November 2020 – Dr. Rachel

Cut Your Wordcount

Rachel Horrocks Birss Essays, Lightning Sessions 27th November 2020Academic Skills, challenges, Essays, wordcount, writing 0 Comment

Have you ever found yourself frantically trying to cut your assignment down as the submission deadline looms? If so, you’re not alone – we’ve all been there at some point.

It’s important to keep to the wordcount in your assignments – part of what you’re being assessed on is your ability to prioritise arguments or ideas and provide an effective answer within the allotted words.

That means cramming in more ideas and going well over the wordcount isn’t advantageous and in fact might see you lose marks.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to make sure that you don’t find yourself in this position, and there are still steps you can take if you do wind up needing to lose hundreds of words in a hurry. Have a look at out recording of the ‘Cut Your Wordcount’ Lightning Talk for some ideas, then scroll down for our 3 top tips.

3 top tips for staying on top of your wordcount

Tip 1: Wordcount or Word limit? Know the difference

It’s crucial when planning and writing your assignment that you’re clear on whether it has a wordcount or a word limit.

A word limit usually means that you will lose marks if you go over that number of words. So it’s important that you’re aware of that and work to keep your submission within that limit.

A wordcount, by contrast, gives you a certain degree of leeway. That’s generally taken to mean your final submission can be up to 10% lower or higher than the given count, although that isn’t always stated explicitly.

Tip 2: Start cutting your wordcount early

The earlier in the process you start working towards the wordcount, the easier you will find it to remove content. It’s much easier to get your wordcount down at the planning stage than it is once you’ve written a draft.

So pay attention to the wordcount from the start, get to know roughly how many points you can cover effectively in the allotted words, and plan your assignment accordingly.

Tip 3: Cut content, not words

Sometimes you will just find yourself with too many words when you’ve written up the assignment. So how do you get the wordcount down?

Simply cutting words can lead to very disjointed writing. You might look for places where you could simplify the language – indeed this is a very good habit to try to develop, but it’s more effective as a long term strategy to improve your writing rather than as a quick fix for a piece of work that is too long.

If you’re over the wordcount, the chances are it’s because you’re trying to do too much. So prioritise the points that most effectively allow you to answer the question and be prepared to cut other points that, whilst potentially relevant, you don’t have room to include this time.

Successful Search Strategies

Rachel Horrocks Birss Essays, Library, Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 26th November 2020Essays, library, literature search, research, sources, writing 0 Comment

When you’re at university, you have to do research. Whatever you study, chances are you’ll spend some time looking through books at the library– or, more likely, browsing the online catalogue searching for sources.

For some of us, research may be exciting: it’s a time to learn more about a new topic, and dive deeper into a subject we love. For others, research may be incredibly confusing, time-consuming, and difficult.

Wherever you fall on this spectrum: you’re not alone. The truth is that even students who love research sometimes find it challenging to find just the right sources for their upcoming assignment.

In this Lightning Session, our colleague from the Library walks us through two of the most common research struggles:

Too Many Sources
Too Few Sources

Watch the video for a full explanation (complete with a screen-sharing demonstration), or keep scrolling for our top tips.

[Note: To skip the intro, jump straight to 05:25.]

Challenge 1: Too Few Sources

Sometimes it’s hard to find enough pertinent sources for our essay. Especially when we’re working on really specific topics, it can be difficult to find sources that directly address our topic.

For instance, if your essay question is: “To what extent is Draco Malfoy the archetypal antihero in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?” then a good first step would be to type the keywords, “Draco Malfoy,” “antihero” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” into the library search.

If you did this, however, you wouldn’t come up with a single result. It’s far too specific. Instead, it’s better to use just a few of the keywords, or to modify them slightly. For instance, you could try “Draco Malfoy” and “Harry Potter” or “antihero” and “Harry Potter.”

If you can’t find enough sources, use fewer keywords or make them more general. Then, be open-minded with the sources you find. Maybe an article on “Heroism in Harry Potter” doesn’t look like exactly what you want, but give it a skim-read anyways. There’s a good chance at least part of the article will be relevant to your topic!

Additionally, once you’ve found one relevant article, make sure to look at its footnotes and bibliography. Chances are, at least some of these sources will be relevant to you, and they might not have immediately come up in the search engine.

Challenge 2: Too Many Sources

Perhaps a bigger problem is too many sources. Especially when we’re assigned quite a broad topic (perhaps, “Is Harry Potter a Hero?”) a library search for our basic keywords can literally return millions of results!

The good news is that the Library search sorts results automatically by relevance, so there’s no need to scroll through every source (though it is worth going through at least a few pages, to make sure nothing important has gotten buried).

If you’ve got too many results, you can use the filters on the right side of the library search to cut your results down to only the most relevant. Helpful filters may include:

Peer Reviewed journals (only journals that have been properly vetted by other academics)
Resource type (books, journals, conference proceedings, etc…)
Subject (Humanities, social sciences, etc…)
Date (select a date range)

Using filters can cut your results down from thousands to hundreds. They can even reduce your results to nothing at all, so it’s good to be careful! Don’t immediately apply certain filters, and it’s always worth experimenting with different combinations of filters, rather than putting them all on at once.

If you’re still struggling with too many sources, it’s worth trying some of the features in the advanced search function, such as limiting your search to article titles, for instance.

