Do you feel S.A.D?

Winter is just around the corner, and getting up to work (or study) seems to be more and more challenging. Besides that, do you realized you feel less energetic and motivated in the things you do, and maybe at times feeling particularly moody or depressed during winter? YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Many people who live in the Scandinavia region tend to experience some sort of SAD particularly during winter. So, what is SAD? It is "Seasonal Affective Disorder", also known as winter blues or winter depression. Most SAD sufferers experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms in the winter. This is particularly related to lack of light during the day (e.g. mostly cloudy days or shorter daylight available in a day).

The good news is: it is not a common problem for the Aussies simply because our winter is not long and gloomy enough to trigger SAD. So if you come to see me and ask for extensions or apply for defer exams because you can't study effectively during winter, and you think it is because of SAD (a fancy term that you've just learned), sorry mate! Can't be granted (ofcourse if it is supported by evidence).

Having said that, I know most people do find it challenging to stay motivated during winter (that include me), and it is for a simple fact that the days are getting colder and shorter, and the nights are getting longer and darker. It is an additional challenge for students who need to prepare for their exams in winter.

So, how can you study effectively during winter? How can you beat these "winter blues"? Stay tune and find out the answers in the next issue!

(P/S: Do you know that Natalia Imbruglia actually suffered from SAD during a longer stay in London? Yes, she did.)

(Adiemus Seah, Counsellor

Learning Connection)

Writers' Circle Week 12

Hi everyone, the clock is ticking by and soon you will have to submit your final reports. Here are a few quick resources to get you thinking:

(See particularly the resource about introductions, abstracts and conclusions)

http://unisaquickclicks.blogspot.com/


http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learningconnection/student/studying/oral.asp

Best of luck, and please do post your questions to the blog ahead of the workshop because I know your presenters are keen to look address any issues you might have.

Cheers
Andrea (on behalf of Helen)

From Helen

Today we spent quite a lot of class time on referencing so that everyone could see that getting citations right is time-consuming and requires an eye for detail. This was on my mind because Andrea and I and two other colleagues have been working on a Conference Paper which was due yesterday afternoon. Our instructions were very precise, just like yours are in assessment tasks.
1) We had to limit ourselves to 10 pages. If we submitted more the conference's editorial committee would not read the paper.
2) We had to use the APA system of referencing, not Harvard which is more familiar to us.
We found that it was quite difficult to manage word length and citations writing collaboratively with various people adding in-text citations and references. We were over length so between us we spent hours yesterday reducing the text, and ensuring that every citation was correct and the punctuation perfect. We couldn't take the chance of rejection after all the work we put in on the paper.

If you haven't had to think much about referencing before you started at uni it can be hard to adjust to all this attention to detail now. Suddenly you have to ensure that anyone reading your work can see what authors and ideas have influenced you. But the effort you put in now will be worth it. This is a basic skill for uni study and one you'll use all the time you're here and later in your career.

The next Writer's Circles at Mawson Lakes are on Tuesday, April 24th, the week before your Portfolios are due. There's no Wednesday session as it's the Anzac Day holiday.

Good writing.

Workshop 2 - Reflections from Andrea

Hi everyone

Owing to the popularity of this workshop, Helen and I decided we would run two parallel workshops. Because you are groups of different individuals (with different questions), Helen and I approached things slightly differently because your questions were somewhat different.

Firstly, you identified what you found challenging about the summarising task:

• Someone said they had difficulty reaching the word limit


• Others found difficulty writing within the word limit


• Somebody else had difficulty moving from 'prose' to the style of writing expected of a summary.

We brainstormed some ideas about how to 'solve' some of these issues. In reaching the word limit, I suggested that planning was a good way to start - perhaps drawing the main ideas in a concept map (note: you need to log on to see this Centra presentation)

I also suggested that in organising your ideas, you use some connecting language in your writing to give the ideas structure - This will come in handy when it comes to doing your reports.

Other resources we discussed were Learningfast (to help you learn how to use Excel) and the web resources developed by careers (where you can find information about cover letters).

Finally, here is the paraphrasing exercise Helen and I did in class.

Until week 7...have a happy and productive break.

Andrea

Welcome

Hi Everyone

Welcome to our blog for Communication and Information Systems Technology.

The purpose of the blog is to reflect on the five workshops/writers' circles we will run to help develop your academic skills.

Please contribute to the discussion - feel free to ask questions and offer suggestions as we would like to work with you both in the classroom but also online.

Best of luck with your studies
Helen and Andrea