Thesis Statement
This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can discover or refine one for your draft.
Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper Read the rest of this entry »
How To Conquer Public Speaking Fear
By Morton C. Orman, M.D.
© 1996-2002, M. C. Orman, MD, FLP. All rights reserved
Public speaking is a common source of stress for everyone. Many of us would like to avoid this problem entirely, but this is hard to do. Whether we work alone or with large numbers of people, eventually we will need to speak in public to get certain tasks accomplished. And if we want to be leaders or achieve anything meaningful in our lives, we will often need to speak to groups, large and small, to be successful.
The truth about public speaking, however, is IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE STRESSFUL! If you correctly understand the hidden causes of public speaking stress, and if you keep just a few key principles in mind, speaking in public will soon become an invigorating and satisfying experience for you. Read the rest of this entry »
Group Behaviors
![territorial[1]](http://quangkhoi.net/learningcenter/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/territorial1-300x265.jpg "territorial[1]")
Groups go through five phases of development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and ending or transforming. The phases usually follow in order, but at times, groups find they must go back to an earlier phase to repeat a process. Read the rest of this entry »
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow
If motivation is driven by the existence of unsatisfied needs, then it is worthwhile for a manager to understand which needs are the more important for individual employees. In this regard, Abraham Maslow developed a model in which basic, low-level needs such as physiological requirements and safety must be satisfied before higher-level needs such as self-fulfillment are pursued. In this hierarchical model, when a need is mostly satisfied it no longer motivates and the next higher need takes its place. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is shown in the following diagram Read the rest of this entry »
What is Occam’s Razor?
Occam’s (or Ockham’s) razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. Ockham was the village in the English county of Surrey where he was born.
The principle states that “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.“ Sometimes it is quoted in one of its original Latin forms to give it an air of authenticity: Read the rest of this entry »
by Dr. Edward de Bono
Six Thinking Hats – Smart Thinking
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Focus on Facilitation
by Dr. Edward de Bono
What if you could walk into any meeting, with any group of people and help them be more effective? Can you imagine how sought after you would be? And how productive your meetings would become? The biggest complaint in most organizations – too much time is wasted in unproductive meetings. Unbelievable, isn’t it, how many millions of dollars are wasted everyday. Yet, most businesses haven’t thought to invest in equipping key employees with a set of practical tools and skills to lead productive “thinking together meetings” that secure business futures. Read the rest of this entry »
