Finals are often a stressful time for students as they prepare to take high-stake exams. Even well-prepared students experience anxiety due to multiple tests administered during a short window of time, and many use a variety of coping tools to help them cope with the additional stress of final exams.

Virtual Hope Box is a free smartphone app with tools that can help students deal with stress through distraction, relaxation, and positive thinking. You add a variety of personally supportive content or use some of the pre-loaded tools any time you want to take a moment to “de-stress”.

The content is organized into five sections, and you can access them any time you want or need a break.

• Remind Me is where you can upload photos, videos, music, and audio recordings that remind you of your life outside of school. Sometimes, we just need to be reminded of the people or places in our life to relieve stress.
• Distract Me has games and puzzles to distract you and give your brain a little break. Select a Sudoku puzzle, a word search, or make a jigsaw puzzle from one of your photos and indulge in a mini-vacation from studying.
• Inspire Me has inspirational quotes to help motivate you to achieve your goal. The app comes preloaded with different quotes, or you can upload your own favorites to help you stay on track to finish strong.
• Relax Me has breathing, muscle relaxation, and guided meditation exercises to help calm and quiet both your mind and body. Chose a meditation or relaxation exercise and renew and refresh yourself.
• Coping Tools has an activity planner that lets you plan an activity like going for a run or enjoying coffee with a friend. You can also create your own coping cards with strategies to help you deal with the most stressful times.

Virtual Hope Box is available for both iOS and Android devices. It is free, easy to set up and use, and is a good way to take a short break and distract yourself from the stress of finals. If you want to discuss anxiety with a health professional, contact the UAMS Student Wellness Program at 501-686-8408.

You’re in 5 classes this semester, you have 5 different teachers teaching 5 unrelated subjects.  You record with your phone, tablet, laptop, and some old recorder your mom found.  You take pictures of the whiteboard when an important diagram is up just seconds before it gets wiped away.  You are, by all rights, an excellent student.  But how do you organize this amalgamation of pedagogy sweeping through every device?  Meet Evernote, it’s excited to finally make your acquaintance.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, Evernote, and what it can do to help you be a better, more organized, less stressed student.  Evernote is an app for iPhone, Android, Mac, and PC.  Breaking it down to its basest form, it is a free cloud-based program that allows all your devices to sync notes, videos, and pictures.  When you finish syncing all your notes, any time you take a picture, make a note, or add a recording (both voice and video, by the way), that note/picture/recording will be available across the rest of your devices.  You’re connected to Evernote through a free account just like most social media, and in fact you’ll notice that Evernote seems pretty similar to most other social media.

Evernote Features

Evernote is actually more than a place to simply sync your notes.  Evernote allows you to read, correct, highlight, and study your notes.  If you highlight something important on your computer, when you find it on your phone, it will be highlighted there as well.  Did I mention you can organize your notes by folders?  That’s right, you don’t have thirty-seven recordings hanging out in one place that you have to keep up with; you can organize the recordings into “Notebooks”, Evernote’s folder structure.

Evernote is a free tool that should be utilized to its fullest extent in every student’s repertoire of tricks.  Managing notes neatly, having the ability to modify those notes consistently with the ability to sync those notes across every device you choose allows you to have a consistent study experience while not having to copy and organize those files gives you more time to be you, that great student that everyone wants to be.  Check out www.evernote.com or Evernote on the Play Store or App Store for more information.

Personal security apps are becoming popular for smartphone users, as people become more nervous about walking home or to their car at night, especially on college campuses. Recently, five University of Michigan students created a free app called Companion that helps combat the issue of late-night safety. According to the website, “Companion lets you reach out to family, friends, or your public safety department to have them keep an eye on you as you travel late at night.”

Increased Security with Friends

Companion has you enter a destination on a map and then select a person (or multiple people if you like) from your Contacts list to be your virtual companions until you get to your destination. Your companions are sent a text notifying them that you are asking them to join you, and includes a link to a map so they can track your journey. Your companions don’t need to have the app to participate.

If you get nervous, Companion offers two quick options for getting help, without having to type a message. Simply tap “I Feel Nervous” to let your companions know you need 8help. If you feel threatened you can tap “Call Police” to dial 911 immediately. Both these options offer quick access to help without having to stop and type anything. If you don’t get to your destination, an “emergency” button with “Are you OK?” will appear on your screen. You will have 15 seconds to respond “yes”. If you don’t, your companions will immediately be notified, and the app will sound an alert with a siren.

