Milo était, il y a deux mille ans, la
plus belle fille de l’Archipel : je ne crois pas qu’elle serait en 1856 la
plus jolie femme de Paris. Menez-là chez une couturière de la place
Vendôme et chez une modiste de la rue de la Paix. Dans tous les
salons où vous la présenterez, elle aura moins de succès que
madame telle ou telle qui a les traits moins corrects et le nez moins
droit. On pouvait admirer une femme géométriquement belle dans le
temps où la femme n’était qu’un objet d’art destiné à flatter les yeux
sans rien dire à l’esprit, un oiseau de paradis dont on contemplait le
plumage sans l’inviter à chanter jamais. Une belle Athénienne était
aussi bien proportionnée, aussi blanche et aussi froide que la
colonne d’un temple. M. Mérinay m’a fait voir dans un livre que la
colonne ionique n’était qu’une femme déguisée. Le portique du
temple d’Érechthée, à l’acropole d’Athènes, repose encore sur
quatre Athéniennes du siècle de Périclès. Les femmes d’aujourd’hui
sont de petits êtres ailés, légers, remuants et surtout pensants,
créés non pour porter des temples sur leurs têtes, mais pour éveiller
le génie, pour égayer le travail, pour animer le courage et pour
éclairer le monde aux étincelles de leur esprit. Ce que nous aimons
en elles, et ce qui fait leur beauté, ce n’est pas la régularité
compassée de leurs traits, c’est l’expression vive et mobile de
sentiments plus délicats que les nôtres ; c’est le rayonnement de la
pensée autour de cette fragile enveloppe qui ne suffit pas à la
contenir ; c’est le jeu pétulant d’une physionomie éveillée. Je ne suis
pas sculpteur, mais si je savais manier l’ébauchoir et qu’on me
donnât à faire la statue allégorique de notre époque, je vous jure
qu’elle aurait une fossette à la joue gauche et le nez retroussé.
Je conduisis Mary-Ann jusqu’au village de Castia. Ce qu’elle me
dit le long du chemin et ce que j’ai pu lui répondre n’a pas laissé plus
de traces dans mon esprit que le vol d’une hirondelle n’en laisse
dans les airs. Sa voix était si douce à entendre, que je n’ai peut-être
pas écouté ce qu’elle me disait. J’étais comme à l’Opéra, où la
musique ne permet pas souvent de comprendre les paroles. Et
pourtant toutes les circonstances de cette première entrevue sont
devenues ineffaçables dans mon esprit. Je n’ai qu’à fermer les yeux
pour croire que j’y suis encore. Le soleil d’avril frappait à petits coups
sur ma tête. Au-dessous du chemin et au-dessus, les arbres
résineux de la montagne semaient leurs aromates dans l’air. Les
pins, les thuyas et les térébinthes semblaient brûler un encens âpre
et rustique sur le passage de Mary-Ann. Elle aspirait avec un
bonheur visible cette largesse odorante de la nature. Son petit nez
mutin frémissait et battait des ailes ; ses yeux, ses beaux yeux,
couraient d’un objet à l’autre avec une joie étincelante. En la voyant
si jolie, si vive et si heureuse, vous auriez dit une dryade échappée
de l’écorce. Je vois encore d’ici la bête qu’elle montait ; c’était le
Psari, un cheval blanc du manège de Zimmermann. Son amazone
était noire ; celle de Mme Simons, qui me fermait l’horizon, était d’un
vert bouteille assez excentrique pour témoigner de l’indépendance
de son goût. Mme Simons avait un chapeau noir, de cette forme
absurde et disgracieuse que les hommes ont adoptée en tout pays ;
sa fille portait le feutre gris des héroïnes de la Fronde. L’une et
l’autre étaient gantées de chamois. La main de Mary-Ann était un
peu grande, mais admirablement faite. Moi je n’ai jamais pu porter
de gants. Et vous ?
Le village de Castia se trouva désert comme le khan de Calyvia.
Dimitri n’y pouvait rien comprendre. Nous descendîmes de cheval
auprès de la fontaine, devant l’Église. Chacun de nous s’en alla
frapper de porte en porte : pas une âme. Personne chez le papas,
personne chez le parèdre. L’autorité avait déménagé à la suite de la
population. Toutes les maisons de la commune se composent de
quatre murs et d’un toit, avec deux ouvertures, dont l’une sert de
porte et l’autre de fenêtre. Le pauvre Dimitri prit la peine d’enfoncer
deux ou trois portes et cinq ou six volets pour s’assurer que les
habitants n’étaient pas endormis chez eux. Tant d’effractions ne
servirent qu’à délivrer un malheureux chat oublié par son maître, et
qui partit comme une flèche dans la direction des bois.
Pour le coup, Mme Simons perdit patience. « Je suis Anglaise, dit-
elle à Dimitri, et l’on ne se moque pas impunément de moi. Je me
plaindrai à la légation. Quoi ! je vous loue pour une promenade dans
la montagne, et vous me faites voyager sur des précipices ! Je vous
ordonne d’apporter des provisions, et vous m’exposez à mourir de
