Making the Grade is a comprehensive reference for university students and staff on all aspects of higher education study and communication. It offers advice on completing university assignments and assessment tasks in a way that will help students ‘make the grade'.

Covering all aspects of university learning in the order in which students are likely to encounter them, the book begins by dealing with listening skills and effective time management, and concludes with advice on submitting answers during an electronic exam sitting. In between, it investigates and explains all formats in which lecturers usually ask students to convey their ideas, including essays, reports, annotated bibliographies, reviews, oral presentations, posters, figures and tables. It also offers assistance on teamwork, revision, referencing and using the library effectively.

With a brand new chapter on preparing and presenting arguments, new handy margin tips for quick reference, and fully updated material on using the internet for study and electronic referencing, Making the Grade assists students to navigate the culture, language and conventions of successful study at university.

• Now includes margin tips for easy reference
• New chapter on preparing and presenting arguments in essay form
• Updated material on writing and researching for the internet, and electronic referencing
• New material on attending conferences and networking

1. Starting out: university study and you
2. Settling down: studying alone
3. Teaming up: working in groups
4. Finding out: becoming well informed
5. Writing up: essay-writing
6. Arguing through: preparing and presenting written argument
7. Stating facts: writing research reports and laboratory reports
8. Making sense: writing annotated bibliographies, summaries and reviews
9. Writing well: language and sentence structure
10. Dotting 'i's: using punctuation correctly
11. Owning up: acknowledging sources
12. Speaking out: public speaking
13. Showing off: communicating with figures and tables
14. Finding ground: making maps
15. Pasting up: preparing posters
16. Facing up: coping with exams

Professor Iain Hay – Head, School of Geography, Flinders University

Dianne Bochner – Retired Lecturer, Flinders University

Carol Dungey – Library Site Manager, Defence Science and Technology, South Australia