Top tips from successful graduates

This presentation and Q/A session features Richard, recent MA graduate from Classics and Ancient History, and Sharon, currently writing up her PhD Thesis in Corpus-based Discourse Analysis

As you listen, note down any questions you would have liked to ask, had you attended this session

Here are some notes from Richard's presentation:

1. Learning. Undertaking an MA is itself a learning process. Don't be discouraged by lower marks at the start, as you can't be expected to get everything right first time. Pay close attention to the feedback though - the negatives might feel a bit brutal at the time, but learning to overcome these deficits will definitely pay off later

2. Reading. Read as much as you can - you can never read too much! Don't worry if reading takes time - you'll get quicker and better. I was a very slow reader to start with (an article might take me half a day to read); however the more you read the quicker you'll get at recognising what's important (I can now 'fillet' a whole book in a day)

3. First drafts. It's good to have a lot to say (this will come from reading a lot). This means your first drafts will be too long (that is good - within reason! - so long as you leave plenty of time for editing and 'compressing' your writing). This process will ensure you reject the weaker arguments and really hone in on what is most important / relevant. NB My mistake however was over-writing too much in my first drafts (up to twice the word count), which made pruning very arduous. This links with efficiency and effectiveness of note taking:

4. Note taking. Good note taking is key. I ended up being extremely methodical - noting the maybe 6-10 key points from each article and recording the year/author and page(s) against each point. This means you can start to group the points by theme (just cutting and pasting) across authors whilst retaining all the reference data you need to go back and check the original references (mistakes creep in - so it's always important to leave time to check all references). And of course use your own words for paraphrasing the key points (except for the ones you want to use as direct quotes, referencing appropriately)

5. Pictures. Use pictures where relevant - as they break up the 'sea' of text. But only ever use high quality images!

6. References. Keep all the information you need for referencing as you go along. Check each individually (as above) and a useful final check is: have all references got year of publication against them, and is the publication/journal in italics?

7. Dissertation. Finally: the dissertation is a different kettle of fish. But one good thing to note is that you get feedback from your supervisor as you go along and therefore have a chance to improve chapters along the way - provided you pay close attention to the feedback. Remember, they are the experts, and they are also there to help you. Take all the help you can - AWAS is an excellent start

and here are Sharon's notes:

1. MA students, and DL students especially, need to be proactive about developing their writing (and signing up for this session is a great start). Don't expect hand-holding. Invest time in reading other MA work to see what works. (ELAL have a great page for this - https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/edacs/departments/englishlanguage/research/resources/essays/index.aspx ) Also the Bank of Assessed Work has useful resources.

2. Complex issues need to be dealt with through clear, concise, well organised writing. This doesn't (necessarily) mean longer more complex sentences or posher words. My supervisor's advice, which has served me well, is that the more complex the idea, the 'simpler' the writing needs to be. I have learned to draft for content with really simple writing and then revise to improve style. This approach also helps me because it separates out crafting the argument (paragraphs and essay structure) and crafting sentences in an academic style (which I tend to faff around with).

3. The difference in writing, between UG and PG is the level of criticality needed which makes structure at every level even more important. Criticality in terms of the subject material is one thing, but criticality in terms of your own arguments and expression of your ideas is equally important (and, I think, in some ways harder). Did you write what you meant to write? Is it clear? Have you been explicit in the connections and arguments you are making?

4. I'd suggest using reference management software. I have used MENDELEY https://www.mendeley.com/reference-management/reference-manager and currently use ZOTERO https://www.zotero.org which is free and allows you to add searchable tags to documents as well as your own notes, which are also searchable. The University offers support for Endnote and Refworks https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/libraryservices/library/referencing/icite/software/index.aspx

It's worth giving some thought to how you might use the various Ed-Tech resources that are available for keeping you organised, or whether old-school hand written notes and index cards work best for you.

5. To give yourself the best chance of success, give yourself the gift of editing time 😊

Points for reflection

How many of your questions have been answered?
Which of the questions you still have would probably best be directed at your module tutors / your department?
On the next two pages of this unit, you will find
- sample essays, kindly donated by Richard (p.2) and
- The FAQs we collected via the Q/A section of this workshop
Do browse through these and think how you can adapt the advice given here to your own essay-writing tasks and develop your academic voice, and your writing practice

Moving on

Focus on the process Q/A page 2