academic progress essay

FRONT MATTER
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sample Progress Report

The following short progress report, written by a student in geology, provides an excellent example of how concrete and affirmative a progress report can be. Note the specificity even in the title, and how sections such as "Remaining Questions" and "Expected Results" demonstrate that the writer, even though he is two months away from the completion of his thesis, is thinking about the work in a professional manner.

Progress Report

"Stratigraphic Architecture of Deep-Ramp Carbonates: Implications for Deposition of Volcanic Ashes, Salona and Coburn Formations, Central Pennsylvania" by John Lerner

SCOPE AND PURPOSE

The Late Middle Ordovician-age Salona and Coburn formations of central Pennsylvania show cyclic patterns on a scale of tens of meters. Little research has been done on sequence stratigraphy of deep-water mixed carbonate/siliciclastic systems, and a depositional model for this environment is necessary to understand the timing and processes of deposition. The stratigraphic position of the bentonites at the base of the larger cycles is significant because it indicates that they accumulated during a time of non-deposition in a deep water environment.

To date, I have described five lithofacies present in the Salona and Coburn formations. Two lithofacies are interpreted as storm deposits and make up the limestone component of the thinly-bedded couplets. Some trends were observed in the raw data; however, because of the "noisy" nature of the data, a plot of the five-point moving average of bed thickness was created to define the cycles better.

ADDITIONAL WORK

Two key tasks are to be completed in the coming weeks. With the results of these tests and the field observations, I will create a model for deposition of a deep-ramp mixed carbonate/siliciclastic system in a foreland basin environment. The model will include depositional processes, stratigraphic architecture, and tectonic setting.

REMAINING QUESTIONS

Questions remain regarding the depositional processes responsible for the featureless micrite at the base of the Salona Formation. . . . How rapid was the transition? What record (if any?) remains of the transition? Were bentonites not deposited, or were they selectively removed at certain locations by erosive storm processes?

EXPECTED RESULTS

I expect to find that the large-scale cycles represent parasequences. Flooding surfaces are marked by bentonites and shales, with bentonites removed in some locations. If the cycles are true parasequences, the implication is that eustatic sea level changes and not tectonic influences controlled the depositional changes over the interval.

How to Write an Academic Essay in 6 Simple Steps

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Written by Scribendi

Are you wondering how to write an academic essay successfully? There are so many steps to writing an academic essay that it can be difficult to know where to start.

Here, we outline how to write an academic essay in 6 simple steps, from how to research for an academic essay to how to revise an essay and everything in between.

Our essay writing tips are designed to help you learn how to write an academic essay that is ready for publication (after academic editing and academic proofreading , of course!).

Your paper isn't complete until you've done all the needed proofreading. Make sure you leave time for it after the writing process!

Download Our Pocket Checklist for Academic Papers. Just input your email below!

Types of academic writing.

With academic essay writing, there are certain conventions that writers are expected to follow. As such, it's important to know the basics of academic writing before you begin writing your essay.

Step 1: Preparing to Write Your Essay

The essay writing process involves a few main stages:

Researching

As such, in learning how to write an academic essay, it is also important to learn how to research for an academic essay and how to revise an essay.

Read More: Online Research Tips for Students and Scholars

To beef up your research skills, remember these essay writing tips from the above article:

Learn how to identify reliable sources.

Understand the nuances of open access.

Discover free academic journals and research databases.

Manage your references.

Provide evidence for every claim so you can avoid plagiarism .

Read More: 17 Research Databases for Free Articles

You will want to do the research for your academic essay points, of course, but you will also want to research various journals for the publication of your paper.

Different journals have different guidelines and thus different requirements for writers. These can be related to style, formatting, and more.

Knowing these before you begin writing can save you a lot of time if you also want to learn how to revise an essay. If you ensure your paper meets the guidelines of the journal you want to publish in, you will not have to revise it again later for this purpose.

After the research stage, you can draft your thesis and introduction as well as outline the rest of your essay. This will put you in a good position to draft your body paragraphs and conclusion, craft your bibliography, and edit and proofread your paper.

Step 2: Writing the Essay Introduction and Thesis Statement

When learning how to write academic essays , learning how to write an introduction is key alongside learning how to research for an academic essay.

Your introduction should broadly introduce your topic. It will give an overview of your essay and the points that will be discussed. It is typically about 10% of the final word count of the text.

All introductions follow a general structure:

Topic statement

Thesis statement

Step 3: Writing the Essay Body

When learning how to write academic essays, you must learn how to write a good body paragraph. That's because your essay will be primarily made up of them!

The body paragraphs of your essay will develop the argument you outlined in your thesis. They will do this by providing your ideas on a topic backed up by evidence of specific points.

These paragraphs will typically take up about 80% of your essay. As a result, a good essay writing tip is to learn how to properly structure a paragraph.

Each paragraph consists of the following:

A topic sentence

Supporting sentences

A transition

Step 4: Writing the Essay Conclusion

Your essay conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay and primarily reminds your reader of your thesis. It also wraps up your essay and discusses your findings more generally.

The conclusion typically makes up about 10% of the text, like the introduction. It shows the reader that you have accomplished what you intended to at the outset of your essay.

Here are a couple more good essay writing tips for your conclusion:

Don't introduce any new ideas into your conclusion.

Don't undermine your argument with opposing ideas.

Read More: How to Write a Conclusion Paragraph in 3 Easy Steps

Now that you know how to write an academic essay, it's time to learn how to write a bibliography along with some academic editing and proofreading advice.

Step 5: Writing the Bibliography or Works Cited

The bibliography of your paper lists all the references you cited. It is typically alphabetized or numbered (depending on the style guide).

Read More: How to Write an Academic Essay with References

When learning how to write academic essays, you may notice that there are various style guides you may be required to use by a professor or journal, including unique or custom styles.

Some of the most common style guides include:

Chicago style

For help organizing your references for academic essay writing, consider a software manager. They can help you collect and format your references correctly and consistently, both quickly and with minimal effort.

Read More: 6 Reference Manager Software Solutions for Your Research

As you learn how to research for an academic essay most effectively, you may notice that a reference manager can also help make academic paper editing easier.

Step 6: Revising Your Essay

Once you've finally drafted your entire essay . . . you're still not done!

That's because editing and proofreading are the essential final steps of any writing process .

An academic editor can help you identify core issues with your writing , including its structure, its flow, its clarity, and its overall readability. They can give you substantive feedback and essay writing tips to improve your document. Therefore, it's a good idea to have an editor review your first draft so you can improve it prior to proofreading.

A specialized academic editor can assess the content of your writing. As a subject-matter expert in your subject, they can offer field-specific insight and critical commentary. Specialized academic editors can also provide services that others may not, including:

Academic document formatting

Academic figure formatting

Academic reference formatting

An academic proofreader can help you perfect the final draft of your paper to ensure it is completely error free in terms of spelling and grammar. They can also identify any inconsistencies in your work but will not look for any issues in the content of your writing, only its mechanics. This is why you should have a proofreader revise your final draft so that it is ready to be seen by an audience.

