We’re really pleased to introduce our Deputy Blog Editor, Sian Hodkin. Sian is a student at SHU and recently won our Twitter feedback competition to be a student journalist here at Student Advice and Information for a week. She will be sending out a daily blog post all this week on a range of topics. So, here’s over to you Sian…

I thought I would introduce myself before I got down to business. My name is Sian Hodkin, you might have seen my blog Hodder’s or seen me floating around City Campus. I’m studying English Literature and I’m in my second year, and I hate to break it to you first years; second year is TOUGH.

Take note, I am currently using this blog post as an excuse not to do one of my essays – this does take away a little credibility of what I’m going to talk about).

We have all done it, left the essay we “know is easy” and it will “only take us an hour when we do it” and it’s “easy to pass, I practically have the 2.1 now, just talking about it” and then we’re sat at 1am, eating cheese toasties and questioning your own existence because every single word of the dictionary appears to have been erased from your memory. I’ve used the word ‘signifies’ twenty times already, I’ve made the weakest link between texts even Anne Robinson would be ashamed and I’m still two hundred words under the word count” is likely to come out of your mouth, you’re tired, you’re not hungry but you’ll eat for hours and you’ll be kicking yourself, saying “I will not do this next time.”

I’ve pulled an all-nighter-ish once. I’m not a night owl at all, I would much rather get up earlier and get it finished than plough through the night. (Although my friends would disagree) I’m at my best in the morning, give me a cup of tea and I’ll see the back of those 2000 words in a few hours. Ask me to work into the night, I’ll be writing around 2 words per hour. The thing is that I cannot focus when I leave things until the last minute, my brain just shuts down on me so now I aim to get my essays finished at least one day before the deadline so I can look over it once more and only panic a little bit.

If you are in the panic boat right now, I’m going to give you a few tips to keep things
sailing nicely:

• Plan, at least a little anyway – Unless this essay is completely out of the blue, chances are you will have had chance to think about the essay. So even if you do leave the writing of the essay until the last day before the deadline, you will thank yourself if you have drawn yourself up a baby plan – your key points, ideas of where you will be getting your secondary sources from.
• Start from the middle – I hate introductions; I detest them because they shape your whole argument. Get your single primary point at the top and then write the body of your essay first, that’s the easy bit and once you have that done your introduction practically writes itself because you have already written what you are ‘aiming’ to do in your introduction. Cheating- Yes a little bit; but we don’t have time for morals right now. (PS do not actually cheat, never worth it).
• Don’t waffle – It’s tempting to expand your ideas to the point that even Stretch Armstrong would snap, but don’t. I’m sure your tutors would appreciate concise, clear points than long, ridiculous ones.
• Take breaks – Weird considering you’re under pressure to get something finished and taking long breaks was probably why you ended up in this position in the first place, but take them. Every hour go and grab a drink -not alcoholic- and take a five minute chill out time. You can come back to your essay with a clearer head.
• Turn off – You don’t have time to write your essay out on paper first and then type it out, so the temptation to moan about your problems on Facebook is prominent but don’t. You’ll be stalking your ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend before you know it. I use a Google add on called Stay focusd – you can set up websites that you want to ‘block’ for yourself and voila, it doesn’t let you on Facebook, Youtube, etc. The same goes for your phone, go and put it in a drawer or something, Flappy Bird does not give you essay answers.

So there you go, I hope it helps or it teaches you a lesson not to leave it so late in the first place!

(Editor’s note: views expressed are Sian’s own. If you would like some support with an assignment or essay, see the getting help with my academic work page on SHU space which provides information on the different support available. If things are more serious and you are struggling with keeping to deadlines, remember you can contact Student Advice and Information and Student Wellbeing at SHU for help and support).