faim ! Nous devions déjeuner au khan, et le khan est abandonné !
J’ai la constance de vous suivre à jeun jusqu’à cet affreux village, et
tous les paysans sont partis ! Tout cela n’est pas naturel. J’ai voyagé
en Suisse : la Suisse est un pays de montagnes, et cependant je n’y
ai manqué de rien : j’y ai toujours déjeuné à mes heures, et j’ai
mangé des truites, entendez-vous ? »
Mary-Ann essaya de calmer sa mère, mais la bonne dame
n’avait pas d’oreilles. Dimitri lui expliqua comme il put que les
habitants du village étaient presque tous charbonniers, et que leur
profession les dispersait assez souvent dans la montagne. En tout
cas, il n’y avait pas encore de temps de perdu : il n’était pas plus de
huit heures, et l’on était sûr de trouver à dix minutes de marche une
maison habitée et un déjeuner tout prêt.
« Quelle maison ? demanda mistress Simons.
— La ferme du couvent. Les moines du Pentélique ont de vastes
terrains au-dessus de Castia. Ils y élèvent des abeilles. Le bon
vieillard qui exploite la ferme a toujours du vin, du pain, du miel et
des poules : il nous donnera à déjeuner.
— Il sera sorti comme tout le monde.
— S’il est sorti, il ne sera pas loin. Le temps des essaims
approche, et il ne peut pas s’écarter beaucoup de ses ruchers.
— Allez-y voir ; moi, j’ai assez voyagé depuis ce matin. Je fais
vœu de ne pas remonter à cheval avant d’avoir mangé.
— Madame, vous n’aurez pas besoin de remonter à cheval, reprit
Dimitri, patient comme un guide. Nous pouvons attacher nos bêtes à
l’abreuvoir, et nous arriverons plus vite à pied. »
Mary-Ann décida sa mère. Elle mourait d’envie de voir le bon
vieillard et ses troupeaux ailés. Dimitri fixa les chevaux auprès de la
fontaine, en posant sur chaque bride une grosse pierre pesante.
Mme Simons et sa fille relevèrent leurs amazones ; et notre petite
troupe s’engagea dans un sentier escarpé, fort agréable assurément
aux chèvres de Castia. Tous les lézards verts qui s’y chauffaient au
soleil se retirèrent discrètement à notre approche, mais chacun
d’eux arracha un cri d’aigle à la bonne Mme Simons, qui ne pouvait
pas souffrir les bêtes rampantes. Après un quart d’heure de
vocalises, elle eut enfin la joie de voir une maison ouverte et un
visage humain. C’était la ferme et le bon vieillard.
La ferme était un petit édifice en briques rouges coiffé de cinq
coupoles, ni plus ni moins qu’une mosquée de village. A la voir de
loin, elle ne manquait pas d’une certaine élégance. Propre en
dehors, sale en dedans, c’est la devise de l’Orient. On voyait aux
environs, à l’abri d’un monticule hérissé de thym, une centaine de
ruches en paille, posées à terre sans façon et alignées au cordeau
comme les tentes dans un camp. Le roi de cet empire, le bon
vieillard, était un petit jeune homme de vingt-cinq ans, rond et
guilleret. Tous les moines grecs sont décorés du titre honorifique de
bon vieillard, et l’âge n’y fait rien. Il était vêtu comme un paysan,
mais son bonnet, au lieu d’être rouge, était noir : c’est à ce signe que
Dimitri le reconnut.
Le petit homme, en nous voyant accourir, levait les bras au ciel,
et donnait les signes d’une stupéfaction profonde. « Voilà un
singulier original, dit Mme Simons ; qu’a-t-il donc tant à s’étonner ?
On dirait qu’il n’a jamais vu d’Anglaises ! »
Dimitri, qui courait en tête, baisa la main du moine, et lui dit avec
un curieux mélange de respect et de familiarité :
« Bénissez-moi, mon père. Tords le cou à deux poulets, on te
payera bien.
— Malheureux ! dit le moine, que venez-vous faire ici ?
— Déjeuner.
— Tu n’as donc pas vu que le khan d’en bas était abandonné ?
— Je l’ai si bien vu, que j’y ai trouvé visage de bois.
— Et que le village était désert ?
— Si j’y avais rencontré du monde, je n’aurais pas grimpé jusque
chez toi.
— Tu es donc d’accord avec eux ?
— Eux qui ?
— Les brigands !
— Il y a des brigands dans le Parnès ?
— Depuis avant-hier.
— Où sont-ils ?
— Partout ! »
Dimitri se retourna vivement vers nous et nous dit :
« Nous n’avons pas une minute à perdre. Les brigands sont dans
la montagne. Courons à nos chevaux. Un peu de courage,
mesdames, et des jambes, s’il vous plaît !
— Voilà qui est trop fort ! cria Mme Simons. Sans avoir déjeuné !
— Madame, votre déjeuner pourrait vous coûter cher. Hâtons-
nous, pour l’amour de Dieu !
— Mais c’est donc une conspiration ! Vous avez juré de me faire
mourir de faim ! Voici les brigands, maintenant ! Comme s’il y avait
des brigands ! Je ne crois pas aux brigands. Tous les journaux
annoncent qu’il n’y en a plus ! D’ailleurs je suis Anglaise, et si
quelqu’un touchait un cheveu de ma tête…! »
Mary-Ann était beaucoup moins rassurée. Elle s’appuya sur mon
bras et me demanda si je croyais que nous fussions en danger de
mort.
« De mort, non. De vol, oui.
— Que m’importe ? reprit Mme Simons. Qu’on me vole tout ce
que j’ai sur moi, et qu’on me serve à déjeuner ! »
J’ai su plus tard que la pauvre femme était sujette à une maladie
assez rare que le vulgaire appelle faim canine, et que nous autres
savants nous baptisons du nom de boulimie. Lorsque la faim la
prenait, elle aurait donné sa fortune pour un plat de lentilles.
Dimitri et Mary-Ann la saisirent chacun par une main et
l’entraînèrent jusqu’au sentier qui nous avait amenés. Le petit moine
la suivait en gesticulant, et j’avais une violente tentation de la
pousser par derrière ; mais un petit sifflement net et impératif nous
arrêta tous sur nos pieds.
« St ! st ! »
Je levai les yeux. Deux buissons de lentisques et d’arbousiers se
serraient à droite et à gauche du chemin. De chaque touffe d’arbres
sortaient trois ou quatre canons de fusil. Une voix cria en grec :
« Asseyez-vous à terre. » Cette opération me fut d’autant plus facile,
que mes jarrets pliaient sous moi. Mais je me consolai en pensant
qu’Ajax, Agamemnon et le bouillant Achille, s’ils s’étaient vus dans la
même situation, n’auraient pas refusé le siège qu’on m’offrait.
Les canons des fusils s’abaissèrent vers nous. Je crus voir qu’ils
s’allongeaient démesurément et que leurs extrémités allaient venir
se rejoindre autour de nos têtes. Ce n’est pas que la peur me
troublât la vue ; mais je n’avais jamais remarqué aussi sensiblement
la longueur désespérante des fusils grecs. Tout l’arsenal déboucha
bientôt dans le chemin, et chaque canon montra sa crosse et son
maître.
La seule différence qui existe entre les diables et les brigands,
c’est que les diables sont moins noirs qu’on ne le dit, et les brigands
plus crottés qu’on ne le suppose. Les huit sacripants qui se mirent
en cercle autour de nous étaient d’une telle malpropreté, que j’aurais
voulu leur donner mon argent avec des pincettes. On devinait avec
un peu d’effort que leurs bonnets avaient été rouges ; mais la lessive
elle-même n’aurait pas su retrouver la couleur originelle de leurs
habits. Tous les rochers du royaume avaient déteint sur leurs jupes
de percale, et leurs vestes gardaient un échantillon des divers
terrains sur lesquels ils s’étaient reposés. Leurs mains, leurs figures
et jusqu’à leurs moustaches étaient d’un gris rougeâtre comme le sol
qui les portait. Chaque animal se colore suivant son domicile et ses
habitudes : les renards du Groenland sont couleur de neige ; les
lions, couleur de désert ; les perdrix, couleur de sillon ; les brigands
grecs, couleur de grand chemin.
Le chef de la petite troupe qui nous avait faits prisonniers ne se
distinguait par aucun signe extérieur. Peut-être cependant sa figure,
ses mains et ses habits étaient-ils plus riches en poussière que ceux
de ses camarades. Il se pencha vers nous du haut de sa longue
taille, et nous examina de si près, que je sentis le frôlement de ses
moustaches. Vous auriez dit un tigre qui flaire sa proie avant d’y
goûter. Quand sa curiosité fut satisfaite, il dit à Dimitri : « Vide tes
poches ! » Dimitri ne se le fit pas répéter deux fois. Il jeta devant lui
un couteau, un sac à tabac, et trois piastres mexicaines qui
composaient une somme de seize francs environ.
« Est-ce tout ? demanda le brigand.
— Oui, frère.
— Tu es le domestique ?
— Oui, frère.
— Reprends une piastre. Tu ne dois pas retourner à la ville sans
argent. »
Dimitri marchanda. « Tu pourrais bien m’en laisser deux, dit-il.
J’ai deux chevaux en bas ; ils sont loués au manège ; il faudra que je
paye la journée.
— Tu expliqueras à Zimmermann que nous t’avons pris ton
argent.
— Et s’il veut être payé quand même ?
— Réponds-lui qu’il est trop heureux de revoir ses chevaux.
— Il sait bien que vous ne prenez pas les chevaux. Qu’est-ce que
vous en feriez dans la montagne ?
— Assez ! Dis-moi, quel est ce grand maigre qui est auprès de
toi ? »
Je répondis moi-même : « Un honnête Allemand dont les
dépouilles ne vous enrichiront pas.
— Tu parles bien le grec. Vide tes poches ! »
Je déposai sur la route une vingtaine de francs, mon tabac, ma
pipe et mon mouchoir.
— Qu’est cela ? demanda le grand inquisiteur.
— Un mouchoir.
— Pourquoi faire ?
— Pour me moucher.
— Pourquoi m’as-tu dit que tu étais pauvre ? Il n’y a que les
milords qui se mouchent dans des mouchoirs. Ote la boîte que tu as
derrière le dos. Bien ! Ouvre-la.
Ma boîte contenait quelques plantes, un livre, un couteau, un
petit paquet d’arsenic, une gourde presque vide, et les restes de
mon déjeuner, qui allumèrent un regard de convoitise dans les yeux