Read More: How to Find the Right Academic Paper Editor or Proofreader

When learning how to research and write an academic essay, it is important to remember that editing is a required step. Don ' t forget to allot time for editing after you ' ve written your paper.

Set yourself up for success with this guide on how to write an academic essay. With a solid draft, you'll have better chances of getting published and read in any journal of your choosing.

Our academic essay writing tips are sure to help you learn how to research an academic essay, how to write an academic essay, and how to revise an academic essay.

If your academic paper looks sloppy, your readers may assume your research is sloppy. Download our Pocket Proofreading Checklist for Academic Papers before you take that one last crucial look at your paper.

About the Author

Scribendi's in-house editors work with writers from all over the globe to perfect their writing. They know that no piece of writing is complete without a professional edit, and they love to see a good piece of writing transformed into a great one. Scribendi's in-house editors are unrivaled in both experience and education, having collectively edited millions of words and obtained numerous degrees. They love consuming caffeinated beverages, reading books of various genres, and relaxing in quiet, dimly lit spaces.

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How to Master the 4 Types of Academic Writing

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Structure of academic reflections

Guidance on the structure of academic reflections.

Academic reflections or reflective writing completed for assessment often require a clear structure. Contrary to some people’s belief, reflection is not just a personal diary talking about your day and your feelings.

Both the language and the structure are important for academic reflective writing. For the structure you want to mirror an academic essay closely. You want an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion.

Academic reflection will require you to both describe the context, analyse it, and make conclusions. However, there is not one set of rules for the proportion of your reflection that should be spent describing the context, and what proportion should be spent on analysing and concluding. That being said, as learning tends to happen when analysing and synthesising rather than describing, a good rule of thumb is to describe just enough such that the reader understands your context.

Example structure for academic reflections

Below is an example of how you might structure an academic reflection if you were given no other guidance and what each section might contain. Remember this is only a suggestion and you must consider what is appropriate for the task at hand and for you yourself.

Introduction

Identifies and introduces your experience or learning

This can be a critical incident
This can be the reflective prompt you were given
A particular learning you have gained

When structuring your academic reflections it might make sense to start with what you have learned and then use the main body to evidence that learning, using specific experiences and events. Alternatively, start with the event and build up your argument. This is a question of personal preference – if you aren’t given explicit guidance you can ask the assessor if they have a preference, however both can work.

Highlights why it was important

This can be suggesting why this event was important for the learning you gained
This can be why the learning you gained will benefit you or why you appreciate it in your context

You might find that it is not natural to highlight the importance of an event before you have developed your argument for what you gained from it. It can be okay not to explicitly state the importance in the introduction, but leave it to develop throughout your reflection.

Outline key themes that will appear in the reflection (optional – but particularly relevant when answering a reflective prompt or essay)

This can be an introduction to your argument, introducing the elements that you will explore, or that builds to the learning you have already gained.

This might not make sense if you are reflecting on a particular experience, but is extremely valuable if you are answering a reflective prompt or writing an essay that includes multiple learning points. A type of prompt or question that could particularly benefit from this would be ‘Reflect on how the skills and theory within this course have helped you meet the benchmark statements of your degree’

It can be helpful to explore one theme/learning per paragraph.

Explore experiences

You should highlight and explore the experience you introduced in the introduction
If you are building toward answering a reflective prompt, explore each relevant experience.

As reflection is centred around an individual’s personal experience, it is very important to make experiences a main component of reflection. This does not mean that the majority of the reflective piece should be on describing an event – in fact you should only describe enough such that the reader can follow your analysis.

Analyse and synthesise

You should analyse each of your experiences and from them synthesise new learning

Depending on the requirements of the assessment, you may need to use theoretical literature in your analysis. Theoretical literature is a part of perspective taking which is relevant for reflection, and will happen as a part of your analysis.

Restate or state your learning

Make a conclusion based on your analysis and synthesis.
If you have many themes in your reflection, it can be helpful to restate them here.

Plan for the future

Highlight and discuss how your new-found learnings will influence your future practice

Answer the question or prompt (if applicable)

If you are answering an essay question or reflective prompt, make sure that your conclusion provides a succinct response using your main body as evidence.

Using a reflective model to structure academic reflections

You might recognise that most reflective models mirror this structure; that is why a lot of the reflective models can be really useful to structure reflective assignments. Models are naturally structured to focus on a single experience – if the assignment requires you to focus on multiple experiences, it can be helpful to simply repeat each step of a model for each experience.

One difference between the structure of reflective writing and the structure of models is that sometimes you may choose to present your learning in the introduction of a piece of writing, whereas models (given that they support working through the reflective process) will have learning appearing at later stages.

However, generally structuring a piece of academic writing around a reflective model will ensure that it involves the correct components, reads coherently and logically, as well as having an appropriate structure.

Reflective journals/diaries/blogs and other pieces of assessed reflection

The example structure above works particularly well for formal assignments such as reflective essays and reports. Reflective journal/blogs and other pieces of assessed reflections tend to be less formal both in language and structure, however you can easily adapt the structure for journals and other reflective assignments if you find that helpful.

That is, if you are asked to produce a reflective journal with multiple entries it will most often (always check with the person who issued the assignment) be a successful journal if each entry mirrors the structure above and the language highlighted in the section on academic language. However, often you can be less concerned with form when producing reflective journals/diaries.

When producing reflective journals, it is often okay to include your original reflection as long as you are comfortable with sharing the content with others, and that the information included is not too personal for an assessor to read.

Developed from:

Ryan, M., 2011. Improving reflective writing in higher education: a social semiotic perspective. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(1), 99-111.

University of Portsmouth, Department for Curriculum and Quality Enhancement (date unavailable). Reflective Writing: a basic introduction [online]. Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth.

Queen Margaret University, Effective Learning Service (date unavailable). Reflection. [online]. Edinburgh: Queen Margaret University.

Personal Academic Writing Progress Essay

My introduction to the world of academic writing has greatly improved my scholarly resume. Consequently, I am no longer afraid of formal writing. My course materials have eased me into the exciting world of academic writing and they have consequently changed me from a novice into an intermediate. In the course of this learning period, I have managed to complete several formal and informal writing exercises.

The course has implicitly emphasized on the need for practice when it comes to formal writing. At the beginning of my writing experience, I dreaded every writing challenge that was presented to me even though I was already an avid reader. However, my brief training in formal writing has enabled me to synthesize and regurgitate information in equal measure. Now, it is possible for me to reflect on any academic article. In addition, I have learnt about methods of publishing individual research without ‘stealing’ from other scholars. Nevertheless, I have also had several negative experiences as a budding academic writer. This paper is a reflective self-analysis on my writing during this semester.

In the course of my writing, I have noticed that I have evident strengths that are adequately reflected in my writing experience. These strengths are important to my future college and career activities. My main strength in writing is the ability to organize and express ideas and explanations. After reviewing my past papers, it is clear that as a writer I am able to present an enviable level of professionalism in my work. For example, my rhetorical analysis paper consists of neatly arranged subtitles.

