• Most common essay writing mistakes!
    31st March 2010

    This mistake is the one you want to avoid above all others, and making this error can cost you your place at university. Plagiarism is passing off someone else’s work as if it is your own. The universities see it as stealing. Unfortunately, with the rise of cut-and-paste technology, this is becoming more common and the sad thing is that most people who plagiarise didn’t mean to do it. But this is not seen as a defence. Be very careful to put everything in your own words.

  • A boom in postgraduate study
    31st March 2010

    If you have been considering a return to study, you are not alone. Postgraduate courses have seen a sharp rise in applications. Back in 2007-2008 the numbers of people studying for Masters degrees increased by 27% and PhD numbers rose by 9%. More recent recent by the Higher Education Policy Unit (Hepi) has shown that although 78% of undergraduates found work in the professions three years after graduation, for postgraduates the figure stood at 94%.

  • Essay writing preparation: the website critique
    30th March 2010

    Using web pages as research resources is now common practice within academia, from undergraduate level right up to PhD, but although there are many reliable sources on the internet, there are some websites that provide inaccurate information. When you are basing an academic argument on a web page, you want to be sure that it provides reliable evidence.

  • Essay preparation: Reading Skills
    30th March 2010

    As you prepare to write essays you will be faced with more reading than you are probably used to. How can you improve your reading skills so that you read with greater speed and efficiency than before? You may be reading books or essay examples, but if your reading is holding you may miss vital details.

  • Types of Essay: Writing a Book Review
    29th March 2010

    As part of a postgraduate degree you may well be asked to write an academic book review. This is a different sort of essay writing experience. Here are 10 key points to bear in mind when preparing a great review:-

  • What even is an essay?
    29th March 2010

    What is an essay and why have you been asked to write one? The word essay is from the French, essayer, meaning ‘to try’.For the purposes of writing, whether at school, college or university, the essay is an attempt to explain your opinion about an issue, namely the essay question that you have been set. Your lecturer wants to know that you have an opinion and see that you can express this clearly within the essay writing assignment.

  • Essay Help: Is it ‘-ize’ or ‘-ise’?
    26th March 2010

    When you type up your essay and carry out editing, you want to be sure that your spelling and grammar aren’t going to let you down. Sloppy presentation and bad spelling, can make the reader concerned that if you’ve paid so little attention to your English usage, what other mistakes have you made during your essay editing?

    But sometimes there is a spelling that even the experts can disagree on. The choice of whether to use -ize or –ise at the ends of some words is a topic that, surprisingly perhaps, stirs up plenty of feeling.
    Essay editing decisionsEssay editing: ‘-ize’ or ‘-ise’

  • Always giving up? Essay writing and procrastination
    24th March 2010

    Focusing on good essay writing technique is all very well, but for many of us sitting down to write an essay at all can be major hurdle. Maybe you have found yourself awake at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning with an essay or assignment deadline looming, unable to write more than a few scribbled sentences? How can you break the deadlock?

  • Student News: Survey Shows Student Realism
    23rd March 2010

    The latest Sodexo-Times Higher Education University Lifestyle Survey draws an encouraging picture of students, who are keenly aware of the reality of the recession and the job market. The survey shows that the current crop of students is realistic when it comes to their job prospects. They are determined to finish their courses highly skilled, flexible and ready to snatch up good jobs. 2,000 full-time undergraduates took part in the survey.

  • Is there a PhD in you?
    23rd March 2010

    Many people dream of taking a PhD, but what is really involved in getting these letters after your name?

    What is a PhD?

    The letters are an abbreviation for ‘Doctor of Philosophy’ and you might also see it written as ‘DPhil’. This type of degree emerged from Germany in the early 1800s and it is intended to be a research degree where you focus on finding the solution to a tightly defined problem.Your work must be original.