de Mme Simons. J’eus la hardiesse de les lui offrir avant que mon
bagage changeât de maître. Elle accepta gloutonnement et se mit à
dévorer le pain et la viande. A mon grand étonnement, cet acte de
gourmandise scandalisa nos voleurs, qui murmurèrent entre eux le
mot schismatique ! Le moine fit une demi-douzaine de signes de
croix suivant le rite de l’Église grecque.
« Tu dois avoir une montre, me dit le brigand ; mets-la avec le
reste. »
Je livrai ma montre d’argent, un bijou héréditaire du poids de
quatre onces. Les scélérats se la passèrent de main en main, et la
trouvèrent fort belle. J’espérais que l’admiration, qui rend l’homme
meilleur, les disposerait à me restituer quelque chose, et je priai leur
chef de me laisser ma boîte de fer blanc. Il m’imposa rudement
silence. « Du moins, lui dis-je, rends-moi deux écus pour retourner à
la ville ! » Il répondit avec un rire sardonique : « Tu n’en auras pas
besoin. »
Le tour de Mme Simons était venu. Avant de mettre la main à la
poche, elle interpella nos vainqueurs dans la langue de ses pères.
L’anglais est un des rares idiomes qu’on peut parler la bouche
pleine. « Réfléchissez bien à ce que vous allez faire, dit-elle d’un ton
menaçant. Je suis Anglaise, et les citoyens anglais sont inviolables
dans tous les pays du monde ; Ce que vous me prendrez vous
servira peu et vous coûtera cher. L’Angleterre me vengera, et vous
serez tous pendus, pour le moins. Maintenant, si vous voulez de
mon argent, vous n’avez qu’à parler ; mais il vous brûlera les doigts :
c’est de l’argent anglais !
— Que dit-elle ? » demanda l’orateur des brigands.
Dimitri répondit : « Elle dit qu’elle est Anglaise.
— Tant mieux ! Tous les Anglais sont riches. Dis-lui de faire
comme vous. »
La pauvre dame vida sur le sable une bourse qui contenait douze
souverains. Comme sa montre n’était pas en évidence, et qu’on ne
faisait pas mine de nous fouiller, elle la garda. La clémence des
vainqueurs lui laissa son mouchoir de poche.
Mary-Ann jeta sa montre avec tout un trousseau d’amulettes
contre le mauvais œil. Elle lança devant elle, par un mouvement
plein de grâce mutine, un sac de peau de chagrin qu’elle portait en
bandoulière. Le brigand l’ouvrit avec un empressement de douanier.
Il en tira un petit nécessaire anglais, un flacon de sels anglais, une
boîte de pastilles de menthe anglaise et cent et quelques francs
d’argent anglais.
« Maintenant, dit la belle impatiente, vous pouvez nous laisser
partir : nous n’ayons plus rien à vous. »
On lui indiqua, par un geste menaçant, que la séance n’était pas
levée. Le chef de la bande s’accroupit devant nos dépouilles, appela
le bon vieillard, compta l’argent en sa présence et lui remit une
somme de quarante-cinq francs. Mme Simons me poussa le coude :
« Vous voyez, me dit-elle, le moine et Dimitri nous ont livrés : on
partage avec eux.
— Non, madame, répliquai-je aussitôt. Dimitri n’a reçu qu’une
aumône sur ce qu’on lui avait volé. C’est une chose qui se fait
partout. Aux bords du Rhin, lorsqu’un voyageur s’est ruiné à la
roulette, le fermier des jeux lui donne de quoi retourner chez lui.
— Mais le moine ?
— Il a perçu la dîme du butin, en vertu d’un usage immémorial.
Ne le lui reprochez pas, mais plutôt sachez-lui gré d’avoir voulu nous
sauver quand son couvent était intéressé à notre capture. »
Cette discussion fut interrompue par les adieux de Dimitri. On
venait de lui rendre sa liberté. « Attends-moi, lui dis-je, nous
retournerons ensemble. » Il hocha tristement la tête et me répondit
en anglais, pour être compris de ces dames :
« Vous êtes prisonniers pour quelques jours, et vous ne reverrez
pas Athènes avant d’avoir payé rançon. Je vais avertir le milord. Ces
dames ont-elles des commissions à me donner pour lui ?
— Dites-lui, cria Mme Simons, qu’il coure à l’ambassade, qu’il aille
ensuite au Pirée trouver l’amiral, qu’il se plaigne au Foreign Office,
qu’il écrive à lord Palmerston ! On nous arrachera d’ici par la force
des armes ou par autorité de la politique ; mais je n’entends pas
qu’on débourse un penny pour ma liberté.
— Moi, repris-je sans tant de colère, je te prie de dire à mes amis
dans quelles mains tu m’as laissé. S’il faut quelques centaines de
drachmes pour racheter un pauvre diable de naturaliste, ils les
trouveront sans peine. Ces messieurs de grand chemin ne sauraient
me coter bien cher. J’ai envie, tandis que tu es encore là, de leur
demander ce que je vaux, au plus juste prix.
— Inutile, mon cher monsieur Hermann ; ce n’est pas eux qui
fixeront le chiffre de votre rançon.
— Et qui donc ?
— Leur chef, Hadgi-Stavros. »
CHAPITRE IV
HADGI-STAVROS
Dimitri redescendit vers Athènes ; le moine remonta vers ses