These subtitles are important because they enable the reader to understand my claims faster. My ability to organize ideas and explanations is reflected in my quantitative literacy essay. The quantitative literacy essay was the most challenging paper that I tackled this semester. However, the completed essay does not reflect this inadequacy mostly because of its professional arrangement (Quantitative Literacy Essay 1).

After I had conducted enough research, I was able to come up with an essay that displays my ability to organize ideas. Although the quantitative essay contains materials that are hard to synthesize, the flow of ideas that is displayed by my writing makes it easier to comprehend the essay’s subject matter. In future, I hope to hone my analytical and organizational skills by taking on more complex writing challenges.

My writing also demonstrates a superior ability in the use of Standard English. Although my initial English knowledge was not very strong, I have been able to master Standard English usage. This ability is reflected in majority of my work. For instance, the grammar level in most of my essays paints the picture of an English language master. An example of a sentence that highlights my grammatical abilities is this one; “the article is practical in highlighting the role that technology plays in the modern world” (Rhetorical Analysis Essay 2).

This sentence is a very simple statement but good use of grammar makes it synonymous with language mastery. In another essay, I wrote that, “it is evident that higher education is very important in the academic realm because it is not only an ingredient of academic prowess, but it is also a factor of social and economic development of a society” (Research Essay 4). Consequently, the ability to master Standard English has enabled me to venture into ‘flowery language’ as exemplified in the examples above. It is also important to note that in most of my previous essays my instructor has not cited me for any serious proofreading errors.

In writing, my biggest challenge lies in critical thinking. Although I am able to present ideas in an organized and palatable manner, I have never been able to present ideas in a third or a fourth angle. Most of the arguments that I present in my essays lack the originality that comes with critical-thinking prowess. For instance, most of my essays only present arguments and counter arguments of other authors. Nevertheless, the essays rarely deviate from the norm. In my past rhetorical essay, my task was to analyze an article. However, my analysis lacked ‘my’ personal input on the article’s argument.

My other shortcoming when it comes to writing is my overconfident approach leading to a general lack of commitment. Although this shortcoming is only manifested in a few of my essays, it is still undermining my writing abilities. For instance, I have adopted a writing strategy that only encompasses reading and writing. Consequently, I have overlooked important activities such as pre-writing and drafting. This shortcoming is revealed in my past research essay where the conclusion is evidently ‘rushed’.

My writing progress over the last semester reveals that my skills as a writer have greatly improved over the last few months. In addition, this self-analysis has enabled me to reflect on my main strengths and weaknesses when it comes to my writing abilities. My future as a master of the English language is very bright. In addition, it is evident that I have to work harder to improve my critical thinking skills. Overall, my improving writing abilities will enable me to obtain high grades. Consequently, the high grades will enable me to connect with first-rate employers who will in turn polish my future career prospects.

Works Cited

Quantitative literacy essay – Climate Change.

Research essay – Importance of higher education.

Rhetorical analysis essay- Article critique.

English Composition Course Design
Gothic Literature Course Experience
"Effective Writing Skills" Video by Evan Thomas
Embedding Plagiarism Education in the Assessment Process
Paraphrasing and Quoting Special Education Articles
Informal Reading Inventory as Literacy Assessment
Retelling as a Literacy Assessment
How to Write Process Analysis Essay?
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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7 tips to help you achieve academic success

What is academic success?

Academic success means different things to different people. Whether you want to explore a subject area that you’re passionate about or enhance your credentials to advance your career, one of the primary purposes of education is to help you reach your full personal and professional potential. To achieve your vision for success, it’s important to create clear, actionable objectives and develop good habits and skills to guide your learning and keep you on track in your studies.

How do you achieve academic success?

Setting achievable short- and long-term goals is one key to academic success. When you set actionable objectives and incorporate skills and behaviors like time management, good study habits, and resilience, it’s easier to create and execute an effective study plan, track your progress, and reach your milestones. If you’re unsure of where to start when it comes to making a plan, read on to explore seven tips you can implement to align with your unique needs and experiences.

1. Work on your time management skills

One of the most critical skills for academic success is effective management of your study time. Time management skills are essential because they help ensure you stay on top of all your readings, projects, and exams. Managing your time well also requires you to stay organized, prioritize your tasks, and plan out a daily, weekly, and monthly study schedule that you stick to. How you choose to manage your study calendar is up to you, but you should create a system to track your project deadlines, exams, and study sessions in a way that’s easily accessible—whether that be a time management app on your phone, an online daily planner, or a physical calendar. As long as you carve out specific amounts of time each day or week to ensure you accomplish your high-priority items, you will set yourself up for success. It can also be helpful to let the important people in your life know about the times you have reserved for your studies so you can avoid distractions and stay focused on the tasks at hand.

2. Set small goals to help you accomplish large goals

One of the best ways to help you meet your larger, long-term goals is by tackling smaller goals that will help you achieve the results you desire. Create SMART goals that are clear and realistic and use your resources and time productively. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. By setting SMART goals, you give yourself the opportunity to take a hard look at your objectives, understand what is motivating them, and pinpoint the actions you need to take to meet them. An example of a SMART academic goal is, “I will work to improve my grade from a B to an A by devoting four hours a week to studying my notes, readings, and flashcards for the next three weeks.”

3. Surround yourself with supportive people who motivate you

When you lean on people who support your educational journey, it can invigorate you and help stoke your determination. With family, friends, and coworkers, it’s important to open up about your experience of returning to university to enhance your skills—including both your accomplishments and your challenges. It can also be helpful to share with your instructors and peers at Penn LPS Online. Because your coursework includes group projects, presentations, and online discussions, you’ll have many opportunities to collaborate with your classmates, share your experiences, and help each other to excel in your studies. And you’ll also interact with Ivy League faculty and practitioners who are experts in their fields who will be more than willing to support you by addressing any questions or concerns you may have.

4. Build good study habits

Developing and maintaining good study habits is critical to your academic success. When you make good study habits a part of your daily routine, it can increase your efficiency, confidence, and effectiveness while reducing anxiety about your coursework. The reality is that your days are likely already packed with work, family, and other personal responsibilities, so it’s crucial you carve out time to devote to studying. To help you build strong study habits, it’s beneficial to create a consistent and structured daily plan. Ensure that you have a dedicated environment that is conducive to studying and avoid procrastination by holding yourself accountable to your dedicated study sessions. These tips can help:

Take effective notes when listening to lectures or reading course materials Taking effective notes is extremely helpful for understanding course material and completing assignments—and there is a definite strategy for doing so. First, be selective and pay attention to the concepts that your instructor indicates are important—and look for section headings or summaries in your readings that highlight essential material. Then, once you’ve identified major concepts, rewrite them in your own words to help make them more understandable and memorable. Finally, go back and recap each idea in one or two sentences to streamline and highlight key takeaways.
Create mind maps A mind map is a diagram that represents how various ideas relate to the main concept. Using mind maps can be an effective way of organizing and summarizing key concepts, particularly if you’re a visual learner. Start by writing the central concept in the middle of your page and then draw curved lines branching out with related ideas. Then, you can add branches to the related ideas with further points. You can also use different colors, pictures, and line lengths/widths to make your maps more memorable or highlight the most important concepts.
Break up study sessions While some long study sessions can’t be avoided, if you can break up your study time into shorter increments, you will be doing yourself a favor. That’s because your brain needs these breaks to process and store the information that you learn. And stopping to grab a snack, listen to a podcast, or grab coffee with a friend can help you relax, improve your mood, and allow you to focus better once you return to studying.

