How do I work on my essay?
June 27, 2024
“Okay settle down everyone, I have an announcement to make! The assessments are now approaching. And the thought of essays is starting to haunt us,” Observer Yasmin declared as she sat at the big round table with all the other Yasmins. Yes, there was nothing else in the room except for that round table and …
How I Get Started With Independent Study
June 19, 2024
The biggest change when coming to university is the increased level of independent study that is expected of us. This ranges from seminar preparation, reading or completing further research. We are also expected to juggle our social calendars and find time for ourselves. This often leaves me with the question, ‘where do I start?’. However, …
Taking on The Big PhD: Full-Time or Part-Time?
June 14, 2024
So, you’ve decided to take on a PhD… Your Nan’s told everyone at bingo how “our Nelly’s going to be a doctor!”, your Uncle Steve can’t see the point unless ‘Doctor’ means you can sort out his ingrowing toenail situation, and your Mum’s ecstatic. At least her ‘clever genes’ have passed on to one of …
Connecting Online at UoN
May 24, 2024
As a mature student, the University of Nottingham’s English (Online) MA fitted my requirements for a post-graduate program of study. The reasons for my choice included: the flexibility around time and location; ability to choose my study pathway; academic rigour, and consistent support. However, there are challenges, or at least things to be aware of …
Rhizome Thinking
May 3, 2024
One of the joys of university is learning how to think differently. In this blog, I’d like to offer Study is a Rhizomeas as a rich conceptual metaphor for thinking about studying. Conceptual metaphors are useful for understanding abstract concepts. They were investigated by Lakoff and Johnson in Metaphors We Live By and today are …
Moving From a Small Town to a City for University: Why it’s Not as Daunting as it Might Seem
April 24, 2024
When starting university, it can feel like everyone you meet is from London or bigger cities around the UK. They’re used to the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life; they know the transport network systems and they don’t even bat an eyelid when it comes to having Uber at your disposal. Even though everyone gets …
Rethinking the World with Chick Lit
February 19, 2021
This Christmas, I was gifted Cecelia Ahern’s One Hundred Names from a family member – with their flawed logic being that if I like the Bridget Jones movies, then romance fiction should be right up my street. But when I accidentally packed it to bring back to Uni alongside all my other books, giving it …
Review: Dark Wonders by Joshua Helmer
February 12, 2021
Dark Wonders is a set of three linked dystopian short stories from Nottingham-based writer Joshua Helmer. Comparisons to Black Mirror are easy to make, as the three stories involve a dark insight into a near future in which different forms of technology have an impact on humans and the world. However, underneath this genre similarity, …
Confessions of an escapism artist – handling escapism while social distancing
June 25, 2020
At times like these, the urge to escape from the world is greater than ever. This may be through TV, books, games, music… anything that might help someone mentally escape from the reality. And with modern technology, it is all too easy to achieve. You may not even recognise that you are doing it. It’s …
Catharsis, Comfort and the Contemporary Poetry of Rupi Kaur
May 28, 2020
Reception of Rupi Kaur’s pared-down poetry divides her readership into those who celebrate her popularisation of poetry (Kaur sold more copies of her debut collection in 2016 than the other top ten poets combined) and those who decry her work as somehow lazy in its brevity, and lacking the vocabulary and sophistication of traditional poetry. …
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