Security across Demographic Groups

While the app was designed for college campuses, men and women from all demographics are using Companion. Parents of teenagers like the added level of security, especially with new drivers, and people with elderly parents like it because it helps make sure they don’t get lost.

Overall Review

Companion is a great tool that can fill a need for a lot of people. It’s straightforward, easy to use, and it’s free. It’s available for both iOs and Android smartphones. While I like it a lot, I see two issues that users need to be aware of. First, it can really drain your phone’s battery. Both the iTunes and Google Play pages have a disclaimer stating, “Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life”, so you’ll want to check you settings when you’re not actually using it. Second, while the ratings on the App Store were very positive, some users on Google Play reported problems getting the app to work properly on some devices. However, Companion has made every effort to fix problems, and responds quickly to provide support to those reviewers who experience issues with the app.

Remember, while the Companion app is a great tool, personal security is a complex issue, and no one tool can provide all the answers. Common sense and being aware of your surroundings are also very important, as is knowing who to contact if you feel unsafe. On campus the UAMS police offer a variety of options to help people stay secure. The Emergency-Police telephones are easily identified by the steady or flashing blue light and provide a direct line to the UAMS Police dispatchers 24 hours per day. In addition, signs posted throughout the campus have a number you can call if you want a police escort to your vehicle. You can learn more about campus safely policies and procedures at https://inside.uams.edu/2015/06/uams-police-remind-campus-of-safety-policies-3/.

Today, an increasing number of people in the world get their new through their mobile devices, and they rely on news aggregators, websites that gather news stories from multiple sources, to make viewing easier. News aggregators have been around for a while, with sites like Reddit, BuzzFeed, Flipboard, theSkimm, and Feedly, to name just a few. Some focus on breaking-news updates, others offer options for customization, while still others provide content from a particular publisher, like New York Times Now.

Trinity Mirror, a publishing company based in the United Kingdom, has introduced a new aggregator app called Perspecs. Perspecs is unique in that it offers readers three perspectives on the same story. The app offers a mix of U.K. and international news on subjects ranging from politics to health to technology. According to the website, story categorization varies based on the topic. For example, political stories will first offer a neutral piece with background information, then provide articles from both the left and the right perspectives. A review of a new movie or gadget provides a neutral informational piece, then offer both a positive and a negative reviews.

Perspecs is free and is available for both iOS and Android devices. The app updates Monday through Friday, and you have the option of reviewing the five previous days’ editions.

Sticking to a regular news source often results in only seeing one side of the story. Perspecs offers you the opportunity to see multiple perspectives, making you a more informed reader. Give Perspecs a try and see if it opens your view of the world around you.

Today’s blog post was written by Nancy Sessoms and Tim Muren in the SSC Writing Center. The Writing Center staff helps students with projects ranging from personal statements and CVs to dissertations. Learn more about the Writing Center at https://students.uams.edu/success/writing-center/.

You’ve done the research, organized the data, and written the paper.  You can check that off your assignments list, right? Wrong. Now it’s time to revise what you thought was a completed paper, but is actually your first draft.  It is not unusual for a paper to require three or more revisions before it is ready to turn in.

According to Rew (1999), there are four basic levels of editing: organization and coherence, content, language and style, and proofreading. Each level may require a revision of the paper.  Ideally, you make revisions at the first level (organization and coherence), then pass that draft through the second level (content), make revisions, and on to the next level (language and style), ending with the final level (proofreading).

Some tips for each of the four levels of revision:

1. Organization and coherence are the initial read-through to see that the paper is organized in the correct form and flows logically from one paragraph to the next. Keep your instructor’s assignment and/or grading rubric on hand for this step.
2. Content is checked next.  Ensure the accuracy of your text and graphics. This can be done concurrently with Level 1, organization and coherence.  At this level, make sure your numbers add up, fact-check, etc.
3. Language and style is sentence-level editing — grammar and punctuation. Check for sentence fragments, run-on sentences or comma splices (independent clauses separated by only a comma), parallelism, etc., and correct punctuation.
4. Proofreading is the last pass, and in it you search for typos, misspellings, etc. By the time you get to this level, you probably know the paper by heart, which can cause you to not really read the sentences because you already know what they say. To read your paper with fresh eyes, print it out and, using a sheet of paper, cover all the text on a page except for the last sentence. Check it and move upward to the next sentence. Continue until you’ve reviewed all the sentences on the page.  This will force you to really read each sentence separately to be sure it makes sense, and there are no misspelled words or typos.