5. Develop your patience and resilience

In a world where our attention spans seem to be getting shorter and instant gratification is often celebrated, it can be difficult to cultivate patience. But if you want to be successful in reaching your academic goals, you’re going to have to learn how. Practices that can be helpful to overcome impatience include being more mindful of your reactions to your environment, calming your mind by practicing deep breathing or meditation, and rewarding yourself when you reach set milestones.

Resilience refers to your ability to adapt to and overcome life’s challenges. If you’re interested in learning more about how to become more resilient you should look into APOP 1200: Human Flourishing: Strengths and Resilience at Penn LPS Online. This course explores the science of positive psychology and how we can leverage our strengths to contribute to the greater world and enhance our personal well-being. You will also learn about the physical and psychological protective principles and factors that comprise resilience and how they can be nurtured to help you flourish in your academics, career, and personal life.

6. Take care of yourself physically and mentally

You can’t expect to meet your goals if you experience burnout. That’s why it’s so important that you take care of your physical and mental health. Some effective ways to take care of your body include eating a well-balanced and nutritious diet and exercising regularly. Remember that being active doesn’t have to involve going to the gym—it can also be taking a dance class, going for a bike ride, or walking your dog around the neighborhood. The endorphins that your body produces when you exercise can help improve your disposition and relax your mind. You should also prioritize sleep to help boost your immune system, reduce stress, and increase your ability to focus on your studies. Did you know getting outdoors can improve your mental health? Not only will you enjoy the fresh air, but exposure to sunlight is also believed to increase the release of serotonin, a hormone associated with improved mood and sense of calm and concentration.

Finally, schedule time just for fun! Whether you engage in your favorite hobby, work on a creative project, or go out to dinner with your partner, when you make the time to do activities that you love, it benefits your well-being and ultimately increases your chances of academic success. And it’s important to note that if you do find yourself feeling overwhelmed or struggling mentally during your studies that reaching out to a professional therapist is always a healthy step to take.

7. Practice positive thinking

People who maintain a positive outlook on life may cope better with stress, have stronger immunity, and experience healthier and happier lives. Consequently, cultivating a positive mindset can be invaluable when it comes to learning. Positive psychology is the scientific study of what helps people to thrive in all aspects of their lives. In APOP 1000: Introduction to Positive Psychology at Penn LPS Online, you will explore the underpinnings of positive psychology, address questions surrounding what it means to be happy, and learn the theory and science that supports the conceptual framework of well-being. With hands-on experiments and group activities, you’ll discover how to build well-being in yourself, in organizations, and in communities. So, when you’re registering for courses, do yourself a favor and consider this one.

Are you ready to achieve academic success?

Congratulations on committing to continuing your education and furthering your personal and professional development. In addition to advancing your academic and career goals, lifelong learning can also help you improve your self-confidence and self-worth, renew your creativity and motivation, build soft skills such as critical thinking and adaptability, and enhance your overall quality of life.

The Ivy League courses , certificates , and degree at Penn LPS Online are designed with adult learners like you in mind, offering the flexibility to obtain new career skills, indulge your unique passions, or earn your liberal arts degree on a schedule that works with your busy life. At Penn LPS Online, you can pursue your academic goals while building a foundation grounded in the arts and sciences and broadening your professional prospects.

View our course guide to see what excites you! Enrollment for certificates and courses and applications for the Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences program are always open. Visit our online application and get started today!

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9 10 Academic Goals Examples to Supercharge Your Student Success

Becoming a successful student involves more than just going to classes and remembering facts for the test. It is about establishing a mentality of learning and evolving continuously, and distinct academic goals are a key aspect of that. These are the lights that lead the way and help you stay on track as you navigate through the trials and tribulations of your studies, whether it’s the demands of testing or the stuff that life throws at you. But, just as importantly, by clearly defining and outlining your academic objectives, you give your study a sense of intention and purpose. Whether it’s achieving a particular GPA, mastering a challenging topic, or participating in enriching extracurricular, strong academic Goals are the foundation of both short- and long-term academic success.

Establishing concrete goals and the quest of excellence are frequently linked in the academic sphere. Before delving into these Academic Goals Examples, it is important to recognize services like Scholarly Help that provide workable ways to handle several Tasks. With options like pay someone to do my online class , Scholarly Help ensures you stay on track without compromising other responsibilities. This comprehensive guide explores ten powerful academic goals examples designed to elevate your student success to unprecedented heights. Whether your academic goals are designed to improve your critical thinking habits, advance your time management skills, or explore interdisciplinary thinking to further your academic career, they should provide students with a path toward overall intellectual and personal development. Rounding up different students through carefully structured college academic goals. All must necessarily form the basis of individual reality and opportunities.

Mastering Time Management

One of the building blocks for academic achievement is the effective management of time. The ability allows students to combine studies with other activities, namely work, daily life, or personal life. To manage time effectively, learners are recommended to:

Plan a Weekly Schedule: set certain hours and days to work, study, and engage in other activities;
Set Priorities: determine poses that are urgent and important, then focus on a solution;
Do not Get Distracted: if some activities or processes are distracting, generate disadvantages.

Enhancing Study Skills

Improving study abilities might result in better comprehension and recall of course material. Students should focus on:

Active Learning Techniques: Engage with the material such as holding discussions, teaching others, and transforming what one learned to real-life application.
Effective Note-Taking: Employ methods like Cornell Note-taking System to organize and refresh notes.
Regular Review Sessions: Set regular study dates to refresh one’s memory and prepare for exams.

Setting Specific Academic Targets

Setting clear, specific targets helps students stay motivated and measure progress. Examples of specific academic goals include:

Achieve Specific GPA: Aim to reach or maintain a specific grade point average each semester.
Improving Grades in Challenging Subjects: Identify subjects where improvement is needed and set goals accordingly.
Completing Assignments Ahead of Deadlines: Plan to finish assignments before the due date to allow time for revisions.

Expanding Knowledge beyond the Classroom

Gaining knowledge outside the classroom can enhance academic performance and provide a broader perspective. Students can achieve this by:

Reading Extensively: Explore Books, Journals, and articles related to their field of Study.
Attending Seminars and Workshops: Participate in events offering additional insights and networking opportunities.
Engaging in Research Projects: Collaborate with professors or peers on research projects to deepen understanding of specific topics.

