The Business Student’s Handbook: Skills for Study and Employment, 7th Edition

Cover
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
Guided tour
Part 1 Employability and how best to Manage your Learning
    1 Becoming a highly desirable graduate
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        The purpose and design of this handbook
        Employability
        Transferability of skills
        The business and employment context
        Career expectations
        Seeing yourself as a product
        Summary
        Additional resources
    2 Managing yourself: time, stress and motivation
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        Self-management skills
        Ideas from project management
        Basic ideas of control
        Setting objectives
        Action planning
        Motivation
        Time management
        Stress management
        Summary
        Additional resources
    3 Learning, reflective practice and professional development
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        Learning theory
        Learning styles
        The role of reflection in learning
        Tools for reflection
        Managing your learning
        Learning opportunities and how to exploit them
        Organising your file
        Summary
        Additional resources
Part 2 Essential Academic Skills
    4 Critical reading and note-taking
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        ‘Simple’ reading skills
        Selecting materials and choosing reading speeds
        Reading critically
        Note-taking and annotations
        Avoiding plagiarism
        Summary
        Additional resources
    5 Basic numeracy
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        The importance of numbers
        Diagnostic exercise
        The importance of mathematical skills
        Sources of difficulty
        Choosing appropriate units
        Estimating and rounding
        Fractions, ratios and percentages
        Using equations
        Using brackets
        Spreadsheets and databases
        Going further
        Summary
        Additional resources
        HelpFile 5.1: A basic mathematical primer
    6 Academic and business writing
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        Writing as a key transferable skill
        Elements of communication
        Assessing your writing skills
        Basic English
        General points on style
        Basic written forms
        Formal letters
        Emails
        Essays
        Reports
        The serious sin of plagiarism
        Writing to create a good impression
        Summary
        Additional resources
        HelpFile 6.1: Grammar and spelling
        HelpFile 6.2: If English is not your native language …
    7 Improving your grades
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        The aims of assessment
        Why students fail
        Improving your assessment technique
        Deconstructing questions and planning answers
        Doing well in examinations
        Viva voce examinations
        Portfolio assessment
        Summary
        HelpFile 7.1: Terms commonly used in assessment questions
Part 3 Working With Others
    8 Talking and listening
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        The importance of interpersonal skills
        Effective listening
        Talking
        Giving and receiving feedback
        Dialogue and group reflection
        Assertiveness
        Negotiation
        Networking
        Summary
        Additional resources
    9 Teamwork and leadership
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        Team working in organisations
        Learning in groups
        Using dialogue for group learning
        Formal meetings
        Task groups
        Virtual teams
        Challenges of online collaboration
        Developing effective groups
        Managing diversity and conflict
        Developing your leadership skills
        Potential hazards of teamwork
        Summary
        Additional resources
    10 Presenting to an audience
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        The risks in presentation
        Presentation structure
        Delivery technique
        Effective visual aids
        Handling questions
        Virtual presentations and podcasts
        Poster presentations
        Controlling your nerves
        Preparation
        Summary
        Additional resources
Part 4 Conceptual Skills
    11 Complexity, cases and diagrams
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        Rational approaches
        Problem definition – description and diagnosis
        Description as a basis for diagnosis
        Diagnosis – exploring causes
        Making diagrams work for you
        Case study analysis
        Summary
        Additional resources
    12 Becoming more creative
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        The need for creativity
        Creating a creative environment
        Barriers to creativity
        Techniques for improving creativity
        Finding opportunities to be creative
        Summary
        Additional resources
    13 Data, information and decisions
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        Information versus data
        Looking for information – academic literature and other sources
        Finding relevant secondary data
        Generating your own information
        Interviews
        Focus groups
        Questionnaires
        Developing your information-gathering skills
        Summary
        Additional resources
    14 Making sense of data
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        ‘Lies, damned lies and statistics’
        Drawing and using graphs
        Calculus
        Frequencies and histograms
        Bar and column charts
        Pie charts
        Summary measures
        Measures of dispersion
        Drawing conclusions from figures
        Levels of significance
        Developing your inference skills
        Summary
        Additional resources
Part 5 Integrating Your Skills
    15 Project management and dissertations
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        The challenges of managing projects
        Group projects
        Individual projects or dissertations
        Finding a topic
        Obligations, responsibilities and ethics
        Draft project proposals
        Objectives clarification
        Literature search
        Data planning
        Gaining client agreement
        Project scheduling
        Negotiating access
        Monitoring and managing progress
        Writing a project report
        Summary
        Additional resources
    16 Managing your professional life
        Learning outcomes
        Introduction
        Looking forward
        Reviewing your strengths
        Reassessing your objectives
        Finding out about opportunities
        Becoming more attractive to employers
        Preparing a good CV
        Completing application forms
        Interviews and assessment centres
        Developing yourself and your career
        Summary
        Additional resources
Answers to test exercises
References
Index