Functional and Study Skills: Dictionary, Reference and Information Transfer
These marks test whether you can use a dictionary, follow a reference source and move information from one form into another. The work is mechanical but exact.
Dictionary skills
- Entries are alphabetical; use the guide words at the top of a page to decide whether your word is on it.
- An entry gives the headword, pronunciation with a stress mark, part of speech, numbered senses (commonest first), an example phrase and often derivatives at the end.
- Match the part of speech in your sentence before choosing a sense; a noun sense will not fit a verb slot.
- Stress and syllable division matter: preSENT (verb) versus PREsent (noun).
Reference skills
Contents (front, chapter list), index (back, alphabetical, with page numbers), glossary (terms and definitions), bibliography (sources).
Information transfer
Read the title and the units first. Keep figures exactly, use comparatives and linkers (whereas, twice as many as), and never invent data. For note-making use headings, sub-headings, abbreviations and phrases - not full sentences.
Worked example. Dictionary entry for bear: 1 a large animal 2 to endure 3 to carry 4 to give birth. Sentence: She could not bear the noise. Reasoning: the slot after could not needs a verb and the noise is its object - sense 2, "endure". Sense 1 is a noun and cannot fit, however familiar it is.
Traps
- Taking the first sense without checking the part of speech.
- Ordering words by the second letter before the first.
- Rewriting a chart as a vague sentence with no figures.
- Writing notes as full sentences, wasting both time and marks.