Developing Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is vital for problem-solving and making informed decisions. Students can cultivate these skills by:

Questioning Assumptions: Always ask why and consider alternative viewpoints.
Analyzing Arguments: Evaluate the evidence and logic in different arguments.
Reflecting on Learning: Regularly review what has been learned and how it applies to real-world situations.

Building Effective Communication Skills

Strong communication skills are essential for academic and professional success. Students can enhance these skills by:

Participating in Class Discussions: Engage actively in discussions to practice articulating thoughts clearly.
Writing Regularly: Practice writing essays, reports, and articles to improve writing abilities.
Presenting Projects: Take opportunities to present work in front of an audience to build confidence and clarity.

Fostering Collaboration and Teamwork

Collaboration with peers can lead to better understanding and innovative solutions. Students should focus on:

Joining Study Groups: Collaborate with classmates to discuss topics and solve problems together.
Participating in Group Projects: Develop teamwork and leadership skills by working on group assignments.
Engaging in Extracurricular Activities: Join clubs and organizations that encourage teamwork and collective problem-solving.

Seeking Feedback and Continuous Improvement

Constructive feedback helps identify areas for improvement and guide academic growth. Students should:

Ask for Feedback: Request feedback from professors and peers on assignments and presentations.
Reflect on Criticism: Use feedback to identify strengths and weaknesses, developing action plans for improvement.
Commit to Lifelong Learning: Embrace continuous learning and improvement in all aspects of life.

Utilizing Academic Resources

Taking full advantage of available academic resources can enhance learning and performance. Students should:

Visit the Library Regularly: Utilize resources for research and study.
Use Online Databases: Access academic journals and articles online to support studies.
Seek Academic Support Services: Utilize tutoring, writing centers, and academic advising offered by the institution.

Preparing for Future Careers with Academic Goals

Setting academic goals with future careers in mind provides direction and motivation. Students should:

Identify Career Goals: Determine career aspirations and align academic goals accordingly.
Gain Relevant Experience: Pursue internships, part-time jobs, and volunteer opportunities related to the field of study.
Develop Professional Skills: Focus on skills like resume writing, interviewing, and networking to prepare for the job market.

Setting and meeting academic goals necessitates dedication, strategic planning, and consistent effort. By focusing on these ten academic goal examples, students can improve their learning experience, and performance, and set themselves up for future success. Remember that the key to academic success is to set specific, attainable goals and work hard to meet them.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Academic Achievements — Financial Aid Academic Progress Appeal

Financial Aid Academic Progress Appeal

Categories: Academic Achievements Academic Challenges Progress

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Published: Mar 14, 2019

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Writing a successful SAP appeal

What happened - what has changed.

Your satisfactory academic progress (SAP) appeal explanation must include the following:

If this not your first appeal:

Your explanation statement must include information about what has changed since your last appeal.
You must also attach a Student Improvement Plan signed by your advisor.

Tips for writing your appeal explanation statement

Admit the problem.

Take a hard look at your situation to determine what has kept you from making satisfactory academic progress. Perhaps you need help with time management or study skills. Admit the problem and explain how will you get that help.

Note: Lack of awareness of withdrawal policies, requirements for satisfactory academic progress or unpreparedness for college coursework will not be accepted as reasons for the purpose of an appeal.

Attach any relevant supporting documentation

This may include a doctor's statement, copy of hospital/urgent care/physician's bill, obituary, funeral notice or death certificate.

Valid reasons for an SAP appeal

Valid reasons for an appeal include:

medical emergencies
severe health issues
severe personal or family problems
financial or personal catastrophe
return for a second degree or certificate

Example of a valid explanation statement:

Important notes.

Your appeal must be backed up by a degree worksheet or degree audit and an academic plan of work.
You must also be able to show through your GPA calculation results that meeting SAP standards and graduating from your program is an attainable goal.

For instructions and information about formulating a plan of work, degree audit or utilizing the GPA calculator, visit the Degree Works website.

Please note: The Office of Student Financial Aid is required to report incidents of sexual violence or sexual harassment disclosed through this form to the Title IX Coordinator for follow-up and possible investigation. If you have experienced any form of sexual violence and would like to speak confidentially to a counselor for support, please contact Counseling and Psychological Services .

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How to Write a SAP Appeal Letter (With an Example)

Gabriel Jimenez-Ekman is a content editor and writer at Scholarships360. He has managed communications and written content for a diverse array of organizations, including a farmer’s market, a concert venue, a student farm, an environmental NGO, and a PR agency. Gabriel graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in sociology.

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Caitlyn Cole is a college access professional with a decade of experience in non-profit program and project management for college readiness and access organizations.

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

How to Write a SAP Appeal Letter (With an Example)

If your college suspends your financial aid, it’s important to learn how to write an effective SAP appeal letter. In this article we’ll answer some of your common questions concerning this topic and include an example of what your letter should look like!

What is a SAP appeal letter?

SAP, or Satisfactory Academic Progress, is a set of criteria that a student must meet to continue receiving financial aid. These criteria include grades, credit enrollment, and progress towards a degree. If a student does not meet the standards, the school may suspend their aid and place the student on academic probation .

Luckily, schools have a system in place to account for students with extenuating circumstances. If a student faced extracurricular difficulties that prevented them from making SAP, they may be able to keep their aid. Students must write a SAP appeal letter to appeal to continue receiving aid.

Related: All about Satisfactory Academic Progress and how to appeal

Where to file your SAP appeal letter

First things first — you should learn who you’ll file your SAP letter with. You’ll typically be dealing with your student financial services office. It will probably be the same people who contacted you to warn you about your upcoming aid suspension.

Some schools may have length or formatting requirements for SAP appeals. In some cases, you’ll be responding to prompts on a form rather than writing a letter. So before you begin writing, learn if there are any restrictions or guidelines set by your school.

Also see: How does withdrawing from a class affect financial aid?

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What circumstances justify an sap appeal.

Only students with approved circumstances can have their financial aid reinstated after failing to make SAP. Each school has a different set of standards, and ultimately it is up to the committee that reads your letter. However, the general set of circumstances that justify an SAP appeal are:

Serious health problems that inhibited their ability to complete coursework
Serious illness or injury in the student’s immediate family
A death in the student’s family
Struggles with mental illness
Domestic issues in the student’s home or in their immediate family

Related: How many credit hours do you need for financial aid?

What is the goal of my letter?

The principal goal of your letter is to convince your reader that your lapse in performance was due to one of the reasons listed above.

Explain your situation

Walk your reader through your situation, and explain how it affected your performance. Make sure to emphasize how your circumstance falls into one of the above categories.

Show the steps you’ve taken and what you have learned

Show that you have been proactive in correcting the situation. If you reached out to professors during the semester to communicate your issues, mention those correspondences. Point out your mistakes during the last semester and how you learned from them.

Outline your plan

After you discuss some of the steps you’ve already taken, your goal is to outline your plan to improve. Emphasize that the situation is over or that there is an end in sight. Outline a plan to prevent the same lapse in performance from happening again. Even if you cannot prevent the extenuating circumstances, show that you will be able to balance them more effectively.

