Academic Skills for Success at Unity Distance Education

The Basics: Reading and Writing

Although technology has changed nearly every aspect of education, to succeed in college there are two “traditional” academic skills that everyone must possess: the ability to read and to write. Your courses at Unity DE are taught in the English language using a wide range of media and technology to engage learners but reading and writing remain essential to successfully completing most learning activities, projects, and assessments. Beginning students are expected to be able to read instructional materials, follow directions, and write in English at the equivalent of a 12th grade level.

What does it mean to be a college-ready reader?
In short, you will need to be capable of reading, analyzing, and applying ideas from a range of complex academic texts. Because your courses will be online and asynchronous [i.e. no mandatory videoconferences], many of the key ideas and concepts in your courses are presented through selected articles, textbook chapters, and other relevant texts.

In college, reading involves more than just basic comprehension—you must be able to read critically by evaluating the reliability of texts, identifying and responding to their arguments, asking questions, and comparing the ideas presented in one text with those presented in another. You will also be introduced to the technical and theoretical language of your chosen major or discipline. The ability to read, analyze, and apply the language of your discipline [or disciplines] will enable you to participate as a professional in your field beyond the classroom.

What does it mean to be a college-ready writer?
Most of your class participation at Unity Distance Education will take place through the written word—from posting to discussion boards and writing reports to interacting with your instructors and peers, written communication is essential to completing an online degree.

A college-ready writer should be capable of writing for different audiences and in different forms. You must be able to write short essays, multi-page reports, argument essays, literature reviews, and research papers. You will be expected to incorporate ideas, arguments, and evidence from reliable academic sources and to document those sources through established referencing and citation styles [i.e., APA, Chicago, etc.].

In most courses at Unity Distance Education, it is expected that written submissions will communicate ideas clearly and persuasively with supporting evidence from reliable academic sources. In many cases, the conventions of writing such as grammar, punctuation, word choice, and sentence fluency may be assessed by your instructor.