The Book

Skill Sheets is a practical resource for understanding and developing core skills that all university students need to obtain. In a very concise manner, this book shows how these skills are related and how one can develop and work with many skills simultaneously. With these skills to hand, students are able to maintain a better focus on the content of their course. Developed and at RSM Erasmus University, it has been thoroughly tested over many years by both students and professors, and improved accordingly.

Author

Rob van Tulder, Professor of International Business-Society Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam/Rotterdam School of Management. He holds a PhD degree (cum laude) in social sciences from the University of Amsterdam. Published in particular on the following topics: European Business, Multinationals, high-tech industries, Corporate Social Responsibility, the global car industry, issues of standardisation, network strategies, smaller industrial countries (welfare states) and European Community/Union policies.

How to purchase

The book – Skill Sheets – An Integrated Approach to Research, Study and Management - (2018, ISBN 9789043033503) can be ordered directly online by clicking one of the following links depending your country of origin:

Dutch Dutch buyers

International buyers International buyers

Reading skill levels

In the introduction to every series of Skill Sheets four levels of skill proficiency are specified:

  • Level 1: Entry level Bachelors
  • Level 2: Exit level Bachelors
  • Level 3: Exit level Masters
  • Level 4: Postgraduate level

You should develop your active reading skills in every phase of your academic career (and thereafter!). The levels of skills proficiency below provide an indication of the skill proficiency you should minimally aim for.

Level 1

  • Reading is reproduction and memorizing-oriented as preparation for exam
  • Re-active
  • Acquire an attitude to consult relevant pubic media regularly and systematically
  • Textbook-oriented (only read what is required)
  • Aimed at recognizing and reconstructing argumentation
  • Slow reading speed

Level 2

  • Reading is aimed at understanding as input for exams and short papers
  • (Re)Active
  • Consult the appropriate popular scientific literature for a project and exams
  • Textbook and popular scientific literature-oriented
  • Aimed at identifying good and bad argumentation (including fallacies in argumentation)
  • High reading speed of popular text, slow for scientific literature

Level 3

  • Reading is aimed at gathering and finding relevant information and as input for further research
  • Active
  • Consult relevant top scientific journals in research projects
  • Aimed at understanding why particular argumentation fallacies develop
  • Knowledge of the editorial formula of most important sources
  • As input for own argumentation
  • Scanning skills are optimized and reading speed for scientific texts is increasing to high

Level 4

  • Reading is aimed at gathering relevant information for the present position (effective reading of organizational writings, media as well as relevant scientific literature)
  • Pro-active attitude: continuously searching for relevant new media
  • Continuous training of speed reading skills

'An Integrated Approach to Research, Study and Management'