abeilles ; nos nouveaux maîtres nous poussèrent dans un sentier qui
conduisait au camp de leur roi. Mme Simons fit acte d’indépendance
en refusant de mettre un pied devant l’autre. Les brigands la
menacèrent de la porter dans leurs bras : elle déclara qu’elle ne se
laisserait pas porter. Mais sa fille la rappela à des sentiments plus
doux, en lui faisant espérer qu’elle trouverait la table mise et qu’elle
déjeunerait avec Hadgi-Stavros. Mary-Ann était plus surprise
qu’épouvantée. Les brigands subalternes qui venaient de nous
arrêter avaient fait preuve d’une certaine courtoisie ; ils n’avaient
fouillé personne, et ils avaient tenu les mains loin de leurs
prisonnières. Au lieu de nous dépouiller, ils nous avaient priés de
nous dépouiller nous-mêmes ; ils n’avaient pas remarqué que ces
dames portaient des pendants d’oreilles, et ils ne les avaient pas
même invitées à ôter leurs gants. Nous étions donc bien loin de ces
routiers d’Espagne et d’Italie qui coupent un doigt pour avoir une
bague, et arrachent le lobe de l’oreille pour prendre une perle ou un
diamant. Tous les malheurs dont nous étions menacés se
réduisaient au paiement d’une rançon : encore était-il probable que
nous serions délivrés gratis. Comment supposer qu’Hadgi-Stavros
nous retiendrait impunément, à cinq lieues de la capitale, de la cour,
de l’armée grecque, d’un bataillon de Sa Majesté Britannique, et
d’un stationnaire anglais ? Ainsi raisonnait Mary-Ann. Pour moi, je
pensais involontairement à l’histoire des petites filles de Mistra, et je
me sentais gagné de tristesse. Je craignais que Mme Simons, par
son obstination patriotique, n’exposât sa fille à quelque grand
danger, et je me promettais de l’éclairer au plus tôt sur sa situation.
Nous marchions un à un dans un sentier étroit, séparés les uns des
autres par nos farouches compagnons de voyage. La route me
paraissait interminable, et je demandai plus de dix fois si nous
n’étions pas bientôt arrivés. Le paysage était affreux : la roche nue
laissait à peine échapper par ses crevasses un petit buisson de
chêne vert ou une touffe de thym épineux qui s’accrochait à nos
jambes. Les brigands victorieux ne manifestaient aucune joie, et leur
marche triomphale ressemblait à une promenade funèbre. Ils
fumaient silencieusement des cigarettes grosses comme le doigt.
Aucun d’eux ne causait avec son voisin : un seul psalmodiait de
temps en temps une sorte de chanson nasillarde. Ce peuple est
lugubre comme une ruine.
Sur les onze heures, un aboiement féroce nous annonça le
voisinage du camp. Dix ou douze chiens énormes, grands comme
des veaux, frisés comme des moutons, se ruèrent sur nous en
montrant toutes leurs dents. Nos protecteurs les reçurent à coups de
pierres, et après un quart d’heure d’hostilités la paix se fit. Ces
monstres inhospitaliers sont les sentinelles avancées du Roi des
Montagnes. Ils flairent la gendarmerie comme les chiens des
contrebandiers flairent la douane. Mais ce n’est pas tout, et leur zèle
est si grand, qu’ils croquent de temps à autre un berger inoffensif, un
voyageur égaré, ou même un compagnon d’Hadgi-Stavros. Le Roi
les nourrit, comme les vieux sultans entretenaient leurs janissaires,
avec la crainte perpétuelle d’être dévoré.
Le camp du Roi était un plateau de sept ou huit cents mètres de
superficie. J’eus beau y chercher les tentes de nos vainqueurs. Les
brigands ne sont pas des sybarites, et ils dorment sous le ciel au 30
avril. Je ne vis ni dépouilles entassées, ni trésors étalés, ni rien de
ce qu’on espère trouver au chef-lieu d’une bande de voleurs. Hadgi-
Stavros se charge de faire vendre le butin ; chaque homme reçoit sa
paye en argent et l’emploie à sa fantaisie. Les uns font des
placements dans le commerce, les autres prennent hypothèque sur
des maisons d’Athènes, d’autres achètent des terrains dans leurs
villages ; aucun ne gaspille les produits du vol. Notre arrivée
interrompit le déjeuner de vingt-cinq ou trente hommes, qui
accoururent à nous avec leur pain et leur fromage. Le chef nourrit
ses soldats : on leur distribue tous les jours une ration de pain,
d’huile, de vin, de fromage, de caviar, de piment, d’olives amères, et
de viande quand la religion le permet. Les gourmets qui veulent