Also see: Do I have to pay back scholarships if I drop out of college?

Should I include any other materials in my SAP appeal letter?

If you have official documentation that helps prove your story, you should enclose it with your letter. The list below is not exhaustive, but does contain many of the main documents you may want to include.

Notes from your doctor or psychologist
Police reports
Notes from a professors
Eviction notices

Additionally, if you reached out for help from school officials during the semester, you can include those correspondences. Just make sure to obtain permission from the participants before including them.

What tone should I use?

When you write your letter, try to be clear and concise. Even though you will likely be discussing personal matters, try to remain professional. Discuss what happened in a straightforward matter. Although you should be honest about how the circumstance affected you, you shouldn’t sidetrack your argument by discussing emotions.

Example SAP Letter

Dear Dr. Smith and Esteemed Committee Members, My name is Leon Melville and I am writing to appeal the suspension of my financial aid package. I failed to make academic satisfactory progress this semester, primarily due to my poor performance in Calculus II and Statistics. I take full responsibility for the decline in my academic performance this semester. However, I am confident in my ability to meet the College’s academic standards in the future. I was impacted by extenuating circumstances this semester that impacted my ability to keep up with my studies. I broke my leg halfway through the semester, which resulted in my missing class for two weeks. When I returned to school, I had fallen behind in my courses. Additionally, I was forced to attend physical therapy four times per week. I have enclosed a note from my doctor and my physical therapist that confirm these events. Before my accident, I had been attending tutoring hours for my statistics and calculus classes. These are subjects that I have always required extra help in. However, once I began physical therapy, I was no longer able to attend these sessions. As a result of my two weeks out of class and my lack of tutoring, I fell behind in class. I’ve included notes from my mathematics tutors to confirm my attendance at the beginning of the semester. I take full responsibility for my poor performance this semester. I’ve learned that I need to be more proactive and communicate with my professors more if I fall behind. I’ve also learned how important those tutoring sessions are to my performance. I will be sure to attend them in future semesters. My leg has now healed fully and I do not anticipate any future physical therapy next semester. I believe that I have the tools to succeed in the future. However, I need my financial aid package in order to continue my studies. Without the Pell Grant and my institutional aid, I will be unable to enroll next semester. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Leon Melville

If you are reading this before your aid has been suspended, reach out to your professors now! Even if you won’t make SAP this semester, you should establish a paper trail that you have sought help from. This will make your SAP appeal letter more effective
If you have already received notice that your aid is being suspended, take your first steps towards writing your letter. Reach out to the office that suspended your aid and ask about their guidelines for an appeal letter
Once you write your letter, don’t forget to proofread. Ask a friend or family member to proofread the letter to make sure it is clear and concise

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Almost everyone is concerned about K-12 students’ academic progress

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, anna saavedra , anna saavedra behavioral scientist - usc dornsife center for economic and social research @annasaavedra19 morgan polikoff , morgan polikoff associate professor of education - usc rossier school of education @mpolikoff dan silver , and dan silver ph.d. student - usc rossier school of education @dans1lver amie rapaport amie rapaport director of research - gibson consulting.

March 23, 2021

Concern about our nation’s children is currently at the center of intense public debate. While the pandemic caused virtually all schools nationwide to close by April 2020—keeping almost all K-12 students home for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year—children’s mode of learning (fully in-person, fully remote, or a hybrid mix of the two) in 2020-21 has been highly variable .

Yet with vaccinations accelerating, COVID-19 rates falling, and money flowing, there is clear momentum behind offering in-person instruction. As schools begin to reopen, attention is turning to the deep changes necessary to reverse the learning opportunity disparities that are ingrained in U.S. education.

As educators consider possible changes, adults’ beliefs about the impacts of the pandemic on children’s academic progress—overall and for specific student subgroups—matter. These subjective opinions are important because they indicate political support, or lack thereof, for investment in education. Long-needed, fundamental, and sustained investments in and improvements to K-12 education—especially for underserved low-income and racial minority students—will need broad support. Beyond parents of elementary and secondary children and Democrats—those traditionally most supportive of investments in K-12 education—but from older and Republican voters, and from affluent as well as economically struggling voters.

To learn perspectives on children’s academic progress from adults with K-12 children in the household and from adults as a whole, we used data collected between Dec. 16, 2020, and Feb. 7, 2021, from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults through the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research’s Understanding America Study . We asked how concerned adults were that today’s generation of K-12 students may not make as much academic progress this year as they would during a typical academic year. In addition to asking about concern for K-12 students overall, we asked separately about concern for students from lower-income households, students of color, elementary students, and middle/high school students.

The results were clear and overwhelming: Almost three-fourths (71%) of US adults are concerned about K-12 students’ current academic progress. Very few economic, political, or social concerns share this level of agreement in the population, implying policies and programs designed to address the negative impacts of the pandemic on schools could have broad support.

Given low-income communities and communities of color have been especially hard hit by the pandemic, schools in these neighborhoods will need even greater levels of resource and policy attention. We find even higher levels of concern for students in these groups: 81% of adults were concerned about lower-income children, and 77% about children of color.

Not only did we find levels of concern were high across the board, but we also found more advantaged groups were often more concerned about students’ academic progress (even when statistically controlling for an adult’s age, whether they have a K-12 child living in their household, adult race/ethnicity, household income, adult education level, and partisanship).

For instance, we found higher-income and more educated adults are more concerned—both overall and specifically about low-income students and students of color—than are low-income and less-educated adults. Seventy-four percent of adults in households making less than $25,000 are concerned about low-income children—lower than the corresponding rates for adults in households making $25,000-$150,000 (81-83% concerned about low-income children), and households making more than $150,000 (88%). As another example, greater proportions of adults aged 65 and older expressed greater levels of concern for low-income students and students of color, with 86% and 85% of adults over 65 concerned for each respective subgroup, compared to 77% and 72% concerned about these two student subgroups among adults aged 18-34. This is a promising pattern from an education policy perspective, as the unfortunate reality is that power to enact meaningful political change tends to be concentrated among the wealthiest and older individuals. These results suggest that those who tend to hold power may also have a will to enact meaningful, equity-based education policy in the wake of the pandemic.

A chart entitled, "Public concern about academic progress of low-income K-12 children." It shows that more affluent and older respondents are more concerned about the lack of academic progress among low-income students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We did not find racial differences. Regardless of their own race, adult Americans are equally concerned about the impacts of the pandemic for K-12 children.

Notably, too, we found high levels of bipartisan concern. Republicans (77%) and Democrats (70%) are concerned about K-12 children’s academic progress. Over 80% of Republicans and Democrats are concerned about lower-income children (81% Republicans, 84% Democrats) and close to 80% of each political group are concerned about children of color (76% Republicans, 82% Democrats). In other words, despite Congress’s partisan voting on the American Rescue Plan, there is widespread agreement that the effects of the pandemic on children are concerning.

