College Success Skills: Student Guide 1

College Success Skills: Student Guide 1

College Success Skills

PS1001

Week Two

Copyright 2012 Ohio Christian University.All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, or by any information storage or retrieval system

without the prior written permission of OhioChristianUniversity

unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law.

Address inquiries to:

College of Adult and Graduate Studies,

Ohio Christian University, 1476 Lancaster Pike, Circleville, OH 43113

Table of Contents

(Hold Ctrl and click appropriate heading to immediately move to that section.)

Week Two Devotional

Week Two Introduction

Objective 1: Summarize the concept of plagiarism.

Objective 2: Demonstrate proper referencing of material utilizing APA referencing standards.

Objective 3: Demonstrate the ability to locate resources in OhioLink.

Objective 4: Structure the process for writing a college level paper.

Week Two Devotional

But Rebekah overheard what Isaac had said to his son Esau. So when Esau left to hunt for the wild game, she said to her son Jacob, “Listen. I overheard your father say to Esau, ‘Bring me some wild game and prepare me a delicious meal. Then I will bless you in the Lord’s presence before I die.’ … Go out to the flocks, and bring me two fine young goats. I’ll use them to prepare your father’s favorite dish. Then take the food to your father so he can eat it and bless you before he dies.”

“But look,” Jacob replied to Rebekah, “my brother, Esau, is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. What if my father touches me? He’ll see that I’m trying to trick him, and then he’ll curse me instead of blessing me.” … Then she took Esau’s favorite clothes, which were there in the house, and gave them to her younger son, Jacob. She covered his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skin of the young goats. Then she gave Jacob the delicious meal.

So Jacob took the food to his father. “My father?” he said …“It’s Esau, your firstborn son. I’ve done as you told me. Here is the wild game. Now sit up and eat it so you can give me your blessing.” Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you really are Esau.” So Jacob went closer to his father, and Isaac touched him. “The voice is Jacob’s, but the hands are Esau’s,” Isaac said. But he did not recognize Jacob, because Jacob’s hands felt hairy just like Esau’s. So Isaac prepared to bless Jacob. “But are you really my son Esau?” he asked. “Yes, I am,” Jacob replied.

Then Isaac said, “Now, my son, bring me the wild game. Let me eat it, and then I will give you my blessing.” So Jacob took the food to his father, and Isaac ate it. He also drank the wine that Jacob served him. Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come a little closer and kiss me, my son.” So Jacob went over and kissed him. And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he was finally convinced, and he blessed his son.(Genesis 27:5-19, 21-27)

The firstborn blessing was the premium blessing made by any father. It could not be replaced. Jacob successfully tricked their father Isaac into giving Esau’s cherished firstborn blessing to him... and got away with it. While it was simple enough to take Esau’s work as his own, this lack of acknowledgement was the beginning of a difficult life for Jacob. The most obvious example of many subsequent sorrows is when Jacob’s own sons many years later sold Jacob’s favorite son, Joseph, into slavery and convinced Jacob through trickery that Joseph was dead. The painful irony is evident.

Let us take this lesson into consideration as we learn how to acknowledge other writers and learn how to reference their thoughts and ideas in your own works of research. Writing without acknowledgement of resources sometimes slips through the cracks, like Jacob’s theft of Esau’s blessing; however, writers without ethics will suffer in the long term for not having learned the appropriate methods for research and writing, just as Jacob did not learn how to live on his own merits.

Always forge ahead on your own merits, and acknowledge those who helped!

Week Two Introduction

Welcome to the second week of our first class together. Now that we have learned more about each other and explored the concepts of online learning and the importance of Christian education, we are going to turn towards an essential component of lifelong learning: research. The ability to critically think is tied directly with the ability to research. This week will shed some light on online research, and getting through all the “clutter” of online data and find exactly what you need.

There is a web-based student guide that is a companion to this Word document version of the student guide. Both the web-based student guide and this Word version will guide you through the course because they contain the same information, just in different formats.

Learning Activity #1: Week Two Devotional

Applying biblical perspectives throughout our learning process is an important aspect for recognizing and pursing personal Christian development. Read the current week’s devotional, and consider the plagiarism parallel to Jacob’s actions.

Post your thoughts in the discussion forum titled Week Two Devotional. Feel free to respond to other students’ thoughts that enlighten you.

Objective 1: Summarize the concept of plagiarism.

“Plagiarism is absolutely not tolerated.” We are very familiar with this rule, but what exactly is plagiarism? In truth, there are some extremely gray lines that make it difficult to determine if you are indeed plagiarizing. The typical comprehension of plagiarism is obvious: don’t quote a source and take personal credit for that quote. There are those gray areas though, such as reusing facts and figures, images, paraphrasing a single source, and unique ideas/opinions. This objective will take a closer look at the actual definition of plagiarism and discuss your questions and thoughts.

