Academic phrasebook to aid writing

This could save the day when you cannot think what to write in certain parts of an assignment or dissertation –  the University of Manchester has an Academic Phrasebank.

It is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological “nuts and bolts” of writing organised under the headings to the left. It was designed primarily with international students whose first language is not English in mind. However, if you are a native speaker writer, you may still find parts of the material helpful.

academic phrasebank

Thanks to Andy McMahon 

 

Opera browser has handy mouse gestures

“I use Opera rather than Internet Explorer to go back a page – right click and a left click, straight one after the other, that makes going back so much easier! Not using Alt / L & R Arrow. I also used Firefox a bit, but Opera is much nicer. You have to do right click followed by left click very quickly!”

” I prefer the layout so much more and the keyboard and mouse shortcuts are so useful. For instance I use right click followed by left click to go back a web page or just the z key.” The YouTube video below illustrates what is possible with mouse gestures.

I find the automatic reloading of a page useful when working on forums which you can customise to however many minutes or seconds you want. Opera also allows you to add your chosen search engines as part of the menu. There is also a function called ‘speed dial’ that provides you with your 4 most important web sites”

Chloe – Psychology

iPhone for organisation image capture, notes and using iCloud

icloud on mobile“I was given an iPhone that I use for calendars, calls, texting with speak selection, camera shots of articles using Image to text and video capturing of lectures.  I use it to organise everything and sync with iCloud so I can view and work online from my desktop as well.  This does not work for videos at the moment – those have to go through iTunes.”

Fiona – Multimedia and Design

iCloud-transfer.com is the site which can provide you with the iCloud tips/tricks, iCloud tutorials, and iCloud resources to help you use iCloud easily

Free iPhone 4 light app for reading

iphone lightI find that when I am trying to read very small sized text the free LED light app can be incredibly useful.  It can act as a torch and also has a flashing option and SOS setting!. Just double tap the touch screen to turn it on providing you are not using VoiceOver – when you have select the icon first and then double tap. The menu items can be read back with voice. The battery drains pretty quickly if the light is used for too long.

Jane – Researcher

iSoton app for bus timetable, campus map and lecture timetable.

soton iPhone app“I use the free university iPhone bus timetable and map app when I am in a hurry and need to find my way about.  It also has my timetable and modules.”

Nicole  – Engineering

Audio Notetaker used with an Olympus Digital Recorder

“I have found Audio Notetaker very useful for gathering quotes from audio recordings when interviewing people as well as recording and making note from lectures.  You can also see PowerPoint slides alongside the audio sections and jump to each section. It has saved so much time when I used to have to work through the recordings on my Olympus recorder

Taking Notes Live with Audio Notetaker – YouTube Video