We hope these tips are helpful as you start researching your next assignment! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at asc@dundee.ac.uk.

Avoiding Procrastination

Rachel Horrocks Birss Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 26th November 2020Academic Skills, challenges, Essays, Procrastination 0 Comment

We’ve all been there. A big deadline is just around the corner, but somehow we find the time to wash dishes, watch Netflix, and scroll through a million Wikipedia pages… all while conveniently avoiding our work.

Procrastination is one of the biggest struggles university students face. We know we need to work consistently throughout the year to keep on top of our coursework, but somehow, we can’t help getting distracted.

The bad news is that procrastination isn’t just a university problem. Once you get your degree and join the workforce, self-motivation becomes even more important. Procrastinating on an important report won’t win you any points with your future boss!

The good news is that there are many tried and true ways to beat procrastination and get your work done on time. Watch our Procrastination recording to hear our Academic Skills Tutors share their thoughts, then scroll down for our top tips.

[Note: To skip the intro, jump straight to 05:40]

In order to beat Procrastination, we have to understand more about it. We’ll do this by quickly looking at the 3 Myths of Procrastination.

Myth 1: I’m the only one.

When we look around, it can often feel like everyone else is working so hard and getting so much done, while we’re the only ones who still haven’t started.

In reality, everyone struggles with procrastination, even people who get lots done. In our Lightning Session on Procrastination, all 18 participants admitted they procrastinate “most days” or “all the time”!

When do we procrastinate? The most common times are:

When we’re anxious
When we think a task will be difficult
When we’re just getting started
When deadlines are a long ways away

If you’re in this situation and you find yourself procrastinating, don’t beat yourself up! Struggling with procrastination in these situations is completely normal.

Myth 2: Procrastinators are lazy and don’t care about their work.

From the outside, procrastination looks a lot like laziness. Rather than working hard, you’re watching funny cat videos and learning tik tok dances. Ironically, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The truth is that procrastinators often care very deeply about their work. They care so much that they’re terrified to get started, because they might not be able to do a good job.

It won’t surprise you that procrastination goes hand in hand with perfectionism. If we think something needs to be perfect, it’s really difficult to get to work. After all, we know that nothing is ever going to be perfect, so why even try? It’s easier to scroll through social media and pretend that everything will be fine.

If you find yourself getting overwhelmed by your work, try these strategies instead:

Take a break (getting outside for a walk is ideal)
Set a timer and work for just 5 minutes. It’ll give you the boost you need to get started!
Try the Pomodoro Technique
Break down your tasks (instead of “write essay” on your to-do list, try “write 100 words of introduction”)

Myth 3: This is just how I am.

Sometimes, we talk about procrastination like it’s something that define us. Instead of saying, “I procrastinate sometimes,” we might say, “I’m a procrastinator.”

Why does this matter? If we see procrastination as part of our identity, then we don’t try to change it. We just get used to working on everything last minute and missing deadlines. We don’t even realise that we can improve.

The wonderful thing is that, if we implement some of the strategies in this blog and in the video, we can get better at handling procrastination. We may never be able defeat it entirely, but we can improve our organisation and focus. If we do this, it’ll make a big difference, both to our assignments at university and our future careers.

We hope these tips help you beat procrastination and focus productively on your next assignment! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at asc@dundee.ac.uk.

Stay on Topic

Rachel Horrocks Birss Essays, Lightning Sessions 23rd November 202026th November 2020 0 Comment

Did you know that one of the top reasons students lose marks on essays is by not answering the question?

It may sound obvious, but to get a good mark your essay needs to answer the question. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your essay is– if you were supposed to write about the causes of WW2, and you actually write about the effects of WW2, you probably won’t get an A.

So, what are the top reasons why students sometimes don’t answer the question?

Skim-reading the question.
Going down the “rabbit hole” of research, without looking back at the question.
Not checking to see if the finished essay matches the question.

So, how do you avoid these pitfalls and make sure your essay answers the question? Watch our academic skills tutors demonstrate how to break down the question and stay on topic!

[Note: If you’re in a rush, you can skip the intros by jumping straight to 06:55.]

To make sure your essay answers the question, you first have to understand the question. This may sound easy, but essay questions are more complex than they seem. Sometimes, the instructions may be short, such as, “Is Harry Potter a hero?” In other cases, you may receive a full page of instructions.

Pay attention to the exact wording of the question. An question that asks you to “Outline the causes of Brexit” is not the same as a question that asks you to “Analyse the causes of Brexit.” These words- outline, analyse, discuss, explore, evaluate- are called “Instruction Words,” and they all have their own unique meaning. To make sure you’re following the question closely, check out our Instruction Words Handout.

Alongside Instruction Words, essay questions have several other elements, including the Topic, the Aspect, and the Restrictions. You can learn more about these words in our Essay Bites resource.

Most importantly: Keep looking back at the essay question throughout the writing process.

Remember to check at these key points:

Before you start work, read the essay question carefully and break it down (more on that in the video below)
As you research and write, keep looking back at the question to see if what you’re reading and writing still relates to the question.
Before you submit your essay, check to make sure you’ve covered all the essential elements of the question. Also make sure every paragraph is relevant, and you don’t have any extraneous side-notes.

We hope these tips help you stay on topic during your next essay! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at asc@dundee.ac.uk.