If you would like help with revision, you can contact the Writing Center by submitting a form: https://students.uams.edu/success/writing-center/writing-center-appointment-request/; emailing sscwriting@uams.edu; calling 501-686-8536; or coming by the Center on the 3rd floor of the Library, rm. 3/110.

Works Cited

• Rew, L.J. (1999). Editing for writers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Contributing Author Cheri Goforth is the Director of Campus Life and Student Support Services at UAMS. Learn more about Student Support Services at https://students.uams.edu/campus-life/student-life/ .

Have you ever asked the question, “Why don’t people just listen better?” or thought, “The directions spell out everything you need to know, so what’s the problem?”   These questions may derive from mismatched communication and learning styles.

An essential part of communication is the process of using messages to send and receive information.  Awareness and understanding of communication and learning styles allows us to send and receive messages more effectively.  When we send information to people in a style they prefer or can easily grasp, they are more likely to receive and understand our intended meaning.

It is particularly important to ensure that students understand our messages.  It doesn’t matter what someone says.   It matters what the intended receiver hears and learns.  Teachers can often gauge the effectiveness of a lecture by posing questions that require students to clarify or summarize material.

Communicating effectively with students allows them to better understand concepts and increase class performance, which can lead to expanded learning opportunities, achievement of goals, and overall professional growth.  Communication is required in every profession, and communication skills are necessary at every level of a student’s academic and professional career.

Your Communication Style

Each individual has a preferred learning style.   Most of us fall into one of three basic learning categories:  visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.  Teachers can improve student success by incorporating aspects of all three styles into each lesson.   For example, it may be helpful to visual learners to see graphs or diagrams, while auditory learners absorb information best by listening and receiving oral instructions; kinesthetic learners process information most effectively through hands-on or physical activities.

When studying, students can also incorporate techniques to reinforce their preferred learning style.   The visual learner can use color to highlight and categorize key subjects or they may find rewriting or outlining class notes helps to enhance retention.  Auditory learners may find listening to audio tapes or reciting pertinent information out loud to be helpful.  Kinesthetic learners can use roleplaying or experiential learning to reinforce subject matter.

The learning styles mentioned above describe dominant methods of learning.  We all use a mixture of styles, but for most of us, one usually stands out above the rest.  So, to help ensure that your message is getting through, it is important to incorporate elements of sight, sound, and experience when communicating to a group.

I love to write. I do it all the time. My problem is that I write like I talk, which means that my writing is sometimes hard to understand. I’m not a sequential thinker and my ideas jump all over the place. This can make the things I write difficult to read. Since I view writing as a form of communication, what I write should be easy to understand. If it isn’t, then I’m not much of a communicator. What I need is an editor, someone who will check what I write for understanding. I don’t have an editor, but I do have Hemingway, the free online editor that helps me analyze my writing style.

Writing Style and the Reader

Hemingway is like a spellchecker for writing style. It helps make sure that your reader will focus on what you are saying, not how you are saying it., Hemingway creators Adam and Ben Long believe that in writing, less is more. So their software identifies where your writing is too dense to be easily understood. By removing extra words or splitting a long sentence into two you can make your writing more readable.

The Hemingway editor uses yellow and red highlighter colors to identify sentences that are hard or very hard to read. Phrases that have simpler alternatives are highlighted in pink. Adverbs are highlighted in blue, and uses of passive voice are highlighted in green. By paying attention to the highlighted text, you can remove extra words, find simpler alternatives, and get rid of passive voice that makes your writing heavier and less readable.

Readability

The main goal of the Hemingway editor is to make your writing more enjoyable for your reader, known as readability. Hemingway will evaluate your writing and assign it a grade level. Grade level doesn’t refer to who you are writing for. In this instance, it means the lowest year of education necessary to understand your writing. Having a high reading level isn’t always a good thing. You need a sixth grade education to be able to read an average newspaper. In fact, having a very high grade level is likely to mean that your writing is confusing and filled with terminology. This isn’t good writing, even for a textbook.

Hemingway is a great tool for doing a preliminary edit of your writing style. It won’t take the place of a good editor, and it can’t help you with the more robust work involved in writing a complex paper or narrative, but it’s a great place to start. It is easy to use, doesn’t require registration or an account, and it’s free (my favorite price). Hemingway is now my go-to site with my first drafts.