How to Get a First is a concise introductory guide to the skills you need in order to excel at university. I hope that through the course of your university career you will continue to reflect on how to read, think, argue and write more clearly and effectively. You will then want to consult more detailed and advanced books to accompany this further reflection.
The best places to start are the other titles in the Routledge Study Guides series:
Robert Barrass, Study!, 2nd edn ( London : RoutledgeFalmer, 2002).
Robert Barrass, Students Must Write, 2nd edn (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 1995).
George Bernard, Studying at University ( London : RoutledgeFalmer, 2003).
Geoffrey Squires, Managing your Learning ( London : RoutledgeFalmer, 2002).
The “Speak-Write” series of books edited by Professor Rebecca Stott is also particularly helpful:
Rebecca Stott and Peter Chapman (eds), Grammar and Writing ( Harlow : Longman, 2001).
Rebecca Stott, Anna Snaith and Rick Rylance (eds), Making your Case: A Practical Guide to Essay Writing ( Harlow : Longman, 2001).
Rebecca Stott, Tory Young and Cordelia Bryan (eds), Speaking your Mind: Oral Presentation and Seminar Skills ( Harlow : Longman, 2001).
Rebecca Stott and Simon Avery (eds), Writing with Style ( Harlow : Longman, 2001).
On time management and other good mental habits, I strongly recommend:
Gillian Butler and Tony Hope, Manage Your Mind: The Mental Fitness Guide (Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks, 1995).
On the use of evidence (of interest and relevance to more than just historians):
E. H. Carr, What is History?, new edn ( Basingstoke : Palgrave, 2001).
John Vincent, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to History ( London : Duckworth, 2001).
On public speaking skills:
Dominic Hughes and Benedict Phillips, The Oxford Union Guide to Successful Public Speaking ( London : Virgin, 2000).
A couple of informative and diverting books on referencing and punctuation:
Anthony Grafton, The Footnote: A Curious History (London: Faber and Faber, 1997).
Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation ( London : Profile Books, 2003).
And finally, three new editions of classic guides to good writing:
Henry Fowler, Fowler’s Modern English Usage, new edn ( Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2002).
Eric Partridge, Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English, 3 rd edn (London: Penguin, 1999).
William Strunk Jr, with E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4 th edn ( Boston , MA and London : Allyn and Bacon, 2000).
|