In contrast, in 2019, relevant national survey results reflected much larger partisan differences on public education issues. For example, while 76% of Democrats thought education should be a top federal policy priority , 58% of Republicans felt the same. Also in 2019, 67% of Democrats supported or strongly supported basing part of teachers’ salaries on whether they teach in schools with many disadvantaged students , compared to 52% of Republicans.

What does this all mean? There may never have been more widespread, bipartisan concern about K-12 children’s educational progress, especially among adults without a K-12 child in the home. Unjust as it may be, political will to mobilize change often rests with more affluent and more educated groups. It also typically requires at least some degree of bipartisan agreement. The vast majority of affluent adults, and those from both sides of the political aisle, are concerned for K-12 children—particularly those who have been underserved. As districts and schools reopen, with leaders designing and rolling out new initiatives, they will likely find widespread encouragement.

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Science Foundation Grants No.2037179 and 2120194. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors are also grateful to Marshall Garland, Shira Korn Haderlein, and the UAS administration team for their contributions to this work.

We Need a New Science of Progress

Humanity needs to get better at knowing how to get better.

Five black steam engines blow smoke into the air.

In 1861, the American scientist and educator William Barton Rogers published a manifesto calling for a new kind of research institution. Recognizing the “daily increasing proofs of the happy influence of scientific culture on the industry and the civilization of the nations,” and the growing importance of what he called “Industrial Arts,” he proposed a new organization dedicated to practical knowledge. He named it the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rogers was one of a number of late-19th-century reformers who saw that the United States’ ability to generate progress could be substantially improved. These reformers looked to the successes of the German university models overseas and realized that a combination of focused professorial research and teaching could be a powerful engine for advance in research. Over the course of several decades, the group—Rogers, Charles Eliot, Henry Tappan, George Hale, John D. Rockefeller, and others—founded and restructured many of what are now America’s best universities, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, and more. By acting on their understanding, they engaged in a kind of conscious “progress engineering.”

Progress itself is understudied. By “progress,” we mean the combination of economic, technological, scientific, cultural, and organizational advancement that has transformed our lives and raised standards of living over the past couple of centuries. For a number of reasons, there is no broad-based intellectual movement focused on understanding the dynamics of progress, or targeting the deeper goal of speeding it up. We believe that it deserves a dedicated field of study. We suggest inaugurating the discipline of “Progress Studies.”

Before digging into what Progress Studies would entail, it’s worth noting that we still need a lot of progress. We haven’t yet cured all diseases; we don’t yet know how to solve climate change; we’re still a very long way from enabling most of the world’s population to live as comfortably as the wealthiest people do today; we don’t yet understand how best to predict or mitigate all kinds of natural disasters; we aren’t yet able to travel as cheaply and quickly as we’d like; we could be far better than we are at educating young people. The list of opportunities for improvement is still extremely long.

Read: The 50 greatest breakthroughs since the wheel

Those are major challenges. A lot of progress can also come from smaller advances: Thousands of lesser improvements that together build upon one another can together represent an enormous advance for society. For example, if our discoveries and inventions improve standards of living by 1 percent a year, children will by adulthood be 35 percent better off than their parents. If they improve livelihoods at 3 percent a year, those same children will grow up to be about 2.5 times better off.

Whether viewed in terms of large or small improvements, progress matters a lot.

Looking backwards, it’s striking how unevenly distributed progress has been in the past. In antiquity, the ancient Greeks were discoverers of everything from the arch bridge to the spherical earth. By 1100, the successful pursuit of new knowledge was probably most concentrated in parts of China and the Middle East. Along the cultural dimension, the artists of Renaissance Florence enriched the heritage of all humankind, and in the process created the masterworks that are still the lifeblood of the local economy. The late 18th and early 19th century saw a burst of progress in Northern England, with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In each case, the discoveries that came to elevate standards of living for everyone arose in comparatively tiny geographic pockets of innovative effort. Present-day instances include places like Silicon Valley in software and Switzerland’s Basel region in life sciences.

These kinds of examples show that there can be ecosystems that are better at generating progress than others, perhaps by orders of magnitude. But what do they have in common? Just how productive can a cultural ecosystem be? Why did Silicon Valley happen in California rather than Japan or Boston? Why was early-20th-century science in Germany and Central Europe so strong? Can we deliberately engineer the conditions most hospitable to this kind of advancement or effectively tweak the systems that surround us today?

This is exactly what Progress Studies would investigate. It would consider the problem as broadly as possible. It would study the successful people, organizations, institutions, policies, and cultures that have arisen to date, and it would attempt to concoct policies and prescriptions that would help improve our ability to generate useful progress in the future.

Read: Is ‘progress’ good for humanity?

Along these lines, the world would benefit from an organized effort to understand how we should identify and train brilliant young people, how the most effective small groups exchange and share ideas, which incentives should exist for all sorts of participants in innovative ecosystems (including scientists, entrepreneurs, managers, and engineers), how much different organizations differ in productivity (and the drivers of those differences), how scientists should be selected and funded, and many other related issues besides.

Plenty of existing scholarship touches on these topics, but it takes place in a highly fragmented fashion and fails to directly confront some of the most important practical questions.

Imagine you want to know how to most effectively select and train the most talented students. While this is an important challenge facing educators, policy makers, and philanthropists, knowledge about how best to do so is dispersed across a very long list of different fields. Psychometrics literature investigates which tests predict success. Sociologists consider how networks are used to find talent. Anthropologists investigate how talent depends on circumstances, and a historiometric literature studies clusters of artistic creativity. There’s a lively debate about when and whether “10,000 hours of practice” are required for truly excellent performance. The education literature studies talent-search programs such as the Center for Talented Youth. Personality psychologists investigate the extent to which openness or conscientiousness affect earnings. More recently, there’s work in sportometrics, looking at which numerical variables predict athletic success. In economics, Raj Chetty and his co-authors have examined the backgrounds and communities liable to best encourage innovators. Thinkers in these disciplines don’t necessarily attend the same conferences, publish in the same journals, or work together to solve shared problems.

When we consider other major determinants of progress, we see insufficient engagement with the central questions. For example, there’s a growing body of evidence suggesting that management practices determine a great deal of the difference in performance between organizations. One recent study found that a particular intervention—teaching better management practices to firms in Italy—improved productivity by 49 percent over 15 years when compared with peer firms that didn’t receive the training. How widely does this apply, and can it be repeated? Economists have been learning that firm productivity commonly varies within a given sector by a factor of two or three , which implies that a priority in management science and organizational psychology should be understanding the drivers of these differences. In a related vein, we’re coming to appreciate more and more that organizations with higher levels of trust can delegate authority more effectively, thereby boosting their responsiveness and ability to handle problems. Organizations as varied as Y Combinator, MIT’s Radiation Lab, and ARPA have astonishing track records in catalyzing progress far beyond their confines. While research exists on all of these fronts, we’re underinvesting considerably. These examples collectively indicate that one of our highest priorities should be figuring out interventions that increase the efficacy, productivity, and innovative capacity of human organizations.