manger des mauves ou d’autres herbages sont libres de cueillir des
friandises dans la montagne. Les brigands, comme les autres
classes du peuple, allument rarement du feu pour leurs repas ; ils
mangent les viandes froides et les légumes crus. Je remarquai que
tous ceux qui se serraient autour de nous observaient
religieusement la loi d’abstinence. Nous étions à la veille de
l’Ascension, et ces braves gens, dont le plus innocent avait au moins
un homme sur la conscience, n’auraient pas voulu charger leur
estomac d’une cuisse de poulet. Arrêter deux Anglaises au bout de
leurs fusils leur semblait une peccadille insignifiante ; Mme Simons
avait péché bien plus gravement en mangeant de l’agneau le
mercredi de l’Ascension.
Les hommes de notre escorte régalèrent copieusement la
curiosité de leurs camarades. On les accabla de questions, et ils
répondirent à tout. Ils étalèrent le butin qu’ils avaient fait, et ma
montre d’argent obtint encore un succès qui flatta mon amour-
propre. La savonnette d’or de Mary-Ann fut moins remarquée. Dans
cette première entrevue, la considération publique tomba sur ma
montre, et il en rejaillit quelque chose sur moi. Aux yeux de ces
hommes simples, le possesseur d’une pièce si importante ne pouvait
être moins qu’un milord.
La curiosité des brigands était agaçante, mais non pas insolente.
Aucun d’eux ne faisait mine de nous traiter en pays conquis. Ils
savaient que nous étions dans leurs mains et qu’ils nous
échangeraient tôt ou tard contre un certain nombre de pièces d’or ;
mais ils ne songeaient pas à se prévaloir de cette circonstance pour
nous malmener ou nous manquer de respect. Le bon sens, ce génie
impérissable du peuple grec, leur montrait en nous les représentants
d’une race différente, et jusqu’à un certain point supérieure. La
barbarie victorieuse rendait un secret hommage à la civilisation
vaincue. Plusieurs d’entre eux voyaient pour la première fois l’habit
européen. Ceux-là tournaient autour de nous comme les habitants
du nouveau monde autour des Espagnols de Colombo. Ils tâtaient
furtivement l’étoffe de mon paletot, pour savoir de quel tissu elle était
faite. Ils auraient voulu pouvoir m’ôter tous mes vêtements, pour les
examiner en détail. Peut-être même n’auraient-ils pas été fâchés de
me casser en deux ou trois morceaux pour étudier la structure
intérieure d’un milord ; mais je suis sûr qu’ils ne l’eussent pas fait
sans s’excuser et sans me demander pardon de la liberté grande.
Mme Simons ne tarda pas à perdre patience ; elle s’ennuyait
d’être examinée de si près par ces mangeurs de fromage qui ne lui
offraient point à déjeuner. Tout le monde n’aime pas à se donner en
spectacle. Le rôle de curiosité vivante déplaisait fort à la bonne
dame, quoiqu’elle eût pu le remplir avantageusement dans tous les
pays du globe. Quant à Mary-Ann, elle tombait de fatigue. Une
course de six heures, la faim, l’émotion, la surprise, avaient eu bon
marché de cette créature délicate. Figurez-vous une jeune miss
élevée dans la ouate, habituée à marcher sur les tapis des salons ou
sur le raygrass des plus beaux parcs. Ses bottines étaient déjà
déchirées par les aspérités du chemin, et les buissons avaient
frangé le bas de sa robe. Elle avait pris du thé la veille, dans les
salons de la légation d’Angleterre, en feuilletant les admirables
albums de M. Wyse : elle se voyait transportée sans transition au
milieu d’un paysage affreux et d’une horde de sauvages, et elle
n’avait pas la consolation de se dire : « C’est un rêve » car elle n’était
ni couchée, ni assise, mais debout, au grand désespoir de ses petits
pieds.
Une nouvelle troupe survint, qui rendit notre position intolérable.
Ce n’était pas une troupe de brigands ; c’était bien pis. Les Grecs
portent sur eux toute une ménagerie de petits animaux agiles,
capricieux, insaisissables, qui leur tiennent compagnie nuit et jour,
les occupent jusque dans le sommeil, et, par leurs bonds et leurs
piqûres, accélèrent le mouvement des esprits et la circulation du
sang. Les puces des brigands, dont je puis vous montrer quelques
échantillons dans ma collection entomologique, sont plus rustiques,
plus fortes et plus agiles que celles des citadins : le grand air a des
vertus si puissantes ! Mais je m’aperçus trop tôt qu’elles n’étaient
pas contentes de leur sort et qu’elles trouvaient plus de régal sur la
peau fine d’un jeune Allemand que sur le cuir tanné de leurs maîtres.
Une émigration armée se dirigea sur mes jambes. Je sentis d’abord
une vive démangeaison autour des chevilles : c’était la déclaration
de guerre. Dix minutes plus tard, une division d’avant-garde se jeta
sur le mollet droit. J’y portai vivement la main. Mais, à la faveur de
cette diversion, l’ennemi s’avançait à marches forcées vers mon aile
gauche et prenait position sur les hauteurs du genou. J’étais
débordé, et toute résistance devenait inutile. Si j’avais été seul, dans
un coin écarté, j’aurais tenté avec quelque succès la guerre
d’escarmouches. Mais la belle Mary-Ann était devant moi, rouge
comme une cerise, et tourmentée peut-être aussi par quelque
ennemi secret. Je n’osais ni me plaindre ni me défendre ; je dévorai
héroïquement mes douleurs sans lever les yeux sur Miss Simons ; et
je souffrais pour elle un martyre dont on ne me saura jamais gré.
Enfin, à bout de patience et décidé à me soustraire par la fuite au flot
montant des invasions, je demandai à comparaître devant le Roi. Ce
mot rappela nos guides à leur devoir. Ils demandèrent où était
Hadgi-Stavros. On leur répondit qu’il travaillait dans ses bureaux.
« Enfin, dit Mme Simons, je pourrai donc m’asseoir dans un
fauteuil. »
Elle prit mon bras, offrit le sien à sa fille, et marcha d’un pas
délibéré dans la direction où la foule nous conduisait. Les bureaux
n’étaient pas loin du camp, et nous y fûmes en moins de cinq
minutes.
Les bureaux du Roi ressemblaient à des bureaux comme le
camp des voleurs ressemblait à un camp. On n’y voyait ni tables, ni
chaises, ni mobilier d’aucune sorte. Hadgi-Stavros était assis en
tailleur, sur un tapis carré, à l’ombre d’un sapin. Quatre secrétaires
et deux domestiques se groupaient autour de lui. Un jeune garçon
de seize à dix-huit ans s’occupait incessamment à remplir, à allumer
et à nettoyer le chibouk du maître. Il portait à la ceinture un sac à
tabac, brodé d’or et de perles fines, et une pince d’argent destinée à
prendre les charbons. Un autre serviteur passait la journée à
préparer les tasses de café, les verres d’eau et les sucreries
destinés à rafraîchir la bouche royale. Les secrétaires, assis à cru
sur le rocher, écrivaient sur leurs genoux avec des roseaux taillés.
Chacun d’eux avait à portée de la main une longue boîte de cuivre
contenant les roseaux, le canif et l’écritoire. Quelques cylindres de
fer-blanc, pareils à ceux où nos soldats roulent leur congé, servaient
de dépôt des archives. Le papier n’était pas indigène, et pour cause.
Chaque feuille portait le mot BATH en majuscules.
Le Roi était un beau vieillard, merveilleusement conservé, droit,
maigre, souple comme un ressort, propre et luisant comme un sabre
neuf. Ses longues moustaches blanches pendaient sous le menton
comme deux stalactites de marbre. Le reste du visage était
scrupuleusement rasé, le crâne nu jusqu’à l’occiput, où une grande
tresse de cheveux blancs s’enroulait sous le bonnet. L’expression de
ses traits me parut calme et réfléchie. Une paire de petits yeux bleu
clair et un menton carré annonçaient une volonté inébranlable. Sa
figure était longue, et la disposition des rides l’allongeait encore.
Tous les plis du front se brisaient par le milieu et semblaient se
diriger vers la rencontre des sourcils ; deux sillons larges et profonds
descendaient perpendiculairement à la commissure des lèvres,
comme si le poids des moustaches eût entraîné les muscles de la
face. J’ai vu bon nombre de septuagénaires ; j’en ai même disséqué
un qui aurait attrapé la centaine si la diligence d’Osnabruck ne lui eût
passé sur le corps ; mais je ne me souviens pas d’avoir observé une
vieillesse plus verte et plus robuste que celle d’Hadgi-Stavros.
Il portait l’habit de Tino et de toutes les îles de l’Archipel. Son
bonnet rouge formait un large pli à sa base autour du front. Il avait la
veste de drap noir, soutachée de soie noire, l’immense pantalon bleu
qui absorbe plus de vingt mètres de cotonnade, et les grandes
bottes en cuir de Russie, souple et solide. La seule richesse de son

