Can anyone help me with a problem about describing the shape of a graph with derivatives?

Question

For the following functions:
(a) Find the intervals of increase or decrease
(b) Find the local maximum and minimum values
(c) Find the intervals of concavity and the inflection points

f(x) = ln (x^4 +27)
f(x) = x + cosx (for x values [-2pi, 2pi])

Answer 1

decreasing (-infinity, ln(27)
increasing (ln(27), infinity
local min of ln(27) at x = 0

function is monotonic increasing

Answer 2

Read this article; all of the information that you are asking for is in it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus

Answer 3

nope