Similarly, while science generates much of our prosperity, scientists and researchers themselves do not sufficiently obsess over how it should be organized. In a recent paper, Pierre Azoulay and co-authors concluded that Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s long-term grants to high-potential scientists made those scientists 96 percent more likely to produce breakthrough work. If this finding is borne out, it suggests that present funding mechanisms are likely to be far from optimal, in part because they do not focus enough on research autonomy and risk taking.

Read: Small teams of scientists have fresher ideas

More broadly, demographics and institutional momentum have caused enormous but invisible changes in the way we support science. For example, the National Institutes of Health (the largest science-funding body in the U.S.) reports that, in 1980, it gave 12 times more funding to early-career scientists (under 40) than it did to later-career scientists (over 50). Today, that has flipped: Five times more money now goes to scientists of age 50 or older. Is this skew toward funding older scientists an improvement? If not, how should science funding be allocated? We might also wonder: Do prizes matter? Or fellowships, or sabbaticals? Should other countries organize their scientific bodies along the lines of those in the U.S. or pursue deliberate variation? Despite the importance of the issues, critical evaluation of how science is practiced and funded is in short supply, for perhaps unsurprising reasons. Doing so would be an important part of Progress Studies.

Progress Studies has antecedents, both within fields and institutions. The economics of innovation is a critical topic and should assume a much larger place within economics. The Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University seeks to encourage optimistic thinking about the future through fiction and narrative: It observes, almost certainly correctly, that imagination and ambition themselves play a large role. Graham Allison and Niall Ferguson have called for an “ applied history ” movement, to better draw lessons from history and apply them to real-world problems, including through the advising of political leaders. Ideas and institutions like these could be more effective if part of an explicit, broader movement.

In a world with Progress Studies, academic departments and degree programs would not necessarily have to be reorganized. That’s probably going to be costly and time-consuming. Instead, a new focus on progress would be more comparable to a school of thought that would prompt a decentralized shift in priorities among academics, philanthropists, and funding agencies. Over time, we’d like to see communities, journals, and conferences devoted to these questions.

Such shifts have occurred before. A lot of excellent climate-science research—in environmental science, physics, chemistry, oceanography, mathematics and modeling, computer science, biology, ecology, and other fields—was being pursued before we recognized “climate science” as a discipline unto itself. Similarly, the designation of “Keynesian economics” helped economists focus on fiscal policy as a tool for recession fighting, just as the name “monetarism” created a focal interest in questions surrounding the money supply.

An important distinction between our proposed Progress Studies and a lot of existing scholarship is that mere comprehension is not the goal. When anthropologists look at scientists, they’re trying to understand the species. But when viewed through the lens of Progress Studies, the implicit question is how scientists (or funders or evaluators of scientists) should be acting. The success of Progress Studies will come from its ability to identify effective progress-increasing interventions and the extent to which they are adopted by universities, funding agencies, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and other institutions. In that sense, Progress Studies is closer to medicine than biology: The goal is to treat , not merely to understand.

We know that, to some readers, the word progress may sound too normative. However, it is the explicit bedrock upon which Vannevar Bush made his case for postwar funding of science, a case that led to the establishment of the National Science Foundation. In an era where funding for good projects can be hard to come by, or is even endangered, we must affirmatively make the case for the study of how to improve human well-being. This possibility is a fundamental reason why the American public is interested in supporting the pursuit of knowledge, and rightly so.

If we look to history, the organization of intellectual fields, as generally recognized realms of effort and funding, has mattered a great deal. Areas of study have expanded greatly since the early European universities were formed to advance theological thinking. Organized study of philosophy and the natural sciences later spawned deeper examination of—to name a few—mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and economics. Each discipline, in turn with its subfields, has spawned many subsequent transformative discoveries. Our point, quite simply, is that this process has yet to reach a natural end, and that a more focused, explicit study of progress itself should be one of the next steps.

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PDF Strategies for Essay Writing
Your thesis is the central claim in your essay—your main insight or idea about your source or topic. Your thesis should appear early in an academic essay, followed by a logically constructed argument that supports this central claim. A strong thesis is arguable, which means a thoughtful reader could disagree with it and therefore needs
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Indeed, a closer look at some of the evaluation tools will reveal that the current focus is on the active promotion of the qualities such as strategic thinking (DLM, GOGAT), flexibility (PARCC, DLM), and academic curiosity (DLM, GOGAT, ELA). Furthermore, the Common Core Standards are utilized as the means of determining the progress of students.
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My first semester at Cal found me overwhelmed. I wasn't prepared for the academic rigor of the schedule and classes. I was unsure how or where to seek out help, and as a result, developed anxiety. I ... progress towards my degree. Writing a Successful SAP Appeal- EXAMPLES Third Paragraph- Tell us about your supporting documentation
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This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people's social and cultural lives.
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Sample Progress Report. The following short progress report, written by a student in geology, provides an excellent example of how concrete and affirmative a progress report can be. Note the specificity even in the title, and how sections such as "Remaining Questions" and "Expected Results" demonstrate that the writer, even though he is two ...
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2 pages / 757 words. Over the last few years, I have faced several challenges in meeting my own goals for success as a student. I have lost my father and was battling depressing for over 5 years. I had issues keeping up with my life and facing any situation... Academic Achievements Academic Challenges Progress.
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Emphasizing your academic achievements in a college admissions essay is a crucial step towards leaving a strong impression on the admissions committee. If you're looking to make your application stand out, this article will guide you through the process of effectively highlighting your achievements to boost your essay's impact.
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Step 4: Writing the Essay Conclusion. Your essay conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay and primarily reminds your reader of your thesis. It also wraps up your essay and discusses your findings more generally. The conclusion typically makes up about 10% of the text, like the introduction.
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Both the language and the structure are important for academic reflective writing. For the structure you want to mirror an academic essay closely. You want an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. Academic reflection will require you to both describe the context, analyse it, and make conclusions. However, there is not one set of rules ...
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An example of a sentence that highlights my grammatical abilities is this one; "the article is practical in highlighting the role that technology plays in the modern world" (Rhetorical Analysis Essay 2). This sentence is a very simple statement but good use of grammar makes it synonymous with language mastery.
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Academic Writing "Writing" is usually understood as the expression of thought. This book redefines "writing" as the thought process itself. Writing is not what you ... - Into the Essay: Excerpts from actual papers show the ideas from the chapters in action because you learn to write best by getting
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Financial Aid Academic Progress Appeal. Categories: Academic Achievements Academic Challenges Progress. Words: 757 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read. Published: Mar 14, 2019. Over the last few years, I have faced several challenges in meeting my own goals for success as a student. I have lost my father and was battling depressing for over 5 years.
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Important notes. Your appeal must be backed up by a degree worksheet or degree audit and an academic plan of work. You must also be able to show through your GPA calculation results that meeting SAP standards and graduating from your program is an attainable goal. For instructions and information about formulating a plan of work, degree audit ...
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