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Study and communication skills for

Psychology 22nd Edition Vanessa

Study Skills for International Postgraduates Bloomsbury

A Practical Guide to Soft Skills Communication

Building Consulting Skills for Sport and Performance

Skills for Business and Management (Macmillan Study

Activist Study 22nd Edition Communist Party Of The

Communication: Core Interpersonal Skills for Healthcare

Communication for Business and the Professions :

Study Skills for Foundation Degrees 3rd Edition Dorothy

About the online resources IX

5 Before and after assessments: guidelines, criteria, and feedback 34

10 Reading and evaluating text 87

13 Writing essays 125

14 Writing practical reports: how to write up an experiment 141

Answers to exercises 193

The extra materials include:

What will I learn in this chapter?

Why do I need this book?

How is university different from school?

The importance of being an independent learner

Time management: a skill best learned early

£7^ What will I learn in this chapter?

• How to organize your time effectively

Term time juggling

Visual cues and aids to time management

3. Wall planners-big poster diaries for your wall

4. Gadgets, smartphones, and watches

Making your own timetable

Last minute changes

Work it out before you go

Get back what you need

Plan time to have fun!

Extra help for exam season

Don't get bored!

How to organize revision around exams

What will I learn in this chapter?

What's the point of lectures?

How do you write everything down that fast?

A word about computers and digital learning

(a) Notes as they would be taken in the lecture

(b) Notes as they would be written out later

Cognition and Emotion

Most psychologists ignore the concept of emotion,

Definitions of types of emotions

Figure 3.1: Example of note-taking.

Handouts-before and after the lecture

There is a basic outline

Face processing is made up of

Bruce and Young (1986)

A diagram doesn't make

Figure 3.2: Example of PowerPoint slides and notes.

You can see that there is

Aerial perspective (atmospheric perspective)—Objects which are

Shading and lighting—tn natural situations light comes from above,

Elevation—Objects which are further away tend to appear higher in

Linear perspective—As objects stretch away from us they are

Texture gradient—Most surfaces have a visible texture which