I know this is a bit niche and frankly incredibly nerdy of me but I felt a strange urge to document my university essay writing process. Having written two 5000 word essays this Christmas break I am highly fed up with essay writing at the moment but I'm also conscious that 2019 is going to be my last ever year in education so I suppose I'm feeling a bit nostalgic and kind of wanted to have a record of how I do it. Also it might be able to help someone because although you might get some pointers for how to deal with the transition from school to university when it comes to essays, I think they take for granted that you have an understanding of the basic process behind it. Just to be clear, this is only how I do it from the perspective of a geography/politics/international relations student and of course everyone will have slightly different approaches, but mine works for me and might work for you too. 

Think about and analyse the question. Assuming you are either assigned a question or get to pick from a list (and don't have to invent your own), the first step is to sit down and really think about the question. Underline the operative words which tell you what to do (e.g. analyse, compare, discuss, evaluate) and the terms mentioned in the question which you will have to define in your essay (e.g. politics, culture, violence). It's also a good idea to make a list of sub-questions which break the main question down further as this can help you focus on what it's actually asking you to do. It's a good idea to do this as early on as you can as it will be ticking over in the back of your mind while you subconsciously process it over the next few days. Be sure to note down any ideas or prompts which come to you during that time.

Refresh your memory. Before you dive into the essay research, it's good to go back to the lecture notes or other course material that relates to the topic and contextualise it in relation to the expectations of the course. This is important because even though you might have your own ideas which spring to mind, they may not align exactly with the way concepts have been used and understood in the specific context of the course. If the module is an elective outside your usual discipline this is even more important! For instance, anthropology might have a particular understanding of 'culture' which might differ from philosophy. By going through lecture notes you might also give yourself some inspiration for where to start, especially if you've made any helpful notes from comments the lecturer may have made about the assignment.

Start gathering resources. The next step is to start making yourself a reading list. To do this I always start from required readings for the lecture/seminar relating to the question, and then look at the recommended reading which is usually a more extensive list. Then put these references into a document (alphabetical order is helpful) and voila, you have the beginnings of a reading list. It's important to note that your reading list is a living document which will evolve over the course of the process as you discover more potentially helpful readings and realise that some which you thought were relevant actually aren't.

Start reading. The golden rule is to start with the readings which are most likely to be relevant, usually those which have been assigned or suggested by the lecturer. These will form the basis for your essay and after that it's about finding your own resources to suit your (eventual) argument which will shape the essay into something more original.

Make a basic plan. Once you've analysed the question and got a decent grasp on the topic, it's time to make a loose plan. I do this when I've read enough to get a sense of the main debates around the subject and formulate my own ideas, which is usually after reading about 4-5 articles or chapters. When I say basic I really mean basic - I don't try to pin down an argument or anything too precise, just make a sketch of the bare bones of the essay based on the information I have.

Read more widely. Having consolidated the base of your knowledge, now is the time to start branching out into other readings connected to the topic which will allow you to develop your ideas. To find those extra resources you can use a number of methods. You can try simply typing key words into your online library catalogue and seeing what comes up, or use Google Scholar. I like to scan the bibliographies of the core readings and copy and paste any interesting-looking citations into my reading list as I go.

Take notes. I have a whole post on how I organise my university notes in OneNote, to see that click here. But it goes without saying that there's no point reading unless you're taking notes, because even if you think you'll be able to remember things after 10 or so articles you're bound to start mixing things up. The key thing is to take notes with the essay question in mind - so if a passage is fascinating in and of itself but completely irrelevant to your plan, don't take notes on it.

Keep updating your reading list as you go. As I said, your reading list will evolve throughout the process as you narrow down your ideas so it's important to keep reviewing it and delete citations that turn out not to be relevant while adding in new finds. Also, tick off which ones you've read.

Keep updating your plan as you go. As you read more and more you'll inevitably be struck by new ideas, concepts and examples which will add to your basic plan. Review this plan when you finish a reading to see how what you've just read fits into what you've already got, but don't worry if you can't see where it will go just yet. Start referencing even at this stage by including the author's name when you add ideas into the plan. At this point I start to plan out individual paragraphs and organise my ideas more precisely, thinking about the connections between them. 

Transfer notes into a Word document. Once I've got to a point where I feel like I've read enough to have a solid idea and a rough argument and I want to start getting things down on paper, I like to open a fresh Word document and paste my plan into it. Then (and this is the time consuming part, as it can take a day or two depending on how much you've read) I meticulously go through all my notes from my reading and copy and paste relevant parts into different sections. Don't worry about being super precise about where you put things as you can always move it around later, but just start to fill the document up. My top tip for this step is to choose a different font colour for each reading, or at least the main texts, as this will help you remember which ideas and phrases belong to which reference later on. I tend to use darker colours as this makes it easier to read, like different shades of navy, green, dark red, brown, orange and purple. Also, I start building my final bibliography at this stage, either in a separate document or at the end of the essay - when I paste the relevant notes from a reading into the main document, at the same time I paste the full citation into the bibliography so I do the reference list as I go along.

Review and assess what you've got. Once I've transferred all the relevant information across, I take some time to review the document and begin piecing things together. At this stage the total word count can be way over what you're actually aiming for (mine is usually double or more) but don't panic! There will be a lot of stuff you just delete straight away or further down the line. This is the stage where you have to hold the whole essay plan in your brain and make changes and adjustments accordingly. It's also a good time to start adding in any key ideas that come to you as you read, or notes to yourself, which I usually do in italics - things like: 'do I really need this section?' and 'make sure to emphasise this properly' and 'kind of contradicts paragraph 4?'.

Reduce, revise and write. It's kind of tricky to put into words my thought process for this step because it's so instinctive and specific to the essay in question, but I basically just go through each paragraph in chronological order and make use of the ideas and direct quotes in the notes I have for that section to put together a paragraph of prose. The idea is that rather than starting from a blank page, I copy, paste, manipulate, rephrase and move around what I already have and combine it with my own words until it resembles a paragraph. I don't have a strict rule but I try to make sure each paragraph has a couple of references in it, or 'is colourful enough', so that I'm not relying on one author too much. I also tend to start with the introduction, as this is where you have to identify the problem, state your thesis/argument and explain how the essay will be structured - so if you have this written out to start with it can be helpful to refer back to as you progress to ensure you don't lose sight of what you're aiming for. On that note, keep referring back to the essay question subquestions you identified to check you're answering them fully.

And that's essentially it, as once you've repeated the last step ad infinitum you should have a fully referenced essay with bibliography. In a way I see the essay-writing process as a jigsaw puzzle because it involves piecing something together, except usually you have to choose your overall picture and create the pieces yourself. I realise this has been mega long but it was a little more difficult to explain my process than I expected, I guess because a lot of is instinctive. Anyway I hope this has helped someone, or at least will be interesting for me to read in a couple of years time when academia is a distant memory.

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Today I'm going to share with you how I go about organising all my notes and other work for university and explain my process for filing information. I worked out this system at the beginning of my first year and it's really worked well for me over the course of my degree, enabling me to find things easily and keep all the important information in one place and readily accessible. Of course there are many different ways you can organise your work and this might not be for you, but I hope it will give you some ideas of how you might approach it, especially if you're just starting at uni.

First things first, the main program I use is Microsoft OneNote. It's basically a note-taking program which allows you to type or handwrite notes and insert all kinds of media including photos, videos, drawing, screen clippings, spreadsheets, voice notes and so on. There's a huge amount you can do with OneNote as you can share files and work on a document together, and obviously it works on both desktop and mobile devices. I only use the version for Windows 10 which came with my Microsoft Office suite, and I mostly use it for text-based information so in that sense I probably don't use it at its full capacity. However, it's still really useful and flexible and works perfectly for me. Also, I have all my notebooks synced to OneDrive so I can be sure I'll never lose my work.

In this post I'm going to be giving you an overview of how I keep my notebooks organised and then showing you in more detail how I set everything out within a single module. If you're not familiar with OneNote or if yours looks different to mine, the hierarchy I use is as follows: at the highest level we have notebooks (on the left), which are divided into sections (the tabs along the top) which are divided into pages and subpages (along the right hand side).

As you can see, down the left hand side of the screen I have all my notebooks. I have a notebook for each module, and you can see the modules I took in third year here. If I scroll down I have the rest of the modules I've taken at uni in previous years which I like to have to hand in case I ever need to refer back to something or check a past reading list. You'll notice I like to colour-code my modules, and I use the same colours for things like colouring in my timetable. I also have a personal notebook, a general uni notebook (which we're in right now) and a notebook for reading notes. I'll just go through these quickly first.

My uni notebook doesn't have a lot of information in it (you can pretty much see the organisation in the above screenshot) but I use it for organising general stuff about my degree that doesn't fall into specific modules. For example, I have tables of all my deadlines, feedback, my to-do list and other admin-type things. I also have a French module I took in second year as a section within this notebook because I only used OneNote to organise my exam revision and I didn't think it needed a whole notebook.

My reading notebook is where I keep all my notes from every single thing I have ever read for uni. In this notebook the sections correspond to modules, which are colour-coded to match the notebooks for each of those modules. This (below) is a quick look at the section for my Feminist Geographies module from second term of third year. As you can see by looking at the right hand column, I have my readings organised by what I read them for, so for example lectures, workshops, tutorials, formative assignment, summative assignment and exams. This paper I've selected here was a lecture reading (in fact my only lecture reading for that module, whoops!). Each page (or subpage) has all my notes for that reading and is organised in the same way: title of the paper/book chapter across the top in the title space, the reference for that reading in a column down the side (so that I know exactly what I read and I can easily copy it into an essay bibliography if needed) and the main body of notes in the main section. As this was a lecture reading I was reading for detail and background rather than relevance to an essay so my notes are very detailed. In general I like to write in full sentences or phrases rather than just key words as it means I'll find it easier to understand what it was about if I refer back to my notes in the future.

Here's another look at my reading notes for a different module called Neoliberal Life. This module was mostly workshop based so I have the pages organised into readings I did for each workshop (it was a LOT let me tell you), with a couple of more general ones at the top.

Now lets look at how I structure one of my module notebooks. This module was called Power, Politics and Space and it was a year-long 20 credit module. It was divided into three blocks of lectures (Citizenship, Migration and Labour; Geographies of Violence; and Colonialism, Political Violence and Uneven Development), which is why I've got three sections at the top. Within every module notebook I always have a 'General' section where I keep important information for that module, so in this case you can see I have my notes from the revision lecture and revision workshop (which didn't fall under any of the blocks) and then my own notes from planning my formative and summative essays as well as the exam.

This is what the first lecture from the section for the block called 'Citizenship, Migration and Labour' looks like. (I've blanked out the names and contact details of my lecturers just FYI). As you can see, down the right hand side I've got all the lectures for this block in chronological order, and each with a subpage of readings for that lecture. The readings are usually given to us as a list in a Word document on our online learning system at the beginning of the year, so I make sure I copy and paste that information into the relevant subpage for that module as soon as it becomes available. The layout for these lecture pages is quite similar to my reading notes pages: I put the number and title of the lecture in the title space, then the date of the lecture on the left, and the main body is the actual lecture material.

I have a system for organising the actual lecture material too. When the PowerPoint slides are uploaded to our online learning system before the lecture I download them, go through them and copy the information as plain text into a page within OneNote. It's not actually as laborious as it sounds as you can usually do it all in one go by choosing 'outline view' and then highlighting all the text, but I like to go through it all just in case to make sure my stripped-down version is an accurate representation of what's on the lecture slides. This is useful for three reasons: firstly, it means I familiarise myself with the content before the lecture so I have an idea of what it's going to be about; secondly, I have all the lecture material easily accessible with a click of my mouse rather than having to find and open a whole PowerPoint document every time I want to check something in a lecture; thirdly, it means I can take notes directly into the lecture material rather than writing it in the notes box under the slides in PowerPoint, which is what I've seen a lot of people do. This means I'm able to add in notes exactly where they're meant to be and even expand on points as the lecturer goes through them. I always add in my own notes that I take during lectures in a different colour, so I can be sure which bits of information were originally in the lecture material and which I've added in. You can see an example of this below:

And that's basically it! Some modules have a slightly different organisation depending on how they're structured, for instance for term-long modules which aren't divided into lecture blocks the sections at the top are just 'lectures', 'tutorial', 'seminars' or whatever is relevant to that module. Sometimes we don't get given reading lists for each individual lecture but for the module as a whole, so in that case I'll put the whole list in a page under the 'General' section of that module. But that's essentially my system, which I adapt slightly as needed.

I hope this was helpful in some way. As a quick disclaimer, if it wasn't already clear from this post I am an organisation fiend and I absolutely love sorting things out, colour-coding information and creating elaborate systems - so if that isn't your thing, don't worry! This is just the way I've chosen to do it and all I can say is it's worked for me, so I hope it might be helpful for someone else too.

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A new academic year is just around the corner and for me that means living in a student house instead of in college (aka halls) and also the extremely exciting opportunity to decorate my new bedroom. I did my best to make my room in college pretty and personal by putting up posters, photos and fairy lights but given that it was so small and had a lot of storage and shelving built in there was only so much I could do, whereas my new room is a lot bigger and barer so it's a real blank canvas.

It's been a long process of gradually buying bits and pieces and trying to bring it all together coherently (and it's a process which is still ongoing since I have a whole load of stuff at home than I'm going to take with me when I go) so I thought I would put together a post on how to decorate a uni bedroom to impart my wisdom and generally explain how I've been going about it. A lot of this can be applied to any bedroom but I'm focusing on a university room which assumes there is some basic furniture provided (i.e. a bed, desk and wardrobe) and that you have limited scope when it comes to how much you're allowed to do to it (i.e. no painting or major adjustments). The emphasis is on how to do it on a budget because lets face it, your student loan has to cover other things like food and ridiculously expensive textbooks. Also, this isn't a room tour because I'm not in my uni house at the moment but I'm definitely planning on doing one when I get there!

Get inspired. There's so much you can do to brighten up even the most drab uni bedroom and it definitely doesn't need to involve spending a fortune. Pintrest is ideal for providing visual inspiration for themes and colour schemes as well as ideas for DIYs so it's a great place to start looking - check out my 'bedroom' board, for example. Another place I often find inspiration is IKEA, particularly the showroom section where they have all the rooms set up because it helps to see ideas in the flesh and they're designed to make the best use of a small space. I also really like watching room/house tours on YouTube because I can do it without leaving my bed - as I mentioned in my summer favourites I've been loving Gabbie's (aka velvetgh0st) vlogs and videos and I really like her taste in homeware and the way she decorates her flat(s).

Plan it. If you're like me and you love shopping and homeware it's tempting to rush out and buy all sorts of stuff but it's so much more cost effective to sit down and really plan your room. Obviously it's helpful if you already know what the space looks like because you know what you've got to work with, but even if you haven't seen it there's a lot you can think about to start off with. The first thing to do is to decide if you want to have a particular theme or colour scheme because then you can have something to focus on while shopping. For my uni room I've decided to go with a dark pink, purple and turquoise colour scheme where possible, mostly because those are my favourite colours and also as it's relatively easy to find things in those colours - but I'm not sticking too it too rigidly. Theme-wise I've always thought it would be nice to do a sort of wanderlust thing as it would be quite easy to achieve: think maps on the wall, travel photos displayed, unfinished wood decorations and vintage-effect storage boxes.

Budget. There's no point spending a fortune on luxury furniture or decorative items if you're only living there for a year, so buy stuff that can be used again at some point in your life or that it won't matter too much if you have to leave behind. It's important to balance the potential cost with how committed you are to making your room look a particular way.

Make a shopping list. To start off with decide what you need aka things that are actually necessities. Some basic items which I think are essential for every bedroom include bed linen (duh), a desk lamp, storage boxes and a small bin/wastepaper basket. Once you have these essentials it's time to start thinking about things you want, by which I mean decorative items such as photo frames, ornaments and posters because it's all about achieving a balance between practicality and aesthetics.

Use what you have. Even if you don't hoard everything away 'just in case' *ahem* you've probably got some stuff which could be upcycled, repurposed or just plain borrowed. Odd sets of Christmas lights that aren't used all year round can become a set of fairy lights would around a curtain pole or draped over a wardrobe, while anything can be brightened up and given a new lease of life with a lick of paint including furniture and storage boxes. For instance, I'm planning to paint a wooden box that my grandad made for my mum's bedroom when she was little and use it as a bedside table! It's worth asking around to see what family and friends are hoarding away and would part with because you never know what you might find.

Buy from the right places. This goes hand in hand with budgeting, but do your research into where you can get the things you want for the price you want. I've found that Argos's ColourMatch range is brightly coloured and brilliant value for everything from rugs to lamps; Primark Home can be great for bright and fun duvet covers, quirky ornaments and little sets of fairy lights; and lets be real, IKEA is always a good idea, especially for furniture and storage solutions. Plus, don't discount places like Wilko and Poundland for basic things like cushions, and charity shops or car boot sales for unique vintage items with extra thrift factor.

