How to apply what you have learned may seem puzzling, even mysterious. For example, in your next class, would you struggle to answer a pop quiz question on two creatures, two events, or two theories? Or would you recall what you already have learned about organizing comparison and contrast? In your nursing or teaching clinical program, would you struggle every day to manage patients or maintain classroom order? Or would you apply your experience proposing a solution to your own on-site problems?

You’ve probably experienced both frustration, when a new situation challenges your experience, and exhilaration, when old skills and past practice make something new seem easy. Maybe your background or confidence makes the difference — or maybe the content area, skill, or kind of knowledge to be transferred does. Either way, how to transfer learning from one situation to another — and how to do so effectively — often seems a puzzle. To help you solve that puzzle when you need to write different types of papers in different situations, this chapter covers three key questions you might ask: