Writing assistance
"No sooner do we come into this world than bits of us start to drop off." -- Gustave Flaubert
Analytical thinking
Learning to comprehend what you read is learning to reason and associate meaning. To understand the ideas in college textbooks, you have to work harder than you do when reading newspapers or magazines. Absorbing meaning from college texts frequently requires a laborious step-by-step analysis of details and their relationship to the whole. However, each time you master a textbook, you have learned how to think about a subject. The same habits of thinking and capturing meaning that you develop will make it easier to understand the next textbook because of your experience.
Another benefit is the ability to apply your skills to a new and different task. Thinking, like everything else, requires practice. The more you do it, the better you will become at it. You gradually develop the ability to educate yourself.
Once you have mastered the process and achieved the characteristics of a successful learner, you can easily apply them to everyday life. Thus, thinking characteristics that contribute to college success will also contribute to long-lasting personal success which is the ultimate reason for going to college.
The following table describes characteristics of both successful and unsuccessful students.
| Successful students... | Unsuccessful students ... |
| Are careful and systematic in attacking problems. | Have no method for attacking new material. |
| Can read directions and immediately choose a point at which to begin reasoning. | Misunderstand or skip directions. |
| Keep sight of goals while thinking through the problem. | Fail to keep the purpose in mind. |
| Pull out key terms and try to simplify the material. | Are unable to apply present knowledge to new situations. |
| Break larger problems into smaller subproblems. | Are passive in thinking and answer questions on the basis of few clues. |
| Are active and aggressive in seeking meaning. | Use "impression" or "feeling" to arrive at answers. |
| Apply relevant old knowledge to the new problem. | Are careless in considering details and jump around from one to another |
| Are persistent and careful in seeking solutions | After making a superficial attempt to reason, give up and guess. |
(Thanks to C. Crum for use of this handout)