Be creative. It's so easy to add a personal touch to a room with minimal cost and maximal effect. My number one tip is to print out photos! I do this using photo printing websites (Photobox and Lalalab are my favourites) but you can do it at home too providing you have photo paper and permission to use all of the printer ink. Then the possibilities are endless: frame them, use blu-tak to create a photowall, arrange them in a pattern, or use string and pegs (these ones are an ideal size) to make a 'washing-line' of snaps to a wall. You could also create a display wall or pinboard of things that inspire you, a sort of collage of prints, posters, photos, postcards, magazine pages - anything that will make an impact. If blu-tak isn't strong enough an alternative is command strips (which I am fully intending to buy because it actually says I can use them in my house contract so I'll blame it on that if they take the paint off, but hopefully they won't).

And that's it! Maybe all this stuff is completely obvious but I just really love decorating things and making my bedroom look nice - I hope someone found it helpful!

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If you've been anywhere near the internet in the last few months you may have noticed that (love them or hate them) these button-down skirts have become a major trend. As the weather gets colder I've noticed them beginning to materialise in the autumn/winter collections of high street stores such as New Look and Topshop, and I have to admit I've tried a couple on. But somehow I can never figure out what I'd wear one with, so I decided to play around with some possible combinations on Polyvore.

1. Thanks to tumblr I can't help but associate these skirts with the whole 'art hoe' aesthetic, which includes taking photos in art galleries, collecting books about artists, wearing things like block colours, striped tops, artsy socks, and Kanken rucksacks. Personally I think the whole thing is adorable and I just wish mustard was more my colour, so in honour of my appreciation the first of these outfits is decidedly 'art hoe'. Button-down skirts look great with a simple patterned top, and this stripy one would look nice tucked in too.

2. This type of skirt might be on the casual side of things, but I think you could easily dress them up with any kind of smartish top, heels, bling and a little evening bag. The effect probably wouldn't work quite as well with the traditional denim skirt but they come in all materials and colours, such as this red corduroy one.

Today I have another 'how to style post', this time centred around fruit - see the last post here. Lately I've noticed a lot of fruit-themed clothes and accessories in shops and generally in internet fashion, not least from the gorgeous Kailey of Mermaidens blog, who is the undisputed queen of fruit (and ice-cream) motifs. Here are a few ideas for incorporating the fruity feel into your outfits this summer.

1. Fruit prints don't have to be overpowering - they can still be cheeky and fun. These shorts with the banana pattern are perfect for creating a playful summer look, especially with the simple blue and yellow colour palette. I also love the sunny sunnies.

2. It's been scientifically proven that sporting fruit makes you cooler in all senses of the word, making it perfect for sporty looks. According to tumblr mustard and platform shoes are very in right now, so this is really a triple whammy.

Today I thought I'd try something new, so after fiddling around in the Polyvore creator for half an hour I came up with the (somewhat unoriginal) idea of doing a series of 'how to styles'. This essentially does what it says on the tin, in that I style a particular type of clothing item each time, hopefully in a variety of inspiring - or at least mildly interesting - ways. I'm starting with patterned shorts, purely because it's summer.

1. My number one rule when styling patterned bottoms, whether skirts, shorts or trousers, is to keep it plain on the top - unless you're looking to live on the edge by combining patterns, which can go disastrously wrong if not done skilfully. Hence why I've paired these gorgeous jungle print-cum-tapestry shorts with a simple cream blouse. The shoes more or less match the shorts in terms of colour, while the bag adds a different shade to the palette. 

2. This outfit is a little more 'edgy', because of the beret if nothing else. The bold primary colours complement each other as the pattern of the shorts picks them up in a subtle way. I love the velvety texture of the top and the high neck, even though personally I would find it irritating to wear. To be honest I don't know which decade of fashion this would fall into, but I feel it has a distinctly 70s vibe, as it reminds me of something my mum might have sported in her teenage years.

3. By all means keep it plain on the top, but plain doesn't have to mean a cotton tank top - this shiny silver strappy top works perfectly well to complement the tones of the shorts. Metallics aren't always the easiest to wear as you can easily miss the casual mark and look like you're on your way to a disco, but it's never a bad thing to experiment.

4. You can never go wrong with combining neutral tones as they don't necessarily have to match, so these shoes, bag and top work well together (I think). I love the pattern of the shorts, it's kind of an earthy paisley print that makes me want to run into a pile of crispy autumn leaves.

Thanks for reading!

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