Learning Activity #2: Plagiarism Discussion

Review to better understand plagiarism and how to avoid it. Also review the plagiarism policy on the second-to-last page of your syllabus.

Develop a response to the following question and instructions.

Why is it important to follow the rules for referencing sources?

List at leastthree safe practices you plan to use so that you are sure to avoid accidental plagiarism.

Respond to the above in the discussion forum titled PlagiarismDiscussion. Use the Discussion rubric to guide your posted response and responses to other posts.

Objective 2: Demonstrate proper referencing of material utilizing APA referencing standards.

While there are multiple ways to accredit others’ original thoughts and quotes within a text you are writing, a referencing standard is necessary for clear communication and provides an easy method for your reader to find other sources about the topic you have discussed. However, creating a reference can become very complicated with multiple mediums providing information for your paper’s content. For example, books provide a standardized format for easy referencing, but news articles or Internet articles often provide non-standard information for referencing. Also, delving into image and visual media referencing, there are very different ways to reference any quotes, ideas, etc. Maintaining a referencing standard also simplifies online searches and automated data collation. Services such as Google Scholar ( utilize a standard referencing format to cross link papers and provide easy navigation, resulting in more information. There are severalreferencing standards, such as Modern Language Association (MLA), but OCU uses the referencing standard of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Learning Activity #3: APA FormattingQuiz

There are a few resources for you to download and review.

On the course’s home page, please find the files titled APA Formatting Introduction and APA Paper Example. Review them both carefully. Then complete the tutorial located at

Once you have reviewed the presentation, interactive tutorial, and the PDF example paper please take the quiz titled APA Formatting Quiz. You may retake the quiz as many times as necessary.

Objective 3: Demonstrate the ability to locate resources in OhioLink.

It is always important to support your academic writing with peer reviewed resources. The content within the curriculum and textbook is a springboard to support your efforts in discovering other qualified opinions to support and justify the opinions you present in papers. OhioLink is a database that Ohio Christian University utilizes connecting all the online library databases in the state of Ohio. It is a very powerful tool as all the resources of Ohio’s online libraries are at your fingertips! You also have research support from the university library, Maxwell Library.

Document Delivery. If you need an article that isn’t available online or a book from our library collection, contact the library. They will do what they can to deliver that material to you by mail, email, or fax. Additional delivery methods may soon be available.

Interlibrary Loan. If we don’t have an article or a book in OCU’s library, the library may still be able to get that item for you. They can check with other libraries that own that item and ask them to send it to them and forward on to you. Please be advised this system takes extra time and is not 100% successful.

Research Assistance. If you’re at a dead end and cannot find anything further on a topic, the library staff can assist you with some additional research.

Electronic Journals. OhioLink is the virtual database representing public, private, and university library compilations within Ohio. To access it, go to the Resources tab. There is a link to the Maxwell Library site, where you can click to access OhioLink. Once you do that, select the database you wish to explore, and it will request the account information.

Learning Activity #4: Electronic Search Exercise

Review the interactive tutorial (

for the Maxwell Library and OhioLink for detailed procedures and navigation.

Utilize the log-in information provided on your ID card provided in your welcome package to access OhioLink.

Using the OhioLink electronic database provided in the link below, locate an article using keywords of your preference.

Summarize your findings within the article in 2-3 sentences.

Cite the resource in APA format. Note that OhioLink will provide the citation in APA format for you!

Include the keywords that you used to find the article.

Again review the tutorial located at to ensure you have cited everything correctly.

Post the completed exercise as an attachment in the drop box titled Electronic Search Exercise.

Objective 4: Structure the process for writing a college level paper.

Writing papers on a collegiate level is important to address early in your degree program. The expectations of writing quality rises with each level of higher education that you pursue. Early associates level papers most likely were accepted in the first person and perhaps did not always require academic resources; however, the bachelor’s level will require more focus on the third person and use academic resources. This objective’s learning activity will guide you in the steps necessary for successful writing skills! Research is very tied with formatting structure, as it is the results of our research that we are integrating into the writing and citing.

Learning Activity #5: Writing Checklist

Read the tabbed section titled Academic Writing and the section titled Researching from your textbook by Hacker and Sommers titled A Writer’s Reference.

Also review the Paper Writing Rubric and the link embedded in the rubric provided at the end of this activity. Please note that this will be the same rubric applied to papers in future courses, although the points allotted may vary.

Compile a list of steps you feel are necessary to follow for each paper required in your academic studies based on your review of the Academic Writing. Include even mundane items like “double check title page” or “have friend/family peer review it.”

Please note that this is a list that is specific to your needs and concerns with writing and will be using as a checklist for future paper writing.

Submit the checklist to your facilitator as an attachment in the drop boxtitled Writing Checklist.